Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #40 - Will Randy Orton Turn On Cody? Who Is Mr. SummerSlam? John Cena Dream Matchups, TNA Slammiversary Surprises

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

Welcome to #AskCVV 40! On this one Chris answers questions about the recent interview with Cody Rhodes, the surprises we could see at TNA Slammiversary, when Randy Orton will turn on Cody Rhodes, who Mr. SummerSlam is, the best moment from the Triple H Era so far 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: If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down." - Roy T Bennet 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! TIMELINE NUTRITION: Save 10% off your first order of Mitopure at http://timeline.com/INSIGHT BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV 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 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

Okay, welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CBV. Chris Van Vle. Thank you so much for being with us. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. It's because you keep showing up each and every episode. And I appreciate you for that. The fact that you're here right now on an AskCTVV episode tells me all that I need to know.

That tells me that you're a real one. and that we're hanging out right now, whatever you're doing, walking the dog, driving to work, driving from work, working out whatever it is. This is awesome. This is one-on-one time, me and you, and I love it. Also, yesterday, Insight was the number five sports podcast on Spotify, which is mind-blowing to me. So all sports podcasts, we were number five on there, and it's all thanks to you guys. So thank you.

at you so much. Speaking of Spotify, comments are back on Spotify. There was a few weeks there when they got rid of it because they were revamping things. It used to be a Q&A. It used to be, what did you think of this episode? And then you answered it. Now it's just a straight up comment section like YouTube. So you can go in there and you can see what everybody else is saying about the episode. So if you're a Spotify podcast listener, go in there and leave a comment about the show. And we did this with pizza toppings. We did it with your favorite dinosaur. This was all came from the idea when I was on Undertaker's podcast. And I'm like, man, so many people will listen all the way to the end. And like, it just, I don't know, you never know if they're there or not.

Like, I think there's a lot of people that start the episode and then they fall off. But if you are listening right now and you're listening on Spotify, leave a comment, ketchup or mustard. ketchup or mustard. Which one is it for you? And that way we'll know that you were actually listening to this moment of the podcast, right? And the goal, number five on the sports chart, can we creep up to four? Could we creep up to number three? Number two.

And then let me look at the chart here real quick. Who are we coming for on that chart? bar stool, pardon my take, number one, New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelsey. How are, they're number three and we're number five? What world are we living in where we're that close to the Kelsey brothers? But with your help, I know we can get above them. It's just a matter of time.

So thank you for being with us on AskCV. Number 40, the Sean Kemp edition. And I'll also throw this out there because I'm a Cleveland Browns fan. Cleveland has such a special place in my heart. It's also the Peyton Hillis edition. He was an absolute beast of a running back for a rather short period of time for the Cleveland Browns. But so much so, he was so much of a beast that he made the cover of Madden NFL 12. And then we don't need to get into it, but the Madden curse hit Peyton Hillis.

And I mean, there's just some sort of curse that has just hit the Browns and never left. but I digress. That's a story for another day. But I'm excited to see you guys in Cleveland in just two weeks. This is going to be so much fun. If you're going to SummerSlam in Cleveland, let's hang out. I'll be around the city the whole week. Well, not the whole week. I get it on Thursday. So I'll be there all weekend, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It would be so awesome to be able to see you guys. And if you don't already have plans for Saturday, right before you head into SummerSlam, join me for the slammed on sixth tailgate party. They're having live wrestling there. It's AIW who has some of the best wrestling, I mean, really some of the best indie wrestling in

the country. AIW is going to have live wrestling there, food trucks, beverage bars, and I am hosting the damn thing. So come on over to West Sixth Street. Tickets. are available now. And I think I shared a link on my Instagram, but you should be able to find it if you just type in slammed on sixth tailgate party, like 6th as in 6th Street. West 6th Street is, oh my goodness,

it is quite the party. West 6th Street and downtown Cleveland is quite the party. But type that into Eventbrite and you can grab the tickets and I will see you there as we head into Cleveland Brown Stadium for what is going to be an epic. SummerSlam, and this is going to be an epic.

Ask CVV will kick things off with Chris from Michigan at C Scanlon 30 on Twitter. Hey, Chris, love our name. That is a good name. When do you feel that Heel Randy Orton will finally turn on Cody and have a great long feud together? Is it SummerSlam? SummerSlam would make sense here. I feel like they're leading up to it being Cody. versus Randy Orton at Survivor Series.

So the turn doesn't necessarily need to happen at SummerSlam, but it needs to happen at some point between now and November. I think we're in for some surprises at SummerSlam. Perhaps a return or two? I think when we look at the match card right now, Cody Rhodes versus Solo Sacoa, I mean, when you look at the odds at my bookie, I mean, it feels pretty obvious

who we know is going to win that match. Like who's going to be walking out of Cleveland as the world champion, or it's a WWE champion. I mean, it feels pretty obvious. It's going to be Cody Rhodes. I don't think we're going to see anything too wild or too crazy

that's going to, I don't know that Randy Orton gets involved in that match. But in the next month or two, I mean, they've been hinting at this for a while. So there's going to be something there. Randy's going to turn on Cody and we are going to get a heck of a program out of this. And I can't wait for it. I can't wait for that to happen. Randy Orton as a baby face is

great. But when you think back to shaved head Randy and everything that he was doing is just an absolute menace, there's nothing better. There's really nothing better. And I feel like we're going to be getting that at some point soon. Kyle Jeffries emailed this one and said, got done watching the Cody Rhodes interview. I noticed he keeps looking to the right. What was he looking at? That was a fantastic question. So it obviously isn't just me and the person I'm interviewing in the room when we're doing these interviews. He was in the room with his longtime agent Brian Wittenstein, who represents a lot of other people in pro wrestling. That's who he kept looking at. Not for like reassurance, not for anything other than involving Brian in the conversation. There were

just the three of us sitting in that room. Cody even alluded to it. I came by myself to that interview. I set up all the cameras myself. I hit record on all of them. And it's something I've been doing for a long time. I very much love the technical aspects of all of the content creation game. So I think he was just kind of involving Brian in the conversation because you can see it. You can see it on the wide shot. And this is a little peek behind the scenes for just you guys who are listening to this episode. If you watch that interview, you notice on the wide shot that the TV is a little bit blurred. So Cody's on the left. I'm on the right. There's a table in between us. And this was done in a boardroom in Toronto where they were doing some other

press events there. And WWB said that's a great spot for us to meet and do this interview. There's a TV that is hanging on the wall between us. And obviously, a television when it's off is pretty reflective. So you can see the reflection of Brian sitting there in the chair. You can also see the reflection of the two lights that I set up for this interview. So I was talking to Joe, who edits my interviews. And we were like, oh, what should we what should we do? Like, whenever we cut to the wide shot, there's just a person sitting there. So we played with it a little bit and blurted out. So there were just the three of us in that room, me, Cody and Brian. So I think Cody's kind of involving Brian in the conversation, like he's making a reference and kind of.

kind of looking at him. And that's all that was going on there. And if you watch the interview back, or if you look at the photo that I posted, you will see the reflection in the TV screen of exactly what we're talking about here. But that was such a great conversation, and I love that right before we hit record,

I said to Cody, I said, how long do you have? And he goes, well, let's not put a time limit on it. It's like, okay, all right. Because as you notice, The interviews have been getting a little bit longer. I'm appreciating the depth we're able to get into when the conversations go into that 40 and 45 minute, 50 minute, over an hour territory, over an hour and a half.

Like with people like The Undertaker, I appreciate where the conversation can go when you start to peel back the layers of the onion over time. So the interview was supposed to be, believe it was 11 to 12? Yes, it was 11 to 12. And Cody showed up a little bit early, so we started at like 1040. Luckily, I was set up and ready to go, but we started at like 1040 or 1045. That's how we were able to talk for an hour 15 because you had to get out of there by 12. But that was such a great conversation.

One of my favorites of the year for sure. If you haven't checked it out yet, please take some time on your next drive to work or workout or whatever you're doing right now. Take some time to go listen to that episode. I hope that you enjoyed as much as I do. Mike Ronser on Facebook says, do you think we'll see some surprise appearances at TNA Slammiversary? So Slammiversary is this Saturday in Montreal, and my hats off to TNA,

they have been crushing it this year. Ever since the relaunch, the rebranding of TNA in January at Hard to Kill in Las Vegas, I was there. I can tell you that was insane. The debut of Nick Nemeth, formerly known as Dolf Ziegler, Moose winning the TNA World Championship, it was just a great event.

Ever since then, TNA has been lightened up. And they have sold out the venue for Slamovirsi. They've sold over 4,000 tickets. It's the biggest TNA crowd, and I don't know the exact number, but many years. So I can't wait to see this. I unfortunately won't be back home in Canada for this, but I can't wait to watch this.

and I can't wait to see all the surprises they pull out. Jordan Grace recently did an interview and she said, quote, the surprises are going to be even bigger than people realize. So the answer to your question, Mike, is, do you think there'll be some surprises? Yes. What will they be? That's going to be the fun part here.

I would love to see AJ Styles making some sort of appearance back in TNA, the, what are they calling the, the portal? It's the forbidden door, but it's, it is wide open now. And to see someone who is so synonymous with TNA making an appearance back there, if it doesn't happen at Slammiversary, it's got to happen at Bound for Glory. And if you don't watch a ton of TNA, Bound for Glory is TNA's WrestleMania. It's a while from now, though. Slammiversary is a big show for them.

It's more like a summer slam, so it could definitely happen. AJ Stiles being there would be fantastic. But this partnership that they've been having with TNA and NXT has been incredible. Will this bleed over, not just to NXT, will it bleed over to the main roster? I think this Saturday, we get the answer to that. Also, there's some free agents out there, right? There's some free agents out there who haven't made an appearance anywhere yet. And I think the two big names that immediately popped to mine are Rikoshae and also Jinder Mahal,

who as of yesterday, as of July 18th, is a free agent. So the timing there for Rikosha or Raj Dezzi, that's Jinder Mahal's real name, the potential for either of them to show up is very real. So I can't wait to see what TNA has in store here. And what a tease by Jordan Grace to say, the surprises are going to be even bigger than people realize. Amazing. Prize Picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 million active members.

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Eligible items only, exclusions apply. Trevor Armstrong and Facebook, hey, CVV, who do you think is Mr. Somerslam? Looking forward to seeing you in Cleveland for SummerSlam. I'm looking forward to seeing you there as well, Trevor. I will see you on West 6th Street for the tailgate party. I think the obvious choice for Mr. Somerslam is, well, first, when we think about WrestleMania,

he has the nickname, right? Sean Michaels, he's Mr. WrestleMania. The obvious choice for Mr. SummerSlam really feels

like it's Brock Lesnar. Think of all the amazing, classic matches that Brock Lesnar has had, the Rock, Roman Reigns, the one with Cody

last year, Kurt Angle, John Sina, so many great matches, and he's also won most of those. He lost the one to Roman Reins

in Nashville, with the tractor and everything there, he lost the one to Kurt Angle, but I believe he won all the other SummerSlam matches. Unlike Sean Michaels, whose WrestleMania track record is not very good. He's obviously created some incredible moments and amazing memorable moments,

but if we're talking just sheerly wins, losses, Sean Michaels, not so successful at WrestleMania. Brock Lesnar, on the other hand, creating the memorable moment, and winning a lot of matches as well. But I think in the 2020s, you can make a really strong case for Roman Raines being Mr. Somerslam.

Think about it. Returned at SummerSlam 2020, wrecked everyone and left. The return of Roman Raines. 2021 beat John Cena. 2022, we already mentioned it, beat Brock Lesnar. Not even the tractor

and destroying the ring could take Roman Raines down. And then last year, beat Jay Uso in tribal combat. I think that the answer is still Brock Lesnar for all of the amazing moments. But if we're just talking about this decade and like if we really want recency bias to play heavy into this one, that's Roman Raines. And with that said, do we have the opportunity to see Brock Lesnar or Roman Raines at SummerSlam in Cleveland? I mean, if there was ever a time for either one of them to return with them being so synonymous with SummerSlam for Brock Lezor over his career for Roman Reins over the last four years, man, it feels like it's lying enough to see something happen there with either one of them. I'm just saying.

Zach C24 on Instagram says, hey, Chris, how do you feel about the commentary in WWWE and how do you feel about the job? And how do you feel about the job that Pat McAfee does? The grouping of announcers that we have right now in WWE and the grouping, like the pairings that were able to watch, maybe at an all-time high. Raw, you got Michael Cole and Pat McAfee. The reins are off. They're just letting loose and just having an absolute blast together. And I love when they cut to the, I call it the coal cam.

I love when they cut to the announcer cam. and you see Pat McAfee just making Michael Cole lose it. That's such a cool little behind the scenes look at their friendship and their working relationship. And I think it just adds another element to it. Pat McAfee has like reinvigorated Michael Cole's career. We already know how good Michael Cole is. And what an incredible career he's had since the late 90s.

I mean, he's been doing in the 90s, in the 2000, the 2010s, 2020s. he has just absolutely reinvigorated things there with Michael Cole. When you look at Smackdown, Corey Graves and Wade Barrett are just so much fun to listen to. And I don't know that people give Corey Graves enough credit for going from being a color commentator that he was working with Michael Cole to sliding into this role of play by play and doing it so effortlessly and so seamlessly that I don't even think people realize. it. And then when you look at NXT, my good friend, Vic Joseph, we go way back. I've known Vic since we worked at a radio station together in Cleveland. I was at the music station. I was at 102.2.1, WD.OK. And he was across the hall at the fan, the fan, 92, 93, the fan. Vic and Booker T are just having so much fun. Booker with the catchphrases and putting people over. I love it. And also,

So shout out to my guy, Blake Howard. I've known Blake for 10 years. We worked together in a lot of independent shows when we both lived in South Florida. Shout out to Blake Howard for holding it down and crushing it on NXT level up and main event. So I am a huge fan of what's happening right now and you ask specifically about Pat McAfee.

Pat McAfee has just proven time and time again that he is, just the very best at what he does, whether that's with the Pat McAfee show, whether that's on commentary, he just makes it look so effortless. And when you're, and when you're at this level, when you're at the level that he is, he's at, and you can make it look that easy, it's funny. It's ironic. It's not easy to make it look easy. But he is so good. And I don't know where he finds the time to be as knowledgeable as he is about everything. You know, he can talk baseball. He can talk basketball. He can, of course, talk football. He can talk wrestling,

and he knows the ins and outs of all of it. Him being a lifelong wrestling fan obviously helps, but to be able to keep up with the shows and be able to keep up with the performers and the storylines, that's a full-time job in itself. And he's doing that on top of everything else he's doing with ESPN and College Game Day and the Pat McAfee show. It's impressive. And I very much applaud his work ethic that he has. And I hope that he's an announcer for a long time because he is so damn entertaining. This one was emailed in. Oh, my gosh.

This is from Matt Fisher. emailed in Ask CVV number 40. Pat Tillman edition. Okay. Okay. Hey, Chris. Matt Fisher from Charlottesville, Virginia. Listen to every episode.

I don't know. A big fan of your interviews. However, I am one of the ones. who enjoy the AskCVV episodes just a little bit more. Thank you. Two-part question. During the John Cena retirement tour, do you think we get He'll Sina?

I hope not. That was your answer, not mine. Number two, he needs an Intercontinental title to be the Grand Slam champion. Does he get both the 17th world title and a Grand Slam championship in the same year? Maybe a little bit much, but I'd love to see both. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Hopefully, it's included on this week's Ask CVV, and I like hearing from Mrs. RVV as well. She'll be joining us a little bit later on in the program. A little shout out to Pat McGee there. Thank you, Chris, and keep up the great work. I don't think we see Heel Cena at all. And he was asked this during the press conference after Money in the Bank. My good friend Liam Crowley, who I was sitting next to in the press conference,

actually asked him about the He'll Turn. And John Cena basically said, like, you can go listen to his answer, but he basically said it's not going to happen. He wants to be his authentic self during this final run. And it doesn't sound like him being a heel is authentic. Also, I feel like there'd have to be a lot of buildup to that. And what's he going to do? Start his retirement run as a baby face, turn into a heel in the middle of it.

And then obviously it has to be a baby face when he retires. So the heel, Sina, I think, is just going to be something that we will have to leave to our own imaginations and our own speculation of how we thought that that could have gone. We're not seeing Heel Sina in 2025. We're not seeing Healcena ever. As great as it could have been. And if you want to hear a breakdown of what John Cena's plan was to turn heel, go check out the interview I did with him earlier this year or check out the clips from that interview. He breaks it down.

I agree with you that he needs the Intercontinental title to be the Grand Slam champion. I don't know if he gets both the Intercontinental title and the 17th World Champion. championship. The 17th World Championship, in my opinion, is happening for sure. And I've said this before, but it bears repeating. They haven't been calling him the goat because it's a nice nickname. They've been calling him the goat for the last few months here as like planting a seed. This is, branding. And everything that WWE does around branding and marketing is very smart. They have done this to set the table for when he does win number 17, we go, oh, yeah, no, he is the greatest of all time. And now he has the number of championships to reflect that.

There's only so many stories that can be told during his retirement run. He said he's planning to do 30 to 40 dates. That's not 30 to 40 matches. That's not 30 to 40 storylines. That's 30 to 40 dates. Some of those are just going to be promos. Some of those are going to be tag team matches and six-man matches. there's obviously going to be quite a few PLEs.

I'd be shocked if he's not working every PLE, if we're really being honest about this. But I think for it's not 30 to 40 matches and 30 to 40 rivalries. So I don't know if we're able to work in an intercontinental title win along with a world title win, along with everything else that's going to be in there

with a buildup to a WrestleMania match and buildup to a SummerSlam match and a Royal Rumble appearance, which I don't, I believe he's entering the Royal Rumble because he said next year will be my final Royal Rumble. Does he mean, like, I assume he means entering the Rumble,

not just appearing at the event. So there's a lot of, there's only so many stories that can be told. I would have to think, I don't think he wins the Intercontinental Championship. If he did, it'd be a super short run, a few weeks, you know, max two-ish months, it'd be cool to see it.

Crazy to think that John Sina is not an intercontinental champion, but also when you think of John Sina, he's so synonymous with the U.S. title. And when you think of that mid-card, it's U.S. title for him, not intercontinental title. So I don't know. But what I will say is the fact that it's July right now, and we're talking about the things that are going to be happening in wrestling in 2025? Man, that's exciting. Wesley Barry emailed this one and said, my wife, Emily and I attended the fifth episode of AEW Dynamite in Charleston, West Virginia. Charleston, West Virginia, why did I do there? Charleston, West Virginia. And we were excited to see you

there. How was your experience working with them during the early stages? Love the podcast. Thanks, Wes. I had a blast. And for people who don't know this or don't remember this. I was on episode number one and episode number five of dynamite. And as a kid who grew up watching wrestling, it was really cool, still is very cool to be able to say that I was a teeny tiny little part of wrestling being back on TNT, back on TNT for the first time in almost 20 years. It was really cool. The first episode, I did a thing with Jay and Silent Bob, which was pretty cool. Kevin Smith and Jason Muse, we did something in the audience with them and it was interrupted. You can go check it out if you'd like. And then for the other one,

I did a segment where I was interviewing the Rock and Roll Express and that got interrupted by Santana and Ortiz who beat the living crap out of Rock and Roll Express. And I got shoeed off the stage. It was so much fun. And you could feel the energy. You could feel the energy both in the arena and also backstage of like, this was something new and this was something exciting. And I know that people have their certain opinions about where wrestling is at right now in 2024. But if I could for a second,

let's take a little trip in my little Back to the Future, Delorean, if you will, back to 2019. And when AEW was first announced and all of the excitement that came around that was palpable. WWE hadn't had competition like that on weekly television since WCW. And here we were with the opportunity to see just a whole new take on wrestling. It was fun and it was exciting.

And I think that people sometimes forget about the excitement that surrounded the very first double or nothing. It may of 2019. And all of the events after that before seeing the very first episode of Dynamite, October, number second, 2019, in Washington, D.C. It was cool. And that'll always be a fun little, fun little, like, trivia thing, fun little fact, I guess, for me. And, uh, yeah, I had a blast.

Had a blast on those episodes. And, uh, really cool and honored, honored to be part of that. Yo, it's dot Cody on Instagram says, hey, CVV, love the show. Congrats on being number one. I have a question for episode number 40, the Harrison Barnes edition. If you were to put two wrestlers from two different eras in a one-on-one,

who would you pick? For an example, I would pick Seth Rollins and Razor Ramon. There are so many of those dream matches. Seth Rollins and Razor, that's a pretty great one. I think Seth Rollins and Brett Hart, really Brett Hart versus,

I mean, a lot of people. We never got Brett Hart versus Kurt Engel. And I know that Kurt Engel isn't like, from this current era, but if we were to put people from two different arrows, like you said, Brett and Kurt. Oh, man. How about Dominic Mysterio versus Eddie Guerrero? There's a lot there. And there's three just off the top of my head. Also, Razor versus anyone. I mean, Seth versus Razor, you're right. How about Razor versus Roman? That could be good. Kevin Davis on Instagram says, CVV, exclamation mark, big fan of the show and you.

What's the best way to support you? The fact that you even wrote that is so kind and thank you. It speaks to who you are and I just appreciate that. As you know, I don't have a Patreon. I'm not asking for your money weekly or monthly or yearly ever. It's not something I do right now. It's not something I'm planning on doing. but really the best way to support me and the show is to hit follow and to hit subscribe on

YouTube. And it's amazing when you look at the numbers. How many people just listen to the show and don't follow? How many people watch the episodes or watch clips on YouTube and have never hit subscribe? And it's crazy to me. It is free. It costs zero dollars and it costs maybe three seconds of your time, it just continues to baffle me that people don't support creators, especially when the content is free. There is no exchange of money going on here. It is literally this content in exchange for your entertainment, really. That's it. And it just blows my mind how many people just won't support, not just me, any of their favorite creators, or just any creators whose content they consume relatively frequently that you won't just click follow.

And I know maybe you don't even, maybe you don't know how much that means to a creator, but it means a lot. It means a lot. I think the other way, taking things to just, you know, one step further, if there's ever been a product or service that you've ever heard about from a sponsor of the show, go check out their website. Use my discount code. It's usually CVV.

Sometimes it's Insight or it's Chris or maybe it's CVV 20 or whatever the discount is. That goes a huge, like that goes so far because it's not easy to get sponsors. It's not easy to get partners, especially partners that are working with the show long term. So even if you're not planning to buy the product, but I say like, hey, go to rocketmoney.com slash CVV or go to NordVPN.com slash CVV. just going to that website shows the brand that you heard about it on the show. So that in itself, again, super easy thing for you to do, go to a website, click a link. That's it. That goes a really long way too because the sponsors take so much of their time and also, of course, their money to support the show. So it'd be awesome if you could support the people who support the show and support the

brands that support the show. So, and if you don't do any of that stuff, that's cool. I just appreciate you being here. The fact that you're just listening, that in itself supports the show a ton. Gaios 3200. This is from Rafael Espinall on Instagram. Do you think next year's WrestleMania will have a bigger impact or a lesser one with Sina retiring? It will be hard to live up to this year's WrestleMania. I agree. It's going to be very hard to live up to, especially night two in the main event at WrestleMania 40. That's going to be one that people are going to be talking about for years and years to come. The fact that we already know right now that it's seen as last WrestleMania, that makes it big. And the match and the matchup is going to be huge as a result. I still think it's

going to be Randy Orton. And I think there's going to be a title involved. It feels like it makes sense. Like, this is completely off the top of my head, but think about this. Think about if Randy turns on Cody somewhere between now and SummerSlam, then we get Cody Cody Rhodes versus Randy Orton at SummerSlam or sorry, Survivor Series. Survivor Series, not SummerSlam. If Randy turns on Cody, we set something up for Survivor Series. Randy Orton is the champion then after that. Go into the Royal Rumble.

John Sina wins the Royal Rumble. I want you, Randy Orton, at WrestleMania. It feels like all of the pieces could fall into place for that. WrestleMania 41, especially the fact that it's in Las Vegas, especially on top of that, that it's the very first WrestleMania in a long time, but the very first one in a Legion Stadium, they're going to outdo what the Super Bowl did there last year. So there's a lot of big elements here that,

WWE is smarter enough to know everything that they did to make WrestleMania 40 so great, they're going to try to make WrestleMania 41 that much better. And again, the fact that we know that it's Sina's last Royal Rumble, Sina's last WrestleMania, Sina's last Summer Slam Survivor series, it'll be seen as last time performing in whatever city it is that he's coming to. that makes it so much more special just knowing that going into it. When tickets go on sale and John Cena's announced to be there in Miami or Chicago or Toronto or whatever city, London, you're going, man, it's my last chance to see John Cena live. It's the same way. We talked about it last week. It's the same thing they did with the Derek Jeter and Kobe retirement tour. It's like, oh my gosh, I am never going to. going to see Derek Jeter or Kobe Bryant, you know, one of the all-time greats. I'm never going to see them play live ever again. Those tickets are going to sell out so fast. Evan Grant emailed this

one in and says, hey, Chris, my name is Evan and I've been following your show for quite some time now. Huge congratulations on reaching 500,000 followers on Instagram. That's truly an incredible achievement. Thank you, sir. If you had to choose just one standout moment from this Renaissance slash triple H era, what would it be for you? Love your content as always. Thanks, heaven. There's so many. There are so many if you look over the last two years of Triple H being in charge. I think the easy one to point to is the bloodline angle. And I feel like there were a lot of chances for that to just kind of fall off and fizzle out. And it's not just Triple H. It's everybody that's involved in that. They found a way to breathe new life into the bloodline.

bloodline angle in so many different ways and make it feel that much more interesting and important at every turn. Sammy Zame being thrown in there, Soloscoa being thrown in there, everything around Paul Heyman, Roman Raines leaving, Bloodline 2.0, that's going to be one of the storylines that define this era of wrestling. And it feels like Triple H has his fingerprints all over that one. I think the other big moment we just talked about it, you know, in the last question, that WrestleMania 40 night two main event is going to go down in history. And that's, I mean, they made the announcement in Philly at the start of WrestleMania that this is the triple H era.

And for them to like put their like their stamp on that of like, this is the first WrestleMania without Vince McMahon and kind of like, hey, buckle up because this is going to be something special. WrestleMania 40 is going to be one of those moments that it goes down as some of the best work that Triple H does in this era. Matt Stearns on Facebook wrote this one. Hey, Chris, you've done interviews with multiple athletes,

actors, personalities involved in sports over your time. Why or what has made you not only continue cover wrestling, but raise the bar from what us fans expect when consuming this content. love your shows you are the best hashtag grateful well matt grateful for you thank you for the very kind words you're right i've been so lucky over my career to talk to people who were the very best of what they do in all different walks of life and all different professions a lot of actors a lot of comedians a lot of directors a lot of athletes a lot of wrestlers too and if you look at my

show early last year. Like if you look at the first three years of insight, three and a half years of insight, I talked to pretty much everyone. Like I was talking to authors and entrepreneurs and UFC fighters and football players and all of that. And that just comes from a place where I want to truly learn like what goes into making someone the best. What's the mindset? What's the preparation, what's all the tools and tactics that go into making someone a Super Bowl champion, a UFC champion, an Oscar winning actor, a best-selling author. I'm fascinated by that type of stuff. And that all applies to wrestling too. Like when you talk to somebody who is the best of the best, You just talk to somebody who is like just a one of one.

There's always the same things that they have in common. A lot of it comes down to work ethic. A lot of it comes down to drive. A lot of it comes down to focus. A lot of it comes down to goal setting. There's just a lot of things that they have in common. So for me, last year at WrestleMania, I made a big decision that I wanted the show to just be wrestling interviews.

And that was just a decision made. from, if you're listening to the show, there's a pretty good chance you're wrestling fan. So, I mean, obviously, there's a 100% chance you're a wrestling fan. There's a small chance you're also a UFC fan. There's also a small chance you watch baseball or football or you like a particular actor or whatever.

But I understand that the Venn diagram of those things can be small depending on who the guest is. And I looked at the numbers And all the wrestling interviews did well. All the wrestling guests did well. And then you'd bring on someone who maybe wasn't involved with wrestling and the downloads would dip a little bit. So for me, to just focus on wrestling was a decision of like, okay, I'm going to look at the analytics here and I'm going to ride with this. And if it doesn't work, we can revert back to talking to everybody.

And selfishly, I love that because, man, I got to go back and listen to like the episode I did with Chris Voss. who's an FBI negotiator or listened to some of the interviews I did with. I think Dane Cook was a fantastic guest. Just a lot of great people. Lewis Howes, who I love his podcast, The School of Greatness. He was a guest on the show, Ed Milet. I'm a big fan of what Ed Milet does. And he has a great podcast and some amazing guests on there.

Selfishly, I love being able to have those conversations. But it's really cool now that we can dive even deeper into the wrestling world. So if we're doing two interviews a week, two wrestling interviews a week, it's 104 of them a year, we get to hear from that many different wrestlers, get to hear that many more stories. And we also have the opportunity to learn that much more about them. And then also, hopefully, through these conversations, learn a little bit about ourselves or take ourselves to that next level. That's really where it came from, for me, is truly wanting to break down what makes a world-class

performer world class. And what can I learn from that myself? You know, I'm a big believer in the idea, and you've heard this a thousand times before, that you are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with. I also believe you are the sum of the five podcasts that you listen to the most. So if you're listening to Insight relatively frequently, I hope that you're getting an inside look at what makes these wrestlers tick. And maybe there's some things that they do in their own life that you can start to apply to your life to make your life maybe just 1% better every single day.

That's for me, really, what it all comes down to. Vlad Dufresna? Vlad Dufresne, F-R-E-S-N-E. On Facebook says, What moment in pro wrestling hit you that feels so hard that tears came out of your eyes. I was there for AEW double or nothing, their very first show in 2019.

That Cody Rhodes versus Dustin Rhodes match made pretty much everyone in that arena cry, myself included. There was just the storytelling in that was brilliant. That is, that's the match I go back to every single time. I think there's a lot of moments, especially when they're, when WWE is doing like the tribute videos,

when someone's taken from us far too early. Like when you see people just pouring their heart out, talking about Eddie Guerrero, for example, that's just tough to watch. Because, like, obviously, as fans, we don't know Eddie well at all. We didn't know him personally. But you feel like you know him.

Like, you feel like you invest so much time into these characters. You feel like you know them, even though you don't know them on a personal level. So when they're taken away from us, you can relate to, seeing their friends and colleagues like tearing up, talking about them. Also, and this is a deep cut here, remember how good the My Sacrifice videos were in the early 2000s? The Creed song, My Sacrifice.

Massacrifice. Those videos, maybe they didn't actually bring tears to your eyes, but man, they got you in the feels. They got you in the feels real good. So go do a little, go do a little, go do a little looking on YouTube. And if you're too young to understand what I'm talking about, wow, you're going to, you're going to love seeing these different My Sacrifice videos. They were powerful. WWE needs to bring those back.

They can even still use the Creed Selling. They don't even need to update that. Bring back the My Sacrifice videos. They were just fantastic. And if you happen to watch one of them this weekend, because of this episode of Insight, send a screenshot to me. I would be happy to repost that

on Instagram or on Twitter. So take a screenshot and tag me on that. It'd be so cool to see that. James Norbetto on Facebook says, I saw your WrestleMania and last match ideas for the guy that we still can't see. What do you think of the chances for a match with L.A. Knight?

Yeah. And how about one of his final matches with Joe Hendry? I think an LA night match seems really possible, especially since L.A. Night and John Cina, you know, did a little something together there on John Cina's previous run. The Joe Hendry thing, it feels like it should happen. And I think we need to see how Joe Hendry and NXT continues to play out, or do we see a Joe Hendry appearance on the main roster at some point next year?

he's put it out publicly that he is still under TNA contract for quite some time. So he's not going to be a full-time WWE employee for quite some time. Who knows what that actual number is? There's quite some time. Six months. Is it a year? Is it two years? I don't know.

And that information hasn't been made public. But if you listen to the interview I did with Joe Hendry and he talks about John Sina, he talks about it like it's already happened. Like he talks about it in a way where it's like, Like he's already seen it play out. And I love that. I love that visualization. I love that mindset, too, of like speaking things, speaking about things like they've already happened. That's why a little tip for you, if you've never heard this before, when you do have goals, first of all, write them down. And secondly, write them down like they've already happened. So instead of, I want to, or I wish I,

write them down as like, I have, I am. And that's what Joe Hendry's does. done when he talks about John Sina. So if Joe Hendry is that confident that this has happened already in his mind, man, that'd be good. And I think when we talk about John Sina in those 30 to 40 appearances, you've got to think one of those is going to be an NXT, at least one of them, if not more. You know, it's not just going to be raw on Smackdown and PLEs.

There's going to be one at an NXT show. There's going to be one at a live event. And that's what's so cool about the John Cena retirement tour. I think that if, and this wasn't the question you asked specifically, James, but I think that just off the top of our heads here, just me and you spitballing, there's some opponents that are just obviously going to happen at some point during the John Cena retirement tour. We're going to see Randy Orton somewhere in there. We're going to see Cody Rhodes somewhere in there.

I feel like we're probably going to see something with Roman Raines somewhere in there. L.A. night, man, that feels like one that's going to happen in there somewhere. Then we go down to the next tier of people of like the would be really nice. You know, like, it would be really nice to see something with Gunther. It'd be incredible to see something with Chad Gable. It'd be really nice to see something with like Carmelo or Joe Hendry, like Braun Breaker. But I think that when we talk about the matches that are for sure going to happen, it's Randy Orton, it's maybe The Rock too, right?

I think there's a few that are obvious. Randy Orton's an obvious one. Roman Raines feels like it's pretty obvious as well. AJ Styles would be a good one. There's a few that are like for sure. And then I think that when we fall into that the lower like the, oh man, that could happen. that'd be nice to see.

Man, there's a lot of really, really interesting matches there. All right, this one is from Reynaldo on Spotify. It's ask RVV time. And since I knew this was coming, I'm not going to yell down to the other side of the house for my beautiful wife to join us. She's already here. So everybody say hello to Rachel. The question for RVV is, would you want your son or daughter to become a wrestler?

Would you want Logan or future baby boy who doesn't have a name yet and will be coming and joining us in December? Would you want them to be a wrestler? If that's what they want to be, sure. I'd support them. That's what I think. Whatever they want, right? And I think I've seen and heard now a lot of the different side of wrestling and the wrestlers and their hard work and dedication and just how much really goes into it. And it's truly impressive.

so I don't think it's a bad career choice by any means. It would also mean that if both of our kids do this, that means they're insane athletes. That's true. Yeah, they must have got my jeans then. I see what you did there. Russell also sent this one in for the beautiful and lovely and talented Rachel. Russell on Spotify says,

Love to hearing the excitement in your voice when your wife came on the episode. Oh, that's sweet. Here's a couple of Ask RVV episodes or questions. Can you name four tag teams? Can you name six paper views or PLEs? The answer Russell is no, but this is going to be fun. Can you name four tag teams, honey? First of all, he wakes up with that level of excitement every morning,

whether it's five in the morning, seven in the morning, four in the morning. He's that excited. Hey, we got a day, you know? We got to make a day out of it. Why not? And four tag teams? Yeah. Can you name four of them?

I don't know if I know what a tag team is. This is fantastic. Which when two wrestlers are together in the match, it's four people in total in the match. These two people against these two people, but only the, only two people can wrestle at once. So in order. They're like crawling to the ring. Yes. Yes.

To make the tag. Yeah. No, I cannot name four. You have seen tag team matches. Yeah. We, the very first wrestling event you ever went to, the main event was a tag match, I believe. Do you remember the Young Bucks? Oh, yes. They're from somewhere in California. Yeah, they're from Rancho Cucamonga. Look at you. Okay. I don't think that counts, but, uh, all right, can you name any other tag teams? No. I, if you stumped me there, Russell. Have you ever heard of the Hardy Boys? Yes.

Not the novels. Thank you for clarifying. Thank you for mansplaining that one to me. The Dudley boys? Yes. Okay. See, I've heard of all these. Yeah.

The Uso's? Yes. Mm-hmm. Okay. Are there any female ones? Yeah, there's like damage control. Okay. I don't think I've heard of that.

Okay. Like there's, yes, of course, there's many. All right. What about six PLEs, premium live events, or paper views? I didn't think that there was pay-per-view wrestling. This is like the big, the ones you watch on Peacock when I'm not here. Oh. WrestleMania?

Boom, there's one. That's good. Money in the bank. Hey, there's two. What am I going to in two weeks in Cleveland? Oh, SummerSlan. Hey, three. Man, this is much better than I thought.

What about the one where there's 30 people in the ring? Oh. Yes. Oh, my gosh. I know that one. It has like a like a king or queen type of theme to it. Royal Rumble. Yes.

Oh my gosh. You're blowing me away right now. And I feel like I already gave one away with the king or queen. Do you remember we watched one recently? King of the ring. Green. That was a lucky guess. That's five, though.

Wow. Is there one more? Is there more? There's plenty more. Lots. Lots. How many? Like about one a month.

But then there's like, you know, you could go, you could give me like a deep cut from years ago. And I'd be like, yeah, sure, that counts. I don't think I know any deep cuts. Do you know it? That's really good, though. That was really impressive. Hopefully I redeemed myself, Russell, from the, Tag team.

Survivor series would have been acceptable. That one I've heard of too. Bad blood has come back as a pay-per-view. What doesn't sound familiar? Hell in a cell. Hell and a cell. Yes, that one I know. There's, I mean, there's elimination chamber.

Okay. That one sounds familiar. Then you can, like, you can go some deep cuts. Like, if you, if you said Halloween havoc, I would have, I would have, that would have been acceptable. I'm sorry, I let you down there. The Great American Bash. I would have said, all right.

Sure. You could have given me like Starcade, WCW, and I would have said, oh, but that's incredible. Wow. Now you're just showing off your knowledge. No, because everybody listening is going, why aren't you saying this one or that one or this other one over here? That was really good, hon. Thank you. I can't wait to see the questions you have for RVV next week.

Okay, love you, hon. She's the best. The best. then now whatever on Instagram. Chris, who's your favorite NXT call-up to the main roster currently? Who will win gold first? Brom Breaker has been pretty damn exciting to watch. And so is Tiffany Stratt.

I know those are like two pretty easy choices, but it's any time that they're in a match, you know it's going to be good. Who's going to win gold first out of the two of them? it seems like with Tiffany being miss money in the bank, that one feels like it could happen at any point in time. They also could have her hold on to this for a while. I'm going to go brawn breaker, winning gold.

I don't know what it is. Now that I'm saying this out loud, because is he winning the Intercontinental Championship? That seems most likely. Yeah, that one seems like the most likely one to happen. Because, yeah, I still, think that he should have won that at Money to the Bank. And we explained that on last week's episode that I think they didn't want this to turn into like a streak thing and then build this up

into, well, who's he going to lose to now? They got that out of the way. Great. Now he can just kind of go on without that hanging over his head. I'm going to go brawnbreaker on that one. underscore Vipor Assassin underscore on Instagram says, hey, Chris, my question for you is this. What's your dream main event match for WrestleMania 41. Well, I love that we now get two main events. So as we look to WrestleMania 41, Las Vegas,

it's going to be John Sina versus somebody. I think it's John Sina, Randy Orden. I think that's the match. And then I do think we get Rock and Roman Rains with one hell of a buildup. Those are my

obviously very, very early picks as it's July right now, if everybody stays healthy and knock on wood that that's the case, I believe that's what we're going to be looking at. And if not John Cena, Randy Orton, maybe John Cena Cody. But I think those are two big matches. Those are main events where you're like, I don't know if night one's going to be better or night two is going to be better. I don't know. Jordan Payne on Facebook says, what's your current video slash podcast setup? And how does your current setup improve your day-to-day flow versus a setup that you had before. I find myself curious about people's rigs and the

difference between them as technology advances. Well, Jordan, you are talking to the right guy, because I get very excited about gear. And I also understand that you may want to, if you're, not into gear and you don't have a podcast or YouTube channel, you may want to just fast forward for the next minute or so. I shoot on Sony A7V cameras with Tamron lenses. That's been the biggest changed to my setup over the last year. If you remember back about a year ago, almost all my videos were just shot, except for the ones we recorded in the studio. Almost all of them were shot on one camera, locked off on a tripod, and that was it, just the two of us talking. Now I'm shooting on a three camera setup wherever I go, whether that's in a studio or whether I have the opportunity to

shoot in someone's house or on the road with somebody. So the two main cameras that are pointed at the guest and at me are Sony A74s, then the camera I've been using for the two shot is a Sony ZVE10. And the mics that we use are what I think are the gold standard of podcasting mics, the sure SM7Bs. They are plugged into a Zoom H4N with XLR cables. That's the day-to-day set up now. I'm very rarely doing Zoom interviews now. which I feel incredibly grateful to be able to say that, it takes like extreme circumstances now to do a Zoom interview. That's not to say I won't do them,

but if someone is available and I can fly to them wherever they are or they happen to be in Los Angeles, I would much rather do that. The setup for a Zoom interview is most of the same gear. It's the Sony A-7-4 plugged into my computer, plugged into my laptop using a, USB port and then I plug the Sure SM7B into a man we're getting real technical here. I plug it into a Scarlet, Focus Right Scarlet, a Scarlet Focus Right with a, uh, the Scarlet Solo that has a

fete head on it. So there you go. Very nerdy. I used to record everything on the iPhone locked off. I had a lot of issues with that. You would see if you watch any of those older interviews, You'll see that every like two to three to five minutes, I just glance over the camera. And it's weird because it looks like I'm just staring directly at the person who's watching the interview. What I'm doing is making sure that the camera's still rolling. And because there's nothing worse than being deep in no conversation and the camera shuts off.

And when you're by yourself shooting this, which is often the case for me, you don't know when it shut off. Now you have this awkward conversation of, oh my gosh. the camera, the iPhone slash camera, shut off. We need to restart that part of the interview. Oh, man. That happened a few times. There's definitely a few interviews where that happened.

And oh, man, so embarrassing. Humble Gibroni on Instagram says, would you rather get slapped by Steph McMahon or punched by Shane? What a would you rather? I'm going to choose the slapped by Stephanie McMahon because that's just iconic. Like nobody slapped better than Stephanie McMahon. Those were some iconic slaps. So to be able to take a iconic slap from Stephanie McMahon and you could clearly tell

she never held back on those slaps, I would much rather take the Stephanie McMahon slap. Think about some of those slaps that she's delivered. Oh, so like the ones that Jericho, I think we're especially good, but just over the course of her whole career, I feel like she slapped almost everybody. And that, my friends, is the final question here on Ask CVV number 40, the Sean Kemp edition. Thank you guys for being with us on this one. Thank you for following the show and sharing the show and for snapping a screenshot and sharing it on social media. That's always so cool to be able to see that. So I appreciate you.

we've got some very big ones. I just did one earlier this week. If you're part of my broadcast feed on Instagram, so if you go to my profile, you'll see the CVV feed, the broadcast feed. You got a little look behind the scenes at my very big guest that we recorded on Tuesday.

I'm not going to let you know who it is now, but you'll see it in a few weeks and you'll be like, oh my gosh, that person hasn't done a podcast in a long time. We're working on some other big ones. make sure you're following the show so you don't miss it here. Please subscribe on YouTube as we inch so much closer to one million subscribers on there, 692,000 subscribers on the CVV clips channel as we sit here right now. Oh, baby. I'll leave you with the words of Roy T. Bennett, which seems

very fitting for some of the very high achievers that we have on the show all the time, the people who are the best of the best of what they do. If you want to fly, You have to give up what weighs you down. Be great and be grateful, my friends. Have an amazing weekend. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Die Jack joins us on Tuesday. 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's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.