Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #25 - WrestleMania 40 Predictions, CM Punk Interview, Roman Reigns Retiring?, Radio Voices

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

Here we go for another #AskCVV episode and it is WrestleMania weekend my friends! If you're going to Philly, say hi to Chris at WrestleCon on Saturday and Sunday. On this episode, CVV gives his predictions for the full WrestleMania 40 card and answers questions about Roman Reigns' comments about retiring if he loses the WWE Universal Championship, CM Punk's recent interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, tips for starting a podcast, best theme song for a faction and much more! If you have a question that you want answered on the next one, send it in using the hashtag #AskCVV! Quote I'm thinking about: “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” —Walt Disney 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! Use the code CVV to get a 50% welcome bonus when you 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 Ben, here we go. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet, and I'm not just pumped up

because of that downstate entrance song flowing through my veins right now, brother. I'm pumped up because tomorrow is WrestleMania 40. I just touched down

in Philly on Wednesday, so I'm here. I'm here right now as I record this. And you can tell from the second that you land that there's an energy. in the city. You see other wrestling fans in the airport. You see the signs all around the city.

This is exciting. They're saying this is the biggest WrestleMania of all time. And when you look at this card and then you think about the surprises that could happen, a real strong case could be made for that. So I'm pumped to dive into these predictions and everything else that we've got going on here in this Ask CVV. Number 25, this is the Barry Bonds, Mark McGuble. Sammy Sosa edition. They all wore number 25. So I guess this is, I guess this is Ask CVV,

the steroid edition. I mean, when you think about Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa. I mean, we could just call it the enhanced era,

perhaps of baseball, but either way, it's Ask CVV number 25. Thank you so much for being with us. I'm sure you're already following the show. That's why you're on an Ask CVV episode,

but if not, please follow the show, subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, if you're not already subscribed on YouTube, please, I've got two channels. The main channel, just my name, at Chris Van Fleet, and then CVV clips where we've got the most memorable clips or moments from the interviews. It would mean so much to me if you did that one free, very easy thing to do. Click follow, click subscribe. And if it's your first time here on an Ask CVV episode, it's simple. You send in your questions, using that hashtag, Ask CVV, and they can be about really anything.

Of course, we answer a lot of wrestling questions, but they can be about movies or content creation or some of the many people I've been fortunate to share conversations with over my career. So send them in or send an email CVV at chris fanfleet.com. So let's dive into this, my friends. I'm going to go through my WrestleMania 40 predictions for the entire card here. I think it was like 18 or 20 of you that sent in the question asking for predictions for the entire card. And as T-V-I-G-15, T-V-V-V-15 on Instagram pointed out, I did go four-for-four at Elimination Chamber. Although I feel like most of us went four-for-four. Those felt like four rather simple, kind of predictable matches. And if you think that any of these matches at WrestleMania 40 are predictable. Make a little bit of money on it. Go check out the odds at mybooky.orgie.

Use the promo code CVV when you sign up and you'll get a 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. So if you put in $100, now you've got $150. Put in $200, now you've got $300 and so on. And I'll just go through a few of these real quick. They think that Cody Rhodes wins the main event on night two. He's a minus 400 favorite. So that means if you bet on Roman Raines, if you bet $100 on Roman Raines, you'll walk away with 350. I'll go through a few other ones here. They've got Drew McIntyre is a heavy favorite, minus 700, but Seth Rollins is a plus 350. So if you bet $100 on Seth Rollins, you'll walk away with 450. I'll give you one more because I feel like I'm on a roll here on my bookie.ag. They're saying Roman Raines and the Rock are pretty heavy favorites here

at minus 600. So Cody Rose and Seth Rollins at a plus 350, if you bet $100,000, on Cody and Seth, which I feel like, feel like there's a strong case could be made that they could win. You'll walk away with 450. So use the promo code, CVV when you sign up at my bookie.orgie. Yes, you can bet on WWPLEs at my bookie.orgie. Let's dive into night one here. Ray Mysterio and Dragon Lee versus Santos Escobar and Dirty Dom Mysterio.

I'm going to go with Santos Escobar and Dirty Dom. I just feel like there's so much momentum behind what Dirty Dom has going on here. I love that they're teasing things with like maybe he's leaving the judgment day. This one could really go either way, but I'm going to go with Santos and Dirty Dom on that one. Ria Ripley and Becky Lynch for the WWE Women's World Championship. This feels to me, and we'll get into it as we talk about the later matches, it feels to me like Becky Lynch should have won the women's Royal Rumble. I just feel like Bailey has kind of just been an afterthought in their whole promotion of

WrestleMania 40. And that just, I don't, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If this was the main women's match that they've been promoting, and I mean, think about it, Ria Ripley was the one on stage at the WWE WrestleMania 40 kickoff press conference that they did in Las Vegas. And it wasn't Bailey who won the Royal Rumble. Cody's there. He won the Royal Rumble.

Why isn't Bailey there? It just feels like it would have made a lot of sense. But if this was the match, they were looking to have this whole time. And look, I love Becky Lynch. I love Bailey. If this was the match they were looking to have the whole time, why not make Becky Lynch win the Royal Rumble?

But that is not the point of what we're talking about here. I digress. I go with Ria Ripley, retaining the championship here, although this is going to be a heck of a match. Speaking of heck of a match, Gunther versus Sammy Zane for the Intercontinental Championship. My goodness, that is going to be a hard hitting match.

I'm excited about this one. I think Gunther continues to retain. I think that Gunther retains this and holds the championship for at least another few months. And I just say that because I don't think it's Sammy Zane that's going to end this historic run that Gunther's had. I actually think it's going to be Chad Gable. And maybe there's something that happens there with Chad Gable and Sammy Zane.

Maybe he screws him in some sort of way. But you guys know that I love when things make sense in wrestling. I'm a big logic guy in wrestling. And first of all, I've said this before. I can't believe how many people have turned on Sammy Zane. Just a year ago, they wanted Sammy Zane to beat Roman Rains and to end the long streak that he's been on. Now, there's a pretty large group of fans that don't think Sammy Zane even deserves. deserves an intercontinental championship match.

And I get that it's because you like Chad Gable more than Sammy Zane, or you like the storyline that Chad Gable has more than Sammy Zane's storyline. But the logistics of that just don't make a lot of sense. And then the logistics of Chad Gable is training Sammy Zane. That also doesn't make a ton of logic. Doesn't seem to add up to me. Chad Gable lost to Gunther. and Sammy Zane beat Chad Gable.

So maybe I missed something, but how does this story make sense where Sammy Zane is basically taking, getting training from Chad Gable? Like, you were the guy who couldn't even beat Gunther, so I'm going to get training from you to learn how to beat Gunther? I just, I don't get that part of it.

Although the training montage that they did this past week on Raw was both equal parts awesome and equal parts. hilarious. I go with Gunther in this match. Then we go to a match that could steal the entire show. Certainly could steal night one, but could steal the entire show. Jimmy versus Jay, brother versus brother, Uso versus Uso. And this one, if you look at the odds on my bookie, it's pretty tight. But I go with Jay here. I just feel like he has so much more to gain from a win here. And I just feel like Jimmy getting the win doesn't really, I don't know where that leads to. So I go with Jay here.

Jay is so insanely over with the crowd, one of the most exciting entrances in all of wrestling right now. I go with Jay on this one. Then we go to the tag team championship six-pack tag team ladder match. So we've got the Judgment Day. That's Finn and Damien versus DIY, Johnny Gargano and Tomaso Champa, versus awesome truth, which is the Miz and Our Truth. The new day is Kofi and Xavier.

versus New Catch Republic, Pete Dunn and Tyler Bate. And I know there were rumors that Austin Theory and Grayson Waller, Aetown Down Under, are out. This list that I saw from Triple H still has them in, but it seems like there may be an opening for a mystery tag team, perhaps a mystery tag team that knows a lot about ladders and ladder matches. So it feels like there could be an opening here for either the Hardy Boys, the Dudley Boys, I mean, an outside chance. Maybe it's Motor City Machine Guns.

Their contract with TNA is up. But I just, I know there's going to be a lot of surprises at WrestleMania 40. And I think back to WrestleMania 30. And I was there. Hulk Hogan comes out. He's hosting it. Comes out at the start. He's cutting his promo.

And then glass shatters. Oh, my gosh. It's Stone Cold Steve Austin. What's he doing here? And then so it's Austin and Hogan in the ring. And out of nowhere, if you smell, the rock comes out. Huge surprise. No one expected the rock.

We haven't seen him in years. I think we're going to see something like that. Also, of course, WrestleMania 33. The Hardy Boys, they kept that surprise a secret forever. I feel like something's going to happen there. Go and listen to the interview that I did with Matt Hardy that came out on Tuesday. We just recorded that interview this past weekend. And he's basically saying, yeah, my AEW contract is up.

I want to go somewhere and work somewhere where we can me and Jeff can continue to cement our legacy. So you can read into this any way that you want to read into this. But I think you could listen to what Matt Hardy was saying and connect the dots and go, yeah, the Hardy Boys could be coming back to WWE. So we'll see what happens here. I would think this is probably one of the hardest matches to call because there's so many different people in this. I would think that we're seeing some new tag team champions.

I'm going to go with Johnny Gargano and Tomaso Champa, just because that's what my gut says, but we could have a massive curveball if one of those surprise teams does end up being placed into this match. So we shall see. But as of this point, as I'm recording this in Philly, we're going to go with DIY.

And I'm just pumped for those guys. Johnny Gargano, Tomaso Champa, getting a chance to actually shine at WrestleMania. I love those guys, and I can't wait to see them make their WrestleMania debuts. Then we're on to the three-on-three match, Bianca Bel Air, Jade Cargo, and Naomi versus damage control. And I just feel like this match is totally set up to make Jade Cargo look like a star. This is her first debut match. I mean, obviously she made her debut in the women's Royal Rumble,

but this is her debut match. And I feel like this match is simply set up to make her shine. So I'm going with Bianca, Jade, Naomi here. I think it would be difficult to make a case against that. Then we go to the main event of night one. The Rock and Roman Rains versus Cody Rhodes and Seth Freak and Rollins, of course, the stipulation here is if the Rock and Roman Rains win, that it'll be bloodline rules in the main event on night two.

I really think that this match could go either way. And that's what's so exciting about the time of wrestling that we're in right now. You could make a strong case either way. I know I've got to make a pick here. So I'm going to go with the Rock and Roman Wrains beating Cody Rhodes and Seth Freakin-Rollins. And I know there's a whole bunch of different things that could happen throughout this match. I think actually one of the biggest questions that will be answered on a Saturday night is who takes the pin and who pins that person.

Is it Seth pinning the rock? Is it Seth pinning the rock pinning Seth? Is it rock pinning Cody? Is it Roman pinning Cody? Obviously all these, I didn't even name them all, but there's all these different pinning combinations. I would think it's maybe it's Roman Raines pinning Seth Freak and Rawlins. So now we've got a little bit of animosity there. like Cody didn't get pinned, but they still lost the match. That's what I would have to think

happens here. And of course, bloodline rules is basically their way on night two of saying anything goes. Anyone could run in here. And that's where I think you could get this Avengers style, Avengers assembling, you know, something like that to help Cody. But we will get to that on night two. Night one is packed, by the way. My goodness. Night two, we've got street profits. and Bobby Lashley versus Caring Cross and Authors of Pain. I would have to think it's Caring Cross and Authors of Pain here. There is so much that you could do with Caring Cross. He is criminally underutilized.

If we could have the Caring Cross that we had as NXT champion, my goodness, just start printing money. That guy is fantastic. So I go with Caring Cross and Authors of Pain on that one. And it's a Philadelphia street fight, by the way. then we go to Seth Freakin Rollins versus Drew McIntyre for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. I've been saying this for a long time, and I will say it again here in the official prediction. It's got to be Drew McIntyre.

I feel like this is his ability to have that true WrestleMania moment. Yes, he won the championship at WrestleMania 36, but unfortunately he did it in front of nobody. And it was this weird, awkward thing where there's one, two, three, and there's no crowd. There's no cheers. It's just him and the camera and that's it. I feel like this is the make good for that. This is Drew McIntyre getting his actual WrestleMania moment in front of a sold-out crowd. That's what I would think.

And then now that they've announced Clash of the Castle is going to be in Scotland, it just feels like it makes sense for him to be the champion going into that and all of the promotion around that match and him coming. coming home with a championship. That's what I think there. And obviously, I read it to you earlier, but the odds on my bookie seemed to agree with that. Then we go to the WWE Women's Championship match. It's Eoskeye defending against Bailey. And again, I just don't like the buildup for this match. Love Bailey. Love Eoske. Both insanely talented. But why is the woman who won the women's Royal Rumble.

I don't know. It just doesn't feel like the buildup has been the same here as it was for Becky and Ria. But with all that aside, I go with Eoskeye here. This one for me could go really either way. Am I, am I sure about that one? No, I'm going to switch it. I'm going to go Bailey on this. Bailey final answer.

That one makes sense to me because I think Ria retains. I think Bailey wins here. Logan Paul versus Randy Orton versus Kevin. Owen's, it's for the United States Championship. This one's going to be fun. This one's going to be a lot of fun. I go with Logan Paul here. And I say this because SummerSlam is going to be in Cleveland.

I think that a lot of the promotion around SummerSlam is going to be around Logan Paul. And also the Miz, of course. But I think that it's going to be around Logan Paul coming home, Cleveland Brown Stadium. He wants to make this a big thing. He wants to get all of the Cleveland celebrities to be there. So he's talked about this in his podcast. I don't know if it's actually going to happen. But he's like, yeah, I want LeBron to be there.

I want M.G.K. to be there. So I think that Logan Paul retains the championship, holds it until SummerSlam in Cleveland. And then maybe it's Logan Paul versus L.A. Knight at Summer Slam. I don't know. We're talking four months from now. Anything could happen in that time. But I think that Logan Paul retains.

and there's a real value in Logan Paul being the United States champion. He brings that championship everywhere. He's bringing it on red carpets and he's bringing it to games when he's like sports games when he's in the crowd. Like there's a real value in him having that championship and just bringing it around and showing it off to people who may not be wrestling fans. And I think there's a ton of value there. Yeah, I know he doesn't defend the championship that much.

neither does Roman reigns. Both of them are heels, and it really plays into the fact of like, ooh, I don't like this guy. He never defends the championship. Well, that seems like something that a heel might do. A heel might not want to defend the championship if he doesn't have to. He's not a fighting champion. And I think that is part of the allure of Logan Paul being a bad guy.

So I go with Logan Paul on this one, and that's going to be an insanely entertaining match. And that brings us to the main event. It's Roman Raines versus Cody Rhodes two. We saw what happened last year, WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles. Will history repeat itself this year? This match, of course,

is for the WWE Universal Championship. I think after night one, this match will be contested under bloodline rules, which really means that anything goes, which means that, of course, people will be coming out to help Roman Raines, and also people will be coming out to help Cody Rhodes. I don't know if this.

is the spot where John Sina and Stone Cold Steve Austin come out. But I feel like at some point over Saturday or Sunday night, we're going to see them. That truck being in the background of the beat down between the Rock and Cody Rhodes wasn't just there by accident. But I don't know if you notice this or not. That truck was lit up. So it's not just the, like the truck wasn't just sitting there in the parking lot. The truck was sitting there in the parking lot, obviously on purpose, but then they shone lights on it. And you can see in the reflection of the truck that there's, two or three lights illuminating this truck. So that wasn't an accident.

They could have put anybody in the background there. So I feel like maybe it's John Cena and Stone Cold coming out during this match. Maybe it's not. There's going to be some strange stuff going on in this match. This is not going to be a clean victory. This is going to be lots of run-ins and all kinds of wild stuff that's going on. This is, of course, just me guessing here. but last year's match, please remember back to it,

was really, really good. And I know a lot of people don't like that match because of the last three seconds of that match. A lot of people don't like WrestleMania 39 as a whole because of the way the show ended. You know, the whole thing in wrestling is like send them home happy. There was a whole lot of people that left SoFi Stadium that were not happy and even more people watching at home that were not happy.

I think a case can be made either way. I really think that you could continue having Roman Reins on this reign of terror. I think that if he wins at WrestleMania, he would go on to break Hulk Hogan's record, which takes us to like mid-September, I believe. So maybe that takes us into Survivor Series. But I also think that you can make a strong case for Cody Rhodes, because if Cody Rhodes loses here and he's lost two years in a row to Roman Raines, what do you do? Like, how do you come back from that?

So I think that Cody Rhodes wins this match. I've been saying this for months. And look, anything could happen. I could be totally wrong here. But I don't see any scenario where Cody Rhodes doesn't leave WrestleMania 40 in Philly as a universal champion. And I think that this will then be Cody's first of his many runs. Like I don't think Cody's not going to be a one-time champion. Cody will be like a three or a five or a seven-time champion, I think.

I would have to think that. And he does so many things behind the scenes that I think really go unnoticed. He does so many things behind the scenes. He's the first to show up and sign all the weight belts and the 8x10s. He's doing the make-a-wishes. He's at the house shows he's doing the entrances with the kids. Those are so cool, creating those core memories for the, that this Cody superfans in the crowd. He stays to the very end, taking as many photos as he can, signing as many autographs as he

can. Cody is the face of WWE. And I mean that quite literally and figuratively. He's the baby face of WWE. There's no one that's a bigger baby face than him. And if Roman is out, Cody will be the guy who is, well, Cody's already there at almost every show. I think he's worked so hard to be in this position. And I think that he will be leaving that match as the champion. So there you go. There's my picks. I would love to hear what your picks are. Send them to me on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook or TikTok. I would love to hear what your picks are. Do we agree?

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What do you see happening to the tag titles at WrestleMania? Personally, I'm hoping for some kind of split of the titles, to be honest. You guys have heard me talk about the draft in the past and how, like, the draft is probably one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to wrestling storylines, because it just doesn't make sense, right? Someone gets drafted to Smackdown. Someone gets drafted to Raw. And then within a week or two, everything's getting all messed up.

What's he doing here? He's not supposed to be on Monday Night Raw? I've never liked how, like, they never stick to the actual drafts. Like, just this past week. Sure, they were entertaining segments. but what's Roman Reins doing on Raw? It just makes sense. So I always like to think of it like this.

Try explaining to someone why there's two different tag team championships. Well, these people wrestle on Friday, and they're the champion of Friday, and their belt is blue. And these people, they wrestle on Monday, and they only wrestle on Monday. And their tag team championships are red. I just want to see the best tag team wrestlers on the planet. I hope they unify these belts and instead of carrying around four championships for two tag team title holders, let's just make this simple. Give us some new championship belts or revert back to one of the old designs, but the tag team champions should be walking around with one belt each. That makes the most sense to me.

And I don't like this idea of there's a champion on raw and a champion on SmackDown. Who's the real champion here? That just doesn't make any sense to me. I want to see who the best tag team in the world is. let's get rid of the four belts. Let's go back to two belts. That's what I want to happen here. Sandra Romano on Facebook says,

I hear that AJ Stiles is getting a new entrance theme at WrestleMania. What do you think it'll sound like? I like this a lot because when he came out and he debuted there at the Royal Rumble with that 2016 in Orlando, I also happened to be there because I was living in Florida, It's living in South Florida, is living in Miami at the time. And I got tickets.

And my friend Steve Guy came down and we went to WrestleMania, fully not even expecting that AJ would come out. And then the music hits, do, do, what's going on here? Whose music is that? And then I remember looking up at the Tron. And then phenomenal just came up. And we were like, oh, man, because I am a huge AJ Stiles fan. I remember seeing him in like 2004 or five in T.

and he very quickly became my favorite wrestler in TNA, my favorite wrestler in that era. So I think a new song will be fitting to this new character that he has. I mean, he already has a new look. He has more jacked than he's ever been. It cut his hair. It's a totally different character. It's a totally different look. I actually think he should have came back and this whole new look.

He should have had a new song then. But I'm excited to hear what this is because his TNA song, if you don't remember it, was really good. You are, you are, I am, I am. You have to excuse my not very good singing, but it was so good. So I'm curious to see what happens. Does he stay with a hip hop song? Is it a little bit more rock-ish like his TNA song was? We'll have to see. But I'm excited to hear it and I hope this isn't given too much away. But I'm supposed to interview AJ styles on Friday, I mean today, later on today. So we will see. We will see what happens here. Fingers crossed, I hate putting stuff out there unless it's like 1,000 percent confirmed.

But, ah, what the heck? We'll roll the dice. I threw it out there. And I'm super looking forward to that. He's been one of my favorites for years. I've only met him once. It was in 2008 and a blood-swetting year's show just outside of Toronto. I think it was in Mississauga, BSE wrestling. And he wrestled Eric Young. It was a fantastic match. I have a photo of that. So we were going back 16 years ago that I met him at that time. So I would love for this full circle moment of being able to interview him. So keep an eye out for that one very soon. Eric underscore ROM underscore ROM 01. Eric Rom Rom Rom 1 on Instagram says, what did you think of the CM Punk interview with Ariel Hawani? I don't know if there's been an interview in pro wrestling in recent memory that people have

been this excited for. Like when he teased this, like, C.M. Punk's going to be on the MMA hour on Monday. I don't think there were, like, there's never been this much curiosity slash excitement around an interview. And it sure seems from the discourse that I've seen online that there's two very divided camps here. It's WWE fans and it's A.W fans. and it's AEW fans.

What I think you need to keep in mind with this is there's three sides to every story, right? There's one person's side, there's the other person's side, and then somewhere in between that, there's the truth. So I'm happy that CM Punk was able to get some of these things off of his chest and say some of these things in a public forum. I still think that there's a lot that went unsaid here, but it will be very interesting to see if we hear the other side of that story. The other side of that story, obviously, being from Tony Con.

I'm curious to see what Tony Khan says about this, if anything, because I've said this before, but CM Punk coming back to wrestling when he made his AEW debut in 2021 was one of the biggest returns, if not the biggest return in the history of pro wrestling. This is someone who we never thought would wrestle again. This is someone who is done with the business, and Tony Kahn somehow convinced him to come back. And if it wasn't for CM Punk returning an AEW and everything that transpired there, we wouldn't have had this return of Survivor Series in Chicago in 2023. I feel like one had to happen for the other to happen.

One had to lead to the other to happen. So I just think it's really interesting. I don't feel like CM Punk had any sort of an agenda here. He said some things during that interview that, quite frankly, didn't make him look that great. He also said some things during this interview that certainly didn't make other people look great. So I'm curious to see what the fallout is here. But I appreciate him being as open as he was. He didn't necessarily need to do this interview, but he did.

And there really weren't many questions that Ariel asked him that he either didn't want to answer or couldn't answer. you could tell that he was thinking a lot like there were a lot of questions that ariel would answer and it was met by a okay like like oh my gosh well i guess i guess i guess i got to talk about this thing so it was a it was a very compelling interview a very compelling interview and i'm just really curious if if anything happens from here but i'll tell you one thing when that interview came out I was one of those people that was listening to it as it was happening. And I mean, what an episode he had. Then later on it was Rear Ripley in studio.

Becky Lynch comes in. They start that little fight in there. Hats off to Ariel Hawani. And that guy has been consistently doing great work for, what is it, 15 years with the MMA hour? Great stuff. Great stuff. Paul Michelson 14 on Instagram says, did you watch the Roman Reins documentary on A&E? I thought it was great.

Do you actually think he's going to retire if he loses the championship? So if you didn't watch it, first of all, it's amazing. Paul Heyman did such a great job directing this, putting this together. We learn a lot about Roman Raines that maybe we didn't know. It's a peek behind the curtain. Although Roman Raines is so good at walking this very fine line of not letting us know, what's real and what's K-Fave, and I'm here for it. So if you missed it, this is a quote from him, he says, you guys better cherish these moments because once I lose the WWE undisputed

championship, I'm calling it quits. Do we actually think that he's calling it quits? No, I don't think so. I think that if and when he loses the WWE undisputed championship, we won't see him for a little while, whether that's he takes three months off or six months off or maybe more. I think that we're going to be under the impression that he's gone. It might even get to the point where he's gone for so long that we don't even think about him being an option to return. Kind of like how Brock Lesnar was. Brock Lesnar was. Brockleser would come and go and then when he would come back, we'd go, oh, yeah, like, Brock's always a possibility here. I think that Roman has had an amazing career. Whether you like him or you don't like him, you have to respect what he's done.

he's carried a lot of whatever we're calling this new era and he's carried us into this new era as well but pandemic wrestling i've said it before and i'm sorry it was it was tough to watch there were a lot of parts of the especially the early months of it that were it was difficult it was like this stark reminder of the state of the world at that time but roman reigns returning with the whole new look and turning heel, that made things really interesting. Aligning himself with Paul Heyman started this storyline that we're still a part of now with the bloodline

that has been one of the best storylines in modern pro wrestling. So I don't think that Roman Reins is going to retire. I think that when he does retire, it'll obviously be a much bigger thing than just losing the championship and going away. but I do think that when he loses the title, and maybe it's this Sunday, WrestleMania 40,

I don't think we see him for a while. And I think it becomes almost like that John Cena thing where you need them to be away for a little while for you to appreciate them that much more. At Fear Factor Figs on Instagram says, Hey, Chris, I've heard you say that bass fishing was your first passion. It's true. My first passion is still something I'm very passionate about.

I still own a bass fishing company called Woo! Tungsten, W-O-O-Xclamation mark, Tungsten. We sell Tungsten weights for bass fishing. I want to know what was your favorite fishing spot and what is your go-to lure. I love your show. You're doing great work. Well, thank you, Fear Factor Figs. I'd say that my go-to lake over the last 10-ish, 15-ish years. So I moved to the U.S. 14 years ago and 2020.

And I lived in Cleveland. And Cleveland is right on Lake Erie. And Lake Erie is one of the best smallmouth bass fisheries on the planet. And I was so fortunate that that was like right there, like two minutes from where I lived. So I bought my first bass boat. I bought a Skeeter. And I was out there on Lake Erie almost every weekend during like the warmer months, like spring all the way in the fall.

So Lake Erie is up there. Like I still have some great spots off of Pele Island. where I know we can go out and catch a 20-pound limit. And I know for 99.8% of you listening, you have no idea what I'm talking about. But for the few people I'm talking to right now, you can appreciate that. Lake Champlain as well in upstate New York.

It borders, so it's mostly in New York. It also borders Vermont, and a little bit of it touches into Canada and Quebec. Lake Champlain is unreal. Lake Champlain is like a place where you could catch a hundred bass in a day and it would be a relatively normal day. So I fished a lot of BASS and FLW tournaments as a co-angler on Lake Champlain and also on Lake Erie. But those are probably two, they'd be the go-to. I grew up fishing the core of the lakes. So about an hour and a half

to two hours outside of Toronto. Lake, Sturgeon Lake, Cameron Lake, Lake, Lake, Skugog, Rice Lake, those were kind of the main lakes that I fished. So I, I, Again, I know that most of you have no idea what I'm talking about, but those are kind of the go-to lakes for me. If I could just tie up one rig, I would be a drop-shot. I love a drop-shot rig. So I would drop-shot a slammer from X-Zone lures with probably a tier-drop-shaped drop-shot weight, from Woot tungsten.

I'd use one of our Inviso shot weights. And it depends on the depth of the water. If it's a deeper water with a little bit of current or a little bit of chop, I'd probably be drop shotting a half ounce. Maybe if it's not as deep or it's a calm day, three-eighths ounce or a quarter ounce, but there you go. Drop-shotting a slamer and trying to, I love small mouth. I also lived in South Florida.

I was not far from Lake Okeechobee. I took my Skeeter down there when I moved down to South Florida. I fish Lake Okeechobee almost every weekend. And you can fish in Florida, obviously, you know, 12 months of the year. I traded in my skater and got a Ranger Z520, which if you know anything about bass fishing, that's a heck of a bass boat. I do not own a bass boat right now, but I feel like I'll be, I feel like once our daughter gets a little bit older, I feel like that'll be something that we'll get into

again. So we went away off the beaten path here with that one. That was deep. So for everybody who just skipped the last two minutes, we'll jump into the next one here. Charles Robertson on Twitter says, the radio voice that you did in the interview with Maven had me dying. Could you give us a little bit more of that? 31 minutes after 7 o'clock Friday morning in the city, brand new music coming up from Taylor Swift and your chance of win tickets to see her at SoFi Stadium coming up in the next 14 minutes.

So I, that's so stupid. I worked at, I've worked at a few different radio stations, but the one I spent the most time at was Cleveland's new 102 in Cleveland, 102.1. Cleveland's new 102, better music and a lot of it for your work. Damn. You heard the new song from Justin Timberlake. This thing's just so catchy. That would be more of like the real radio voice, but the silly radio voice that Evan and I were doing. Oh man, Justin Timberlake in town this weekend. I'll do this in the car with my friends and it's funny because you put on any song and I will find a way to fill the 12 seconds or the 26 seconds between when the song starts and when the first lyric is sang. So looking for the ninth caller through right now. 216-570-6041 looking for the ninth caller through

right now. Your chance to win tickets to see the script. Is that even a band? I don't know. So I'm glad you guys enjoyed that. The comments on that video had me laugh, and I sent it over to Maven. I'm like, I think we need to do an entire episode where we just talking radio voices the whole time. It would be so stupid. Could you imagine that? Well, come back to the inside with Chris Fafleet. It's so stupid.

Gentlemen, it almost gets into like a stripper voice, doesn't it? Gentlemen, at the main stage, don't forget to show your appreciation for candy on the main stage. Gentlemen, all right. Mr. Pilgrim, that's Mr. Pilgrim on Instagram. Have you always been as grateful as you are now? Or did it take a long time to learn? I'm really trying to be more appreciative. I don't think this has always been something that I've done. But I feel like in the last 10 or so years, I've tried to be just a little bit more self-aware. And that's come with a lot of work. You guys have heard me talk about better help. And I don't just talk about better help, because I don't just talk about better help,

they're a sponsor of the show. They are a sponsor of the show because I use BetterHelp, and it's really helped. It's really helped me to just kind of figure out where some of these thoughts are coming from. And yeah, so all of that is to say over the last 10ish years, by reading a lot of great books, by talking about everything that's going on in my life and in my thoughts, I feel like I've had a greater appreciation for just everything as a whole. And one of the things that I was taught to do that I guess I learned to do was to show appreciation. And Tony Robbins said something years ago. I still listen to quite a few of his interviews or his tapes. Like, that was a big thing. He'll have, or I'll have these videos on YouTube. And he would say,

if you can trade your expectations for appreciation, you'll never be disappointed. And that stuck with me so much. And through that, I've just talked about finding a way to be grateful in every situation. So I don't think it came that easy. I think it was a very slow process, a little bit better every single day. And if you're a little bit better every single day, then maybe you'll be a little bit better every single week. And if you're a little bit better every single week, you'll be a little bit better every single month. And then if you're a little bit better every month, you'll be a little bit better every year.

And that's just kind of been my approach to things. So we have so much to be grateful for in every moment of every day, even when things suck, even when it feels like everything's against you, there's always something to be grateful for. And I just try to remind myself of, yeah, things are bad. But I'm always looking for something good. That actually leads into this next question. I didn't even plan this. Brian Dowie on Instagram says, do you try to find gratitude in situations that are inherently bad,

like a bad day or a bad interaction? Yeah. Or I'll remind myself of like this one bad thing is an indicative of this entire situation here, this entire scenario here. Like, I was, I traveled a lot this month. So it was obviously Philly right now. I was in Indianapolis last weekend for the Squared Circle Expo. The weekend before that, I was in London, flew 12 hours there, 12 hours back to be there for 23 hours or whatever was.

And there's a lot of times like in the airport where you're walking along and the person in front of you just like comes to a dead halt. And you're like, oh my goodness. And you have to like avoid them because like you're going to crash into them because they're just not. aware. And many, many asks TVVs ago, someone was like, what's your biggest pet peeve? Because you seem like a pretty even kill person. And I was like spatial awareness. And it's that. I'm sure you can relate. You're at a busy place like a concert or a busy place like an airport or a theme park. And you're all kind of just, you're walking, you're following the flow of traffic and somebody stops or somebody like does a quick turnaround and like, they're going to smash right into you if you're not like,

like aware of your own space. And I think there was a point in my life when I would get really annoyed by that, by the, you know, this person who clearly is not, has no personal vendetta against you. They don't know you at all. And I would take a lot of those things personally. And you might have heard me talk with Maxine DePri about the four agreements, the book. And I think I learned a lot from that book. It's such a quick read. It's the four agreements are so simple. But if you can keep these agreements with yourself, it'll change the entire way that you approach life. Be impeccable with your word. Don't take anything personally.

Don't make assumptions. Always do your best. And those are four agreements that I try to have with myself every day. And I know they're not easy to keep. And I would say for the most part, I don't. But I try. And I kind of use those as like the cornerstone for how I approach every day. and it sounds so silly.

It also sounds so simple. But saying out loud three things that you're grateful for, even right now, just don't think it. Like literally pause this episode. Say out loud three things that you're grateful for and then start to make that a practice tomorrow and then the next day and then the day after that. And the more that you recognize the things in your life that you're grateful for, you will find more things to be grateful for.

So welcome back. I know you paused it. Every single person that was listening. I know you paused it. So welcome back. The Rath 1174 on Instagram says, no question. Just thank you for what you do. Well, thank you for being here.

I appreciate you so much because without you, there is no show. It's just me sitting here, talking into a microphone, and that's it. So I appreciate you. And we're just getting started, people. We are just getting started. This is only episode 587. There's a lot of podcasts that I listen to that are well into the thousands. And I look forward to being there.

Although with, I guess we're doing two and a half a week. Now we're doing three a week now. Three a week, that means 150 episodes a year. Real quick math here. That means we will be at a thousand episodes in two and a half years. Okay. That feels like a long time. So like sometime in the fall of 2026. Wow, I wonder what we'll do between now and then. That'll be very interesting. Daryl Parnel sent this in on email. CBV at chrisfanfleet.com. Hey, Chris, love the show. What is your favorite faction theme song and why is it evolution's theme? You nailed it. I mean, there's been a lot of great factions and a lot of great theme songs, but I don't know if it gets any better. then Motorhead. Evolution is a mystery.

All of Motorhead's theme songs, so good. Bow down to the game. Obviously, the game. Evolution, so good. Legends. So an evolution, I mean, there's a, you can make a real case for them being one of the best factions of all time. I mean, just star power alone.

You've got four world champions, four Hall of Famers, four absolute legends, but when evolution was formed, they were all at very different stages of their career. So yes, the answer there, Daryl, is obviously evolution. Ronnie Owens on Facebook says, What does one eat during WrestleMania Week, CV?

Does one order room service for breakfast, or is it lunch buffets with superstars post-interview? When does one have the time to sit and enjoy a meal with your kind of workload? It's a busy week. And this one is going to be more busy than any other WrestleMania that I've ever been to. I've been to 14 now.

I've covered, I don't exactly know the number. I mean, last year I covered it in a big way. And a few years before that, I went to RussellCon and I appeared at RussellCon. And I'll be appearing at RussellCon again this weekend, Saturday and Sunday. So I hope to see you there. It'd be awesome to be able to give you a high five or handshake and chat a little. wrestling, I actually pack a lot of meals. That's been a big thing that I've been doing over the last two years. But working with AJ Sims and getting into the best shape of my life for my last

birthday, really changed my mindset around that. Because when you have a five-ish hour flight from L.A. to Philly and you don't come prepared, what are your options then? Because if you don't come prepared, my flight was at 8 a.m. If you don't come prepared, you're going to be, you're forced to eat whatever crap is at the airport. And if you don't bring food, if you're not prepared, then you're forced to eat whatever awful sandwich they have for you on the flight. So, and that's a long, you know, from leaving your house to getting to your hotel in Philly, it's like eight hours-ish. So you got to come prepared. So I'm bringing six meals. that'll get me through the first probably two-ish days.

So bringing six meals, I will eat breakfast before I leave. Then it's eat a meal either at the airport and then one on the plane or eat two on the plane. And then I first thing I do is I go to a grocery store now. And I try to get the healthiest options that I can. And if there's not a microwave in my room, I get a microwave in my room where I pay for a microwave to be added on to my room. because I can't just eat pizza and burgers and fries and fast food the entire time I'm there. Like got into town Wednesday. So it's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then back home on Monday.

It's five days, five and a half days of being on the road and eating. And look, I know that every pro wrestler that is doing this for a living does this every week. So the big thing for me is I just, I can't eat bad food. Look, I love pizza. You know me. I love pizza. So it's, I definitely eat breakfast to start the day. And that is either if the hotel has some sort of a breakfast, I will go down to either

the restaurant or the buffet or whatever it happens to be. Lunch, I, I've brought it with me for the first few days after that. I will grab something from the grocery store that I can make or reheat in my room. And there's a lot of it where like you're eating on the fly. So it's bringing like a handful of cashews or almonds or something like that, protein shakes. I'm just trying to not like weigh myself down with really bad food options. So that's it. I'm trying to do the best that I can with what I have.

And what's funny is I was under that like really. strict nutrition plan last year when I went to Russellmania. And I remember sending AJ, my nutritionist slash coach, I remember sending him a list of all the, all the food options at SoFi Stadium. And he was basically like, okay, you could probably eat a burger with no bun, which is actually pretty healthy. He's like, could you bring a protein shake in there? And I did pretty well with those options. So I think there's two real. big forces at work here. One is trying to eat something that's relatively healthy. And two, it's just remembering to eat. I feel like a lot of people fall under this spell that when they're

on the road for work, they treat it like a vacation. Or when you are traveling for a vacation, you treat it like a vacation and calories don't count. And I'm not saying that they don't count, but I mean that on both ends. So there's either the, I'm going to eat my face off and just, you know, gorge myself. And on the other side of that, there's the, you're running and gutting, you're so busy, you forget to eat. So that's a really important part of it, too, is like remembering to eat and remembering to give yourself some energy. Sunny Powers on Facebook says, yo, exclamation mark. I listen every day at work, and it really helps me through the day working in a warehouse. Well, I hope you're having a great day at the warehouse right now, Sonny. You were just in Indianapolis.

Do you have any fond memories of Indianapolis or Indiana? It's my home state. I had such a great time in Indianapolis. And Squared Circle Expo is one of the best wrestling conventions, wrestling expos that I've ever been a part of. I had such a blast. I've been there twice now. This was Squared Circle Expo 4. I was at number two and now number four. And I've got a very fond memory of Indianapolis. I won my first two Emmys in Indianapolis. The Emmys, the award show, was at the raceway? Speedway? Indianapolis Speedway. Was that the Speedway? So I'm looking at it right now.

Well, not really. I'm looking at my mind right now. I'm looking at the picture in my mind right now. Like I'm on the stage with both of them in my hands. That was a really big moment for me. And that was like a real validation for like I'd moved to the U.S. two years prior. And this is probably way too much info.

But I had a visa at the time. I was under an 01 visa at the time. And I remember, like, the thing about the 01 visa is, it's great, but you can only work for the company who sponsored your visa. So I could only work for WOIO, the CBS TV station in Cleveland, which was amazing. I was given so many great opportunities there. But I was also starting to get some other things that I could do on the side, like a radio gig here and there. I was also writing for Cleveland Magazine every once in a while. I wasn't able to take those jobs because I couldn't legally do them.

So I reached out to an immigration lawyer and I said, what would it take for me to get a green card? And he's like, oh, have you, like, won any awards? Because to get the kind of green card for the industry that you're in, you're going to need to win some awards or you're going to be basically have to show that there's a reason that you should be able to get a job over an American. And he's like, have you won any awards? If you want any Emmys, I said, well, I'm nominated for two Emmys. He's like, oh, you're not. Okay, that's good. nominations are good, but if you win them, that'll be a lot better. And I said, okay, well, it's in like a month,

I'll let you know. And then I ended up being so fortunate to win both of those Emmys. And I remember I called him up that Monday. And I said, I won two Emmys. He goes, okay, let's get the paperwork started. I think your chances of getting a green card of that much better. So that was a really, that was such a big night and such an honor, such an incredible honor to be able to be nominated for two, win two. And obviously, I'd lost some before that, but to be able to win those that night. And I just loved the Midwest in general. I spent six years living in Ohio, five in Cleveland, one in Cincinnati. And there's just something about the Midwest that I love. And every time I go back there, whether it's Ohio or it's Indiana or it's Illinois. I just, there's, the people there are

just good people. So I love it, Sonny, and I can't wait to be back there for Squared Circle Expo. Number five, next year. Mike Gormley on Facebook says, do you feel the This is Awesome chant is overused by fans? Not at all. The thing I love about the This is awesome chant is it's basically another way of saying both these guys, both these guys. Like, this is awesome chant, I think is a high honor in wrestling. Because there's, you know, you can, you can chant for one person and you can chant for the other person, but chanting this is awesome. I feel like as a true appreciation for the art form that you're watching in front of you.

So no. In fact, give me more. This is awesome. Give me fight forever. Give me any of these like, I'm cheering for both of these people chants. I love them. Russellverse, Russellverse on Instagram says,

what's the best way to network or approach someone to be on your YouTube slash podcast channel? I would say the best way now is to send a DM or send an email. Send a DM or send an email to someone that you're interested in.

I would say if it's possible, go to a convention like the Squirt Circle Expo or Russell Con this weekend and meet someone in person. give them your business card if you have them have one or introduce yourself to them. I would say that that's another good approach or go to an independent wrestling show and start with anyone who's willing to say yes. Go to an independent wrestling show.

Introduce yourself. Tell them what you're all about. Bring value because that's the biggest thing here is bring value. Here's what's in it for you because it's obvious what's in it for you as the person asking, but here's what's what's in it for them. here's what's in it for them because again it's obvious of what's in it for you you're getting their time you're getting their knowledge and they're going to be giving this to you likely for free so i would just try to make a case for here's why you should do this i'm going to give such a

tremendous amount of value that it would be just it wouldn't make any sense for you to say no and just start with whoever will say yes so whether that's through a DM or an email or asking someone in person, just start with whoever is willing to say yes. And I have a mastermind where we talk about all of this stuff when it comes to content creating, fulltimecreator.co, if you're really interested in actually growing your podcast or YouTube channel, your content that you're making, shoot me a message or sign up for $1 at fulltime creator.co. Let me just take a little sip here of F3 energy. Tanvir, underscore, verse, D99 says, hey, once again, CVV, my question is, what was it like interviewing my goat of acting

Denzel Washington? Denzel Washington is just freaking cool. I've had the pleasure of interviewing him a few times. I interviewed him for The Magnificent Seven. I interviewed him for fences. He just like oozes charisma and he just oozes like coolness. And you can check those interviews out on my YouTube channel. But I just like, he's very thoughtful with the way that he answers questions. And he has this like big laugh that that's just very fun. So I've always had a great time interviewing him. And I mean, he's your interview or he's your goat of acting.

He's a lot of people's goat of acting. He is, he's so good at what he does. And I'm one of those people that when Denzel has a new movie coming out, I'm like, well, I've got to see that. Because even if the movie. movie's not great. You know that Denzel is going to absolutely crush it in that role. Training Day. I think that's my top Denzel movie, even though you didn't ask. Sean Finch 86 on Instagram says, who's your favorite Brit wrestlers? Well, there's no secret

that I'm a big Will Osprey fan, and I tell him that every chance that I can. Anytime I send him a message or I see him. So Will Osprey and also William Regal. I feel like you know this because I'm assuming you're from the UK sending a message asking about my favorite Brit wrestlers. But William Regal really paved the way for a lot of people that came after him. And his style of wrestling, he had like the perfect flatback bumps. Like everything he did in the ring was like so textbook. So, and I, look, there's a ton of other great British wrestlers. But my favorites would be Will Osprey and William Regal. Okay, we got two left here. Okay.

And this one's from M. Waldman 56 on Instagram. Any celebrities that you were surprised to learn were wrestling fans? Look, I'm surprised to learn when any celebrity is a wrestling fan. Because I think we always end up seeing people just for the one thing that they do. Like, that person's an actor. All they care about, all they're passionate about is acting. And when you find out that they have another, like, massive passion or hobby on the side, it almost like humanizes them in a way.

Like if you find out that an actor is a fan of the same sports team that you're a fan of, you're like, oh, well, you know what, I like them a little bit more now. Or you find out like when I found out that Dwayne Johnson, when I found out that the rock was into bass fishing, I was like, oh my goodness, could he get any cooler? And he's catching these bass in his, I think it's his pond. I think it's at his property in Virginia. I don't know if everybody realizes that.

the Rock's like main residence is in Virginia. He has houses in Florida and California and Hawaii, I believe. But I think when you find out that someone else, especially someone who's like a famous person has a similar passion that you do, you just see them in a different light. So when I chatted a little wrestling with Adam Sandler a few times, the last few interviews that we've done, it's like, I already liked Adam Sandler. I've already, I've been a few. fan of his movies since the 90s. But now he's one of us. Like there's a shot, WrestleMania 21, where Hogan's coming out and they cut to a shot of Adam Sandler, clap into Hogan's entrance. It's like, yes, he's one of us. And like, I feel the same way

about George Kittle. Like when I found out that George Kittle was a wrestling fan, I'm like, you know what? I was very indifferent on George Kittle. I neither liked him nor disliked him. Then I found out he was a wrestling fan. Changed my whole perspective of him. Same with Grunk. I was not a big New England fan or Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan, but then when I found out that Gronk was like not just kind of a wrestling fan, but like a very passionate, hardcore wrestling fan. I'm like, you know what? Throw the ball to 87 a little bit more. I'm a big fan of Rob Grunkowski now. So I'm surprised when I learned that any of you, but he's a big wrestling fan. And it makes

me love them so much more. Like, I've now had a bunch of interviews with Freddie Prince Jr. When I found out that not only was you a WWE fan, but then he worked for WWE, changes everything. The interview I had with Paul Walter Houser or O'Shea Jackson Jr. recently. And it's not like, it's not a surface level of wrestling fandom. It is a deep level of wrestling fandom where they're able to talk to you about what's going on right now.

But also, you're able to throw out a reference from like 1998 and they're on board with that. So I love it. I love it. And I'm sure there's going to be many more people that are going to come on this show who are big wrestling fans. And it seems like you guys like these episodes just as much as I do. So we're going to keep them coming because it's cool to find out that they're one of us. One of us. One of us.

All right, this is our last one from TV Kyle on Instagram. And again, thank you guys for being with me. Thank you for hanging out with me in Philly here as we record this Ask. CVV episode. You are a real one for being on an AskCV episode. So thank you. Thank you for being here. Send in your questions for Ask CVV number 26. And we'll have to figure out who wore number 26. What's what's Ask CVV 26 than it going to be? Am I saying CVV too fast? Ask CVV. It's like it's like the opposite of how Michael Cole says WWE. TV, Kyle on Instagram says, If Cody wins, how long does he hold the belt?

In my opinion, it has to be held until at least SummerSlam. I think until at least SummerSlam for sure. I don't think Cody's reign or anybody's for that matter is going to be 1,300 plus days like Romans has been. I don't know if we're going to see a thousand plus days again in this modern era of wrestling. But I think that we'll see Cody hold it for a few months. And if you listen to the last episode that I did, I said that, I think that when they go to Netflix, they're going to do something where the title changes hands on Raw. Just to show us that, like, you do need to tune in every episode because it's a

different ballgame here on Netflix and anything could happen. So I could see him holding it until, definitely SummerSlam. I could see him holding it maybe till Survivor Series, but I feel like he's going to be a big part of what's going on on Netflix, whether he's the champion or whether he's chasing for that title. He's going to be a big part of it. But Cody Rhodes, 38 right now, turns 39 this year. I know that he just resigned and he said that he was going to wrestle until he's 40. Now he's resigned and he says that his contract takes him well into his 40s. I think he's, again, he's a multiple time champion when his career is set and done. And I know he's getting a bit of a late start here as a world champion. And of course, he's,

He's been a world champion before. He was a Ring of Honor world champion. But in WWE, he's kind of a late bloomer, if you will. So I think, though, he's a multiple time champion, which would have to mean that these are shorter rains. Maybe these are three, four month rains. And instead of having one champion a year like we've been having right now with both Roman and Cody, I think we may get to a point where it's two or three championship reigns in a year,

from different people, I mean. Maybe the title changes hands two or three times, maybe four. Maybe we start to see those short rains again. Like when was the last time we saw a one day rain or a one week rain? It's been a while. It's been a while. And that's not to diminish those rains when they do happen, but that kind of keeps you on your toes.

We were at a point for a very long time that when Roman Raines was defending the championship, it's kind of a foregone conclusion. as to what was going to happen. You're like, yeah, it's going to be entertaining, but at some point in time, someone from the bloodline's going to come out and Roman's going to be the champion when the match is over.

I feel like that's, it's going to be a whole different ballgame and a whole different approach when Cody finally does become the champion. Because it's not a matter of if he becomes the champion. It's a matter of when. And again, we'll just take this full circle right back to the first question.

I think it's this Sunday. Sunday at WrestleMania 40, and I would be betting on it at my bookie.ag. And using that promo code CVV for a 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. So there we go. Thank you guys for being with us on this one. And I hope that you enjoy WrestleMania this weekend wherever you're watching it from. Here's a quote from Walt Disney to wrap this up. And this actually really ties in well to that full-time creator question that we had a few

questions ago. The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing three things I'm grateful for. I'm grateful to be here right now. Philly, WrestleMania, super grateful to be covering this as part of my job. This is my 14th WrestleMania that I've attended. I'm grateful for these opportunities every single day. And it is it is not lost on me. How cool it is that part of my job, is talking to wrestlers for a living. Very, very grateful for that. Grateful for you for being here and making this a possibility.

Grateful that you subscribe to the channel and you listen to these podcasts, no matter who the guest is or whether it's just me and you hanging out on these AskCTVV episodes. So grateful for you. And of course, always grateful for my family and the health of those that I love.

So there we go. Be great. Be grateful. Have an amazing weekend. We will see you on the next one for some more insight, my friends. 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. Take advantage of it, but get up in here.

The Jim Rome Show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.