Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #30 - Was Backlash The Best Crowd Ever?, New Bloodline Members, WrestleMania 41

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

Welcome back to another AskCVV episode! On this one Chris answers questions about the incredible crowd in Lyon, France for Backlash, Las Vegas being the official location for WrestleMania 41, similarities between The Bloodline and the nWo, pro wrestling Mount Rushmore, live episode of INSIGHT during SummerSlam week in Cleveland, most interesting guest ever and 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: "Understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success." – Arianna Huffington Sponsors: PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank which was designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/ PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT for a first deposit match up to $100! RHONE: Upgrade your closet with Rhone and use CVV to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/CVV BLUECHEW: Use the code INSIGHT to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com 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 PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com 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. Oh, it is so good to see you, my friends. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Thank you so much for being with us. And thank you, as always, for helping to make Insight one of the top wrestling podcasts on the planet. I'm sure if you're listening to an AskCTVV episode, you're probably already following the show so you can skip ahead the next 15 seconds. But if you are listening and you haven't hit that follow button yet, please take a second today at some point to hit it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever the podcast app is of your listening pleasure. It seriously helps the show so much. Appreciate you for being with us on Ask CVV number 30, the Steph Curry edition.

Also the Lionel Messi edition. And I guess also the Ken Griffey Jr. when he played with the Cincinnati Reds edition. Ask CVV number three. 30. I appreciate you for being with us. If this is your first one, take off your coat, stay a while. You get your questions answered by sending them in using that hashtag Ask CVV on social media. You can also put them in the Q&A section on Spotify, so where it says, what did you think of this episode? Drop a question in there. I always love going into Spotify and checking those comments that people have left there, not just the Ask CVV episodes, but about any of the episodes

that we've had. And what a week. What a week. So we sat down with Adam Copeland on yesterday's episode. You may know him better as Edge from WWE. And that's one of my all-time favorite episodes that I've ever done. The fact that we were able to do that at his house in Asheville, North Carolina, did it in the beautiful gym that Adam and his wife, Beth Phoenix, have there. And we talked for over 90 minutes. And we covered a lot from his 25 plus year career. But my goodness, I feel like there's still so much that we could cover in a part two and then maybe a part three and a part four and whatever we are lucky enough to be able to do with Adam. But what a great episode. If you haven't checked it out yet, go check it out when you're done with this episode of AskCV. And we talked a lot about Pureplank.

It's the planking board that he created in partnership with Christian Cage. And him and Christian helped to design this. If you're interested in checking it out, go to gopureplank.com. Use the code CVV. They've hooked us up with quite a nice discount if you're interested in getting one of those. I'm actually looking at my pure plank on the floor just in front of my desk here as I sit in my office. And it's something that I jump on every single day, even if it's only just for a few minutes to do a few planks. it's been a game changer for me.

So go pureplank.com. Use that promo code CVV. So let's dive into the questions today. We got a bunch of great ones here. We'll start with Hunt and Fish 73 on Twitter. What is it about international crowds like the backlash crowd in France or last year's backlash crowd in Puerto Rico that are so electric? Do you think that this year's crowd was the best crowd ever?

I mean, recency bias, I think would say that that's the best crowd ever. I think when you dive into it a little bit with some really hot crowds that we've seen, you know,

over the course of just wrestling history in general, I don't know, one of the best crowds, certainly. That's for sure. The best ever? I feel like any of those conversations

about like best ever anything, feel like those need to breathe just a little bit. So maybe we can revisit, visit that being the best crowd of all time in like 10 or 15 or 20 years, like once the dust has settled a little bit. To answer your question about why are international crowds so great, I think that there's two real factors at play here. One of the biggest ones is scarcity. So when a pay-per-view, a PLE like backlash comes to France, I think that if you're a big wrestling

fan, you're going. It's marked off on your calendar. You're going because you don't get a lot of, if you're a WWE fan, you don't get a lot of Smackdown or Raw. Like this is an opportunity that comes around just once every few years. And then a pay-per-view, man, that might be coming around every 10 or 15 years. So I think that that's one of it. It becomes like a date that is circled on the calendar for the real hardcore fans to make sure that they are there. And when you, live close to like a major metropolis in the United States, you know, it's not uncommon for Ra or Smackdown or a PLE to becoming, you know, at some point in, you know, twice a year maybe. Like, I don't know if it's a great example, but I live close to Los Angeles, close to Anaheim,

and if we're to look back at the last 13 months, if I'm a big wrestling fan, which I am, I had the opportunity to go to two nights of WrestleMania 39 last year. That would be a 40-ish minute drive from where I live. Of course, there was SmackDown and NXT and Raw on the Hall of Fame that surrounded that. That's obviously an exception because of everything that goes on around WrestleMania. But Smackdown was in Anaheim like two months ago. There was a live event that was happening, I think it's in a month in Palm, desert, which is about an hour-ish, hour and a half away. There's one happening in

Ontario, California in the next few months. That's about 40 minutes away. AEW is going to be at the LA Forum, the Kia Forum at the end of May. AEW was just at the Kia Forum at the end of last year. So you get the point here. Like, you've got a plethora of options. When you live in France and you hear that backlash is coming, it's like, I've got to go. So I think that's one of it. There's a excitement around it. There's not this idea of like, I'll just catch the next one. This is an idea of like this is like a once in a decade opportunity, so I'm going to go. So I think that's part of it. There's just like a hyper excitement that surrounds that rather than the idea of like, oh, I'm not able to make this one. I'll just make the next one when it comes in like six months.

Now then I also think, and you, if you're from Europe, you know the way you guys watch football there. And for the North American people listening to this, I'm talking about soccer. The way that you watch football there is so different from how we watch baseball or hockey or basketball or football here in the U.S. You're chanting and you're singing songs and it's like a whole lively experience. So I think you combine those two things there. And it just makes it such a fascinating experience for everybody that's in that building, and it makes it this beautiful thing to watch on TV. And the reaction to AJ Styles being introduced

and the singing with about, you know, yes, he is phenomenal, and that's my translation of that, or he is phenomenal, that's going to go down as one of the coolest crowd interaction moments that you'll ever see. And I didn't like seeing people on Twitter going like, oh, the U.S. crowds need to like take notes on this. Yeah, I mean, I think it would be

great if every crowd could be like that. But then you get this. If every single crowd is like that, then what's the bar now? Like if every single crowd becomes like that, well, how does the bar even get raised from there? I believe that this crowd of backlash does raise the bar. But again, I revert back to what I was saying. If you live around a major metropolis and you're used to getting raw and Smackdown and maybe NXT and maybe a PLE every handful of years, it's not as special when it comes to your city. And I'm not saying that it, you know, it shouldn't, it should be special. I agree. It should be. But when it's not as scarce, it doesn't feel as special. So I think the bar should be raised. I don't think you can expect a crowd in middle America to sound like that

crowd in France when that crowd in middle America might have just had a PLE two years ago, might have just had raw six months ago or something like that. So I think it's the two factors there that combined together. But my goodness, if they're going to continue along the journey that they're on right now, and I've talked about this quite a bit on these ASC CVV episodes, I mean, it's pretty amazing that the next U.S. PLE that's happening, isn't until August. So, you know, there's a clash of the castle and there's King of the Ring and there's money in the bank.

Those are all international PLEs. Then you've got SummerSlam happening in Cleveland. And I'm just going to put this out there before the expectations get set too high. Cleveland is awesome. Okay. I just want to preface this by saying Cleveland is awesome. Please remember that where they are doing SummerSlam at Cleveland Brown Stadium, I've been there many times. I'm a huge Browns fan. That is no secret. Please remember that this is an open air

stadium. Okay? Please remember. I just want you to remember that. It's an open air stadium. So if the bar has been set from all these international pay-per-views, these international events happening in closed-in arenas, and then you go to a PLE in Cleveland, and it's going to be 80,000 strong in Cleveland Brown Stadium, just remember that the crowd noise will exit up and and out instead of going up, bouncing off the ceiling, and then back down. So I just want to put that out there. Cleveland does in fact rock. Cleveland is awesome. It is my American hometown. It's the first U.S. city that I ever lived in after moving from Canada. I love it. I just want to put that out there, that it will sound a little bit different when it's an open air arena. That's all I'm saying.

You know, think back to SummerSlam in Nashville and the way that that sounded. It sounded good, but just remember, it's open air. I remember night one of WrestleMania. Granted, it was a little bit cold,

but remember, open air. So just want to, just want to put that out there. Also, so obviously, obviously, it was so cool,

the chance for AJ Styles, but Jay Uso's entrance at Backlash is an all-timer. The crowd singing Randy Orton and Cody's theme songs. So cool. I just think, Singing theme songs in general right now is probably one of my favorite things that a crowd can do.

Like, I know there's a lot of cool chance, but I really, I mean, I'm sure there are other examples of it. But for me, I think Chris Jericho entering to Judas and AEW and the crowd like singing every word as he's coming down the ramp and then the music stops and the crowd continues to sing while he's standing in the ring with no music. It's cool. And I feel like that, like, Jericho kind of got the wheels into motion, not intentionally, just got the wheels into motion with this because he had such a cool entrance theme. And I love that it's now starting to find its way into not just, like it's found its way to Cody Rhodes's entrance theme, found its way to Randy Orton's entrance theme. It's just, there's a lot of really cool moments like that that are happening. And I love it. I love the evolution. of wrestling.

And I think what's really cool about it is we're all part of it. We're all part of it. Prize Picks is America's number one fantasy sports app with more than 5 million members. It's the most fun and exciting way to get in on the action while you watch your favorite sports and players. You just pick more or less on two or more player stats for a shot to win up to 100 times your cash. It's playoff basketball season.

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And right now, my listeners get 20% off sitewide when you go to that website. That's shopdoer.com slash insight. Shop d u.er.com slash insight. Don't wait. Go there today for 20% off. Jake the cake on Instagram. Jake the cake. CVV, you called it months ago.

How did you know WrestleMania 41 would be in Vegas? I didn't know. I just had a feeling with the way that the Super Bowl went and all of the positive feedback that they got from hosting the Super Bowl there. I just felt like it's just a matter of time. I, WWE loves to go into a new stadium. and Shatter Records. And that is exactly what is going to happen

when WrestleMania goes to Vegas next year for WrestleMania 41. So I just knew that when they had the first ever Super Bowl in Las Vegas, the way that that went, and everything just being all situated on the strip and everything's either a walking distance or a very quick Uber

or cab drive away, it gives it like almost like a small town feel. Like even if you're on one end of the strip, If you're saying at the win and you want to get down to Allegiance Stadium, which is the other end of the strip, you know, it's a quick Uber ride down there. Rather than like in some cities, it's like this event's happening downtown, but this other event that we're at right now is happening in a completely other city. Sometimes like in the case of WrestleMania in Philly, happening in another state. Like there were events going on in New Jersey and we're in Philadelphia. like we're in Pennsylvania and they're close like New Jersey and Philly are close but it was just so

interesting they're like oh that's not even in the like the same state whereas when this happens in Vegas it will it will all be like within a few miles at most so I mean it's cool if you're staying in like the Luxor or you're staying at like Mandalay Bay you'll be able to walk you'll be like just get out of you I don't even think I think if you stay in Mandalay Bay you don't have to go outside to get into Allegiance Stadium or if you do, it's like very brief. So that's an exciting part about this. And if you've never been to Las Vegas, I couldn't think of a better time to go to Las Vegas than during WrestleMania. So I will be there. I'm excited to see you there. And it's still a year away. So, and I also like the date. I like the

dates a little bit later. I'm actually confused as to why it's happening on Easter weekend. I don't know if that's an intentional thing or if that was just happened to be the only free weekend they could do that. But I like it being just slightly later. And I'm curious if it continues to go a little bit later. Maybe this becomes like a late April, maybe early May event. I don't know. I'm looking at the poster right now from WrestleMania 18 that hangs in my office. And maybe people forget this, but WrestleMania 18 was March 17th. So it's like it used to be a mid-March thing. Then it moved to like a later March thing, then it became an early April thing, like kind of first weekend and April thing for a long time. It'll be really interesting to see what kind of changes maybe happen in the next few years.

And I don't think we can count out Minneapolis. I think Minneapolis is still very much in the running. Again, I don't, this is nothing I know. This is not, I'm not speaking facts here. I just think that an indoor stadium like that could make a lot of sense. I still think. I still think we're going to hear about a WrestleMania in London in the next, call it year, one to three years.

That's my guess. Douglas Wright on Facebook says, yo, CVV! I love these AskCV episodes. Dare I say, I think I like them more than your interviews. No offense. Two quick questions. What made you start doing the AskCV episodes? And do you think that these episodes will ever be up on YouTube?

Well, thank you, Douglas, for the kind words. And no offense taken at all. If you prefer the Ask CVV episodes, that's totally okay. And I also get that, you know, we're doing two interviews a week, every single week with guests. So that's 104 guests a year. By no stretch of the imagination, am I ever going to assume that all 104 guests are going to hit perfectly for you. And by no stretch of the imagination, also, do I expect you to listen to all 104 of those, especially if some of them don't interest you at all? But I do think that everybody has a story. And even if it's someone who you might not be that familiar with or someone that maybe you're not a big fan of, I would like to think that these conversations might be able to

show you a different side of these people. So the cool thing about the Ask CVV episodes is you don't have a choice about what guests you're going to get here. It's the same guest every single Friday. And that guest is me. So if you don't like the Ask CVV episodes and you don't want to listen to us, you know, just chat like this and go back and forth, that's all right. You can you can skip ahead to whatever the next episode will be. And I'll give you a little, since you're, since you're hanging out here on the podcast, I'll give you a little look ahead as to who we have next week. on Tuesday for episode number 602, you can expect to see a great conversation with Teddy Long. And then next Thursday, number 603, Liv Morgan joins the show.

Those are both first-time guests. Never had an interview with Teddy Long before. Never done an interview with Liv Morgan. So I'm looking forward to both of those. The reason I started the Ask CVV episodes, Douglas, is I was getting a bunch of questions on Twitter, or I was getting people emailing them in. And by the way, you can, of course, email your questions in for Ask CVV. It's just CVV at chrisfamily.com.

I was getting people that were saying, like, could I hear your predictions for the Royal Rumble? Or who do you think will win this specific match at this specific pay-per-view? And I just thought, well, that could be a cool thing. Let's try this out once. Let's answer a handful of questions on what was just Asked CVV, just a random episode. And we talked about a lot of things. We talked about wrestling predictions. We talked about content creation. We talked about like pizza and other different things. And I thought,

let's just, let's just do this and see what happens. And it went pretty well. So then we did another one. And that one went pretty well. And here we are now. Ask CVV number 30, Steph Curry edition. And I'm enjoying these. And I think that one of the reasons I enjoy these so much is my very first job in broadcasting was in radio. And radio is just so intimate. And the thing that I love about podcasting is it's not a, it's not like a group thing. You're not sitting around in a circle and listening to a podcast and, you know, nudging your friend and going, oh my gosh, can you believe that that person just said that? Podcasting is such an individual thing. You're listening to it right now, maybe with headphones on, or you're listening to it in the car.

Or if you are listening to it on your phone or through speakers, it's likely just you. And maybe you're working out or maybe you're getting ready for work or maybe you're working, whatever it happens to be. But it's a one-on-one thing. And that's one of the things that I love so much about podcasting. So whether it's a one-on-one episode like this where I just get to hang out with you like this

or it's an episode where we have a guest, that's very intimate too. Like podcasting just feels like you're a fly on the wall of a conversation. And that's one of my favorite things. Do I think these Ask CVV episodes will ever be on YouTube? While they say in wrestling, never say never, right? But the reason these have only been on the podcast is it's kind of my way to say thank you to you for being a podcast listener.

You know, you can count on YouTube in the way that that algorithm works to show the interviews to people who might like wrestling or might like that particular guest or may have watched a WWE or an AEW video in the last handful of months. Podcasting has this very, very strange discoverability. And it's not like the podcasting apps have really figured out a way to go, oh, you listen to this theme song. You might like this podcast. Or, hey, I see that you listen to these other similarly themed podcasts.

You should listen to this specific episode here. The discoverability on podcasts aren't the same. So that means that if you're listening right now, you've gone out of your way to find this episode. It's not by chance that you're here. So the reason these Ask CVV episodes are podcast exclusives is it's kind of my way to say thank you. It's my way to say thank you for finding the show. Thank you for continuing to listen to the show. And thank you for most likely, hopefully, following the show as well.

So these are just my kind of my way to say, I appreciate you for being here. And yeah, these may end up on YouTube at some point in time, but I'm not planning to. I'm sitting here right now and the lights aren't on in the office, the cameras aren't on. I don't know. I kind of like that we're just hanging out, just me talking to no microphone. So we'll see. Marcho underscore madness on Twitter. Marcho Madness.

Yeah, brother. No, that was Holgan. Ooh, yeah. Marcho Madness. Do you see similarities between the bloodline and the NWO? They both keep adding different characters. Similar maybe, although I feel like we're in a new era of the bloodline, which is not really being talked about as much.

This is certainly Bloodline 2.0. And when Roman Raines does come back, whenever that happens to be, and I hope that he enjoys his time off and gets well rested and heals up and all of that good stuff, when Roman does come back, there's going to be something there. And maybe it's the OG bloodline versus bloodline 2.0. I don't know. I don't see the similarities with the NWO because you have to be part of the bloodline to join the bloodline. You can't just have a random person just joining the bloodline like you had with the NWO. And I looked it up. There were 79 members of the NWO in total. Seventy-nine. That's crazy. And that's not to say that you couldn't find 79 links through that. massive Samoan family tree that exists. But what I'm saying is there has to be a direct tie in there for someone to join the bloodline with the NWO, especially in its final months, that just got silly in WCW.

It was just silly. They were just adding people in for the sake of adding people in. And it didn't mean anything anymore to be part of the NWO. It means something to be part of the bloodline. And I know. I know that they have, I know that they know that they have something special with this. So I don't think they're going to water this down. I mean, 79 members in the NWO, come on.

If you got to 20 members of the bloodline, that might be too much. But who knows? It's possible. There are a lot of people. And that's also what's really cool about it is like, you never know who might pop up here. And you never know who may just pop in for one, one show. who may just pop, like, when's Rikishi going to pop in? Is Rikishi ever going to pop in?

It'd be cool to see that happen. So I think that the bloodline has been such fantastic long-term storytelling. And just when you thought it was over, they find a way to bring you back in. And remember that because I'm sure that in another month or two or three or four or whatever it happens to be, this may. start to feel like it's getting stale again, and then boom, they'll find another way to make it interesting and bring you back in. George Fail, F-A-Y-L-E. emailed this one and he said, hey, Chris, I have a question for Ask CVV. I'm a massive wrestling fan

and huge fan on the podcast. I'm a musician and I find a lot of your advice about content creation and your positive perspective on life really helpful and motivating for my own career. However, I find listening to a lot of wrestlers talking interviews, I get mixed messages about how to best approach your career and your life. Wrestlers are obviously very driven people. Like, for example, I heard The Undertaker recently say, never settle, as in, like, always try and get better and aim for more. I've heard Steve Austin say a similar thing, like, you should never get comfortable.

But then I've heard other times, like, you've got to be happy with what you've got and be content with it. So I feel quite conflicted about these two different mindsets. Oh, hold on. scrolling is all messed up here on my computer. Oh, boy. I feel like maybe I should have reset my laptop. I'd love to get your take on this. Oh, my scrolling got messed up again. This is so, here we go. Okay. Okay. So thank you for your patience there. So let me finish George's email here. Thank you, Chris. I listen every episode you put out when my, when going about my day-to-day business.

So thank you and I appreciate you. George Fale from Leeds, UK. So I think that when you are listening to people like The Undertaker or Stone Cold Steve Austin, who are incredibly driven individuals, that is the mindset. You hear this with a lot of successful people. There's no backup plan because if you have a backup plan, now you're planning to fail. And I know that that doesn't work for everybody. But it obviously worked for them. And I mean, they're some of the all-time greats. I think the idea that you're here. hearing here of like you should just be happy with what you've got. I think that that's maybe coming more from the perspective of be content with what you've got, but always be hungry for more.

And that's kind of the way that I've lived my life. Grateful, so grateful for the opportunities I have, grateful for this present moment, but hungry for what's next. And I'll take this even one step further. I think it's the idea of like, it's not about never getting too comfortable, but I think it's the idea of it should always excite you. It should always juice you. Like it should always be something that if this is your passion, it should always be something that you're excited to wake up and do. And I don't know what instrument it is that you play. You said you were a musician. But if the scrolling on this thing is just atrocious right. I'm so sorry. If the, I'm going to pull it up on a day.

different app here. This will make, I'm looking at my, looking at my screen, but my screen is just going wild here. I'm sorry. So let me pull it up on my phone. I'll just pull it up on my phone and we'll look at it on here. This will, this will not let me down, this one. So, so here, I've got you back up here. You're a musician. So you didn't, you didn't say which instrument you play, but if you're a drummer or you're a guitar player, you're a bassist or whatever the instrument is that you have to play or you're a singer, if it starts to make you feel like,

oh, I don't want to do that. Oh, man, I got to play guitar today. Ugh, I got a drum. I got to play a show tonight. Then that's when I think you need to reassess what you're doing. If it starts to feel like it's just dragging you down, and this is something's supposed to light you up. This is something that's supposed to be like, you know,

you're real passion. If it starts to really drag you down and it's not fun anymore, that's when I think you need to start reassessing. But I've always been of the idea that you can never get too comfortable. And especially in something that is competitive, whether that's sports, whether that's wrestling, whether that's podcasting and, you know, your YouTube and you're competing for eyeballs or earholes, as it were, I think you can't get too comfortable and you can't rest on your life. laurels. And it's the idea of like, how can I be a little bit better today than I was yesterday? That is my perspective of it. And I feel like you would hear that from a lot of people who have

achieved great things. It's not the idea of like, let's just show up and see what happens. You know, let's just show up and hope it goes well. It's the idea of like, I'm going to give my absolute best in this performance as a musician, in this match as a wrestler, in this at-bat, as a a baseball player. I'm going to give my best. And I'm going to learn from this and make the next one better if I can. That's just my two cents on that. And I'm always hungry to do more and to try to get better. And I really enjoyed that conversation that I had with Edge, with Adam Copeland,

that aired yesterday. But I'm looking at clips from this and I'm listening to it back and going, huh, I could have asked that a little bit better. And I will next time. I could have phrased that in a better way, and I will next time. And that's just the way that I approach it. So I hope that helps out a little bit for you, George. Johnny Boy on Twitter.

This is Johnny 53811 on Twitter. You've mentioned Taker, Hogan, Flair, and Austin as your Mount Rushmore, due to the fact that Rock wasn't around as long. If he continues to do what he's doing for the next few years, does he get that final spot due to the amazing work? that he's done with the bloodline. So just to kind of put everything in perspective here, Mount Rushmore is a tough question to answer.

And I feel like anybody's Mount Rushmore comes down to, when did you become a fan and who were the people that really got you into it? Like there's obviously a whole bunch of other names that could be on the Mount Rushmore. And every time I tell people that my Mount Rushmore is Hogan, Flair, Undertaker, and Austin, you get a whole bunch of people that are like,

No, no Sean Michaels, no Brett Hart, no Bruno. Not for my personal Mount Rushmore, no. And I'm sure that yours will look a little bit different from mine. I started really getting into wrestling in the late 90s. And for me, Hogan Flair are two of the all-time greats. Wrestling doesn't look like what it is right now if it isn't for what those guys did in the 70s and especially the 80s. And Hulkomania, running wild brother, in the 80s is the reason. that WWF at the time was able to enjoy the success that it had and enter into the mainstream

popularity that it had. The reason that Undertaker's on there is just the longevity of his career. I mean, Undertaker is just a once in a lifetime performer and he's so good at what he does. And nobody really has anything bad to say about The Undertaker. And for me, that fourth spot, it was tough because Austin and Rock were two, really important performers in the history of wrestling and two really important performers for me, two of the people that really got me into wrestling at that time. The reason I say Austin over Rock is Austin 316 and especially McMahon and Austin, that feud they had, that was what really got me into wrestling. And Rock left at like the height of his career, like perfectly healthy,

could have continued on. But he was, I didn't even mean to do this, but ties in perfectly to our last question. He was hungry for more. He was hungry to do more, and he went to Hollywood, and it took him a little while, and I think people forget that. It took him a while to really find his footing and to really be accepted in Hollywood as well, but he did his thing in Hollywood. Austin left in completely different set of scenarios, set of situations, set of circumstances, if you will. And I just, think that it was Austin just for me in that era had left such an indelible mark. So I think that it's totally possible if the Rock continues to do this for another few years. Sure, you can make

a real strong argument that the Rock's wrestling career as a whole, beginning in the mid-90s and ending in the mid-2020s is a hell of a career with obviously some long breaks in there. But I just still think that if it's not for Austin and that kind of effed of the establishment and the middle fingers and the beer chugging and that especially again the feud with McMahon, I just don't think that wrestling gets over that hump and really breaks into the attitude era in the way that it does. And that is certainly no disrespect to the Rock, who is my favorite wrestler of all time. I'm just looking at it from more of like a historical standpoint.

So yeah, I mean, a real strong case could be made that we bump stone cold off my personal Mount Rushmore and replace the Rock with him. But let's chat when the Rock officially does hang him up. When the Rock officially does go into the Hall of Fame. It doesn't sound like it's anytime soon, though. I think we get another maybe year of the Rock. I think early prediction. Rock Roman Reigns at

WrestleMania 41. Las Vegas, baby. That feels like a big match. So it'll be interesting to see how that all shakes out. Jesus CR 1915 on Instagram. What wrestling event that you have attended

live would you go back to watch? I'm guessing you're saying would I go back and rewatch it on like on TV? Like I've attended it live and then I would go back and watch it. I do that with actually quite a few of them. Because it's just such a different vibe. Watching it there, you know, you're there for the live reactions. You're feeling the energy of the crowd. It's electric. Watching it back on the TV feed is a completely different experience. You're seeing things you didn't see that, you know,

that were happening live. You're getting information from the commentators being fed to you. Oh, I didn't realize. Okay, that makes sense now. A great example of that is I went back and rewatch WrestleMania 40. And yeah, watching Cody win that match was special. And I wouldn't have traded being there live in Philadelphia for anything. But watching it back made me appreciate it in a whole different light. So I do that quite a bit with the events that I've been so fortunate to be able to attend. Another one that comes to mind is, and I've talked about how much I really loved double or nothing

2019, Cody versus Dustin, such an emotional match. Watching that back made me feel like an even deeper connection to that match if it's possible, if you understand what I'm saying. So, yeah, that's something that I find myself doing pretty regularly where I'll be there live and grateful that I'm there live. But I'm excited to go back and watch it again and just kind of, you know, see what I missed and see how it plays on TV. Because sometimes moments feel huge when you're there in person.

And then you watch it back on TV and you're like, oh, you can't even hear that chant that they were doing. That's crazy. Or man, that felt like a really big pop. Like the roar of the crowd was huge when I was there. Huh. Didn't really read like that on TV. Strange.

Strange. Stasua. Stasua on Instagram says, for AskCTVV, I'm excited to be seeing you at your Insight Live event SummerSlam week. However, will you also be doing RussellCon or WWE WorldS slash access? So I am still putting the finishing touches. I actually had a phone call right before I started recording this. And obviously, we record this on Thursday evening, so it's ready to go.

Friday morning, bright and early, not even bright and early, dark and early. It's ready to go at midnight. Pacific time, 3 a.m. East Coast time and then whatever that time happens to be, wherever you live in this wonderful planet. So I had a phone call earlier about massive guests. It's a massive guest. We're hoping that they agreed to all of the terms we have for Cleveland. So I hope to see all you guys there. And I hope to be announcing, number one, who the guest is and number two, the date and the time and all of that stuff, the location, hope to be doing that soon. For sure, I will be there at W.

World or Access. I go to all of them. I went to all of them. Wherever access happens to be, I love to swing by and just see like, oh, what kind of stuff they got going on here? What kind of shirts did they create for this event this year? And also, I mentioned it earlier, but I love Cleveland. Like for someone who is not born and raised in Cleveland, I spent a lot of time in Cleveland. And I have such a love for Cleveland. So I want to be doing as many things around Cleveland during SummerSlam week that I possibly can. RussellCon, I'm not sure, although I may be staying at the Russell Con Hotel. I'm not sure yet. I think it's the Sheridan downtown. So I may be at the Russell Con hotel, which means I should probably at least swing by Russell Con. Not sure yet.

We still got some time. It's almost a little less than three months. to SummerSlam. So we got some time. And if that happens to be the case, you guys will be the first to know. Jason the sellout emailed this one in CVV at ChrisFamfleet.com. Hey, Chris, huge fan of yours. I've been listening to your podcast since the 2022 LA night.

Yeah, money in the bank interview. I heard in the past, ask CVV, you talked about working jobs while constantly trying for your goals. but you had a fear of having, and you had a fear for having a bad job as you were growing up. My dream is to be a professional wrestler. I'm working at USPS right now, and I believe in life that you have to suffer with a bad job

to get where you want to be in life and meet your goals. Your podcast gets me through my mornings, and I was just wondering, do you have any advice and motivations for getting to your goals? One of my goal is to be a professional wrestler and also to get interviewed by the great CVV. Thanks for all. you do. Well, thanks for all you do, Jason the sellout. I appreciate everything you do working for the

USPS and it's a lot of packages now. I'm sure that when you started, it wasn't nearly as many packages as it is now. The amount of, because it used to just be letters, letters and catalogs and magazines. Now I imagine like 80% of your deliveries every day are Amazon packages. So thank you for all that you do. And I'm grateful to be a part of your mornings as you're making your deliveries. I think if your dream is to be a pro wrestler, surround yourself with pro wrestling. And I don't just mean that in watching clips and watching pay-per-views and PLEs. I mean, go to local wrestling shows, start to become friends with local wrestlers or local promoters, like surround yourself with people that are doing that.

I think that that's a really good place to start. If you haven't already started training at a wrestling school, find a great and reputable school that's in your area that is close enough that you'll go. Like if there's a great school, but it's two and a half hours away, and that could now become an excuse to not go to the school, then that's probably not something you want to do. So find a school that gives you every reason, even when you're tired, even when you don't want to go, even when you're sore because the first few weeks of running the ropes and bumping makes you real sore, even when all of that is happening, you still end up going because it's half an hour

way or it's an hour away or your coach, your trainer is really relying on you to be there because they see something in you. So and if you haven't started training yet, that's okay. Take your time to find the right school, the right fit for you, but certainly spend some time in the gym. You're already on your feet, every day making your deliveries with USPS. I love that, but spend some time in the gym. I mean, we all grew up watching wrestling. We know for the most part that wrestlers are in pretty good shape. So spend some time in the gym. And that's something that I, I'm always shocked when I see indie wrestlers who like just don't have great cardio, or I see indie wrestlers that look like they've never worked out. I'm not saying that every wrestler needs to be like super jacked up,

but adding some muscle helps you prevent injuries and also improving your cardio is going to make all of your matches that much better. So I think if you, if your dream in life is to be a pro wrestler and you can't imagine a life without it, then I would say do everything that you can within your reasonable power to make that happen and surround yourself with like-minded individuals and people who also believe in your goal, in your dream as well. And I will tell you this, Jason, I believe in you. And I know you can do this. Just make sure that you put in the work and know that your work will be rewarded. Timothy Henry, Timothy really why? Well, two whys, technically, T-Y-M-O-T-H-Y.

Is it the Triple H era? That is the title of this email that you sent in. And it says, I've been thinking about this a little bit, and I think there is a more accurate name for this new era other than the Triple H or the Paul Levec era. There are so many huge changes that are happening in WWE as a business and as an entertainment product, changes in the back of the house and in the ring. The changes are so drastic that even CM Punk came back.

I think it's a more comprehensive and accurate name to call this the evolution era. Thanks for the great interviews, Tim. I've been saying for a while that I don't think that this name that we have right now, the Triple H era, will be the official era, the name of this era. I mean, they have, they certainly kind of put their stamp on this at WrestleMania 40. It was very clear, like Stephanie McMahon went out there and was like, this is, welcome to the Triple H era. And Triple H went out there on night one.

said like we're in a new era, I just feel like for marketing purposes, you're not going to call this the triple H era for two reasons. One, what happens if Triple H is still in charge 30 years from now? Is this still the Triple H era? Like in 2054, are we still calling this a Triple H era? No, I don't think so. Obviously, there's going to be ebbs and flows and changes that happen over the next handful of years and we'll enter into a new era. I'm, you know, I'm sure in the next five to eight years or maybe five to ten years or something like that. But I also think that, you know, the attitude era is something that the announcers could call. They could call it the attitude era.

We now look back on it 25 years later and we reference it being the attitude era. And they reference it within WWB programming being the attitude era. Same with the ruthless aggression era. I feel like this is going to get another name so that when it's spoken about, about in five years or 10 years or 15 years, they'll reference it as the whatever this era is. And I think there's a lot of fun names that have been thrown around. I like your idea of the evolution era. I've heard it called the global era.

I mean, we just talked about at the start of the show, all of the global events that are happening right now could be called the Endeavor era. But again, just like the Triple H era, if Endeavor owns this for the next, however many years, will it be the Endeavor era for, you know, in 2058? I don't know. Renaissance era. I've heard it called the Renaissance era. And I believe, was it Cody Rhodes filed for the trademark? Yeah, I think so, filed for the trademark of the Renaissance era. I just have a feeling that, yeah, I think it will be known as the Triple H era where Triple H had like full control over the booking and over the decisions that were being made. But I feel like, you know, but I feel like,

as we settle into this in a few years, it will get a different name. And I'm really curious what that official name will end up being. Let me just grab a little. Sipa Watski here. That's a sip of water. That's what I'm saying. Tammy Stoddart Maggier. Maggiur? This is on Facebook. Thank you for leaving this comment, Tommy. Tammy. I'm so sorry, Tammy. Tammy. Thank you for this comment. Tammy. Who is the most interesting person you've ever had on your podcast? That is, that's a tough one because I feel like everybody has such an interesting story. And we can learn from everybody. I think that that's one of the best things about a podcast is you're hearing perspectives

from people that you may not normally run into in your everyday life. And you're hearing their perspectives or their experiences with things. and you're going, oh, wow, that's an interesting way to handle that, or that's an interesting approach to that. Maybe I can do that in my own life. If I'm talking about most interesting person I've ever had on the show, huh. So I don't know how long you've been listening, but around last April, we switched over to doing just all wrestling podcasts on every single episode.

Before that, we were talking to people from all different walks of life. So there was always a wrestling themed interview as one of the episodes that week, but the other interview would be with an athlete or an entrepreneur or a comedian or an actor or a director, just someone who was at the very top of their game and we could pick their brain and reverse engineer, like, how did you get to where you're at now? Like, what can we learn from this? And some of the most interesting guests were people that, again, I wouldn't have come across in my everyday life. And two that immediately pop into mind. And these are episodes you can go back into the archives and look up.

And please, if you do, leave a comment on Spotify. And it will let me know that you went back and actually listen to these. One is Chris Voss, a former FBI negotiator. And just the insights that he had, pun intended, about just how everything in life is a negotiation to some degree. And he had just some great tips and tactics. and the way that his mind worked when it came to just the use of words in the English language was fascinating to me.

So go look that up. Chris Voss, former FBI negotiator. He wrote an incredible bestselling book called Never Split the Difference, which I highly recommend. It's such a great book. And even if you're not like doing negotiations for your everyday job, you'll be blown away by how many negotiations actually do in fact happen in your. everyday life. So that's one of them. The other one was Colin O'Brady, who, if you don't know the name, he's been a guest on Joe Rogan before. But he set the, broke the goodness world record for the

first ever unassisted one-man trip across Antarctica. So he walked across Antarctica. And, I mean, there's a person that I'm not going to just randomly run into in my everyday life. of going to the gym and recording interviews with wrestlers and, you know, watching wrestling and going to the grocery store, like to be able to have the opportunity to chat with Colin and to just learn from a lot of the, the hardships, like the true hardships he had in his life. Like when you're facing, like, I don't remember the temperature is like minus 70 something. Like if your skin is exposed to that air for like five seconds, it's like frostbite and like, forget about it, like your fingers are going to fall off.

Like, just the way that he dealt with hardships and the way that he was able to overcome the things both physically, obviously, and mentally, that was another great one. So go look up the interview with Colin O'Brady and go look up the interview with Chris Boss. Those to me are the two most interesting people I've ever had on the podcast. And if you want a wrestler, I don't know, it's John Cena, probably. I mean, John's, that was my favorite interview I've ever done, but just speaking in general, to answer your question directly, it's Chris Voss and Colin O'Brien. Brady. So go in,

listen to those episodes in the archives and leave a comment on Spotify. That'd be so cool to see that. And, oh my gosh, are we at the last one? We are at the last question here. This is from Jordan. Jordan Pfeur, oh, man, I'm so bad with mispronouncing these last names. And I say that as someone whose last name gets mispronounced a lot. I have heard Van Vliy, Van Vliyte, Van Vylaet, Van Vyatt. Heard them all, Chris Van Vlea. I've even heard it from people that, like, I've met like a dozen times. And like I was on, I love Dave Lickreca and Bully. I love them so much. But they were calling me Chris Van Vleier unbusted open. I don't know if that was a rib. I don't know if they just like forgot how I, like how my last name is pronounced. But I was like, guys, it's pronounced

Van Vlieten. If you didn't know how it was said, could have just asked me. And I would have told you. I digress. Jordan, it's P-F-I-O-R-E. Jordan on Twitter says, hey, Chris Van V-Lete, long-time listener, first-time question asker. Are there any plans for Joe Hendry to appear? I followed him since his ICW days in Scotland and would love to hear an interview. Thank you. Well, first of all, I like how you phrased that. Any plans for him to appear? I mean, say his name and he appears.

I believe in Joe Hendry. I hope you were clapping along with me. That song is so good. Yes, I was actually DMing with Joe Hendry this week, trying to figure out a time where we will be in the, first of all, same country at the same time, and then from there, same city at the same time. I would love to have Joe Hendry on the show, and it's been amazing, watching his rise that he's had over the last five or so years,

but the real success that he's been having over the last month or so. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, spend just a few minutes on YouTube. look up Joe Henry. First of all, look up his entrance theme, and it will be stuck in your head for the next week. That I promise you. It is so catchy. Look it up on Spotify. Look it up on YouTube. He's on the UK top 40 charts. That's how popular that song was. And congrats to Joe for that. But off of like the supreme talent that he has for obviously music, but just performing in general and the character that he's created, it's great. I would love to dive deep into who Joe is and how he's been able to have the success that he's had. So, yes, would love for Joe Hendry to appear. I said his name.

He didn't appear. Maybe he needed to say his name. Maybe I need to say his name. How does that work? Say his name and he'll appear. I believe in Joe Henry. I believe in Joe Hendry. And that segment that he had with A.J. Francis on TNA.

Where if you haven't seen this, go look it up. He goes to the ring with the guitar. And to the tune of Creed's hire, he starts singing to AJ Francis, who you might know is Top Dollar from WWE, he starts singing about how he got fired. It's so, so can I, can you take me higher? And he starts singing about him getting fired. It's so good. It's brilliant.

It's magic. So Joe Hendry, if you're listening to this, I believe in you. And I can't wait to be able to deep dive into your career. And if you happen to be on the West Coast anytime soon, let's make it happen at the West Coast Creative Studio. If our paths cross at a wrestle con or a wrestling convention or a TNA show, let's do this. I would love to make this. app and congrats on all of your success. Thank you guys so much for being with us. I love these

CVVV episodes. Who should ask CVV 31 be? Who is the, what is, what is number, like, who's the most famous for wearing number 31? Hmm. Tweet me or send me a message and let me know. And if you have a question for ask CVV number 31 or a question that maybe we didn't get to on this episode, send it in either using that hashtag Ask CVV or send me a message on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or email it in CVV at chris fanfleet dot com I am grateful for had a great interview today earlier today a little peek behind the curtain here again because it's my way of saying thank you for being a listener to these audio only episodes and thank you for being on the Ask CVV episodes. Had an interview today with Rampage Jackson. My goodness, that guy is so insanely

entertaining. And so that was a great one. I'm welcoming him back on the show. He'd been on the show. I guess that would have been about a year and a half ago, a little over a year ago. So grateful for that opportunity. Grateful to be able to sit down with him in person in Hollywood for that one. Grateful. And then these are, of course, never in any order. I'm just trying to switch up so it's not the same three things at the same at the end of every single episode. Grateful, of course, for my family and my wonderful, supportive wife, our beautiful little daughter. And we're going to see family. We're going to spend some time on the East Coast for the next week in a bit. So tomorrow morning, fly out. We've got a good friend's wedding out there,

followed by some stuff in Philadelphia, not Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. So grateful for that. And I am grateful for you for being here. Because otherwise, it's just me sitting in a dark room, holding a microphone, and that would be no fun. So I appreciate you for being here and making this a little less weird.

If it was just me sitting here, yeah, that'd be weird. Here's a quote from Ariana Huffington to wrap this episode up and, wow, this actually ties in quite well to some of the questions we had in the middle part of the podcast here. Understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it's part of success. That, my friends, is powerful. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight.

And yes, Teddy Long and Live Morgan next week. Have an amazing 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 banjo, 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.