Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #24 - Was That The Best Raw In 20 Years? Cody Bleeds, The Final Boss, Will Roman's Title Reign Ever End?

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

Welcome back to another #AskCVV episode and we're just 1 week away from WrestleMania 40! If you're going to Philly, say hi to Chris at WrestleCon on Saturday and Sunday. On this episode, CVV answers questions about Cody bleeding on Raw, why "The Final Boss" is better than Hollywood Rock, if there will be ads when Raw moves to Netflix, which interview deserves a do-over, his appearance at Squared Circle Expo this weekend, the best pizza in Orange County, advice for staying positive, whether or not Roman's title reign is tainted, LA Knight vs. AJ Styles at WrestleMania and more! If you have a question that you want answered on the next one, send it in using the hashtag #AskCVV! "Quality means doing it right when no one is looking" - Henry Ford Sponsors: PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT for a first deposit match up to $100! BABBEL: Learn a new language and get 50% off your lifetime Babbel subscription at http://babbel.com/cvv MAGIC SPOON: Get $5 off with the code CVV at http://magicspoon.com/cvv RHONE: Upgrade your closet with Rhone and use CVV to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/CVV ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv BETTERHELP: Get 10% off your first month with the code INSIGHT at http://betterhelp.com/insight MUDWTR: Get 15% off with the code CVV15 at http://mudwtr.com/cvv MYBOOKIE: Bet on WWE! Get up to $200 cash bonus when you use the code CVV and sign up at http://mybookie.ag BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com BONCHARGE: Go to http://boncharge.com/CVV and use coupon code CVV to save 15% on your BONCHARGE Infrared Sauna Blanket! For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris! We go. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Oh man, that downstate song just gets me so fired up. Thank you for being here. Thank you, as always, for making Insight one of the top wrestling podcasts on the entire planet. I know because you're here that you're a real one.

I mean, you're listening to an Ask CVV episode. It's just me and you hanging out. So I know that you're already following the show. But... If by some chance you thought you were following the show, and it turns out, oh my gosh, I'm not actually doing it. Please take a second right now just to check. Just to check.

Are you following the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening? It would mean so much to me if you just hit that follow button. That one tiny little thing would just mean the world to mean. How was your week? Any big plans for the weekend? We got WrestleMania now a week away. I will be there in Philadelphia. I leave on Wednesday.

So I get there late Wednesday. I can't wait to see you guys. I'm going to be at RussellCon all day, Saturday, all day, Sunday. We've got outside of RussellCon, just like the whole weekend in general, the whole week in general, because I'm there Wednesday to Monday. I think we've got like 12 interviews lined up. And it's always so hard because the best thing about WrestleMania week is everybody's in town. But the worst thing is everybody's like too busy to be able to nail down their schedule to be able to do something. So 12 is is hopeful. So we'll see how many we actually do.

I mean, if we did more than 12, that'd be incredible. If we did less than 12, that'd also be great. But we've reached out to some big people. We've got some big commitments. So I don't want to say much more. And I don't want to name any names in case they don't end up coming through because of all of the wild schedules that will be. happening, but just buckle up. We got some really good ones coming up.

This is Ask CVV number 24. It is the Kobe episode, as a lot of you pointed out. But you know, here's the thing. I always think of Kobe is number eight. And I know he had like two equally great careers as both number eight and number 24. But I guess for me, it's just, I don't know, eight's always the one that's like just ingrained in my head. Also the Ken Griffey episode.

It is episode number 24 of Ask CVV. And if it's your first time on one of these, first of all, welcome. Thank you for being here. This is how it works. You send in your questions using that hashtag Ask CVV on social media. I feel like I'm on a game show and I'm the host telling you the rules. Here's how the rules work to this game. You send in the rules using, you send in the questions using that hashtag Ask CVV on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and also via email.

CVV at ChrisFampley.com. That wasn't always a thing. The emails, I don't know. I mean, it's out there. You can definitely send me emails, but not as many Ask CVV questions are coming through on email. I think social media is probably still the best way

for these to come in, but we're going to tackle all of these questions here and get to as many of these as we can. There's some really good stuff here. And like I mentioned on AskCVV20, The Michael Jordan edition. We're going to be doing these every week as we're in WrestleMania season. So every week leading up to WrestleMania, then obviously we've got some fallout after

WrestleMania. So I don't know. Should we do these every week? I don't mind. I put it out on Twitter. I was like, would you guys be down if I did ask CVV every week? And a lot of people were like, well, man, like that's a lot of work for you or like, you know, spend time with your family.

It's not about that. It's like, will you guys listen? got the time to do it. Will you guys listen is the main question? So let me know. Let's dive into this one. We will start with this question from Marcos, Marko 41 on Twitter. Is it just me or is this L.A. night and AJ Styles match for WrestleMania just a waste of time? Like, what the heck? That is quite the question there, Marco Smarko. And it's just, look, this is what's so interesting is the optics of it, the perception of it, because at the end of 2023, the biggest baby face in the WWE and arguably in all of pro wrestling was a man by the name of L.A. Knight.

Yeah. AJ Stiles is one of the greatest wrestlers that has ever lived. It's wild to think that anyone would consider a match between L.A. Knight and A.J. Stiles, a waste of time or a throwaway or something that you're not interested in. This match is going to be great. And I think that maybe what you're saying here is you had higher expectations for both of those people individually. And this isn't what you originally had in mind for this match. And that's actually a really big part of wrestling.

And it's also a really big part about life, too, in general. Like when the expectations that you have are not met by the reality of the situation, that's when you start to get disappointed. Like when you're expecting something and your expectations are so high and they are not met, that's when you can often go, oh, man, this is no good. I don't like this at all. And it's not because it's not good. It's because you had already set these expectations so high. And unless those expectations were met, anything below that at all was going to be a disappointment.

This match will certainly not be a disappointment. These are two of the best going right now. and look, I'm with you. L.A. Knight needs to win a championship at some point this year, I think. And it doesn't need to, but I think he deserves it. I think with the career he's had over the last 20 years, the momentum that he's built over the last year or so, the fact that when his music hits, no matter what's going on that episode, no matter who he's going out there to have a match with or who he's going

out there to cut a promo with, the crowd goes bananas. L.A. Knight deserves a championship. And I think that at some point in 2024, he will have one. If I had to guess, the United States championship, but I think you could make a real strong case that he could be the World Heavyweight champion at some point here too. Because I don't think that Seth Rollins is walking out of WrestleMania 40 with that championship. I could be wrong. And he's been such a fantastic fighting champion this whole time. And in a world where Roman Reins defends the title seldomly, Seth Rawlins has really stepped up.

And he's, even though I would agree that it's been a secondary title, I mean, even Cody Rhodes basically was like, yeah, it'd be nice to win the world championship, but that's not the title I want to win. I want to win the WWE championship. Seth Rollins has made it really important. He's made it feel like it's. It's an important championship. And when Roman's not defending the other title, it's been great to see Seth on every episode,

wearing the championship, defending the championship frequently. So all of that is to say there's not a match on the card at WrestleMania 40 that I'm not excited to see. Brian Henry sent this in. This was via email. The title was, I have to disagree. In Ask CVV23, you spoke about the possibility of Raw having no commercials after making the move to Netflix. I have to disagree. Netflix paid a lot of money to carry the

WWE and I feel like Netflix will force commercials to help pay for it. This also goes well with their current move to making the ad version of Netflix more appealing than the ad free based on cost. I think that, look, I'm a Netflix subscriber and thank you for the question, Brian, from Nova Scotia, my fellow Canadian. I'm a Netflix subscriber. I imagine a lot of you listening are also Netflix subscribers. I pay for the ad-free version. of Netflix. And if I pay for the ad-free version of Netflix and in January of 2025, Ross starts running with commercial breaks, I would imagine that me and other subscribers who have the ad-free version of it are going to be a little bit upset about that. We're going to be

scratching our heads going, what's, wait a second, what's going on here? I paid for the ad-free version and there's ads running on this. Like, what's the point in paying for the ad-free version if the ads are running here. And I think a really big thing needs to be looked at here and taken into consideration. One of the biggest things, I should say, is the fact that Netflix makes their revenue in a completely different way than a traditional network or broadcast channel. And I think that we were so used to seeing these live shows on Channel 3, Channel 4, channel 19, whatever it happens to be.

we're so used to that old school model of how broadcasting works, and this is going to break that model in such a big way. I've said this on several of these episodes. Everybody else, outside of wrestling, all the other streamers, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Hulu, they're all going to be watching with a very close eye how this deal goes with Netflix and Raw. Because if this succeeds,

if a weekly live television program, 52 weeks a year with no seasons and no breaks, no matter what, it's on on Monday night at 8 o'clock Eastern. If that is successful for Netflix, you can bet that there'll be a lot of other types of shows like this that'll be going to streamers. But Netflix paid $5 billion for raw over the course of five years. So a billion dollars a year. It's a ton of money, right? But like I said, Netflix makes their money in a very different way. Traditional broadcasters make their money off of ads. So the ad. ads that run on TV on those ad breaks, that's how they make their money.

Netflix makes their money, like 90% of their revenue comes from subscriptions. So that means 10% is broken up through ads and partner deals and other things, but 90% of their revenue comes from their subscription-based business model. And I looked up the numbers here. Last year, their fiscal year, 2023, made 30, $33.72 billion. Fiscal year 2020, they made $31.61 billion. Their profit for fiscal year 2020 was $5.4 billion.

Their profit for the previous year, fiscal year 2022, $4.5 billion. So while a billion dollars sounds like a ton of money, if a whole bunch of WWE fans, wrestling fans, subscribe to Netflix that have never subscribed to Netflix or had an account, but they don't, they haven't had it in years. And they now resubscribe and they're paying whatever it is, $9.99 a month or $1.39 a month or $15.99 a month or whatever plan they happen to get into, that's how they're earning their money. Because when you and I watch Fox or watch, I mean, you can get Fox for free on an antenna or we watch the USA Network, we're not paying, paying for that. I mean, we're paying for cable, although like I said, you could get Fox for free

over the air using an antenna. There's no direct model there for the network to get money from the consumer, me and you. That's how it works in Netflix, though. It's an exchange. I am giving you money for this subscription, and I can watch any of the movies I want on Netflix. I can watch Love is Blind on Netflix. I can watch Monday Night Raw on Netflix. So I would be shocked if me, you, and everybody else is paying for an ad-free version of Netflix and they start to slide some ads in there. I'd be shocked. Anything could happen, but I would be very surprised. What I think you will see, though, is you'll see WWE putting their own programming ads in there. Like, you'll see an ad for fanatics, or you'll see a 30-second spot for, like, WWE shop.

or you'll see a 30-second spot for an upcoming WrestleMania ad or something like that. That's what I would have to think. But again, this is all uncharted waters. Raw going to Netflix is going to change everything. CM Punk alluded to it on Raw. Like when he was like, we're not on Netflix yet. And it's this idea of like, it's going to be the Wild Wild West

when they're on Netflix. So, I mean, let's see. Paul Nicholson on Instagram says, Hey, Chris, is Romans 1,300 plus days actually impressive as the champion if he doesn't defend the title? Well, the numbers are still impressive. And I think that we're living in a different time now. I've seen all of the comments online comparing it to Bruno's run, comparing it to Hogan's run. And I get it.

I mean, when you're comparing the days apples to apples, right? 1300 days versus the, 1,300 plus days versus the runs that they have had, those are apples to apples. Where it becomes like apples to zebras is it's a completely different era that we are operating in right now. And what I think that Roman's doing now

is he makes this championship mean so much because of how little he defends it. When Roman Raines is on a PLE, like this is something special because he's not defending that title week in week out on Monday Night Raw or Friday Night Smackdown. It's actually interesting that when Roman shows up on a show, it's actually a big deal now. And I could see the opposite side of this.

I could see someone saying, well, that's what makes it so frustrating. He's held this championship captive for so long, and I don't like it. I think we've got something very special that's happening right now. You also have to take into account that Roman Raines is in remission. battle leukemia. Maybe he can't have a schedule that has him running his body down and being on the road 250, 300 days a year. So all things considered, whether you like Roman or you don't like Roman, I think if we go to that latter category, people that don't like Roman, him not defending the title makes you like him even less. It is a bad guy. Roman Raines is a heel. You're not supposed to like

Roman reigns. So if one piece of this puzzle is Roman not showing up that often and kind of tipping his hat to it and, you know, playing into that a little bit, if one piece of him being a heel is that, then I hate to say it, but he's actually doing his job. He's making you dislike him. Pro wrestling is all about making you feel something. And if you feel a genuine dislike for him simply because he's not defending the title, that sounds like something a heel might do. That sounds like a something that a successful heel would do. So I'm curious to see where this goes. You could make a strong case either way of Roman retaining the title at WrestleMania 40 or Roman being defeated at WrestleMania 40. But I think there's still a lot more to this bloodline storyline. And I mean, we're going to have to see. That's the cool thing.

We're living in a time now where you don't know what's going to happen. like I honestly, I'll make some predictions next week on the next Ask CVV episode, but I honestly have no idea who's going to win that tag match on night one and who's going to win in the Roman versus Cody match on night two. I have no idea because you could make such a strong argument for both, right? You can make a strong argument for Roman and Rock winning. You could make an argument for Cody and Seth winning. And then the next night, it really could go either way. So I would, I just, I'm very interested to see how this all shakes out.

Scotty underscore Peterson 07 on Twitter. Was it just me or was this week's raw one of the best in years? It was certainly a great episode. Every segment had you glued to the screen, everything felt, like it had meaning to it. And when you talk about best anything, it's all very subjective, right? Like, and I actually did a video about this just yesterday where I said, you've got two very powerful forces that are working up against each other in pro wrestling. You've got nostalgia. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, right? Because it takes you back to a time

and a place, and you remember where you were in your life when that thing happened. And sometimes we remember things better than it actually was because it's just, you know, that's the way it is in our mind. It's a memory that's burned in there. On the flip side of that, you have recency bias. It's so fresh in your mind. How could something possibly be better than this? Because you just saw it with your eyes yesterday or last week or last month. It's a memory that's fresh. It's right there. And the memory from 20 years ago, maybe it's from 20 years ago. So one of the best episodes for sure. I think you could make an argument that maybe it's one of the best episodes in the last 20 years. It'd be on a short list for sure. If you were looking at top three, top five episodes of

raw over the last 20 years, this could be a real contender. What I love about it is wrestling has become appointment television again. And what I mean by that is there was a point in time when you could skip raw or you could skip Smackdown. We're just talking WWE here. And you could still kind of keep up with what was going on. But now there's so many big things happening on every episode that you want to watch it live. You don't want to get on Instagram or get on TikTok and like see a recap of it. You want like that surprise of watching it live in the same way of like your favorite football team, your favorite hockey team, your favorite baseball team. They're in a big game with somebody. You want to watch that. You want to watch it live for the extra

ratings home run or the overtime goal or that field goal that gets kicked as the time's winding down. Like you want to see that live. There's nothing like the suspense of seeing it live rather than like, oh, I saw that thing on Twitter. That looked pretty cool. That segment with the Rock and Cody and Cody's bleak. It's pretty cool. And then you find the clip on YouTube and you watch it. It's just like the excitement for it. It's not the same when you watch it knowing what you're going to see. So we're at a point right now where you've got to watch. And I love it because there was a long time of wrestling when we all kind of collectively, collectively groaned about, oh, man, this is the main event on a Monday night. This is the main event on a Friday night. Oh, geez. Now we're at the point

where it's like, how are they going to open this show? Like, what's going to be the first? Whose music's going to hit? I need to tune in to see it. Sarah Barrera. Sarah Barrera 14 on Instagram says, do you think the PG era is officially gone? Well, when you've got Cody bleeding on Monday Night Raw, you've got the rock drop in F bombs. I know that this is still being censored,

but that is not a WWE move. That's an FCC move. That's not WWE going, oh, he said the F word. We need to bleep that. If they keep going down this path, there's no way that they can keep passing this off as a PG show. Someone's going to step in, whether that's the FCC or somebody else, the ad counsel,

somebody is going to step in and go, you keep calling this a PG-rated show, but you're doing all these things that are TV 14. So if they keep going down this path, you know, a few more episodes of RAW with a few more F-bombs in it, and I don't think they're going to have a choice. and I just feel like WWE is pushing the envelope here. Maybe it's a big FU to USA Network, although USA Network's going to be carrying SmackDown,

but I don't know. It just feels like they're pushing the envelope here. So we all kind of collectively feel like Raw is going to look a lot different on Netflix. And that's been alluded to quite a bit over the last month or so. But does that mean, if they're doing what they're doing now on raw,

does that mean when Smackdown goes to USA Network that Smackdown becomes just a little bit edgy? Like if the raw that we're seeing right now, which is very borderline PG slash TV 14, like very, very borderline, like I feel like they must be getting some sort of warning from the FCC basically being like, hey, you better, you better watch it.

okay, or maybe we'll start finding you or something. But if they're already pushing the envelope here, and I feel like the floodgates are just going to open up when they're on Netflix, does that mean that Smackdown becomes a little bit edgier? We will see. Football season may be over, but the action on the floor is heating up. Whether it's tournament season or the fight for the playoff home court,

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We've got two questions that are kind of similar here. Mark Bishop on Facebook says, did Cody blade in that fight with the rock, and then Rory underscore underscore CA on Instagram says, is color officially back in the WWE? Well, that segment with the rock to end raw was one that we're going to be talking about years and years from now. I think this will end up being referred to as the,

look at you now segment. Look at you now, boy. Look at you now. I think it will end up being referred to the look at you now segment. And it was cinematic. Like they go out into the rain, go outside in Chicago and it's raining.

Like there's just so much about that that it was just perfect. And yes, obviously Cody bladed. Yes, we've got color on raw for the first time in I don't know how long. Like think of every other time when someone got accidentally busted open. And the ref was in there immediately with rubber gloves on. and a towel in hand trying to like stop the bleeding from happening and we don't want anybody to see this, we are on the complete other end of that spectrum now. So we go from trying to hide the

fact that someone got busted open the hard way to now we're to point where someone's blading. This is wild. I mean, we are uncharted water here. This is something else. Cody bleeding is obviously not a new thing. If you remember almost every main event that he had in AEW, he bled. And it actually got to the point where it was like, okay, like we get it. You don't need to bleed in every single one of these main events. And I think that's the interesting thing about color. And any veteran will tell you that if you are going to blade, it needs to mean something or else you get to a point where it's just like it kind of expected of you. Cody bleeding on raw, like it it all kind of took us by surprise like you can hear a gasp from the live audience there

when they cut to that first shot of him and you see that he's bleeding and i saw someone making a comment about like oh was it fake blood no it was not fake blood the rock wiped it away wiped it onto the belt and then it just kept pouring out fake blood i i just think that all of this all of these things that are happening are signs that we are ushering in a new era. So if we're seeing F bombs and we're seeing Candace Luray talking about Maxine's dead brother and we're seeing blood, boy, I just feel like we are starting, just scratching the surface of what we could see in the months to come.

This one is from Pierce Geiger, at Pierce Geiger on Instagram. Hey, Chris, I got a question for the next Ask CV. Who is your favorite women's wrestler right now? Mine is tied between Oscar and Ria Ripley. Also, what would your reaction be if one day your daughter, Logan, wanted to be a professional wrestler? I'm with you. Ria Ripley is my favorite right now.

And she just makes magic when she's on the screen. Whether she's in the ring or she's just, even if she's just standing with Judgment Day, or if she's cutting a promo, you can't take your eyes off of her because it's just magic, what she's doing. She's creating magic every single time she's out there. And she has just such a presence about her. You hear the term, it factor, and she has it. So 100% Rear Ripley. And I'm happy to confirm that she is an exceptionally nice person. I did that quick interview with her at Royal rumble in Tampa and she's just so nice. So you love to see someone who's in that position who is also like so nice and kind and humble. Would I, what would my reaction be if Logan wants to be

a pro wrestler? Look, she can be whatever she wants to be. We've got a lot of time though. She is 10 months old tomorrow. So we've got a lot of time before she's making any sort of decisions like that. But whatever she wants to be, she can totally be. And, daddy'll be her number one fan. At Big Mike Trotter on Twitter says, Hey, Chris, random dad question. When your little one gets older, what's the first wrestling match

or pay-per-view that you want to watch together? I think I got to show her my favorite match of all time first. It would feel sacrilegious to show her anything but Rock versus Hogan, WrestleMania 18. And I've said it so many times. Fast forward the episode.

If you've heard this story before, I'll make it quick. But the thing I love about that match is you don't need to know anything about wrestling because the audience tells you everything you need to know. And that's what's so special about it. I actually remember showing that match to a friend of mine, one of my best friends, Kevin McCarthy, who's one of the best celebrity interviewers on the planet. Go check out his stuff on Twitter or TikTok. He's at Kevin McCarthy TV.

And once you see one of his videos on TikTok or one of his interviews on TikTok, they'll pop up forever because they'll just keep showing them to you because he's he's that good. I remember him staying with me when I lived in Florida. He flew down. We were doing the interviews for Baywatch, actually. And after we saw the movie, he came and stayed at my place in Fort Lauderdale. And he was like, show me your favorite wrestling match ever. And I didn't even set it up.

I just put on Rock versus Hogan. And he's like, oh, wow. Like that, that audience is crazy. I've never heard a crowd. that loud for anything. And so I think for me, that's it. I was actually asked recently, like, what were some of your, what are your, some of your favorite matches ever? Rock Hogan for sure. And then Unbreakable 2005, TNA, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, AJ Stiles. That match still holds up to this day, 19 years later. But the things they did in that match, especially at that time

when really nobody else was doing those types of things, just incredible. So I think those will be the two matches for sure. This one comes from Jonathan Mager, who says, Hey, CV, I loved your interview with Mike Santana. He mentioned that he knew of two people who started with AEW that wanted to go back to WWE, one of them being Cody who's already gone back. Who do you think the other one is? And when I put this clip out, I actually said it at the time when we recorded.

I said, oh, people are going to wildly speculate on this one. I actually know who the other person is because when the interview was done, I drove Mike back to the airport and I said, can I ask you who it was? He goes, yeah, I said, it's so-and-so, isn't it? He goes, yeah, yeah, it is. So I don't want to say their name because that's not my business. That is not my role here to tell you who it is, but I think if you guess, you could figure out who that person is. And remember, he was talking about someone from the start, someone from the start of AEW that is looking to leave. So there is really only a kind of a handful of names there to look at. But I'll be very curious to see what happens with that person.

Because for the most part, the big names in AEW are locked in for like pretty long contracts. So I think with the exception of, I think it's pretty public that what's going on with the Hardee's. So I think, and the Hardys weren't there until 2020 and 2021. Am I correct with those numbers? I hope I am. Matt Hardy, 2020, I think for sure. So we will see. We will see.

Here's an email question from David Black. He says, Dear Chris, I've been listening to the show weekly now and absolutely love it as a fellow wrestling fan. Great to find out that your birthday is May 19th, just like mine. I love that, David. Only the coolest people were born on May 19th. Me, you, George St. Pierre, Maxine Dupree, a few other ones. Oh, Andrew the Giant, yeah.

My question is, how do you stay positive daily despite possible negative things happening in a day? I need some advice on this topic. I think for me, it's just there's good and bad available in every day. And it happens every day. You have the decision every day to focus on what you want to focus on. It's the John Cena advice. It's those three powerful words that I carry with me, control the controllable. You can't control the things that happened to you.

You can't control the things that other people say. but what you have 100% control over is how you react to the things that other people say or other people do. And that's not to say you can't have a bad day or a bad week or a bad month. I mean, we're all human. We are all in this human experience together. But there's, you have the ability every day to focus on some of the good things that are happening. And that's why I like to remind myself every day that practice of gratitude. say out loud three things you're grateful for at the start of the day and the end of the day.

And do that for 30 days and watch your life drastically change because you start to realize I have a lot of things that I can be grateful for. And when you start to appreciate the things that you're grateful for, you start to have more things that you can appreciate. So I think it's just a matter of managing the things that happen. like someone cuts you off on the highway or someone bumps into you at the store or someone's having a bad day and they say something not very nice to you it's so hard but don't let that thing control your entire day or week or month like did you have a bad day or did you have a bad

10 minute experience in that day that you've been harboring for the other 23 hours and 50 minutes. And if you did have a bad day, that's okay. It's okay to have a bad day. But if you're continually looking for a reason to be upset or you're continually looking for a reason to spin things in a negative way, then you're going to find that there's a lot of bad days. There is positivity in every single day. And I choose to focus on that. See the situation for what it is instead of seeing it for better or worse than what it is. Try to see the situation for what it is in front of you. And I hope that helps, David.

I struggle with it every day. Every day is a new day where we're trying to figure this out. And I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn in every single day. And my goodness, I mean, we're only three months into the new year. And I've learned a lot of lessons already. some of them in my professional life, some of them in my personal life. And my goal every day is just to continue to get better and to continue to try to deal with those in a better way.

This one's from Jay Dennis on Facebook. Hey, Chris, keep up the great work. I'm in Australia and never miss an episode. Thank you so much. My question is, what are your favorite entry theme songs? I don't think you can beat the Jim Johnston era with the exception of a few of the current themes like Ria Ripley, downstate obviously, my favorite of all time is LOD. What a rush.

Triple H's themes are all so good. All of them, like all of them are great. Those are, like, if I had a Mount Rushmore of entrance themes, they would be, they would be on there. So like my time, what I heard my time in Triple H like fully committed to the heel gimmick during the attitude era when with the McMahon-Helmsley regime, One, two, is this on? That's one, two is this on, by the way. I know that gets misquoted all the time.

That and like my time and then the game, King of Kings, those are all so, so good. I would say that the side of a good entrance theme is, can you listen to it while you're lifting weights? Slash, would you listen to it when you're in the car? And I think for me, the Triple Age stuff's so good. current themes Cody's so good in fact when he comes out I'm just like

I make sure like everything's quiet just so I can hear the whoa and it doesn't hurt that the guys from downstate are just fantastic human beings but that's that's one of the best themes and people slept on that one for a long time Cody's had that theme song since 2016 and people slept on it for a long time

it really didn't catch on to like mid-20 22, like go back, watch Cody's return to WWE at WrestleMania 38. It is the strangest thing to watch him come up on that little Cody Vader, as he calls it, the little elevator up through the stage. And the song is just singing, whoa, and no one in the crowd sings it with him. It's kind of weird because we're so used to the crowd yelling it now. Chris Jericho's theme song, Judas is such a good one. and the presentation with that and the crowd singing it and AEW doing such a fantastic job of

cutting the theme song at the right time so then the crowd continues to sing the next part of it. Yeah, that's really good. I'll give you some sleeper picks here. I know that Kurt Angle's theme song wasn't originally written for him. It was originally for the Patriot who came out to it. But there's something about that theme song. It's so good. Not even that you suck singing or slash chance.

that come along with it, just that song, there's something about it. And I think that the telltale sign of a great entrance theme, and outside of can you work out to it and can you be in the car with it, but in terms of wrestling is if you're hearing that song, what does it tell you about that person? Like, you can tell from a song, like, is that person a good guy or a bad guy? Is that person arrogant or are they humble? And that's the thing I love. And Jim Johnston was so good at not only doing that, Jim Johnston was so good at making it so you knew who was coming out within the first, like, one second.

Like, think about, oh, you didn't know, boom, you already know. I didn't even intentionally do that. The glass shattering, the gong, if you smell, he was so good at having that initial hit that they've tried. There's been a lot of composers that have tried to do it, but no, Nobody does it in the way that Jim Johnston was so good at doing it. And it's a shame that he's not in the WWE Hall fame. Like I seriously can't believe that.

Like what is going on here at WWE? He needs to be in the WWE Hall fame. He's the goat. Dave Smiths on Facebook says, Hey, Chris, big fan here from the Netherlands. Well, thank you, Dave. With WrestleMania 40 around the corner, do you think WWE should come with a big surprise like they did with the streak?

If so, what could that surprise be? Priest cashing in on roads? Rock turning face to set up rains versus rock. Rollins turning on roads? These are all great questions. Of the three options that you listed here, I think we will get a big surprise of some sort. I don't know what that's going to be,

but I highly doubt it's priest cashing in. I don't even know at this point if Priest is going to have a successful, successful cash in. It's funny. There was a long stretch of time when if you were the money in the bank briefcase holder, if you were basically guaranteed you were going to be a champion at some point. And they've done some funny stuff over the last few years. Like one of the biggest ones that comes to my mind is Austin Theory, we're all ready

for him to be the champ, whether you like him or not, he's fantastic. Love Austin Theory. He has all these times where he tries to go cash in and it's interrupted in some sort of way. And then he goes and cashes in on the U.S. title. And then he still doesn't win the U.S. title. So the guy who is the previous U.S. champion, clearly good enough to be the U.S. champion, cashes in for the U.S. title. It doesn't get it.

I don't know. Strange. I see some sort of scenario where Preece cash is in for the World Heavyweight Championship. Maybe it's this weekend. I don't know. I don't think priest is cashing in on Roman or priest is cashing in on Rhodes. Rock turning face to set up Raines versus Rock sounds like something that that's kind of floating around. It's a big theory out there.

I don't think Rock being a bad guy is done yet. The final boss, Rock, is just on a whole other level. So I don't think that's, I don't think we're there yet. And I saw a lot of people saying at first, I don't like this. This is just Hollywood Rock 2.0. Now, Rock's just saying the same things he always says. No. No, my friends.

The final boss is a completely other character that is so layered and has so many nuances to it. And I just don't think that we're only going to see this two-month heel run is what it would end up being from the rock. I think there's a lot more gas in that tank. Rollins turning on road seems possible. especially with the history that they've got there. Like it's kind of actually just weird, like from the, if you just look at this on paper, if you hadn't watched wrestling in like three or four months

and you just looked at the card, you would look at that and go, wait a second, Cody Rhodes is supposed to trust Seth Rawlins on night one of WrestleMania with the implications that lead to night two? Ooh, that's weird. And I know that they've made this make a lot of sense

in the storyline, I guess to a certain degree. But that one seems possible. Rollins turning on roads, but then where does that leave that storyline? I don't know. And that's actually the great thing about the world of wrestling that we're living in right now. So there's going to be a big surprise somewhere. There's going to be something that happens in a week. That WrestleMania 40 is going to upset some people.

I just don't know what that is. so let's sit back and enjoy. And I've said this before, but I just, there's going to be a cliffhanger on night one, for better or for worse. I, because,

like this is the first time with the two-night WrestleMania format where night one immediately has an impact on night two. And I feel like any great TV show does or any great sequel, where it's part one leading into, part two, I feel like there's going to be a cliffhanger at the end of night one that's going to

make us ask a lot of questions for better or for worse. Like if Seth and Cody win, we're going to go, okay, wow, we saw that image of Cody pinning Roman. I would have to think if Cody and Seth went on night one, I feel like the imagery, the visual would be Cody pinning Roman. Then the question ends up being, oh, if he pinned him here, can he pin him again tomorrow? If the flip reverse happens if Roman and Rock win. Then the cliffhanger is, oh my gosh, now with bloodline rules on night two, I've got to wait 24 hours to see how this is going to shake out. I love it. I love it. Squidwardian, squidwardian on Instagram says, what's the best pizza spot in Orange County? Well, Squidwardian, I love me, some pizza.

I feel like I talk about it on every episode. So when I moved to Orange County, when I met my wife, Rachel and moved to Orange County, I was on the hunt for the best pizza in Orange County. And I went to a lot of places that were not so good. I have a very high standard when it comes to the pizza that I like. And the place I love now, it's the best pizza that I've had, not just in Orange County, it's the best pizza I've had in California. And it's brewery X.

in Anaheim. It's an amazing brewery with fantastic atmosphere and great brews and also great hard seltzer and their pizza. It's called Eats X is the name of their food truck that serves the pizza and the other food there. It's so good. It's like a true New York style pizza with like the crust that has a little crunch when you bite into it. It's so good. We go there. far too often. I know there's other great pizza spots in the area. I know there's other great pizza in California. When I lived in L.A., I went to Joe's pizza, which was not close. It was in Santa Monica. And I would drive to Santa Monica just to get a slice of their pizza because it was so good. Prince Street pizza. I've heard nothing but great things about it. And it looks amazing. I can't wait to

try it, but it's not the style of pizza that I like. Prince Street pizza looks more like a Detroit style pizza, which is good. Don't get me wrong. I love Detroit style pizza. But my favorite style of pizza is a New York style of pizza. So if you have any suggestions for other great New York style of pizza, and I have very strict criteria, okay? It needs to be a piece of pizza that when I pick it up, it does not flop down. It's not a flaccid piece of pizza.

You know what I'm talking about here. It's nothing worse than picking up a piece of pizza, and then it flops down on your arm or your hand, and then all the greasy juices are flowing down. down in your fingers. That's the worst. That's like immediately like, oh, I don't even want this thing. I want a pizza that has a little bit of a firmness to it when I pick it up. I don't want it flopping all over the place. And then it needs to have that little crunch when you bite into it. I guess I said I had a lot of criteria that I listed two things, but those are very important

things. Also, don't put too much cheese. Don't put too much cheese on my pizza. I don't want that. So if you have any ideas, any, uh, any places I should. check out. Send them over. Chris Chase on Facebook. I never met a Chris that I don't like. So I already like you, Chris Chase. What's the one interview that you wish you could get a do over on? Honestly, all of them. Like I feel like no interview is ever perfect. And while there may be interviews that I like more than others, I always leave every single interview going, ah, man, I could have phrased that question better. I wish I'd ask this. Or I'll watch it back when we're posting clips or when we're editing it. And I'm like, oh, wow, I really stuttered when I said that. Or man, he said this thing.

And I didn't even pick up on it to ask a follow up. So really, all of them. And every single time I get the chance to talk to someone for the second time or the third time or the fourth time, you build a little bit more rapport with them. Like if you go back and watch my very first interview with The Rock from 12 years ago, and you compare it to my most recent interview with The Rock, there's a familiarity there. He greets me with a big handshake and a hug. That's the thing that I love. So it's not that I want to do over. It's just that I understand they can't all be perfect, and I've never tried to hold myself to that standard because it's impossible to achieve that. But I just want them to all be as good as they could possibly be. That's what I'm always striving for.

Tanvir underscore Verdee 99 on Instagram says, Hey, CVV. Question I have is how do you narrow down the questions that you can ask the guests in a limited time? I usually like just brain dump as much as I can. I have a notes. On my notes section of my iPhone, I keep notes for people that I know I'm going to be interviewing and then people that I hope that one day I can interview.

Like, I haven't interviewed Randy Orton yet. but I have a whole note dedicated to him on my iPhone of just interesting things I want to ask him about. Same thing with Paul Heyman. Same thing with Sean Michaels. Same thing with a lot of people who I've never interviewed before. So I'm always just constantly brain dumping. And if I see something interesting in a classic match or I see they tweeted something, or I see a fun fact about them, I just kind of make a note about it. And I write it down and that could be a good question.

So I kind of just compile. an overview of what their career is. That's usually where I start with interviews. And if someone's been in the industry for 20 or 30 plus years, I want an overview of like, where did your career start? Did you start in the independence and then go to Japan and then get signed by TNA and then to WWE? I want to know just a full overview of what your career looks like, what your big moments

are. Like I just, I like to get a framework for their career. And when it comes down to it, it's not questions that I'm really narrowing it down to. It's more topics that I'm narrowing it down to. So for an hour-long interview, maybe it's 10 to 12 topics, if you will. And if you subscribe to my CV clips channel, you know that sometimes these topics can be, you know, it's a quick 90-second exchange. sometimes that topic ends up coming with a bunch of follow-up questions and leads to a story, and then it's a nine-minute clip or a nine-minute topic. So I try to just narrow it down to the topics that are interesting, and also what's topical right now?

Like if you're talking to Cody Rhodes today and you don't bring up WrestleMania 40, it just doesn't make a lot of sense. If you're talking to The Rock today and you're not bringing up the look at you. you now, whole thing with Cody that happened a few days ago, I feel like that's a missed opportunity. If you're interviewing Becky Lynch today, and hopefully it happened, I should be interviewing Becky Lynch very soon. Her new book, by the way, is fantastic. If you haven't got it, go grab a copy or grab the audio book. So good. And you're going to be inspired to do big things in your own life. But if you're interviewing Becky right now, you got to ask her about

punching Dom in the face. Like, that was a true shoot punch in the face. Like, you watch it in slow motion and his jaw moves. So you got to ask her about that. And I will be asking her about that. I don't think anybody's asked her about that yet. So I just try to look at all of these topics. And really what it comes down to for me is, what do I selfishly want to know the answer to?

That's really it. I've always gone into these interviews of like what would be interesting to me. What are the questions I want to ask? And if somebody else that's listening or watching enjoys those questions too, awesome. But I'm always going in selfishly of like, what are the things that I really want to know about? Tim Fairbanks on Facebook says, if you could change one thing in wrestling history, what would it be? Catch is it has to be something that was done. in the ring. I'd say I went hard. I mean, it wasn't a match, but it happened around a match. It

happened in the ring. That'd be, that's the easy answer. If I had a Marty McFly Delorian, Doc Brown DeLorean, and I could jump in that. Yeah, I'd go to over the edge and I'd somehow try to convince them that that's not a good idea. That's for sure the one thing. Because then it raises so many what ifs you know if that match ends up happening where does that lead to what happens after that what's owens you know he already has an incredible legacy what's the rest of that legacy then the fallout from that is where does brett come back to wwe like i think obviously was soured from the screw job but that everything happening with owen just was made it that much worse. So does Brett come back earlier? Does that change? So, oh, in heart. I mean,

that's the biggest tragedy in all of wrestling. It is, it is crazy to think that that happened to. Like, and we're coming up on, this is 25 years, right? Wow. Wild. Alex Torlaman on Instagram says, what's the best advice Tyler Perry has ever given you? Tyler's been just a fantastic mentor friend to me. And if you haven't heard the story before, I've interviewed him a ton of times. I've interviewed him 10, 12 times. And he offered to,

he wrote a part in a TV show and wanted me to play that part. And unfortunately at the time, I wasn't able to do it with the contract that I had at the TV station I was working for, which was just a, that's a huge missed opportunity. That sucks that it was. I wasn't able to do it,

but I was brand new at that TV station in Miami. And that was the way my contract was written. And I couldn't do it. But through that, we became friendly. And when I was in Atlanta not long ago, actually it was right before the pandemic, I was in Atlanta. I was at an NWA show, actually.

We met up for dinner. And there were, there were two things during that conversation that will always stick with me. One was dream bigger, dream bigger. And along the same lines, he said, what would you change in your life right now if you knew you couldn't fail? And I'm going to turn that around and ask you that question. What would you change in your life right now if you knew you couldn't fail?

because I think that sometimes we play it safe. We play it safe because, ah, man, I don't want to, if the worst case scenario, if that happens, oh, man, I don't want to, ah. And we end up playing it safe. Sometimes people do it for, you know, one situation. Sometimes people do it for their entire lives.

They play it safe. And that one is really stuck with me. And I don't believe really in failure, because I believe you're either, you're either learning, what is it? It's not win or lose. It's winner learn. So I think that sometimes people will look at those situations like it's win or lose and it's not. It's like if it doesn't work out the way that you thought it was supposed to work out, you learn something from it. And then you take what you learned from that. Then you apply it to the next situation and you

move forward from there. So that's the best piece of advice. And I think about it all. time. Dream bigger. And what would you do differently if you knew that you couldn't fail? 96 underscore till. infinity on Instagram says how much of an influence was Michael Landsberg's off the record on a young CVV? So Michael Landsberg was like bringing wrestling to a mainstream audience on TSN and Canada. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go check out some of these classic episodes or classic clips on YouTube. Like, he had all the biggest guests, Stone Cold and Vince McMahon and Triple H and Chris Benoit and Jericho.

And the thing that I loved about Landsberg is he asked really interesting questions at a time when a K-Fabe was not really being broken that much, at least not in like the mainstream media. So now you've got someone on TSN, which is Canada's version. of ESPN. So a massive station. And he's asking questions that us as fans actually want to know the answer to. And I remember I would tune in off the record for the most part was a show talking about like the top stories and sports. And it would kind of be a roundtable discussion about like, oh, the Maple Leafs lost last night and this person hasn't scored a goal in two weeks.

What do we do with them? Like that would be the typical way that off the record would work. But then when WWE or WCW was in town, he would bring on these guests for like a full half hour interview, full half hour conversation, which was not happening at the time. So he really changed the game. And this is going way back. Like this was 99, 2000, 2001, like the heart of the attitude era. So I remember meeting him too. I met him in 2002, the same place where I met Kurt Angle for the first time. It was the XFL kickoff party.

It was 2001. The XFL kickoff party in Toronto. I waited six hours in line in February in Toronto. You can imagine how cold that was. I waited in line with Kyle Rutledge and Mark Teseghi, two of my best friends from high school. And we went in. I met Kurt Angle, Trish Stratis, and Christian. and then at the little like VIP party where the autograph signing was happening,

I met Michael Lansberg and I got to take a photo with him. But yeah, he was a big influence on just the idea of like you can be a broadcaster who is very, has one foot very firmly planted in this world, which for him is one foot very firmly planted. Do you hear that? That's my daughter. That's my daughter Logan saying hello. She's just outside the door here. He would have one foot very firmly, hi honey.

He would have one foot, Michael Landsberg, firmly planted in the world of sports broadcasting. But then he'd have the other foot, like kind of being able to dip his toes in other things. And I took a lot of inspiration from that. Most of my career I've spent as an entertainment reporter slash TV host, but still covering entertainment or talking about entertainment, whether that's movies or music or comedy, video games. So I would have one foot firmly planted in entertainment and then I would be able to dip my toe into wrestling. So there was a lot of inspiration there for sure. And I actually think Michael Landsberg would be a great guest on the show. We talked earlier about the power of nostalgia. And I think for a lot of people, seeing Michael Landsberg and having him talk about some of those

classic moments from off the record, I think that that would, you know, really drum up a lot of feelings. And I think that I would really, I would really play to that, you know, that era that we all, you know, if you're of a certain age, that we all can kind of relate to. And this is the final question here. Thank you guys again for sending in all these questions. And thank you for just hanging out. I love being able to hang out with you guys like this. I appreciate all of the feedback that I've got on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook from you guys saying, please put out and ask CVV every week. I will listen no matter what. So I will certainly keep rolling with these. I'll keep showing up as long as you keep showing up. How does that

sound? The final question here's from Z.Sy.N. 1014 on Instagram. Z-ZZZZZ 14, 1014 on Instagram says, when will you announce the date for the live podcast in Cleveland? Hopefully, we'll have some more of the details hammered out here in the next few weeks. So I've got the guest. The guest has agreed to it. Now we just got to lock in the venue and then we'll figure out the time from there. But I would say, I don't, actually, I don't want to put a timeline on it because if I say a certain time and I can't deliver on that, I don't want to do that.

And I don't want to over promise and under deliver. So I would just say soon-ish. We've got time, right? We've got four and a half months before this is happening. But I'm thinking it'll be the Thursday night in Cleveland before SummerSlam. So let me pull up the calendar here real quick. That would be Thursday, August 1st, because we can't really do it Friday because that's Smackdown.

I guess we could do it like in the evening on Friday. like we could do it like 5 p.m. on Friday and then you guys go to smackdown at 730. Well, I mean, we all go to Smackdown at 730. Can't really do it Saturday because that's the day Summer Slam is going to be. But if all the pieces fall in a place, we either do it Thursday or Friday. So that's August 1st or August 2nd. We hopefully will be able to do it at a venue downtown. And you guys know that I lived in Cleveland for five years.

It's my American hometown. It's the first place that I ever lived when I'm. moved to the U.S. It has a very near and dear place in my heart. I know downtown well, and that's what we're planning to do this. So Smackdown is downtown at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. It's an adjustment for me to call it that because I always knew it as the queue, the Quicken Loans Arena. And then obviously SummerSlam is also downtown at Cleveland Brown Stadium. So I would think that most people will be staying in or around downtown. So I want to do this downtown at one of the venues downtown.

And then you guys can hopefully just walk from your hotel and then walk over to Smackdown if we do this on Friday. But the date and all the details, the guest, the pricing, the VIP options, the meet and greet option. All of this are going to be announced in hopefully, let's say within the next month. And then we've got plenty of time before August to have you guys buy tickets and get amped up and prepared for this. but my goodness, I am amped up and I am prepared for this. It's a huge guest. It's a huge guest. Even if you don't want to listen to the podcast,

you'll probably just want to meet this guest because it's a huge guest. So there we go. Tons of great questions here on the Kobe Bryant slash Ken Griffey Jr. edition of Ask CVV. Ask CVV number 24. Keep those questions coming. Send them in using that hashtag Ask CVV on social media. And let's get to the last.

the quote here first. I love this from Henry Ford. And it actually kind of relates to what we were talking about earlier. Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. It's not win or lose. It's win or learn. So that's from Henry Ford. Three things I'm grateful for right now. Number one, family. I love that Logan was saying hi there. I think you probably could have heard that through the mic here and through the door. So grateful for. for family and grateful number two for for the squared circle expo. I'm going to be at the Squared Circle Expo this weekend. So I don't know why I didn't mention this earlier. I just talked about Russellcom, but I will be at the Squared Circle Expo all day Friday and all day Saturday in Indianapolis.

I think they have just a few tickets left. But if you live in the Midwest, you live in that area, if it's drivable for you, I would love to see you at Squared Circle Expo. The list of people that are going to be there is it's so insanely stacked. So I'll list off a few people. You got Sting and McFoly and Matt and Jeff Hardy, Nick Nemeth, Matt Cardona, Kane, Mark Henry. Like, it's so, so stacked. Like there are many more people that I haven't listed there, but the list goes on and on and on and on. So I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for the opportunity to do a bunch of interviews there, some new interviews there, doing some interviews with people that have never been on the show before, people I've never met before. So I'm grateful for that. And number three, I'm just grateful that we are able to appreciate

this time of wrestling that is happening right now. We're going to look back in five or 10 or 20 years on this era in the same kind of way with that nostalgic view that we look back now on the attitude era. So appreciate what we have right now. The good old days are happening right now. And I'm grateful for that. So just take half a step back. If there's a storyline you don't like, just take half a step back and just appreciate that this is as good as it's been in a long, long, long, long time. And we're here for it. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Having a weekend.

Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand.

He's the spitfire of sports smack. Ticket ban. You have, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.