Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #47 - Best WWE Crowd Of The Year, Fantasy Booking WrestleMania 41, Ricochet in AEW

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

Welcome to AskCVV #47! On this episode, Chris recaps WWE Bash In Berlin and answers questions about the best WWE crowd of the year, Ricochet signing with AEW, the best Royal Rumble moment ever, what the possible WrestleMania 41 main events will be, pop punk Mount Rushmore, the trailer for the Netflix "Mr. McMahon" documentary 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: The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. – Ralph Waldo Emerson Complete this survey for your chance to win $500: https://bluewirepods.com/survey 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

Okay, welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. Thank you for being with us on this one. And thank you, as always, for helping to make Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. If you haven't yet, hit a big old assaye moon salt on that follow button. If you're one of the thousands of people

who just listen to the show, but don't follow the show. I would hate for you to be one of those people. So hit that follow button on. Spotify or Apple Podcast, so you don't miss out on any of the big episodes that we have coming up. Big episodes. I think I've already told you who the next guest is, but I would like to remind you that Tuesday's episode is with none other than Dave Batista.

And then we've got some really big ones coming up over the next few weeks here. There may be someone over the next few weeks that breaks heart. and they're not a sexy boy. I'm just saying that that might be an episode that could possibly be happening. But you'll only find out about that if you're following the show. How's your week been? Good week for you. I just got back from Chicago.

I was there for that massive event that Mojo Raleigh put together, Mojo Mutati, I'm sorry, formerly known as Mojo Raleigh. At Black Label Pro in Chicago, the first ever wrestlers combine. And the whole idea here, and this was legit, by the way. The whole idea is people have always wondered who's the fastest wrestler, who's the strongest wrestler, who has the most endurance. So Mojo got four men, four women, and they competed against each other to find out, like, the actual answer to this.

They went head to head in events like running the ropes, who ran the ropes the fastest, arm wrestling. Then there was like a lockup, but then you had to wrestle and push your opponent into the ropes. That was crazy to watch. and then there was like a tug of war using a tire. Check it all out. It streamed live on my main Chris Van Fleet YouTube channel. The winners for the women.

Feel like this would have been a good guess. Like if there were betting odds on this, the juggernaut. Jordan Grace would have probably been the favorite. She ended up winning for the women. For the men, Mike Rawless is just an absolute beast. An absolute beast of a man. You'll remember him as Madcap Moss.

in WWE, an absolute monster. Just if nothing else, go watch the video of him running the ropes. It was crazy. I was standing right there on the ring apron watching this happen. It's like, oh my gosh. So that was just such a blast and so great to be able to see so many of you guys in Chicago and also at the airport as well. That was a blast.

And this weekend, this weekend I'm going to be in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I'm at Three Legacies Wrestling, which is the promotion put on by Ricardo Rodriguez. It is their two-year anniversary. So I'm pumped to be there with you guys. If you live in PA or you live around that area, check out three legacies wrestling.com to check out all the info there and also to grab a ticket. So looking forward to seeing you guys there. And man, it's just, there's been a lot.

There has been a lot going on. I was saying to my wife, saying to Rachel, like, oh, yeah, I'm not going to be traveling like as much in September. And then, I mean, here we are six days, not even a week into the month. And I've already gone to Chicago and back. And that was like, I think I was in Chicago for 16 hours or something like that. And then it's going to be Pennsylvania and back. That's, I think, I'm there for like two nights.

Someone's a pretty quick one. Then my dad and I are continuing our tradition next week. We go to a different Major League Baseball Stadium every single year. So next week, we're going to Seattle. We're seeing a Mariners game. And then taking a red-eye flight from there to Orlando to do some interviews there that maybe I just hinted to earlier, possibly, maybe not. And then another one or two.

And really, anybody lives in Orlando. So that could be, you could guess anybody's name. And it could be a fair guess. then after that, I've got some other, a lot of other travel going on. So maybe October we're not traveling as much. I don't know. But welcome, my friends, to ask CVV number 47, the Jack Morris, Tom Glavin, and Andrei Kralenko edition. AK-47, doesn't he have the best name in all pro sports, Andre Kralenko, AK-47?

man, but thank you for being with us on this one. If you have a question for the next Ask CVV. Send it in using the hashtag AskCTVV on social media. Shoot me an email, CVV at chrisbandbley.com, or leave a comment on Spotify. We're like top 10, top 20 of all sports podcasts on Spotify. All of them. I'm sure that will change with the NFL season starting up this week.

but it's pretty cool to see insight up there with like Travis and Jason Kelsey. Like that's mind blowing or to see it with like all these big sports shows from like ESPN or Barstool or Fox Sports. It's just crazy. So this is all because of you guys. So thank you. Let's kick things off with this one from Paul Sanders on Instagram. What's up, CVV?

What did you think of Bash in Berlin? Keep up the great work. I thought that Bash in Berlin was solid. But what took this up a notch or two or two and a half notches, whatever, was that crowd. My goodness, that crowd elevated this so much. And we talked about this on the last Ask CV how when you looked at the card, it just kind of seemed pretty predictable. I don't know why I didn't think that Jade and Bianca were going to win that match. I was just like, I don't know, this could go either way.

they've got bigger things for them. No, that didn't. That really didn't make a lot of sense. But we nailed everything else in there. From the way that Ria Ripley got the pin, we even predicted that. But what elevated this and what made this like must-see TV, what made you not want to be able to take your eyes away from the screen was the crowd. And this has been the case for every, not every PLE, that's not correct, for most of the PLEs that have taken place outside of North America this year. I mean, backlash in France. Crowd was crazy. Clash of the castle, wild. And obviously, I think if we go back to backlash in Puerto Rico, that's where things just really seem to turn up. And I say this as a Canadian, that every time the crowd would go to Toronto or

Montreal, you know that it would be a different crowd, maybe a smarter crowd, perhaps a louder crowd, you'd get some strange chance. Like, that would always be something that would kind of always be on the calendar and you look at it and you go, oh, yeah, that'll be interesting. That'll be a good one. Although, again, I say this as a Canadian, sometimes those crowds are just trying to put themselves over. The crowds, it seems for me, backlash, whether that's in Puerto Rico or that's in

France, clash of the castle, bash in Berlin, they're just having a blast. They're just having such a good time. and if they continue to have this many of their PLEs outside of North America, man, this bar is just going to keep getting raised higher and higher and higher. Like, how can this crowd outdo the last one? And it's funny because we were kind of on a roll there and then they went back to Toronto for Money in the Bank. And it was like, and then Cleveland for SummerSlam.

and I just think that we were so used to hearing those crazy wild crowds and the unpredictable chance that those crowds seemed so they were still loud. I was there for both of them. They were still loud. Trust me. And I know that people were saying that the Summer Slam crowd wasn't good. Come on, guys. I think you're forgetting that this was an open air stadium.

All of the sound is just going up and out and that's it. Whereas when it's in an arena, it goes up and then it bounces back down. And that's why it sounds louder. they were loud money in the bank and summer slam were loud they just weren't as loud as the previous p lees that we had had so bastion berlin very solid show thoroughly enjoyed it but that crowd man that was a lot of fun a lot of fun real on tricks real what did i what is this real own tricks on what did you think of the trailer that came out for the Mr. McMahon Netflix series?

Well, it's so interesting because we had heard last week that this was announced, and we got the date, September 25th. Now that we're actually seeing this, it certainly makes it a lot more intriguing. It should be pointed out that now we know WWE does not have production credits on this, which tells me they don't have a say in how this is edited or how Mr. McMillard.

man or anybody else in this is portrayed. So it's going to be really interesting. And the trailer even does this a little bit where the story starts out as like, look at this self-made billionaire, look at what he built, look at this global product that he created, and then about halfway through it turns into, yeah, but then there was this lawsuit. And then there were these allegations. So it's going to be really interesting to see how all of this is handled.

How much of this is going to be, look at how brilliant of an entrepreneur he is, look how great of a businessman he is, and how much of it is going to be, yeah, but there are these allegations that he did some not so good stuff. What's the balance they're going to be? Because outside of the Janelle Grant lawsuit, outside of that, There's just a lot of people that have said over the years that like Vince is maybe a bit of a scummy person or maybe he doesn't treat people that well. And we've heard that from former employees. We've heard that from people that, like business partners of his.

And it'll be really interesting to see what the balance is here. I feel like every wrestling fan is going to be watching on September 25th just to see. how this gets you. This was produced by the same person who brought us Tiger King. Tiger King, I mean, when you watch the trailer for Tiger King, you're like, yeah, I don't know.

That's a kind of interesting fellow who is in there with tigers. It's kind of interesting, I guess. There was something about the way that they told that story that had you hooked. And yes, I understand that in 2020, April of 2020, or it was March of 2020,

when that came out, we didn't have a lot to do. I could tell you exactly where you and I were, you know, at the end of March and early April of 2020, we were sitting on our couches trying to figure out what to watch on Netflix or Hulu or HBO Max or whatever it was. There was something about the way that they told the story in Tiger King that had us hooked and made you need to watch the next episode. If even just a little bit of that is applied to this docu-series,

this could be one of those things that you watch all six episodes in one day. So very, very curious how the story is told and what exactly the story is told here. And the fact that Raw is on Netflix, yes, beginning in January of next year, this is going to be coming out three-ish months beforehand. I wonder if the two will play into each other at all. We're already starting to see WWE kind of intermixing and intermingling in the Netflix world.

Did you watch the hot dog eating contest on Labor Day? Did you see that? The goat, Joey Chesta, taking on Kobayashi, and you had these appearances. Omas was there. You had Ray Mysterio walking out with the commemorative WWE championship. So, like, the intermingling is already there.

The seeds are already being planted to say, hey, just so you know, these are some of the people. You might be seeing when Raw comes to Netflix next year. So I'm just really curious, and I just can't wait to see how this all plays out. Tonyo Level, Tonyo Nevels left this on Spotify. What should the main event be at WrestleMania 41? There are a lot of possibilities here, but the two, I mean, we're going with two main events, right?

Saturday, Sunday, sorry, not Saturday, Sunday. No, it is. It's no longer night one, night. to it's Saturday and Sunday. I think that if we were to do like fantasy booking right now and we are months away from this, months and months away from this, it seems like Rock Roman, because it was teased so much last year, it seems like Rock Roman is bound to happen with Rock being the final boss, Mega Heel doing such great work.

And Roman kind of being like a tweener right. now. And I think that by the time WrestleMania rolls around, he could be a full-on baby face. So that could set up for an epic match. And I think that's a match that Rock has been pushing for for a while. Like, obviously, there was the talk

of that happening at WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles. And Rock said, like, the deal was there, ready to go. And they just couldn't come to terms on it, which, I've said this before. But the way he phrased that made me think that Rock wanted a in and Roman didn't want that to happen and that was a sticking point here or maybe

WWE didn't want that to happen and that was a sticking point for that match not coming together. So I go Rock Roman and then Sina Randy Orton. Those are the matches that I could see happening and look, a lot could happen between now and April of next year. I mean, look at all the things that happen between Royal Rumble of this year and WrestleMania 40. Punk was taken out of the mix. The whole Rock Roman build up,

you know, we want Cody and the Cody Cry babies. So much changed there. And WWE was good about it. They listened to the crowd when we're talking about the rock Roman Cody stuff and the CM Punk. Well, that's just an unfortunate injury. But I don't know.

The payoff here with everything that's going on with Drew really feels like we got a much better situation out of it. So I shared something earlier on Twitter that was really interesting. This is from a user named L-U-I-Raines, so Lou Rains, perhaps. He said, book these matches at WrestleMania 41 and all wrestling fans will be happy. So let me know what you think of this.

This is four matches. And all the comments are kind of like, oh, yeah, that's pretty good. I wouldn't change much. I wouldn't change anything. Rock Roman's one of them. Cody and Randy Orton's the other one, Gunther and Sina, and then CM Punk and Seth Rollins.

I mean, if those were four of the matches that we got, I certainly wouldn't be complaining there. I just say Sina versus Randy because this is Sina's last WrestleMania. And I've said this a few times, but he has two really big matches next year. his WrestleMania match and then his final match. I'm pretty convinced that it's going to be Randy Orton in his final match,

so maybe it doesn't need to be Randy Orton at WrestleMania. But you really could tell a great story between now Survivor's series into the Royal Rumble and then into Mania where Randy Orton's a champion. And you've got a great rivalry there with John Cena. And they could tell a great story of Mania. It could also be John Sina telling some sort of story here with CM Punk. I mean, that's a great rivalry as well. And could be really interesting to see how that all shakes out.

We're going to get a lot more of these questions answered when Sina comes back, which happens to be when Raw goes to Netflix. So I just think January, it's just going to be like a full sprint of like, oh, my gosh, John Sina is back. We're going to see him frequently. I don't think it's every week. We're going to see him frequently. But it's like, okay, he's back. How many matches is he able to have? How many stories is he able to tell in that time?

It's going to be really, really interesting. G. Curley left this one on Spotify. Am I the only one bum to see ricochet in AEW? I do like both shows. And I know that he didn't reach his full potential in WWE, whether that was due to booking or lack of mic skills. I really thought he was going to come back and feud with Breaker. I think if he would have stuck it out,

Triple H would have put him in the right scenarios to succeed. He'll have great matches in AEW, but I'm afraid there won't be a storyline, and I won't care as much, thanks CVV. I'm not bummed that ricochets in AEW. I'm happy for him. Here's the thing. If he's happy there, and this was his decision,

he had the option to stay in WWE, decided that when his contract was done, that was it. He was leaving. So if this is the decision that he made, I'm happy for him. If he weighed all of the options here and decided, even though his significant other is in WWE and they'd be able to spend more time together because they'd be working together, even though, that's a big part of this, even though that was there on the table, He still went, I think this other thing is better for my career. So I'm excited to see what he's able to do in AEW. There are a lot of dream matches for him there.

The one that immediately pops to mind is doing some more stuff with Will Osprey and making some more magic there. I can't wait for that. But this should all come down to what's in the best interest for the wrestler themselves. And if this is what he chose to do for himself and for his family, then we should all be happy for this. So, yeah, you might be bummed that he didn't reach his full potential in WWE, but he was also able to have pretty incredible career there. Intercontinental champion, United States champion, NXT, North American champion, a lot of great stuff there. Tons of amazing memorable moments and things that make you go, oh, my God.

I can't even believe that's real. But if this is what he thinks is best for him, amazing. Hats off to him and congratulations on making the move. Let's go. Mr. Kado? Mr. underscore K-K-E-A-U-X-L-D. How am I supposed to pronounce that?

Co-Coltz? Have you ever had to cut out certain parts of an interview that you've done with a wrestler? Yes. It's not often, but I was pretty open that when we did the Cody Rhodes interview, there was a little brief bit that I was asked by Cody to cut out. And that will just be something that me and the other, me and Cody and Brian, who's his agent, we're in the room. We will be the only people who know about that. And this doesn't happen often, but this is just one of those cases where he said something that he just

didn't like the way that it came across. And he's like, you know what? Probably better that we that we take that out. We've done 651 episodes of the show. Obviously, some of those have been CVV asked CVV questions or interviews. Ask CVV episodes. So there's been, whatever, close to 600 episodes of the podcast. I can count on one hand how many times we've edited something out. I can remember one specifically. I won't tell you who it was, but I was asked by that person to remove things for legal purposes. They said some things. They were like, you know what? I think that that could really guess come back and not be good for me. So could you cut out this exact sentence and also this exact sentence? And I was like, yeah, absolutely.

Sure. But for the most part, you know, if it's been five out of 600, that's less than 1%. For the most part, what you see is what you get. What you hear is what you get. And that's it. Passion, drive, and patience. The formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. Superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more. Whether you're into speed, power, or style, eBay Motors has you covered. With over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die, you'll always find exactly what you're looking for. And with eBay guaranteed fit,

your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back. Because with eBay Motors, you're burning rubber, not cash. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it's easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins. Keep your ride or die alive today at eBay motors.com. Eligible items only, exclusions apply. Michael emailed this one and said, Hi, as CVV and RVV.

Chris, after hearing the crowd in Europe singing and chanting, what's the best chant you've ever heard? Mine was AEW double or nothing when the crowd chanted. Please be careful and please help Darby. I've always been a fan of both these guys. these guys, both these guys. That's one of those great chance where, like, you're cheering for both people at the same time

and, like, along those same lines, fight forever. Those have been some of my favorites. In terms of the unique, like, one-off type of chance, the please don't die has always been a funny one. And I love the very first time I heard Joe's gonna kill you, chanted like, you know,

the way they chanted for Samoa Joe, Joe's gonna go. kill you. I was like, oh, that's brilliant. So I think those are some of my favorites. I talked about this when I was a guest on The Undertaker's podcast, but I think that this is awesome has been so insanely overused. Like it comes to the point where like it's a, it's a okay match and maybe it's the best match of the night. But not everything deserves a This Is Awesome chant or not every stare down deserves a This Is Awesome chant or not every debut deserves a This Is Awesome chant. or not every debut deserves a This Is Awesome chance.

So I'm just asking you guys. I know it's awesome and you're there and you're experiencing it and it's amazing, but we got to raise the bar a little bit on the This Is Awesome chant. That's all I'm saying. Not everything is awesome. Like I don't think every single show has something that's awesome. Like this is, it might be more appropriate to chant. This is the best thing I've seen tonight,

clap, clap, clap, clap, clap. I'm really enthralled by this, you know, something like that. But this is awesome. I don't know. I just feel like that. Once a month. I mean, maybe once a month,

once per promotion. I don't know. I don't know why I'm setting arbitrary rules about this. There is an RVV question here. Someone actually, someone said like, is Rachel just sitting next to you the whole time while you're recording?

So that when someone asks an RVV question, she's just there? I'm right here, just anxiously waiting in case my turn comes up. Just in case someone might happen to ask a question of you. I was just here for that whole answer. And please don't die. I wish you could have seen the look I gave him when he said. Should we tell him how we really do this?

Should we reveal our secret? No, keep them guessing. Yeah, Rachel just sits here for like 30, 40 minutes. Is there a question for me? is there? But I'd like to officially welcome in my beautiful, lovely, super sexy wife. Rachel, better known as RVV. Hi, hon. Hello. RVV. This is also from Michael who emailed us him. Who's your favorite wrestler turned movie star

and what film? Oh, good question. You know, I'm always so bad with coming up with movies on the spot too. Like gun to my head, I'm always the worst when it comes to naming movies. Well, the obvious, everyone always goes, John Cena the Rock, Dave Batista. Well, I was actually thinking because we just saw him

in that knives, not just saw him, but that was the first movie to come to mind. And I thought he was great in that, but that's also the only thing I've ever seen him in. But I trust that he's also a good actor

and quite a few other things too. He has some incredible range. He's so good in the Killers game, which I interviewed him for you. You guys will be seeing that episode on Tuesday. Drew McIntyre is also in that one. But the range that he can play like Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy. And then he can also go and play like a comedic character like Stuber. Okay. I guess I've seen him in Gardens of the Galaxy as well. He can play like he's so good

in Dune. Have you seen Spector? I don't think you've seen the James Bond film. No. Really good in that one. He has just amazing range. Knock at the cabin, I think might be his, I might think that's his best performance. That sounds like a scary movie. Yeah, it is. Okay, so you're going with Dave Batiste on that. I like it. Okay, I like that.

Christian Punch on Facebook says, I haven't asked RVV question. Do you think she could name four previous WWE champions? This is kind of like just saying, can you name four wrestlers? Because if you name four popular people, they're probably going to be champions. Can I just look around the,

room real quick. No cheating. No cheating. The Rock. Hulk Hogan. Uh-huh. John Sina. Yeah.

Who else we got? Who else we got over here? I can't see with the glare on those two. Oh, yeah. They're holding. In fact, I think everybody that's hanging up there with the exception of the two on the left, they are all WWA. Steve Austin.

Hey. Yes. Wow. Look at you. Could you have done any of those? I could have 100% gotten all four of those without looking, but this help. Yeah, this helped. I won't ask you anything tougher. But Christian, great question. Thank you for joining me as always. Sending your Rachel fan fleet questions, send in your Ask RVV questions by leaving a comment on Spotify or by using the hashtag Ask RVV on social media or just email it in like our friend Michael did.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's always so good to have you. I should get two mics for this. Yeah, you should see us sharing on microphone right now. Back and forth with the microphone. You do have two. I do.

And yes, they would both plug into the Zoom H4N, which I'm plugged into right now. Alert. They would. I should grab two. I don't have two mic stands for the, like the desktop. I can just hold one, though.

Oh, there we go. Well, thank you. Love you, honey. She's the best. The best. Chris on Spotify. Great name, by the way. Never met a Chris that I don't like.

Would you ever be willing to do long-form interviews with wrestling adjacent celebrities like Stephen Amel, for example, who's been on AEW and WWB programming and has also done his own wrestling show? Funny that you mention Stephen Amel. I just had him in the studio on Tuesday of this week. Heels is coming to Netflix. on September 15th. So we were chatting all about Netflix and his wrestling fandom.

He's a mega fan. He went to WrestleMania 6 and 18 because he's from Toronto. He watched WrestleMania 4 on closed circuit inside Maple Leaf Gardens. He's a big fan. So not only has he done stuff with WWE and AEW, he also had a match in Ring of Honor as well.

And yes, of course, the great work that he's done as Jack Spade in Heels. So you can check that interview out next Thursday. What a week. What a week next week. Dave Batista on Tuesday, Stephen Amel on Thursday. So September 12th, Stephen Amel joining me in the studio. And I've had quite a few wrestling adjacent people come on the show. Will Sassau, Freddie Prince Jr., O'Shea Jackson Jr., Paul Walter Houser, like people that have some sort of tie in to wrestling. It's just always so interesting. First of all, it's just hearing about their

random in general. And then also like what's the actual tie in there? Like with Paul Walter Hauser, it's he had a match with Matt Cardona. And then he also had a match with Sammy Callahan, which why would anyone choose to, like he called him out on my show. Why would, why would you call out Sammy Callahan? That guy's insane. Amazing. But insane. And Freddie Prince Jr. used to write for WWE. You worked there two separate times. Clark Duke could be another one. You, You know him from what we actually talked about him during the interview with Caleb Braxton. But you'll know him from the office. You'll know him from Hot Tub Time Machine and a whole bunch of other stuff.

He lives not far from our studio. That'd be another really good one to have. But Stephen Amel next Thursday on the show, yes. Indy Ka. That's C-A-H. Hey, Chris, this is also on Spotify. Hey, Chris, so cool to hear Drew outside of what we see on TV. My favorite Royal Rumble moment of all time is hearing that pop for

Drew when he eliminates Lesnar from the Rumble after Lesnar dominated for half the match. What's your favorite Royal Rumble moment? That was a pretty great moment. Seeing Drew win that rumble, I still, I mean, I talked about it with Drew, but, man, it would have been cool for him to beat Lesnar, totally unrelated, but for him to beat Lesnar, WrestleMania 36 in front of a packed crowd in Tampa. My favorite rumble moment is 2008. Number 30, it's John Sina.

How the heck is he here? We thought he was going to be out for, what was it, nine months? And he somehow rehabbed himself and got back in three. Just the look on his face. The look on his face of like, yeah, I'm here. Yeah, I worked as hard as I could to come back and be here for the Royal Rumble. Yeah. I'm here. And then Triple H, the way he's selling it in the ring of like this disbelief,

that's the moment for me. I get goosebumps when I watch it. I get goosebumps when I talk about it. That is one of the all-time best returns for sure. Space Odyssey 919 on Instagram. CVV, you're the man. Thanks for getting me through a lot of long shifts at work. You've mentioned that you're a pop punk fan a few times. who is on your pop punk Mount Rushmore? Well, I'm a fan of a lot of different music. Like if you were to look at my Spotify favorite, like, you know, where you like the song and it creates your own little playlist,

a lot of country, hip hop, rock, it's a lot of pop music. You've heard me talk about pop music. And yes, of course, some punk and pop punk music. My pop punk Mount Rushmore. Blink 1-82. first spot for me. Now, I mean, this is the thing.

Why don't I say first spot? It's not like the ranked. It's just four. We're just putting four up there. It's not one, two, three, four. It's four. But I'm putting Blink 182 up there because I remember hearing what's my age again when I was like 17. Heard that for the first time.

And I was just like, yes, this is great. And then I like dove into that whole anime of the state album was so good. Start to finish. What an album. And I still remember it to this day. Dumpweed. Don't leave me. Don't leave me all alone.

Aliens exist. Going away to college. What's my age again? It goes on and on and on. We've got Adam's song on there and mutt and anthem. So many great songs. Then I dove into some of their older stuff. Blink 122 for sure.

I have a similar story about Newfound Glory. When I first heard Newfound Glory's self-titled album with like hit or miss on it and dressed to kill. It was just like, it immediately, I was like, this is my kind of music, especially at that time of my life. I was in high school at the time. It just hit me at the right time. And I was still listening to a whole bunch of other stuff, but those were the songs I was burning on to CDs. And anybody who's around my age knows exactly what I'm talking about. And you had them in that book, you know, you know the CD book that you had in your car. Maybe it was shoved under the seat of your Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla or Ford Focus or

whatever car you had. I had the thing, and you probably did too, where you had the portable CD player, and it was plugged in on that little flimsy little wire that went into the cassette deck of your car so that your cassette player in your car could play your CD player. could play your CDs. Yeah. Some 41, also in the Mount Rushmore, mostly because they were from one town over from me. So I was from Pickering, I am from Pickering, Ontario. They're from Ajax, Ontario. So 10 minutes away, they went to a high school that people I knew went to. They were a few years older than me. So it's not like I could say, oh, yeah, my friends went to school with Steve-O and Derek. That

wasn't the case, but it was just cool knowing that a band that was from so close to where I grew up could make it so big. And like every time I hear like Fat Lip or In Too Deep, it's just stuck in my head forever. Like even just the riff of In Too Deep, that da-da-dun-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Like that'll be stuck in your head now if you're a Some 41 fan. And then those three came pretty easy to me. I think for the last spot here. And there's so many bands that could possibly be on here. And this is certainly no shade to any of those other ones.

But just like for personal reasons. And Mount Rushmore's are always like, how does it make you feel? Like how does it get you in the feels? And especially with music from that. era. When you're talking about music from high school and college, that hits you in the nostalgic feels. And nostalgia is a hell of a drug. So for the fourth spot for me, it's Hawthorne Heights. Because they were like the first band that really kind of like introduced me to just a slight bit of screaming in the music. And that led to listening to other bands that had just a little bit of

screaming, like under oath, for example, or story of the year. But Ohio is for lovers, just that song when I first heard it in college, I was like, okay, I've had that on repeat. And then coincidentally, however many years later, a decade later, not quite a decade later, it would have been like seven years later, I moved to Ohio. I worked in Cleveland. And it was like, it all just kind of came full circle. So there's just a lot of elements of them and so much of their music I love. I love tons of their albums. But, There was something about that song at that time that just hit me. But there's a lot of other bands that I love, I would love going to see them live.

I still will listen to them. Like seek out late 90s, early 2000s, pop punk playlist on Spotify. I'm like, oh, yeah, good Charlotte, All American Rejects. It's just yellow card. So many great bands. Jimmy Eat World, Fallout boy, taking back Sunday,

census fails. Census fails also another one where it's like, okay, I guess I like a little bit of screamo here. We the Kings, like simple plan, another Canadian band,

panic at the disco. I mean, the list could go on and on and on and on and on and on. Again, not shade to any bands I didn't list there, but it's just really nostalgic for me when you start to talk. about all that type of stuff.

Hey guys, it's Chris. Would you like an extra $500? Go to bluewirepods.com slash survey and complete the Blue Wire audience survey there about you and your podcast listening habits for your chance to win a $500 gift card. This survey is going to help create a better advertising experience for you. And in turn, help the show. That's bluewirepods.com slash survey.

And all you have to do is answer a few simple questions for your chance. to win $500. Make sure to read the full terms and disclaimer, plus complete the survey for your chance to win. Bluewirepods.com slash survey. The link is also in the show notes of this episode. Joshua Sutton left this one on Facebook.

Ask CVV, massive fan for the last seven years now. Your positive energy is unmatched. Seven years. My dude, thank you, Joshua. I'm a wrestler trying to make a name for myself. I'm curious. In 2024, what would you say? is a key ingredient to making a name for yourself as a wrestler in this current age of wrestling.

Hope the family is doing well. Thanks. I think that Matt Cardona has really made a blueprint for what you can really do for yourself as an independent wrestler in this current era of wrestling. And I understand that he had the benefit of working in WWE for 14 years. I get that. But everything that he's doing now, day in and day out and week in and week out with the self-promotion of everything that he does. Check out, if you don't follow him, go check out his page and watch the videos where it's him sitting on the edge of the ring doing a seminar for, it's either a local wrestling school or local wrestling promotion. But he's just given out so much wisdom here. And one of the things that really struck me as someone who posts a lot

on social media, as he said he was talking to someone backstage at the NWA, and that person, that wrestler was saying, oh, I post all the time on social media. And Matt goes, oh, yeah, give me your phone. Let me see. Dude, you have them posted on Instagram in two days. What are you doing? And the idea here is, like, these are free eyeballs. These are free eyeballs that are out there.

Like, just get as much of your stuff in front of them as you possibly can, whether that's clips of your matches, whether that's promos, whether it's match posters, whatever it happens to be, just like keep feeding that beast. That's such a big important part of this. Nobody else is going to promote you as much as you're going to promote yourself. And if you're going to rely on match posters that the promotion puts out or that the promoter puts out, then you're barely going to get the word out about yourself. So I think that you should take your matches, clip up any fun or memorable moments from it that describe who you are as a wrestler. Or if someone just sees these seven seconds of this match, they'll be able to go, oh, man,

Joshua Sutton. Wow. Check that out. So I would utilize social media to your advantage. And it can be whatever platform you want. But if you have the time and the resources to do it, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. Twitter, do it all. Like, throw it all out there.

I'm very aware that there are people that found this show. Maybe you're one of the people listening right now. You only found this show because I happen to stumble across your For You page on TikTok. And I didn't even really post on TikTok until like two years ago. So that would have been an entire group of the audience that I would have completely missed out on. And if you look at my stuff, if you follow my stuff, I'm often posting the same. piece of content across all the different platforms because I know that the same person who's utilizing Instagram might not be utilizing TikTok or the same person that's subscribed to my CVV clips channel

on YouTube might not even have a Twitter. So you throw as much spaghetti as you can up against the wall. And I think the other thing is try to pick the brains of other people who have been in the places that you want to be. So if you're on a show, if you're booked on a show and there's a veteran there, I think Matt Cardona or any other veteran would say, like, don't ask them to watch your match because they've got a thousand other things to do while they're booked for that show. But maybe think of a thoughtful or poignant question that you could ask them that might help guide you in the direction that you want to go. I mean, they've been there.

They've done it. They've already done all the things that you want to do. Pick their brain. Not for an hour or, you know, the whole time they're there. Just ask them like one or two questions. that would really help to guide you on your path. So that's the advice that I would have, but go check out with Matt Cardona.

The advice that he's spewing on his social media, if you haven't already, really, really good stuff. C-R-R-R-A-T. This is on Facebook, S-E-A-R-H-A-T. CVV, Damian Priest was one of your best episodes ever. Will you be at Bad Blood in Atlanta? If so, any cool events planned. I just decided that, yes, I will be at Bad Blood in Atlanta.

I'm actually spending most of Friday with DDP. He's putting me through the DDP gauntlet, which you may have seen before. You may have heard about, but you basically do his entire workout with him, which is a lot. Like, the man is an animal. It's 68 years old. And he looks like a freaking champ. It's amazing. but it's a little bit of DDPY.

It's riding the bike with the oxygen mask on and then he depletes your oxygen and then he gives you 100% full oxygen. And it's like a version of like hit cardio. That's a part of it as well. You're doing the, you're doing the, what else? We've got a cold plunge in there. Hyperbaric chamber also in there and the power cuffs. the workouts he does with the blood flow restricted workouts, it's a heck of a workout. All of this combined together and you're doing it back to back to back to back.

So I'm doing that with DDP. He's also going to be back on the show. He hasn't been on the show since episode 500. And DDP's such a good guy, such a great friend. I love that guy. He was our special guest for episode 500. So it's about time that we bring him back whenever that will end up airing. Episode 670 or something like that.

But I don't have any cool events planned. I've been tossing around the idea of doing a live podcast. That will still happen. I think we're looking at Royal Rumble, Indianapolis. I think that I want to pull it off there. But I don't want to speak too soon because every other time that I've said it's going to happen, it hasn't ended up happening.

But we're aiming for the Royal Rumble in Indianapolis to do a fun, cool event. Maybe we'll do a meetup of some sort in Atlanta. I haven't planned anything out, but it would be Saturday morning. Maybe we'll meet at the Superstore. That's what we did in Toronto. I put a tweet out like earlier in the day. I was like, hey, if you're downtown, if you're in Toronto, if you're going to the Superstore,

I will see you at noon and then got to hang out with a bunch of you. But don't have anything planned out just yet, but keep your eyes and ears peeled for that. J.D.C. Torres, 78, on Spotify. What do you think the Brown's record will be this year? The tough one. I'd like to be optimistic. But the thing about being a Browns fan is we're always optimistic in September.

And then, you know, October rolls around and then November rolls around. I just feel like maybe next year, maybe next year. I saw that Barstool had predicted the Browns at 10 and 7, which is very generous. And they went through week by week going like, yeah, they're going to win this one. Probably not going to win this one. Yeah, they'll win this one. than this one, I'm going to go with maybe a bit more of a realistic prediction, nine and eight. Okay, that's still, that's still good.

That's still above 500. I don't think that's good enough to be in the playoffs, but prove me wrong. I would love to be wrong. The Browns have been, and they've really been putting some good stuff together. They've got a great team. But it just seems like something. always happens every single year. And let's just hope that this year is not one of those years.

10 and 7 would be amazing. Oh my gosh. Could you imagine 11 and 6? I mean, they were 11 and 6 last year, but then 7 and 10, 8 and 9, 11 and 5, 6 and 10, 7 and 8, then we go back to 2017. And I know they're not the same team at all in any way, shape, or form as 2017. But when you go back to 2017 and it's 0 in 16 and then the year before, 1 in 15, which means collectively over two seasons, they were 1 in 31.

It just hurts when you look at that. So I'm hoping for another positive season this year. But you just never want to get your hopes up too high. Let's see how week one and two goes. If we can get it past week two and be one in one. I'll be feeling a lot better. We'll see how that goes. Rob Berrios on Spotify.

Hey, Chris, I remember you mentioning that you collect wrestling cards. Do you collect anything else wrestling related? Action figures, shirts, ticket stubs, etc. Love the show. Thanks. So when Rachel came in here and you were asking, she was answered the question of could she name four former champions, I've been collecting eight by tens from the interviews that I've been doing.

So like, you know, some of our, the big, bigger guests that we've had. I've had them sign an 8 by 10 and leave a few nice words on there as well. That's what I've been collecting recently. So if I look up at the wall, we've got John Sina and The Undertaker and Holkogen, Cody Rhodes, Edge, Goldberg, Batista, Ray Mysterio, Booker T, Christian Cage, my buddy, Mike Keota. That's, I think, but that's more of like a personal thing. Like that these are priceless. like they all say to Chris and there's some nice words. These are not things I'm going to be buying or selling. These are strictly just for me to hang up in the office. Maybe I'll post a photo of it one day on social media. But the cards are probably the main thing that I'm collecting. Still, you know, really focused on those wrestling all-star cards. I just really love those 1982. Wrestling All-Star, Hulk Hogan rookie card, Rick Flair. I don't have an Andre yet. That's another one. If you have an Andre, if you have a 1982, wrestling all-stars, Andre the Giant, get me up. I think the best one of that is a PSA 9. Yes, there's not a PSA 10

of an Andre. Could you imagine? And I think it's because Andre was the first card. He was the top of the pack. So the odds of there being, you know, some scuffing or the corners getting dog-eared or whatever white, you know, that's a lot more likely when the card's on top. But yeah, those are the main things that I collect. I haven't collected figures. I have a few of them. Like, I've been gifted a few figures. I have a funco of the Rock's final boss that I just recently was gifted. I see that as I look around here. I've got micro-brawlers of macho man, Randy Savage that I was recently gifted as I look around here as well. I have a handful of championship belts, but I wouldn't say I really collect them. Really just the, and I'll

Also, like some other just autographs or interesting little things like Back to the Future license plate signed by Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox. I have a screen poster signed by the entire cast. I have a Muhammad Ali poster standing, you know, the iconic photo or standing over Sunny List and I have that. And I also just got, have you ever seen Bruce Buffers fight cards? Like the way that he does his fight cards for the UFC? they're super intricate and he highlights them and he like phonetically spells out words. I just got like then they're one of one. Like the one you get is the one that he holds in the octagon while he's making the announcement.

I just got one of those and that's signed by Bruce Buffer as well. So those are just kind of like one-off little things I have. But I wouldn't say I have like a like a massive wrestling collection of really anything. Scorpius Dedrick on Spotify. What a name. Scorpius Dedrick says, Are there any video packages past or present that you go back and just watch

because they just get you hyped for wrestling? For example, I'll go back and watch the video package when Sean Michaels and Undertaker went against each other at WrestleMania for the second time. So good. That one is so good. It's the idea of like this is a streak versus the career. such a great story being told there.

My answer is cliche. You know exactly what I'm going to say here. It's Limp Biscuit, My Way, WrestleMania 17. The way that was edited together, the story being told there with Rock and Austin, there's a specific part of that video where Fred Durs goes, yeah, this time I'm a letter.

But on that, yeah, like the way that the edit starts to speed up and cut to the beat, love it so much. That is the go-to video package. And I know that that is such a boring answer, but there is really nothing better. There is no better video package to just get you hyped up for wrestling in general, but for that specific match. And it is arguably the best WrestleMania of all time as well, Russellmania. a 17. So yeah, that's the one. I could watch that on repeat for months and never get

born of it. Seriously. There's times where I will just be driving in my car when I'm not listening to podcasts or an audiobook because that is what I listen to a lot of the time. And when I'm at the gym, that's also what I'm listening to. There's a lot of times where I'm just like, you know what? I'm just feeling my way. And it's funny, I'll type my way into Spotify. And Spotify knows. I don't know. Maybe it's the more popular song of the two. I highly doubt that.

But when I type in my way, I'm not given Frank Sinatra. That is the second option. Limp biscuit is the option that I'm given. So it's like, yeah, I'm just going to listen to this. Check, check. Check out the melody. Brilliant.

And that does it for Ask CVV number 47. the Jack Morris, Tom Glavin, Andre Kerlanco, AK-47 edition. If you've got a question for the next one, who's Ask CVV number 48 going to be? Let me know. Leave a comment on Spotify. But if you have a question,

send it over to me using that hashtag Ask CVV on social media. Email me, CVV at chrisfanfleet.com. I really enjoy seeing these comments on Spotify, although Spotify needs to figure this out. I'll give you a little peek behind the curtain here. Unlike YouTube, where the comments just go up, they're automatically published unless you really say some terrible things and they flag your comment. With Spotify, you have to approve

every single comment. So I got to go in there several. I got to go in there. I get to go in there. Several times a day and approve comments. I just wish, I think that that's something they're working on. I feel like I saw an email about that, but I just wish they would figure that out. I mean, it's cool going in there and reading them in real time as they're coming in. But it'd be a lot cooler if I could just read them and not have to click the checkmark button. I also click the heart button. There's a heart button on those comments on Spotify. But I digress. Spotify is continuing to grow as a platform. It blows my mind. I love getting into like the nitty gritty, like the analytics of this stuff. Two-ish years ago, two and a half, three years ago,

I think the percentage of people who listen to the show on Spotify was like 6 to 8% somewhere around there. It's like not a ton. It was Apple had like the bulk of it. Apple was like 70 something percent. Now it's Spotify's 46%. Apple is 40. And then the rest of them break down like 2% here, 1% here, 1% here. I'm actually shocked.

There's a ton of people that actually just stream these episodes on my website, Chrisfanelie.com. but Spotify has a huge, huge chunk of this. So you might not be listening on Spotify, and that is totally okay. I appreciate you for being here. Wherever you are, whatever you happen to be doing in your day right now,

thank you for making insight a part of your day and a part of your week. And it is, it's really amazing to hear how many people are like, you know what? ask CVV episodes are the ones I look forward to. Yeah, you've had so amazing guests and some really cool conversations and some really deep and insightful conversations, but I look forward to those Friday episodes every single week. Thank you. That means a lot when I hear those comments or from people in person or I see those comments or get those messages. So thank you.

I will leave you with this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, as we head into this weekend. The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. And I think that when you put all of that stuff together, that all equates to happiness. Be useful, be honorable, be compassionate. Have it all make some difference that you have lived and lived well. Be great and be grateful, my friends. Have an amazing weekend. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Big Dave Batista on Tuesday. Stephen Amel on Thursday. We will see you then. 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. You're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of then? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this.

Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.