Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #45 - Joe Hendry NXT Champion? Bryan Danielson Retiring? Worst Wrestling Storyline Ever, AEW All In

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

Welcome to AskCVV #45! On this episode, Chris answers questions about Joe Hendry vs. Ethan Page at No Mercy for the NXT Championship, whether Bryan Danielson will lose to Swerve Strickland and retire at AEW All In, why most wrestling retirements aren't final, the worst storyline in the history of wrestling, tips for attending your first WrestleMania, an AskRVV appearance and much more! If you have a question for the next AskCVV episode, leave a comment on Spotify or send it in on social media using the hashtag #AskCVV. Quote I'm thinking about: "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer." - Albert Einstein Sponsors: FACTOR MEALS: Get 50% off your first box and 20% off your next month at http://factormeals.com/Insight50 BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv MAREK HEALTH: Get a 10% discount on Marek Health's Optimization Package with code CVV: https://marekhealth.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 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/ 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

All right, welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV. Chris Van Fleet, hope it's been a great week for you. Thank you for being with us on this one. There's a lot of podcasts out there. And you could be listening to any of them right now, but you're here with us right now, so I appreciate you.

And thank you for helping to make Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the entire planet. And we've gotten a number one because you guys listen to the show, you share the show. And most importantly, you follow the show. And I think there's a lot of people who listen to a lot of episodes and assume that they're following the show because it always pops up on their homepage. But do me a favor. Check right now just to see. And if you're looking on Spotify, does it say

follow or does it say following? Because if it says follow, that means you haven't followed the show yet. So just check at some point today. And if it says follow, boom, just hit that button. So it says following, do the same thing on Apple Podcasts, and the bigger the show continues to get, the bigger the guests can continue to get. We've got about four months left in the year. Can we top what we've done thus far? It's definitely going to be tough to top 2024 on insight, but we're going to do everything in our power to try to top this year next year, but let's end the year strong. Ah, man. I, I, I can't wait to show you guys who we have in store.

And of course, I've mentioned this in many different places. I've also been asked about this guest more than any other guests, I think, in the history of the show, in the history of all the interviews have ever done. The interview with Jesse Ventura goes live on Tuesday. And maybe it's my fault for teasing this interview a month in advance. I was just so excited. We did the interview. It was great.

He appeared that night on Raw in St. Paul, Minnesota. and I posted the photo, and I think people assume that that episode was going to go live like a day or two later. So maybe it's my fault for putting this out into the world a little too soon. But with every episode that we would put out, people would go, yeah, but where's the Jesse Venture episode? It's like, it's coming. Have a little bit of patience. Patience is a virtue. I know it's a really tough thing in wrestling to have patience, but have a little bit of patience.

And then I would put out another episode, but where's the Jesse Ventura episode? So I'm going to take the blame on this one for teasing it way too soon, like putting it out there way, like way far in advance when we had to do some editing on this interview. We had to, we just had to make sure that everything looked and sounded right because there's a moment when I go off camera and then I go off Mike when Carrying Cross comes in and start speaking to Jesse Ventura as Jesse Ventura. and we needed to make sure the audio sounded right there. So you'll see.

It's an amazing episode, and it will be well worth the wait. So all of that being said, with the massive guests that we've had already up to this point, up to the end of August here in 2024, how can we top it as we end the year? And to that, I say, but just wait. Even though I just did a whole soliloquy

about how wrestling fans don't like to wait and don't have patience, just please, trust me, trust me on this one. And welcome, my friends, to ask CVV number 45, yes, the Michael Jordan edition. We've had two Michael Jordan editions now, of course, 23 and 45. This is also the Pedro Martinez edition and the Archie Griffin edition. There's a story there, and I'm going to get part of this wrong, but Michael Jordan was wearing 45. and I guess wasn't playing as well as he thought he should be playing, and then he came back and started wearing 23.

And I think got fined, like it was at a million dollars a game or two millions of dollars a game, but played that much better when he was illegally wearing number 23. Such a great story. What a freaking legend. You believe that? If you're around the same age as me, isn't it amazing that we are in a lifetime when we got to see Michael Jordan play? and also LeBron James play. I don't care where you sit on who's better there.

I think we can just sit back and appreciate that, oh my goodness, both of those guys were just born and put on this earth to play basketball. We're also in the same timeline where we got to see Wayne Gretzky play. We're in the same timeline where we got to see Tom Brady play. Like the goats of the goats. And that's the world that we get to live in. That's the timeline that we exist in.

Amazing. I love it. But thank you for being with us on this Ask. CVV episode. If this is your first one, this is amazing. Thank you for being here and thank you for wanting to hang out with me for the next hour as we chat a little rasslin and a few other fun, silly things in here as well. If you have a question for next week's Ask CVV number 46, who's that gonna, who will that addition be dedicated to? Let me know. But if you have a question, leave a comment on Spotify. Those have been so fun to see. Send me the question using the hashtag,

Ask CVV on social media or shoot me an email. CVV at Chris VanVleet.com. And we will start with Robbie Slagley on Facebook who says, what are your thoughts on the Joe Hendry possibly winning the NXT title? I like that you called him the Joe Hendry. Of course he's the Joe Hendry. I love that Joe Hendry went from a surprise appearance in a battle royal on June 18th in NXT to being like a main player in NXT and a main part of the

these storylines. He is so incredibly over, not just in TNA, not just in NXT, but just in wrestling as a whole. Even if you've never watched a single episode of TNA or a single episode of NXT, if you're just a wrestling fan, period, and I say to you, say his name, and he appears, you know exactly what the retort to that is. I believe in Joe Hendry, and then you're going to clap, clap just like that. And I think that there's just, there's something to be said with the fact that not only is

he gotten over, not only is his theme song gotten over, but Joe Hendry as a wrestler has gotten over. And if you haven't had a chance to see a Joe Hendry match yet, do yourself a favor. Go to YouTube this weekend

and watch Joe Hendry versus pretty much anybody. And you will be so impressed with the way that he handles himself in the ring. He is such a star. And I love that NXT is using him, not just as this one-off TNA appearance, but as like, there's something here. The people tune in to see Joe Hendry, whether he's cutting a promo, whether he's playing the guitar in the ring. And that was teased for like a week. And people were like, well, you know what? I do have to tune in this week. If Joe Hendry's doing a concert, I've got to tune in to see this, or whether he's, you know, wrestling a match.

It's amazing how over Joe Hendry is. And now he's got a title shot. No mercy. Sunday, September 1st, it's Joe Hendry facing Ethan Page for the NXT championship. And I love it. Because if you think back just three months ago, neither of these guys were even in NXT. And that's crazy to think that that's where we're at in wrestling right now,

where someone who's super talented can come in, right place, right time, right situation, you pull the right levers, and boom, they're a star. And when you look at both of these guys, I'm going to speak to Ethan Page first because I've known Ethan Page for, man, almost 15 years. We're from not too far away from each other in Ontario, Canada, and there's just something about that connection of like seeing someone from Ontario making it, not so. just in the U.S. but making it on the biggest scale and on the biggest stage, Ethan Page has been a star. And we saw that when he was in TNA. I guess it was impact wrestling

at that time. We saw it when he was in AEW. And not only are we seeing it now in NXT, but the higher-ups are seeing it in him. And man, he, you want to talk about attaching a rocket to someone's back? Ethan Page went from his debut to becoming NN. NXT champion in 40 days. Yeah, 4-0. That's a record, by the way. That's the quickest that anybody has gone from debut to winning the NXT championship, 40 days. And then if you think about Joe Hendry, he debuted June 18th. Again, part of that Battle Royal. And here he is a little over two months later, and he's getting an NXT championship shot. I love it. And it's just a true testament to hard work pays off.

betting on yourself, hard work, and just perseverance, and just continuing to push forward. And both of those guys are an absolute story of that. And go back and listen to the episode I did with Joe Hendry. Ironically, it was filmed the day before he debuted in NXT. And go listen to that episode. I tell the whole story of like, kind of had a feeling that when I dropped him off at the airport, it kind of had a feeling that he was flying to Orlando. but he was like, I'm going to be honest with you, Chris.

I don't know where I'm going. And I'll find out what I get there. And I'm like, I think I know what you're saying. And also, go listen to any of the interviews that I've done with Ethan Page. We've done interviews at various stages of his career and talking to him about doing another one because he's obviously at another very different stage of his career here. But it would really speak to where we are at in wrestling, in 2024, if someone who's not even under contract with WWE could win a WWE championship.

Joe Hendry has made it very clear that he is under contract with TNA and he has quite some time left on that contract. So he's been doing this work, I guess. I don't know the details of this, but he's been doing this just under an agreement between TNA and WWE with the talent that they've been sharing. So there is a chance Sunday, September 1st, that a TNA star becomes a WWE champion when if possibly Joe Hendry beats Ethan Page for the NXT championship. The fact that Trick Williams is a special guest referee there makes me think that he's going to screw Ethan Page because it was Ethan Page who kind of literally fell into being the NXT champion when he won the title there from Trick Williams.

So I feel like Trick being involved in that match means that Ethan Page gets screwed, which really lines up. All of this lines up to Joe Hendry winning the championship. And if there was ever a wrestler's year, and you look at big years that wrestlers have had, you know, over the course of wrestling, there's lots of examples, I'm sure that are immediately coming to your mind. But when you look at the run that Joe Hendry's had, not even just this full year, when you look at the run that Joe Henry's had just over the last four to six months, TNA included, and then now

into what he's doing with NXT and still doing stuff in TNA, by the way, it's hard to argue that anybody has been hotter in TNA. And actually something that comes to mind here is when we did our interview, again, right before he debuted in NXT. I think he was talking about like, man, he was really, I'm really riding that momentum. I had like 40,000 followers on Instagram last week. And now I'm at like 66,000. And this was before he debuted in NXT.

And I was like, that's crazy. Maybe he got up to like 80,000 by the time the interview was out. I'm going to pull him up right now. It's a heck of a lot more than that. Joe Hendry now has 241,000 followers on Instagram. I'm one of them. I would assume that you are as well. All I can say is that we are in for a very entertaining match with that one. Luke Sprywalker on Facebook says,

Hey, CVV, do you think Brian Danielson is actually going to retire at All In this weekend? That is the million dollar question, right? All in this weekend, live from Wembley Stadium, it's title versus career, Brian Danielson, taking on swerve Strickland and just from the outset what a match this is going to be this match has the potential to be talked about as one of the matches of the year. So number one, I can't wait for that. I know that Daniel Bryan said that when this contract with AEW was up, that was it, he was retired.

I think he still has a lot left in the tank. And when you think about all the years that he lost with the fact that he couldn't wrestle because of his neck injury, I still feel like he's making up for lost time. And maybe it's only another year or two, possibly three, but I just, to borrow a line from Mark Henry, he's still got a lot left in the tank. And we're definitely going to see that.

But I also think, on the flip side, this is going to be an insane match. Just two technical wizards, two guys in there in Swerve and Brian who are just such great, storytellers. This could be one of those matches where you lay it all out on the line and you go out on your shield.

Like if this is, in fact, Daniel Bryan's last match, like, what a way to go, right, in front of a stadium packed full of people, Wembley against, you know, the AEW champion, that would be a great way to go out. But I don't think that's going to happen. And so what I see happening is, number one, an amazing match, but number two, Brian Danielson leaving as the AEW champion. That's the way I see it here, but we've also got a heck of a card at all in. I'm really excited to see what MJF and Will Osprey do for the AEW.

They're calling it the American championship. And this tag match, three-way tag match, the Young Bucks versus FTR versus the claimed. That is going to be a sneaky, sneaky good match there. And we're finally getting the payoff here with Timeless Tony Storm and Mariah May. That's going to be a heck of a match. So congrats to AEW. They've sold over 50,000 tickets for All In. I don't know why anybody would ever scoff at that. I've seen some people online like saying that that's not impressive. Pardon me? What? Over 50,000 tickets? It's amazing. I'm actually most curious here with the announcement of All In going to Arlington, Texas next year. I'm actually curious how people

in the UK feel about this. For the last two years, it was All In Wimbly was just an event that was happening in London. If this is now not in London anymore, not in the UK anymore, not overseas anymore, this is going to be in the U.S. I'm just curious what the general feeling around that is. I don't know. I feel like this was kind of like how double or nothing was always traditionally a Vegas event. And then obviously because of the world that we were living in during the pandemic, that had to shift. They had to, you know, adjust for that. But with double or nothing kind of always being a Vegas event, all into me, always felt like it was going to be a London event.

And I know they'd have to, like, move the date around to, like, make sure the stadium was open, but I don't know, how to people in the UK feel about that? Drop something in the comments. Let me know. Prize Picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 million active users. Prize Picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports because,

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I want to know your honest opinion. Why does some of these wrestling legends say that they retire, but then years later they come back again? Is it because of the pride? Is it because of ego? They just want the spotlight or maybe even a world title? I guess in a way, it just feels like if you say you're going to retire or you're not to be in the ring anymore. Why sit there and say that in the first place and then backtrack on it?

Sean Michaels and Rick Flair had the perfect retirement match, but they came back. I've talked to a lot of wrestlers about this, both on the show and behind the scenes. And it all seems to come down to, like, you just can't match that crowd reaction with anything else. That is a high that can't be matched by any sort of substance. It's not something you would ever experience in your day-to-day life. And I think that that is the drug that they get addicted to. That ability to draw a reaction out of a crowd, whether that's just your music hitting and you walking out, ah, the crowd reaction, whether that's saying something in a promo and getting the crowd reaction, or that that's doing something physically in the ring and getting the crowd

to react a certain way. I think that's why a lot of people say they're done and then they end up coming back. When you talk specifically about this, Sean, Michael's Rick Flair match. I mean, one of the most iconic moments, certainly in WrestleMania history, but maybe just in wrestling history. I'm sorry, I love you. The super kick, one, two, three, Sean grabbing Rick Flair's hair. Like, it's just such a beautiful moment, right? And what a great story this told there. I asked Rick Flair that. Like, when he had his one last match that he was promoting last year, we did an interview right before that. And I said, Rick, what happened here? You had the absolute

perfect ending to a career. And then you came back in TNA and it just kind of feels like your retirement didn't mean anything at all. It was such a beautiful moment. And now it's like, oh, you came back? Well, now what? And his stuff that he did in TNA, like, especially the work he did in the ring, it obviously didn't compare to what he did with Sean Michaels.

And I think when anybody wrestles against Sean Michaels, that is a high bar, right? that is a tough thing to match. And he basically said he had a divorce, a bunch of alimony, and he needed money. Came back to TNA and did what he did there. And then he had one last match. I feel like he's done done.

Like when Rick Flair came out and said he had a heart attack during his last match, I think he's done done. I don't think any of us want to see Rick Flair have another heart attack in the ring or, geez, even worse than that. So I just think that that's what it comes down to. There is something about that that can't be matched.

And I also think it's almost like when you get broken up with instead of you breaking up with someone else. Like when you get broken up with so often you're not ready to let it go. Like so often you just weren't there mentally yet. And it's difficult for you to come to terms with the fact that like this was the person. I used to spend time with every day. This is the person that I would check in with every day. I would text every day.

We would call or FaceTime every day. And then boom, just like that out of nowhere, it's taken away. And I think for a lot of wrestlers, they get broken up with, if you follow what I'm saying. The retirement happens to them instead of them being able to choose their retirement. And I think that it's difficult to come to terms with that when the retirement is forced upon you, rather than you being able to on your own terms go, all right, it's this date. and this person and this event. So I think that that's what it is.

And there are not a lot of great retirement matches out there, not a lot of great retirement stories. The Sean Michaels, Rick Flair one, man, that was pretty damn perfect. But then you think of some other ones like Kurt Engel, retiring at WrestleMania 35, amazing. Until I tell you, with great respect to Baron Corbyn, it was a match against Baron Corbyn. and it's like, yeah, Kurt Engel, retiring WrestleMania, that's amazing.

But that story doesn't make a lot of sense. And I've talked to both Baron Corbyn about that. I've talked to Kurt Engel about it. Neither of them wanted that. I mean, everybody wanted Kurt Engel versus John Cena. John Cena happened to be in the building too, right? John Cena made that surprise appearance at WrestleMania 35 in New York. And it's like, ah, why couldn't this happen?

And Vince McMahon told Kurt Angle, like, you've got this storyline. With Baron Corbin, you've got to wrap that up. If you want John Sina, we will make that happen next year. But you've got to finish up this story with Baron Corbin. And Kurt said, I can't wait till next year. My retirement match needs to happen now. And also when you think about it, WrestleMania 36, could you imagine if we had John Sina

versus Kurt Angle retirement match at WrestleMania 36 in front of nobody? So I guess in a way, it's better the way that it happened with WrestleMania 35, even though it was the match that, you know, really nobody was angling for. Ha, see what I did there? But I think if you talk to any wrestler, that is the general consensus of this. Angel Cotto, COTTO, emailed this one in, hey, Mr. VV, my name is Angel. I'm 19 years old. I'm from Easton, Pennsylvania.

I was a huge WWE fan up until 2015, 2016, then I stopped watching until WrestleMania of 38 and I've been in love with it ever since. Let me just pause for a second and say, I love how many stories I hear like this where people are like, I used to be a fan and then, man, I got back into it because of Cody's return or I got back into it because of WrestleMania 40 or whatever it happens to be. Like, it's amazing to me how many lapsed fans are back in the last handful of years. It's pretty incredible. Okay, so let me continue here. I first found your podcast when you interviewed Maven in 2023, and I've loved the pod ever since. Up until our tribal chief Roman reigns, I have never liked nor rooted for heels, but his character made me change my perspective on heels.

Who is the first heel that you remember connecting with and rooting for? What's your first match with that character while they played that heel? Thanks for all you do, much love, Angel. It was Triple H for me. When Triple H became the game and his theme song switched one series. Is this on? And I like to always point out that is one, two is this on? I've heard so many people,

Wanton is this on? That's one two is this on. When he became that version of the game and like the sledgehammer became his best friend and the McMahon Helmsley era, the drive-thru wedding, like everything that was going on with that, actually, I think it even goes back earlier than that. When he cut the promo, I think it was. Sunday night heat when he cut the promo in that sit down interview with Jim Ross when he talked about I am the game Jim I am the game and like that truly cemented him as like he's a he's a bad guy

and he's operating on a whole other level there that's when I fell in love with a heel also this is an easy answer but corporate rock was hilarious the rock doing his heel dick for the first time around was amazing. So those are those are the two for me. And I've said this before, but triple-h Cactus Jack, that's my favorite triple-H match at Royal Rumble 2000. Because I think it just made us see Triple H in such a different light. I think that was really the match that helped to shed the blue blood persona of like, oh, who's this? He was Hunter Hurst Helmsley. He was like aristocrat, like, I'm better than you character. and now he's yeah i think i believe him as this this new character but when we saw him in that

match and doing the hardcore stuff that he did i think that that made a lot of people go oh okay okay triple h yeah this guy can go he can go this one's from mcloven 6916 on instagram cbv you rock thank you mclovin i am mclovin super bad such a great movie they they don't make comedies like anymore. I guess they can't really make comedies like that anymore. But I digress. I'm curious, what is the worst storyline ever in wrestling? Thanks, keep up the great work. For me, it's Katie Vic. I was recently a guest on my buddy Joe Volpice's podcast, Lightweights. Go check it out. Joe does such a great job with his podcast. And I was explaining Katie Vic to him. And he's a wrestling fan, but he also interviews like voice actors and comedians, like all across the

board. And he hadn't, he didn't know about the Katie Vic gimmick, a Katie Vic angle. And I'm explaining this to him. And with every sentence I'm saying, I'm realizing just how ridiculous that storyline was. And I know a lot of people say the worst storyline was May Young giving birth to the hand. I think that that's a, that's a part of the storyline that's, you know, a little bit silly. But the larger storyline there is sexual chocolate, Mark Henry. with May Young, which was actually a really fun storyline, and it showed that Mark Henry had like some comedic chops and gave some depth to his character. Giving birth to the hand a very strange payoff for sure in that angle, but that's not the

worst storyline for sure. Katie Vic was awful. Like top to bottom. And we're not just talking about the fact that Triple H is wearing a cane mask and pretending to have sex with a mannequin in a coffin, which. apparently the real stories, they filmed this at a funeral hall, funeral house, funeral, wherever, funeral parlor. And there was an actual funeral going on right next door. Like, oh, my goodness.

Like, that's just awful. But the storyline itself with, like, Triple Age coming out at the end of an episode of Raw and being like, I heard about Katie Vic. I know about Katie Vic And then the show just ends And then it turns into like 10 years ago What? It's so, it's so, so dumb. Absolutely awful.

You'll be hard pressed To find a worse storyline than that. Don't come at me with David Arquette winning the WCW Heavyweight Championship. Yeah, maybe that was a bad booking decision by Vince Russo, but that's not a, that is not worth. than that Katie Vick storyline.

Nothing, in my opinion, is worse than the Katie Vick storyline. And the crazy thing about it is you've got two legends in there that are taking part in this. This isn't a mid-card storyline. This is our top of the card storyline with Triple H and Kane. Here, here's what we're going to do. We're going to talk about, we're going to invent an ex-girlfriend of Keynes who's dead. And it might sound a little bit weird, but Triple H, then you're going to do some funky necrophilia stuff. What?

Absolutely. Absolutely awful. Just, just, just, just, just atrocious. This one's actually from YouTube. I think this might be the first asked CVV question we've had in a while from YouTube. BMO in the morning says, I've had a life-changing 24-year career in broadcasting, all of which was based on a chance to read a piece of copy for a family member's business. I had no experience, just a quote,

wicked set of pipes, according to the program director, who recorded the spot and a drive to be the best once I was given the chance. A shout out to a mutual friend, Jason LaChance. He hosts knocking doors down podcast now. My question is, who would you say took a chance on you to live your dream? As a question I've never been asked before, and the answer for me is a general manager at my first ever TV station named Ron Johnston. And Ron had no, had no reason to give me a chance. And the backstory here is I was a senior in college studying communication studies at Wilford-Lorea University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. And I was looking for an internship that summer. I was already working as a board operator at 570 News, which is a news talk radio station

in Kitchener, Ontario. It's like 10 minutes from where I lived. And I knew that I would be leaving my college town. I'd be moving back in with my parents. And I needed an internship to hopefully, possibly just get some sort of experience. So I could put together what they call in the industry as a demo reel, which is like a video resume of like, here's some reporting that I've done. And I reached out to every radio station, every TV station I could.

looking for an internship, looking for a possible job, and nobody got back to me. Nobody. And then I scoured the internet looking for the email of the general manager of a small station, Peterborough, Ontario. The station was called Checks TV, C-H-E-X. And I hadn't been to Peterborough in years. Fun fact on the side here, Peterborough is Bobby Rood's hometown. We actually talked about it a little bit, talked about Checks TV a little bit during the interview

I did with him. I emailed the program or the general manager, Ron Johnson, and I said, it's spring break next week. We call it Reading Week in Canada. It's Reading Week. I'm going to be in Peterborough. Could I just come by on Thursday and just chat with you about a possible internship? And he wrote me back and basically said, like, we don't really do internships, but it looks like with your resume, you've done some stuff. You know, like I said, I was working at a radio station.

So yeah, sure. come on in. So I went in and met with him and he was very kind and I just think he saw something in me because there was no reason for him to hire me. I had no television experience on camera at all. I had volunteered at a TV station like a volunteer run TV station Rogers 20 in Kitchener, Ontario, but I had no experience on TV. And he was like, yeah, you know what? What the heck? We'll give you a shot. and it was an hour drive each way, 60 kilometers. Actually, it was 100 kilometers, sorry, 60 miles each way. And I worked my old high school job.

I went back into the pet store that I used to work at the mall. I worked in the fish department of PJ's Pet Center. And I basically asked them if I could come in and just work some part-time hours. They said, sure. So I was working in the fish department of the pet store to pay for the gas to go to my internship. because the internship was unpaid. And my internship was me just shadowing the reporters there. And when you're at a small station, you wear a lot of hats.

They call it the one-man band. So the reporters there report. They also shoot the stories, like they were doing their own camera work. They write the stories. They produce the stories. They edit the stories. We're in a lot of hats. And I would follow around the various different reporters.

And I would watch them do. their thing. Michelle Ferreari, Michelle Ferrari, Gary Doyle, Todd Purvish. Man, there was a lot of people there. I said Gary Doyle was Terry Doyle, Gary Dalladay. So many great people that I worked with there. And I was just able to watch them do their thing. And then two weeks into my internship, I went in for my usual internship shift. And my assignment editor hands me a story. He goes, here's your story today. I said, oh, cool.

Like, who am I shadowing? He goes, well, you're going to shadow Terry. I'm going to shadow Terry Doyle. But this is your story. You're going to be on the 6 o'clock news tonight. Two weeks in, I'm on the news. And my internship from that point on turned into me being on TV. Like, they truly gave me the.

chance to do this in the real world. And without Ron taking a chance on me, number one, a chance to just even take that meeting, completely unsolicited email from someone he had no connection with. This was a cold email. For one, yeah, sure, I'll meet with you. Why not? If you're going to be in town, which was a total lie, I wasn't going to be in town. I was only going to be in town if he said yes to this meeting. So one, he gives me just the time of day. Yeah, sure. Come on by. And then two, yeah, you know, we don't usually do this, but what the heck? We'll give you an internship. We only usually do it when you earn college credits, but yeah, sure. Why not? For him to take that chance on me, I owe so much of my career to that man. So I've seen him relatively recently when I lived in

Florida. We went out for dinner and I said those exact words to him. I said, Ron, if it's not for you, taking a chance on a 21-year-old kid from Pickering, Ontario, who randomly sent you an email, I wouldn't be here. And at that time, I was working for the Fox affiliate, WSVN, in Miami, Florida. Far cry from Peterborough, Ontario, that's for sure. But that's one of the biggest ones for sure. And I think recently another one was, John Cena's been really kind to me. I did that interview with him, WrestleMania 35 in New York, where he gave me,

like kept extending the time. He originally told me that he only had 10 minutes and then, I know, we still got more time. Yeah, you got time for one more question. That was, like, that was him taking a chance on me. He didn't do any other interviews that entire weekend,

and he did one with me. And then fast forward to a few months ago when we did that hour, what was it, an hour and 15 minutes, that episode of the show. for John Cena to be at the stage that he's in in his career and the level that he's at, to number one just say yes to do an interview with me. That's one thing. But like, yeah, yeah, I'll set aside an hour. What? Everybody else that day got like four minutes. This was your typical

junket style interview where he sits in one room and then every four minutes, a new person comes in and does interviews. So everybody else got four minutes. I got an hour and 15. So, that's an example there of somebody taking a chance. So a big, huge thank you to Ron John John Cena just for those opportunities. And those are the moments that I'll never forget. Those are the opportunities. It's like, okay, great. Thank you for this now.

I want to prove you right. You saw something in me. So like, I want you to know that this is not an opportunity that I'm going to squander. and thank you for allowing me to kind of go down memory lane there, BMO in the morning. Thanks for that question. Big time, big time 51 on Twitter. Hey, CVV, I just have to say your impressions are seriously underrated. Your Hank Hill impression had me dying when you did it on The Undertaker's podcast.

You also pulled out a great Triple H impression when you were on lightweights. Do you do any other impression? I already gave you guys the Triple H. I know about Katie Vic. That wasn't even good. I know about Katie Vic. Boy, I'll tell you hot. But that's really it.

Do I do any other impressions? I kind of do like micro impressions. Like I feel like there's like words or phrases or sounds. Like, yeah. Like, I probably can't talk in a full paragraph as the macho man, but I can do you. Oh, yeah. I can also do a few like Jason Statham lines. I'm the Baykeeper.

I'm the Baykeeper. I was watching the beekeeper on a plane recently. He doesn't even say that line in the movie with the whole time. I'm Jason Statham. I'm the beekeeper. I keep base. That's really it. I don't even think that's a good impression,

but I think the key is you just got to go all the way and you just got to commit. My wife is going to think that this is hilarious. You guys have me doing that. Corey Davies 3 on Spotify says, Ask CVV is Rhonda the guest that has sworn the most on your podcast? Not even close. Not even close. For sure, Will Osprey was the one who swore the most.

And the second that interview went up on YouTube, it immediately got demonetized because there was too much cursing. That's never happened with any other interview in the history of the show. So Will Osprey is number one by far. Rhonda might be top five, but I think if you go back and listen to the Lacey Evans interview, I think she has Rhonda beat there for sure. But nothing tops Will Osprey until Will Osprey returns to the show.

And then I'm sure we'll hear many, many more from Will Osprey. It is now my favorite part of the show, the Ask RVV section of AskCTVV. And my lovely, beautiful wife, Rachel, has been waiting in the wings for this one. So, hi, my love. Hi. And welcome back. You weren't on last week.

And the people were like, where was Rachel? I know. I missed everyone. And they missed you. And the RVV questions have been pouring in. I feel like you guys like my wife more than you like me. And I totally understand why. The people love you, honey.

I don't think that's true. but I think so. You're the man behind it all, you know. But you're the, I mean, without you, none of this is possible. This is from Go Abernathy on Instagram. Ask RVV. How does she deal when you have to travel? Would love to hear her insight.

Well, I think I've said this before, but there's a big distinction between have to and get to. And I think when you can reframe things, ah, man, I have to do this to, I get to do. this, it completely changes the way that you look at things. I'm insanely fortunate that I get to travel to do these interviews. When you think about the ones we've done recently, I got to travel to Detroit to interview Scott DeMore. I got to go to San Antonio to talk to Goldberg, got to go to Asheville, to talk to both Adam Copeland and Beth Phoenix, got to go to Houston, to talk to Booker T, got to go

to Las Vegas, to talk to Ray Mysterio, got to go to Austin, Texas, to talk to The Undertaker, and the The list goes, the question here. The list goes on it. How do you deal with it when I travel? I think we, we meaning Logan and I, deal fairly well without you around. What about our dog? Luna is a wreck without you, an absolute wreck. But we make do.

It's obviously, it's more, it's not like it's harder without you here. It's just lonelier. And I think we're lucky, right? Because, sure, I'll go away to like Toronto for money in the bank and I'm gone for, was that three days, I think. But then I'm home for like a week or two. And like I get to do things like today, randomly on a Thursday at 2 o'clock, get to go to swim lessons.

If I worked in nine to five and was in the office for eight or ten hours a day, I wouldn't get to do things like that. Right. Definitely. I think the only downside of your traveling is the fact that I don't get to go with you, but we're not in that season of life yet with. I wish you could. With little ones.

So maybe one day. With a almost 15 month old and then another one on the way. Yeah. And we might not be in that season for a little while. Yeah, that's fair. But one day. Thank you for everything you do for us, by the way. I'm glad I can say this publicly to you.

It's official now. Yeah. But no, seriously. Thank you. I wouldn't be able to get to do what I do without you being able to be able to look after our little girl and everything else that you do. Same. I wouldn't get to be able to do that if you didn't do this.

How lucky are we? Thanks, honey. You're welcome. Thanks for all you do. You're the best. Seth Rudgers on Facebook says, What's up, CVV? I have a question for RVV.

Does she listen to your podcast? What's her favorite interview that you've ever done? Keep up the great work. That is a great question, honey. That's a good question. I do listen to them. I do play them. Every Tuesday morning, Thursday morning and Friday morning when we wake up.

And these days very early because of Logan, it's often time that, it's most of the time, a time that begins with a five. It's like 530, 545. I'm like, just make sure to hit play on the podcast. We'll take that extra play on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or whatever. So just hit play. Yes. And I do.

I'm pretty, I'm pretty. I'm pretty religious about it where I'm trained for Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. I know I have a podcast to listen to. My favorite interview you've done, though, that's a tough one. I did listen to a lot of the John Cena one. So, but I think that's biased, though, because I was kind of not like a fan of his, but I was interested to hear his interview. Well, I get it.

You know, a super hardcore fan of. Yeah. Like you don't know like Booker T's backstory. You don't know like what, you know, he's the six time world champion. You're like, yeah, I don't know. But you know John C. That's one of my favorite interviews too. Yeah, that one I loved listening to bits and pieces of that.

Other than that, who else would have been a favorite of mine? I've done some interviews with some non-wrestling people where you've gotten a little bit excited. Yes. That was years ago, though, too. Oh, I thought you meant for the podcast. You mean like for movies. Like some movie junkets that I've done. You've been like, oh my gosh, you get to talk to.

George Clooney and, yeah. Oh, my goodness. Who was the one recently where you're like, tell them that your wife's a huge fan? Was it J-Lo? Was it J-Lo? I don't know. I don't remember. There was someone where you're like, tell them your wife really likes their work.

I'm like, yeah, I'll make sure to work that into the five-minute TV interview that I get. Kevin Hart, maybe? I don't know. Was it Kevin Hart? Kevin Hart's great. It was recently, though. You're right. We'll have to go back and see who you spoke to recently, but. I just appreciate you supporting me. Thanks.

I don't know. You're welcome. I don't realize this would turn into such a heartfelt moment here. But if you have more questions for my lovely, beautiful, talented wife, Rachel Van Blyte, send them in. Leave a comment on Spotify. Ask RVV. This is, this is my favorite part of every single episode. This is my favorite part of every single week. Thursday. When we get to do this. Thursday as we hang out, Friday as everybody listens. Yeah.

Thursday afternoons, it's become a thing. Yeah, we're like, when is the baby going to go take a nap? Okay, great. Let's go record. Make sure you're available. We have a blast. Okay, thank you, honey. I love you. Thank you, everybody. That's so nice. Just the best. Just the best. This episode is brought to you by Timeline.

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of mitochondere when you go there. So that's timeline.com slash insight for 10% off. Timeline.com slash insight. DTV.pro on Instagram says you can't have success without experiencing failure along the way. What is a failure that you acknowledge professionally that you may have thought was a good idea, but maybe didn't resonate. Continue to be great and grateful. Well, after that job that I had in Peterborough, I guess the other part of that story that I didn't tell is Ron took a chance on me and gave me an internship. And it was a trek. It was going an hour each way and not making any money. And I went to go into his office to say, hey, like, thank you so much for this incredible opportunity and all of the experience that I've got.

But at the end of the month, I just can't keep doing this anymore. And I went into his office to say that exact thing to him. And he goes, oh, Chris, I'm glad you came in here. I was looking for you. We don't have any job openings, but I was looking for a way to keep you around. So as of next Friday, that's your last day as an intern because I created a position and you're now a part-time reporter. I was like, what?

I came in here to tell you I was quitting. And you're giving me a job. He's like, well, you, good, because you are quitting being an intern. You're not doing this anymore because you're going to be an employee. After I had that job, so I was an employee there. I worked there for a year and a half. And then I got a job at MTV to Canada. That was where I did that very first wrestling interview with Bobby Lashley.

I was there in 2006 and 2007. I thought I was going to be there for, like, I started there when I was 23 years old. I thought I was going to be there until I was like 30. And then one big media giant, bought another big media giant company. They merged together. Chum got bought out by CTV if you're from Canada

and you're familiar with what I'm talking about here. And we thought, oh, amazing. We're going to move to a different office. We're going to get a whole new studio. This is great. And instead, they got rid of our show. they canceled our show.

And it was almost a year to the day from me moving out there. And Toronto to Vancouver is not close. I drove 47 hours in my 1995, Robins Egg Blue, Toyota Corolla. Drove from Toronto to Vancouver with my dad.

We broke up the drive over like four and a half days. Long drive. Ten-ish hours a day. And about a year later, our show got canceled and that was it. There was nothing else after that. It wasn't like your shows canceled,

but we're going to still keep you in the building and you're going to work on this other show. It was like, that's it. You're done. We all got let go. All the hosts, the camera operators, producers, edited all of us. And it was their way of freeing up some money.

And it hurt. It hurts so bad because this was a dream job. I was doing interviews with top celebrities and comedians and actors. I was reviewing video games as part of my job. It was incredible. And just like that, the rug was pulled out and it was all taken away. And that was really tough. I had just a few days to decide was I going to renew my lease for another year and

continue to live in Vancouver? Or was I going to pack up my 1995 Toyota corrupt? and move back home and try to figure out a job back home. And that's what I did. And when I say back home, I mean back into my parents' house. So I went from being on a national television show to living back in my parents' house and being unemployed. And I was unemployed for seven months.

And it was so difficult. Because I'd already tasted it. I had already had it. and now I've got nothing. It was during that time where I got to do a little bit of acting. I did a little bit of extra work. That was when I filmed the love guru. I was in the background of the love guru,

wearing a green shirt. I got to do some fun stuff during that time, but I made it my job during that time to find another job. That was a, I don't know if it's a failure, but that was a very difficult time in my life to go from doing what I loved doing with an incredible opportunity to do it on TV every single weekday to have nothing and not knowing if I would ever have a job in broadcasting again, not knowing if I would work in television anywhere ever again. That was really, really hard.

And I ended up getting an audition. I had many auditions and would come down to like me and one other person or me and two other people and would go to someone else, which was also just so heartbreaking. I was so close and then, you know, wouldn't be able to get it. And I had an audition for a show called Inside Jam on Sun TV. And I put so much work into that audition. And I just wanted to do my absolute best work so that if I went in there and, you know, and I just wanted to do my absolute best work so that if I went in there and, and just crushed the audition and I didn't get it, I knew that it wouldn't be because I didn't try hard enough

or I didn't prepare enough. I knew that it would just be they were going in another direction. They were going with someone that had a different look or someone that had maybe more experience or something like that. And I just was like, I just want to stack all the odds in my favor. And I don't want to leave any questions. And I went in and I just did whatever I couldn't audition. And I didn't hear from them for like two weeks.

And I was like, well, back to the drawing board. here we go again let's go look for another opportunity or another show or another audition then i got a call like late one evening and it was paul schmidt who was the showrunner or executive producer on that show and he offered me the job and he's like you killed that audition like you were so good in that audition. It was like, oh my gosh, like, thank you. So that, that was it for me, like a really tough part of my life. And not a failure, like it was a failure that was out of my control. I was the thing that was so tough about it. And I think it kind of goes back to what we were talking about with the wrestling retirements. When it's out of your control, there's just

something about it that makes you go, ah, like, I couldn't have done anything different and I would still have the same result here. But I'm glad that everything worked out the way that it was supposed to work out. There was also a point in time where I, like, right when I found out that our show had been canceled, there had just been an audition for E-News was coming to Canada. And there had just been an audition like a week before. And I reached out to the casting director that was doing that. And it was like, hey, I know that this just.

to close. I know you just did auditions last week, but like, here's my demo reel. Here's my resume. Like, could you just consider me? And they liked my stuff, but they were like, yeah, they've already done the auditions. They already have somebody in mind. And it ended up being a guy who I became good friends with Jason Ruta that got the job. And it's like, it's funny because if I got that job, my life would have been so different. And by the way, ENews Canada got canceled. So I And it got canceled years later. Like I think, I don't quote me on this, but like it lasted for five, seven years, something like that.

But my life would have been really different because I went to Toronto, back to Toronto, got that job on Sun TV, was there for two years. Then I got the job in Cleveland, which was my first chance to work in the U.S., my first ability to get a visa, which then turned into a green card, which then allowed me to stay in the U.S., and now I've been here for 14 years. all of those things happened to make me the person who I am right now as I record this. And for that, like I'm super, super grateful for that. Luke Penny 99 on Instagram says,

tips for coming to mania. I'm making the trip from Australia for my first ever WrestleMania next year. Well, congrats. That's going to be awesome. Enjoy every second of it. And make sure that you come a few days in advance so you're able to take in everything that the city has to offer. with WrestleMania. The cool thing about WrestleMania, wherever it is, whether it's in Philly

or it's in Dallas or it's in New Orleans or like next year, it's in Las Vegas, you're going to see so many wrestling fans around the city and it just makes it so cool. They'll just be at a random restaurant or you'll be at a random sports bar and you'll just turn around and there's an Austin 316 shirt. You turn around the other way and there's a Roman Rain's shirt. It's just, it's really cool that the whole city is just filled with like-minded people. But make sure to go to the superstore. They do a superstore for almost every PLE. I think it is every PLE. Yes, it is every PLE. But they go all out for WrestleMania. It's like it's part of the convention center. So make sure to be part of that. Make sure to do that. Make sure to check that out for sure. And that's free, by the way.

grab tickets for WWE World and just check out all the cool props. It's the closest thing, at least for now, that we're going to get to a physical Hall of Fame. Seeing all the old props

and just like being able to live that nostalgia, like, oh man, that's the thing from WrestleMania 12 or that's this thing from WrestleMania 5. That is so cool. Check out some indie shows.

There are plenty of them. So check out one or two indie shows. Maybe there's some American indie shows that you've heard a lot of buzz about or maybe there's some indie wrestlers that you've heard a lot of buzz about that happen to be wrestling on one of those shows. Make sure to do that. And if possible, if you have the ability to do it, go to both nights of WrestleMania. It's just so cool seeing how night one bleeds into night two.

And there are differences and there's nuances between night one and night two. but I think the biggest thing is just try to slow down and enjoy it. Oh, another big thing is try to stay close to where things are happening. And I know it's difficult, especially in Philly, things were spread out a lot. You're going to be really fortunate in Las Vegas that everything's going to be in or around the strip. So if you can now, I would book a hotel somewhere on the strip. So then you're close to everything. And you're not like taking 20-minute Ubers to try to go from wherever you're staying to

wherever like the actual events are happening because you're going to have WrestleMania at Allegiance Stadium. I'm guessing you're going to have raw or Smackdown or both and the NXT event at T-Mobile, which is also right there, T-Mobile Arena right there, right around where Elegion Stadium is. I still think they're going to do something at the sphere, which is the other end of the strip, but you know, what's that of eight-minute Uber ride? Stay somewhere close to the action so that you're, you're not like always having to rely on like, well, that's going to cost money to take an Uber there.

And that's going to cost money to take an Uber back. And just being, get to the stadium early too. I think that's another big part of it. Just get to the stadium early. Enjoy everything that's going on outside the stadium and around the stadium. Then when you do go in, just like take a ton of photos, take a ton of videos. Don't be afraid to like talk. to fellow wrestling fans there.

This is, it's an amazing event. This is our Super Bowl. It's so much fun, and I hope that you enjoy every second of it. And then on the plane ride home, look back through those photos, look back through those videos and be like, man, we had a, we had a heck of a time here. That was a really great bunch of days. So much fun. Yeah, wow, how do we, jethrill?

underscore 22. It's J-E-3 IEL underscore 22. Outside of wrestling, what inspired you to make this whole thing that you have right now? I think one of the biggest things is it's not wrestling that inspired me to start doing interviews. It's not wrestling that inspired me to do this podcast. I don't even really think of this as a wrestling podcast. Like I'm not like, yeah, we talk to wrestlers and we talk to people associated with wrestling. But I think that this is more of a podcast about life. And I take my inspirations from interviewers outside of wrestling. I take my inspiration from podcasts outside of wrestling. Because at the end of the day, I think what I'm most fascinated by is looking at someone who has achieved a ton of success in their career and trying to

reverse engineer that back and learn from something ourselves. When you look at someone like Ray Mysterio or Cody Rhodes or The Undertaker or Adam Copeland or Christian Cage or whoever it happens to be, they're in the spot that they're in because of a series of decisions and a series of different events that happened before that. And I just love to be able to learn from like, what was the decision that went into this? What was the decision that went into that? Like, that didn't, on paper, that didn't look so good, but it ended up turning into something else. that's where I really take my inspiration. Like I think I can boil it down to two words.

I've got two words for you. I think the two words that I would boil this down to is just sheer curiosity. That's what I'm driven by. Not just with interviewing, not just with YouTube, not just with content creation. I'm just, I'm driven by curiosity in life. And I think that if we could all be a little bit more curious, the world would be a better place because we would stop judging so much.

You would instead be curious as to why people did the things they did. And maybe there's a lesson that can be learned from them when they explain it. I think that far too often, people just jump to conclusions. Like when something's different

from what they wanted it to be or when they see someone doing something in a different way from how they would do it, they just jump to conclusions of like, well, that's, sucks or I don't like that. I would never do it like that. But then when you actually hear someone like breaking it down, you go, huh, I never really saw it like that. Yeah, I can totally appreciate where you're coming from. I still wouldn't do it that way, but now I have an understanding of why

you did it that way. Like I saw so many comments this week about Ronda Rousey in our episode. And to the people who did listen to that episode with an open mind, thank you. There were a lot of people who were just quick to go to the comments section and just talk about how much they didn't like Rhonda Rouse and they didn't even listen to the episode. And there was someone that was like, for someone who hates wrestling so much, Rhonda sure does seem to talk about it a lot.

In our interview, she literally says the words, I love wrestling, which nobody seems to be keying in on. Nobody seems to be talking about the fact that she literally says the words, I love wrestling. And then explained her frustrations,

with one person. Her frustrations were with Vince McMahon. It wasn't with WWE as a whole. It wasn't with wrestling as a whole. It wasn't with a certain opponent that she had. Her frustrations were with having, like going into storylines, going into promos, going into matches with no plan. There was no plan from Vince until like the absolute last second. And that's where her real frustrations came from. So again, curiosity. If you could just have a little bit of an open mind, not just for Rhonda Rousey, not just for these interviews, just in life. A little bit of curiosity and having an open mind will absolutely 100% change your whole perspective. Robbie James on Facebook says, hey, Chris, with Russell Kate announcing so many legends and

personalities this year, is there any chance that we'll see you attending this year in North Carolina? I've been to Russell Kate before. I had an absolute blast. I took a took a road trip there. Took a road trip there with Brian Pilman and Joe Alonzo. We had an absolute blast. Driving there, staying there, driving back. I will not be at Russell Kade this year. I would love to.

And they put on an amazing event and the talent they have there stacked. It's too close to when our babies do. Maybe boys do December 11th. And it would be very irresponsible of me in the last weekend of November to be going, all right honey i'm just flying to north carolina for the weekend uh try not to have the baby and i'll see you later with that said i'm also not going to be going to summer or sorry survivor series for the same reason again with should be at that point like 38 weeks pregnant i don't think i can be taking those kind of chances yeah see you later honey i'm going to survivor series in another in another

country um yeah just wait wait to have the baby till i come home so won't be at russell k won't be back in Vancouver for Survivor Series. I'll miss you guys, but I think we've got a pretty good reason here. Steve Link on Facebook says, with the latest success that WWE's been on lately, do you think that the concept of WWE New York as a restaurant could work again? Maybe they could try it in a different location like Toronto or Las Vegas.

I never got to go to WWE or WWF, New York, when that existed. It was in Times Square for anybody who doesn't know what I'm talking about. It was like an interactive restaurant. Like think of like Rainforest Cafe kind of like Hard Rock Cafe, but for WWF stuff, WWE stuff. And they had kind of like what we're talking about with WWE World. They had a lot of the memorabilia.

Like this was the shirt worn when so-and-so with the special guest referee and this match. Like really cool to see that kind of stuff. I think why that worked so well is when you. you think of the time that this existed, and it launched in 1999, and it stayed until 2003. This was a time when watching a pay-per-view was an event. I'm not saying it's not an event now, but watching a WWE pay-per-view was a lot like how people watch UFC pay-per-views. Like, I don't know where it's like where you live, but like the bars are packed, the sports bars are packed to watch a UFC pay-per-view these days, especially if it's a big car.

And I get it, it's $80 to order it. Like if you're going to, hey, $80 to watch it at home and it's just you and your family or you and one of your friends, like, it's a lot. But when you go to a restaurant and you're having a few drinks and you're eating some delicious chicken wings, you make an evening out of it. And that's what watching a WWE pay-a-pave view used to be. For a long period of time, it was, who's playing it? Which bar are we going to see this at?

Which restaurant are we going to see this at? and that's changed and shifted a lot. I know it still exists a little bit. Like you can still go to some sports bars and they're playing it, but when you're watching this on a peacock subscription that's $4.99 a month, it's a lot easier now to just stay home

and watch this in the comfort of your own home and be texting your buddies while you're doing it. So I think that that element of it is what made WWF New York work so well was there was the camaraderie of like, we're all coming together on this Sunday to watch the Royal Rumble or SummerSlam or Survivor Series or whatever the event happened to be. And with that not really being the way that PLEs are consumed really anymore,

I don't know if a WWE themed restaurant with a gift shop works in the same way on a 365 day a year basis. Even if you did it in a touristy area like they had it in time, or if you did it. Yeah, I could work in Las Vegas, but I went to the WWF store in Niagara Falls, Canada, when that existed. And there were a lot of times when I was the only person in there. And it was cool because this was in the days, like this was in the days when if you wanted something, you had to go to WWE shop. And if you lived in Canada, man, you were paying all kinds of shipping and taxes and possibly duty. It was so cool, like to see your favorite shirt, of your favorite superstar just like hanging there on the on the rack and you could just grab one

and go. Like that was a really cool element of it. But again, there were a lot of times when I walked into the WWF store in Niagara Falls and there were nobody in there. So I think it could work, but it would just, it would have to work in a different way. I also think that we're living in a time where with TKO overseeing things with WWE and UFC, if this was a viable business decision, they would already be talking about this,

which makes me think that it's probably not something that could make them a lot of money. So they're going, yeah, we'll just continue to do things the way that we do things. And I think there's other cool ways, like the stores that they have, the super stores that they have at every PLE, if they had that 20 years ago,

that would have been an absolute game changer. Instead, you got, you know, small little merch stands at the event, but the fact that someone who's in town but not attending the PLE can still go into the superstore and buy stuff, that's a pretty cool thing. So I think they've figured out ways around this, but I don't think a 12 month a year, 365 day a year thing can really work and function with the way that wrestling is consumed now. Dustin Jackson on Facebook, Hey, CVV, it's my birthday this Saturday.

Well, happy early birthday to you, Dustin. Do you share your birthday with any wrestlers or famous people? I share mine with Bronson Reed and Tim Burton. Love the show. Well, also, I guess then happy birthday to Bronsonardt and Tim Burton. I share my birthday with Maxine Dupree. And if you check out the episode that I did with her, we share the birthday May 19th.

Don't tell Kane, right? It was actually really fun explaining to Maxine Dupree, who would have been, whatever, four years old when the May 19th storyline was happening with Kane. I was explaining to her the significance of our birthday in wrestling and like it angered Kane so much May 19th. We also share a birthday. Me and Maxine Dupree also share a birthday with Andre the Giant and also with George

St. Pierre. So we are in very good company there with our May 19th birthday. And that is the last question that we've got for. ask CVV number 45. Now Michael Jordan edition, also the Pedro Martinez edition and the Archie Griffin edition. I always have a blast hanging out with you guys on this one and also being able to spend a little bit of time with my lovely wife. So if you have any questions for Ask CVV number 46, and if you can let me know who you think number 46 should be, leave a comment on Spotify, send me a message on social media using that hashtag AskCTV. shoot me an email CVV at chris fanvly.com.

Also, send your ask RVV questions. I learn so much about my wife every single time we do these ask RVVs. And it's also fun to like have her come into my little office here, close the door. Ah, yeah, and just and just ask some questions and answer them. Okay, that's all we're doing in here while we've got the very brief amount of time while the baby is sleeping. Send in your ask RVV questions as well, because I always have such a blanchev questions. last with those. I'll leave you a quote, leave you with a quote from Albert Einstein. I was actually DDP that said this recently on a video and I loved it so much. It's not that I'm so smart.

It's just that I stay with problems longer. Man, when I heard that, I was like, it's so true. We so often give up on things so quickly. Give up on people so quickly. And I'm not saying you should stick with people, you know, despite their faults and their flaws all the time. I mean, I think there's sometimes when cut bait and just move on. But it's not that I'm so smart. It's just that I stick with problems longer. That's brilliant. Be great.

Be grateful. Have an amazing weekend, my friends. We will see you on the next one for some more insight with the governor. Jesse Ventura. We'll see you on Tuesday for that one. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, There were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock.

But there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them?

To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Allie. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.