Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #50 - 'Mr. McMahon' Docuseries Review, Jey Uso Wins The IC Title, Cody's Next Opponent, Favorite Tag Team Of All Time

Episode Date: September 27, 2024

Oh yeah! Welcome to AskCVV #50! On this episode, Chris gives his review of the 'Mr. McMahon' docuseries on Netflix and answers questions about who Cody's next challenger for the WWE Championship should be, what it was like being at Raw live when Jey Uso won the Intercontinental Championship, favorite tag team of all time, favorite Money In The Bank cash-in and a special appearance by RVV! 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: “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist" - Oscar Wilde Complete this survey for your chance to win $500: https://bluewirepods.com/survey Sponsors: VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv MANSCAPED: Get 20% off plus free shipping when you use the code CHRISVAN at http://manscaped.com HELLO FRESH: Get free breakfast for life at http://hellofresh.com/freeinsight ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at http://zocdoc.com/insight 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 have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? 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

Oh my goodness. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. It's CV-Double, Chris Fanfleet. Thank you for being with us on this one. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. Did you have a good week? Has it been a good week so far? Did you see anyone you recognized when you were watching Raw on Monday?

Yeah, I was there live in Ontario, California, sitting right behind the announcers. So anytime they did that shot of Joe Tess and Wade Barrett, if you looked behind them, you would have been like, oh my gosh, I know that guy. So we had a blast there. And I think I speak for everybody in the building when we were blown away, so shocked when Jay Uso beat Brombreaker for the Intercontinental Championship. We'll get into that in just a little bit here.

If you haven't already hit that follow button, hit a big old swan tom bomb on that follow. button on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever it is that you're listening right now. If you're feeling extra generous, a rating or review goes such a long way. So if you have a few free seconds today or this weekend, just five stars on Apple Podcasts or five stars on Spotify, that would be just so amazing and so helpful. I think it's like 3,800 reviews is what we have on Spotify. I know there's a lot more of you guys that are listening and listening on Spotify. So if you could just take a second, if you've ever listened to any episode and you've ever appreciated any of them, just hit follow,

hit the reviews on there. I mean, it takes just a few seconds, like quite literally. It takes a few seconds to do that. So I will thank you in advance for that. Welcome, my friends, to ask CVV number 50, the David Robinson, Corey Crawford, A.J. Hawk, and Mookie Betts edition. A lot of real good ones there with Ask CVV number 5.0. I already have in mind a very famous 51 who played baseball. But let me know if you have any other ideas for Ask CVV number 51 when we get to that one. Next Friday, which will be on the eve of bad blood. If you're going to be in, in Atlanta for Bad Blood. I will see you there. I fly in on Thursday. I'm going to record some fun stuff with DDP who lives just outside of the city. You'll be seeing that, I think,

in a few weeks on both of our channels. And then Saturday, Bad Blood, I will see you guys there. Can't wait. It's going to be the last PLE that I go to this year. Baby Boy is on the way in December. December 11th is his due date. And who knows, you know, babies could arrive a little bit sooner. They could arrive a little bit later. But with that said, I've mentioned it before, but I'll say it again here. I will not, unfortunately, be going to Survivor Series. And I love Vancouver. I love Vancouver so much. I lived there for a year. I lived in Yaletown for any of my Vancouver friends. You'll be very familiar with Yaletown. So unfortunately, I won't be there. It's just too close. It's too close to the baby arriving. I can't be like, all right, sorry, Rachel, I'm off to another country.

Go ahead and back home to Canada. Try not to have the babies, so that won't be happening. But bad blood, I can't wait. The card is shaping up to be something real nice. So I'm looking forward to that one, looking forward to seeing all you guys there. And it was so cool to see you in Ontario, California, be able to shake some hands and chat a little wrestling with you guys. I always love that.

It's just always so fun to be able to do that. All right, let's dive into today's Ask CVV if you've got a question for the next one. Use the hashtag Ask CVV on social media. Shoot me an email. CVV at chrisfanfleet.com. Or my most recent favorite is leave a comment on Spotify. It's just, I feel like it's all integrated that way. Because you're already listening to it and then you're already in the app.

Like, there's nothing wrong with the emails. There's nothing wrong with the social media stuff. Of course, we answer a ton of questions from that stuff. But that's asking you to open up another app. and do the thing somewhere else. I'm just saying it's all integrated when you do it with Spotify. And also, I'm a firm believer

that the more interactions that there are on Spotify, so that we're talking follows and ratings and comments, I think that helps to climb the charts there. This is from Facebook. Sean Nehoff and also, Sean Johnson asked very similar questions here, so we'll tie it together into one.

What were your thoughts on the Mr. McMahon documentary and how do you think it will affect the WWE? I've seen a lot of people saying that there was nothing new here. And to that, I would say, I'm really curious to hear what people's expectations were for this documentary. Because the very first minutes of the documentary explains that the majority of these interviews were done in 2021.

So I think with them setting the table with these 100 hours, 100 plus hours of interviews were done in 2021, I think you can kind of assume, all right, then most of this, it's a six episode series, most of this is going to be talking about things that happened 2021 or before. I think it's also important to point out

that Vince McMahon really hasn't done a lot of interviews over the last, call it 20 years. The one that he did with Pat McAfee was, one of his first in, in such a long time. So that combined with this one is a true look at just like, who is this guy? How does he function?

And then as he starts to answer questions, you go, oh, he thinks of himself like a computer. And one computer is answering these questions, while another computer is answering other questions. And then a third computer is thinking about some other things. I just thought that answer when he gave it was so interesting. It just seemed really clear to me that this documentary as a whole was not made for wrestling fans. It wasn't something like, like dark side of the ring feels like it's really inside baseball.

And it should feel evident when you start watching the Mr. McMahon docu series and they're explaining what a work is. So you're like, yeah, I already, I already get that. This felt like it served more of like an overview of Vince's life and the history of WWE and presenting it to like a casual wrestling fan or even just for a random Netflix viewer who just might have seen this on the home screen and went, yeah, I'll dive into this and find out a little bit more here. I suspect that a lot of people were looking to hear more about the recent lawsuit and the allegations there. And when you look at this series as a whole, less than half of that

final episode covered that stuff. I'm not a lawyer, clearly. But I think that the stuff they did talk about there was as much as they could talk about it, considering this is still an open legal investigation and they're still diving into exactly what went on here and whether there will be any charges here or what will end up happening with the lawsuit. The documentary made it clear that it's paused right now as the legal investigation is underway. What will happen with the legal investigation, then what will happen with the lawsuit there. But to say there wasn't anything new is just patently wrong. It's false. There was a ton of new stuff here. The fact that they were even talking about the Chris

Benoit tragedy is huge. Chris Benoit's name hasn't been mentioned on WWE programming in 17 years. And Vince McMahon speaking openly about that is a massive revelation. Also, Vince explaining why he didn't buy the UFC when he had the chance and like breaking that down, that was new. Vince on the record talking for the first time about the storyline of him impregnating Stephanie

and how that got shot down. That had been rumor for a while. I think Bruce Pritchard had talked about it in a previous interview like in 2018, but Vince had never talked about that. That was something new for sure. And to hear Vince so openly talking about this

awful idea. I think what really hit home and what I see a lot of people talking about online is the stuff around Shane McMahon. And that was pretty emotional when he was talking about his return to WWE and the reaction that he got and that being a big moment when he came back. And then the match he had with Undertaker, WrestleMania 32, and he shared that moment in Gorilla with Vince. And he shared that hug and he gets emotional, Vince gets emotional. And he says to Vince, all I ever wanted was your respect. That is something new. I don't know how we're saying we didn't learn anything new here. And I think another big newsworthy thing coming out of this was Stone Cold's take on CTE and saying he's not a CTE guy. I'm sure the way he said it isn't exactly what he meant. I mean, there's very

clear evidence and Chris Nuitzky makes it really clear the evidence that they have discovered since the Chris Benoit tragedy of all of the different effects that head trauma can have and brain injuries can have on athletes. I feel like the way that it was said, the way that Stone Cold said it, couldn't have been what he meant, but the quote itself that he's not a CTE guy, man, it just didn't feel like that came across right. I felt like the docu series also did a really good job of fact, fact checking a lot of the claims. Like they would, someone would say something like, oh, the attendance of WrestleMania 3 was 93,000 and then we'd get fact checked. That was actually 78,000.

Or Vince said like, oh, well, you know, during that era, we didn't have any guns, cuts to Brian Pilman and the home invasion. We didn't have any rape. Cuts to Vince in the ring going, come on out, you rapist. I thought that did a good job of being like, all right, you said this, but actually here's the truth. At the end of the day, regardless of how you feel about Vince McMahon,

you can't argue that he is the most important figure in the history of pro wrestling. And there's a quote towards the end of episode six that sums it up really well. And this is a direct quote here. Quote, you have to be able to hold two things in your head at the same time. Like, it's possible that Vince McMahon created this thing that we all love, and at the same time,

he is an incredibly problematic, potentially deplorable human being. And I think that there's this idea that's visited a lot during the docu-series that people have conflated the idea of Mr. McMahon, the character, and Vince McMahon, the person. And the line is very blurred, and it has been for the better part of 40 years. I mean, even Vince said it. And another direct quote here. One is exaggerated a little bit, but I'm not sure which one. And I thought that that was very telling of one, one version is exaggerated.

Is it Mr. McMahon who's exaggerated? Or is it Vince McMahon who's exaggerated? So I thought that if you were coming into this with your expectations sky high, And clearly there were people that had expectations that were not met. I would just like to know what those expectations were because I thought from start to finish it was a really interesting look at the life and career of Vince McMahon and then a very interesting turn there at the end. I think it's worth a rewatch for me for sure.

And also, and I've been saying this for weeks, where does it go from here? here because the story's not done. The documentary ends, but the story is not done yet. So do we get another episode in a year or two or whenever all the legal stuff gets settled? Because it just felt really open-ended. It was almost like saying, like, it's like when you watch one of those true crime documentaries. And at the end, it's like, and the search continues for the killer. And you're like, now what? Who did it? Where does it go from here? And that's what it felt like here. It kind of ended on almost like a to be continued.

And it's, it'll be really interesting to see how that ends up going. Like, where does it go? Where does it go from here? Daniel wrote this one in on Spotify, DVNNYB. How did you feel witnessing Jay Uso win his first singles title in 14 years? And what do you think is next for him? and what does this run lead to? Also, I just wanted to say I love listening to your podcast. I'm always tuning in. Keep doing what you're doing much love. I appreciate the very kind words there,

Daniel. I posted something on social media the other day. There were 5,236 days between Jay Uso's debut and J Uso winning his first ever singles championship on Monday. I will admit, I was there alive. And that was real close, too. I was, in fact, when they, when Bronbreaker did the clothes line off of the apron through the announce table or like onto the announce table, that was like right in front of us, like thudded right in front of us. I said to Troy, I said, so how do we think Bronbreaker's going to win? Like, what's it going to be?

We're like, ah, probably a spear, right? Then there was a moment when Bronbreaker went for the spear on the outside, which would have been through the barricade. and Jay Uso instead super kicked him in the face. And I went, oh, oh, okay. And then a little bit later on, Jay Uso hits the spear through the barricade, grabs Bronbreaker, puts him into the ring,

and then ends up winning the match, and I was just like, I was blown away. The titles changed hands on Smackdown a few times in the last few years, the Intercontinental Championship. Most notably, of course, when Gunther won it to start his record, 66 day, 66 day rain. 66 day rain.

But the last time the Intercontinental Championship changed hands on raw was March 11th, 2019 when Bobby Lashley won it from Finn Baller. And I get it was on Smackdown for a long time. But what I'm saying is it's been a long time since I titled changed hands on Raw.

Yeah, changed hands on Smackdown a few times, but it was changing hands, I think, more predictably at PLEs. So we were shocked. And that place was rocking too. Like, I've been to a handful of PLEs and Raws and Smackdowns over the last year or two.

I mean, I've been to a bunch of them over the course of my life. But usually when the match ends and ends. And then it's like, thank you for coming. And everybody heads to the exits. And that's the end of it. This one just ended so differently. Jay Usa wins the championship.

He goes back. up into the crowd through the same entrance way that he came in, like the same path there, the same section that he entered in through. And then I went, hey, that's Jackie Redmond's up there. They're going to turn this into an interview segment. And you could just feel the emotion there, not just from Jay Uso, but from the crowd as well. Like the crowd, I think, is coming down off this high of like, we just witnessed something really special. I can't believe we were here for this. Crazy. And then, we're seeing the emotion from Jay of like the hard works paying off.

I think there's a lot of people that would make the argument that Jay Uso should have won money in the bank this year. I feel like that's a strong argument to make. I get what they were doing with Drew McIntyre winning it and then trying to cash in and CM Punk costing them that and it just continued to add more layers to that storyline into that feud. But Jay Uso winning this and having that. briefcase and maybe holding it for,

call it six or nine months, maybe all the way up to WrestleMania. I think you could have written a really interesting story around that. I've also heard people talking about, oh, man, Bronn Breakers' first intercontinental championship run was just so short. It was like seven weeks, I think it was. It's the first of many.

It was the first of many. And I also think that this means we're getting back to an era, of WWE, where championships can change hands, number one, on TV, because, again, that hadn't happened in a while. But number two, with some relative frequency. Like, Logan Paul had the U.S. title for a while, and of course, famously or infamously, only defended it twice. And then you had Gunther, who had it almost for two years. I think we're going to get back to a point where maybe you have three or four or five intercontinental champions in a year.

Maybe you have three or four or five United States champions in a year. Maybe you have, call it, two or three different title changes when it comes to the World Heavyweight Championship. And then it gets to the point where you have to tune in to Raw every Monday. You have to tune in to Smackdown every Friday. And maybe it was just a coincidence. I don't know. but there was a whole bunch of Netflix people in the building there in Ontario, California for Monday Night Raw.

In fact, I was sitting behind them when we were watching the show. Might be a coincidence. Probably is. But what I'm saying is maybe they were showing to Netflix anything could happen on Monday Night Raw. You've got to tune in. This is just a taste of what could be happening in a little over three months. when Raw debuts on Netflix. I don't know. Could be a complete coincidence, or maybe there's just a shred of planting a seed there. But either way, that was a really cool moment to be there live for.

And one of the, one of the raws that I will remember for sure. I've been at Raw for some pretty fun moments. Off the top of my head, I was there for the rock concert in Cleveland all those years ago. I was there when the rock randomly returned to Raw in Miami, like that whole, remember the thing where he's walking through the back, and then he gets to Gorilla and he does the countdown and then his music hits. I was there for that, like huge surprise. I was there for A.J. Stiles, very first singles match. I was also there when he debuted at the Royal Rumble in Orlando, but I was there for his first singles match. So all of that is to say, this is one of those moments that I will not forget where I was when Jay Uso won his very first Intercontinental Championship.

If you've watched any of these interviews on my YouTube channel, you know that I know a thing or two about a good, plain t-shirt. It's kind of become my uniform at this point, just a solid black t-shirt or a solid white t-shirt. I have found the most comfortable t-shirt ever with Viori's dream knit collection. The Ponto Performance T is amazing because it's so, soft and lightweight and has that four-way performance stretch. It's versatile so you can wear it for something like an interview or going out. It's also something that I wear to the gym all the time. Same with their Ponto Performance Joggers, which are, oh, so comfortable.

I wear them in and out of the house all the time. In fact, you'll never see me in an airport wearing anything else but the Ponto Performance Joggers. Viori is an investment in your happiness. And for anybody listening right now, they're offering you 20% off your first purchase. So get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet by going to viori.com slash CVV. That's VU-O-R-I-com slash CVV. Leon M. Coley on Spotify says Dave Batista was in Knock at the Cabin, not Cabin in the Woods. Also, Cody is going to turn heel. I can't believe I messed that one off. I always get those

two mixed up when I say them. Yes, Dave Batista was in knock at the cabin. So when I was asked what his best performance was on last week's episode, I said cabin in the woods. I'm sure a lot of you guys caught it. I caught it when I listened back to the episode and I went, not a silly mistake to make. So Leon, I appreciate you for pointing that out. And I agree with you. Cody is going to turn heel at some point. I'm going to put the over under on Cody's heel turn at two years. I don't think it's happening anytime before then. We'll get to some of that fantasy booking and potential matchups and a few questions here. I see a Cody heel turn happening at some point, but I just don't think it's for a little while. Tim Dobbs on Spotify says,

I've seen a lot of people ask you who your favorite singles wrestler was growing up, but what was your favorite tag team and why? Thank you so much for getting me through my work days on all of these episodes. Well, thank you, Tim, the Hardy Boys. It is the Hardy Boys, hands down. I was so inspired by just the way that Jeff Hardy wrestle. If you watch any of my backyard wrestling clips as Chris Sharp, I borrow it a lot from the Hardy Boys move set. I did my own version of a twist of fate. I loved doing the Swanton Bomb. I remember learning the Swanton Bomb on a trampoline and then trying it in a pool. And my friends being like, yeah, you hit that like really smooth. Like you, you pause in the air like, like you're floating almost for half a second.

And then I started doing it on our very thin blue gymnastic mats that we used when we were backyard wrestlers in the HCW in Pickering, Ontario. And then fast forward all these years later, I've been so fortunate to be able to share conversations with jazz. and Matt and Matt and Matt and Jeff together. And fingers crossed. Matt was on recently. Matt was on... When did we do that interview?

March of this year. Right when his contract with AEW is coming to an end. March? I haven't had one... I haven't had a one-on-one interview with Jeff since 2011. And I showed him actually some of my backyard wrestling clips back then. I also showed Matt recently. And he was like critiquing them as we were going along.

I did an interview with Matt and Jeff together. It was right before WrestleMania 33. I interviewed them at Ring of Honor. They had a match that night with the Young Box, a ladder match. And then the next day was that incredible, huge surprise. One of the loudest pops in WrestleMania history. I think about how much louder that pop could have been if it wasn't an open air stadium. Camping World Stadium is an open air stadium.

like a lot of football stadiums are, if that thing had a roof on it or if it had a dome on it, it somehow would have been even louder. But the Hardy Boys were my favorites for sure. I also, I was the vice president of my student council in high school. So I hosted a lot of like things on stage. Like I loved being the guy holding the microphone. I hosted the fashion show. I hosted the talent show.

I did the morning announcements every morning. me and my best friend in high school, Mark Teseggy, would like co-host all these things together. And he was a big wrestling fan as well. And we were also big Edging Christian fans. There's still Hardee's boys number one for me. But Edging Christian, we were just huge fans of what they were doing at that point in time.

And if you go back to that would have been 2000, 2001, they were doing the five-second pose. So we would be hosting these fashion show, talent show, just whatever, standing on the stage in the middle of the cafeteria. And even though the majority of people at the school were not wrestling fans, and they didn't know what was going on, we would say stupid things like, for the benefit of those with flash photography, and you would see people in the crowd, like, getting out their cameras.

Oh, is this going to be a big moment? And then Mark and I would strike some stupid pose. Ridiculous. Jonathan Weber on Facebook says, Hey, CVV, congrats on Ask CVV number. 50 with all the huge guests you've had this year, like The Undertaker, Ray Mysterio, Edge and Christian, Dave Batista, Goldberg, Cody, and everybody else. How can you possibly top this in 2025? Jonathan, I have no idea. And it's a question I ask myself all the time. I am so insanely grateful

for the year that we've had. And there's still three months left in the year. So I'm grateful for the first three quarters of this year that we've had. But, But we've got a few things up our sleeve, a few things up our sleeve. I mean, you think about, when you think about Georgia in general, who do you think about? Who are some people that might be from Georgia? All right. So who might we be able to sit down with? Who are some big names?

Who are some Hall of Famers or potential Hall of Famers, first ballot hall of famers, that we might be able to talk to in Georgia? Think about that for next weekend with bad blood. And then you think about just, you know, some other things. things that may be happening. Maybe WWE will be doing some promotion as raw heads to Netflix in December. The interviews would be in December, is what I'm saying. Of course, raw heads to Netflix in January. What kind of episodes could we have at that point in time? We will see. But it's something to think about all the time. And the goal for me is always to try to make

the next episode better than the last one. And I know that with different personalities and different interviews and sometimes you're interviewing somebody for the first time and then sometimes with Ethan Page, it's the fifth time. I'm always aware of that, but I'm just trying to be as present and aware in the moments as possible and just trying to make these as interesting as we can. If you follow me on Instagram, I have the CVV feed, like the broadcast channel on there. And there's a few thousand people that are in there. And if you'd like a little behind the scenes peak and who might be coming. up. You can just click on my profile and join the broadcast channel there. I posted earlier in the

week two new ones that we recorded this last Monday when Raw was in Ontario, California. And I'll let you know now. We've got new interviews coming up with Carrying Cross. I always love catching up with Carrying Cross. And also good to get his take on everything after we had that ridiculous Jesse Ventura adventure in Minnesota with him doing the impression for Jesse. Vintura. It was crazy. Also, Bronson Reed coming on the show for the very first time and a ton of stuff to get into with him and all the viral moments he's had recently and just the, the rocket that has been attached to his back. I love that. So I don't know how I'm going to top this in 2025, but we will find a way to do that. Benson Benners. This is on Twitter, Benz for Benson.

If you took 30 chops from 30 people to get $20,000, would you do it? What kind of question is that? Of course, I would do it. I would do it for $20. But I appreciate you adding three more zeros to that to make it $20,000. Yes. I mean, I did the 20 chops from 10 different people for free. And that has got, man, far too many views at this point in time.

It's one of the, I get asked about that almost every. day. And if you listen to yesterday's episode with Sean Spears, he gets asked about it quite a bit as well. So yes, I would take 30 chops from 30 people. I would not probably not take 30 chops from like Gunther. Okay. If Gunther was one of the 30 people, sure. All right, maybe. But if it was all 30 from him, I don't know, maybe I will need the $20,000 you're offering. Alex Torlaman on Instagram says, what wrestler from the WrestleMania 18 card do you still hope to interview? Stone Cold Steve Austin. I've done brief interviews with him before.

I've done interviews where he's promoting stuff and they're like the four to five minute junket style interviews. They've always been virtual though, but I've never done one with him in person and I've never done one with him that's like a full length, like hour-ish interview. So that is real close to the top of my list of people that I've just bucket list. in general. But if we're just specifically looking at the WrestleMania 18 card, he's number one on that list. His opponent from WrestleMania 18 is not possible, but, man, talking to Scott Hall, that would have been, that would have been so good. Trish Stratis is also on that list. I've done a brief

interview with her. I did that interview with her at the Iron Claw World Premier last year in Dallas, like on the red carpet, but we've been talking about making this happen. And I feel like it's close. That actually could happen maybe before the end of the year, hopefully, fingers crossed. Triple H as well. I've never had the opportunity to do an interview with him. So, I mean, there's still a lot of other people. Kane's another one there. Kane had that match with Kurt Engel. William Regal. William Regal got beat by Rob Van Dam. I've interviewed Rob Van Dam, but have not interviewed William Regal. There's a lot of people. If we look at the whole car, Should we look at the whole card here?

I've interviewed, okay, so Rakesh, Scottie, too, haughty, and Albert defeated Mr. Perfect, Landstorm and Test. Oh, could you imagine if we had the chance to talk to Mr. Perfect? I've also never interviewed Albert from that list and obviously, Test, may he rest in peace. Rob Van Dam defeated William Regal. I've interviewed Rob Van Dam, but not William Regal. DDP defeated Christian. I've interviewed both of them, luckily.

Maven versus Gold Dust ended when Spike Dudley pinned Maven. I've interviewed all of them. Kurt Angle defeated Kane, never interviewed Kane. Under Teaker defeated Rick Flair. I've been fortunate to interview both of them. Edge defeated Booker T. Been fortunate to have interviewed both of them. Stone Cold defeated Scott Hall.

Again, how incredible would it be to have been able to do an interview with Scott Hall and then Stone Cold right there at the top of the list? Then we get the four corners elimination match. So a lot of tag teams here. Billy and Chuck, I've interviewed both of them. The APA, I have interviewed neither of them. The Dudley boys, I've interviewed both of them with Stacey Keebler. That'd be a good one.

When was the last time Stacey Keebler did an interview? Like a long time ago. Hardy boys were also in that match. So fortunate to interview them, but been a long time since Jeff Hardy. The Rock defeated Hollywood Hogan. Jazz defeated Trish Stratus and Lita. Trish is the only one there that I haven't interviewed. And then we've got Triple H defeated Chris Jericho with Stephanie McMahon.

Have not interviewed Stephanie McMahon. That would also be a great one. Although Triple H has said he's made it clear that she is not officially part of WWE right now. But in the crowd and then she's been in the crowd and she did that now. It's been at WrestleMania 40, but not officially part of it. Behind the funky stuff on Instagram was money in the bank more high. when it was part of WrestleMania. Two nights, two matches, for now.

I see your point here. But I feel like now we've got the opportunity to build other stories and tell other stories as part of WrestleMania. I like Money in the Bank being its own thing because then you've got the buildup

to like, okay, here's Mr. Money in the Bank, here's Ms. Money in the Bank. When could they possibly cash in? WrestleMania is now very much in the cards. It's not to say it wasn't in the cards before. When Money in the Bank was at Russellmania, but when you've got a full year to cash in and you're going to hold this, like storyline wise, you're going to wait until Russellmania next year. You, one, you risk the chance of people kind of forgetting that you have it or not caring about the fact that you have it anymore. And two, you are hoping that everything lines up so it makes sense that you're staying injury free, that you're able to cash in.

and also that the storyline still is interesting 365 days from now or however, you know, a full year from now. I like it being its own thing with money in the bank. And it also, I'm not a huge fan. We talked about this. Like, I don't think Helena Selle needs to be its own pay-per-view. Its own PLE. I will forever do that, by the way. I'll forever call PLE's pay-per-views.

I don't think that you need to force a hell and a cell match every single year just for the sake of having one. But I love the idea of having an elimination chamber match every year, both men's and women's. And I like the idea of having money in the bank every year as well. So I don't think that it made it more hype to do it at WrestleMania. Now you've got the chance, especially over two nights, to tell that many more stories. And whether you like the Andre the Giant Battle Royal or not, it does give that money more people a chance to have their WrestleMania moment. There's a lot of people who, without something like the Andre, the Giant Battle Royal, would never have the chance to appear at a WrestleMania. So I love that for them. Ryan H on Spotify. Hey, CVV, love the podcast.

I listen to it every episode. I love the AskCTVv episodes. My Asked CVV question is, who do you think should main event bad blood? CM Punk versus Drew Magatire, or Cody and Roman versus Solo and Fatu. Thank you. Oh, H. to that, Ryan. I say, I owe all of the marketing material up till now and the poster has been focused on the Hell and a Cell match. It sure seems like that is where the direction is here. Feels like Drew McIntyre, CM Punk inside Hell on a Cell would be the main event. Until recently, with everything they did and the stadium standoff with Cody and Roman Raines and the fact, I don't know if everybody's cluing into this.

This is Cody's hometown. And this is where Roman Raines went to college and played football there. These are your hometown boys in a certain way, certainly Cody Rhodes. And then you've got that story there for Roman Raines as well. I just think there's going to be something big enough to happen in this match. Because this match alone is kind of like, yeah, all right. like we talked about this last week. The match on paper is just a match. And I feel like on paper, you look at this and I'm sure the odds on my book you would back this up. But on paper, you're like,

there's no way Cody's going to take a pin. There's no way Roman's going to take a pin. So it's like, all right, we already know who's going to win this match. But it's the other elements that are going to be worked into this. Is Paul Heyman coming back? Sure feels like Paul Heyman could come back here. So they're going to be a new bloodline member in some way. We haven't seen Jimmy Uso in a while. Is that going to factor into this? That's why that if you were to ask me today, right now, obviously, as I'm recording this right now, Smackdown is not aired.

Smackdown's probably not aired if you're listening to this early on Friday morning as well. Maybe something happens on Smackdown. Maybe something happens on Raw on Monday. Maybe something happens again on Smackdown next Friday. That kind of leads us to a different decision here. But I just think that there's going to be another element or, two or more in that bloodline match that's going to make that match have some more layers to it. So with that said, that's why I think that that match will be the main event.

Also, Roman Raines so seldomly wrestles these days. Doesn't it feel weird for him to come out anywhere? But like in that main event spot? I don't know. There's a lot of elements that are leading up to that. You could also, you could start off this pay-per-view, did it again. You could start off this PLE hot with the Hell and a Cell match. You could start it off with like, boom, here it is, right there.

What else is the, you know, what else is going to start off the show? Because the card right now is Liv Morgan, Rear Ripley, Damian Priest and Finn Baller, Naya Jacks versus Bailey or Naomi, however, that one ends up shaking up. And then you got the other two matches that we talked about. I could see Helen S.L kicking off the show. That's possible. And then like, what a way to start the show. But let's see what happened on Smackdown, followed by Raw, followed by another Smackdown.

Jaha! On Spotify. Hey, CVV, is there any way you could get an interview with Bobby Lashley? I would love to hear what his plans are with him leaving WWE. And could we see him an MVP link up as well? We just saw MVP make his debut. in AEW. So I know there's been a lot of talk

about how the Hurt business had a lot more left in the tank and that could have been so much more of a thing in WWE. Maybe it has a chance to continue telling that story in AEW. But yes, I would love to get an interview with Bobby Lashy.

We've been trying to figure this out and make this happen for a long time. You probably remember because I've mentioned this a bunch of times. He's my first ever interview. 17 years ago, 2007, January 2007. He was the ECW champion,

and we did that interview when I worked for MTV2 Canada. I was on a show called 969. So this has been a long time coming. So I'd like to think that maybe he's one of the interviews that we round out the rest of 2024 with. We shall see.

B Music 82 on Spotify. On Ask CVV number 50, who do you think will be Cody's next opponent to challenge it for his title. Is it Roman? Is it Randy Orton? Any others? Carmelo Hayes. I still see a situation where it's Randy Jordan and he loses the championship to Randy Jordan. I do appreciate that Cody has been such a fighting champion. I mean, Cody is, he calls himself QB1, right? He calls himself the quarterback. Put him in and he's going to be there. Obviously, he's on Smackdown a lot, but if you need him on Raw, he's on Raw. If you need him on a

PLE is on a PLE. And I appreciate that there have been some matches with just a short amount of buildup because we get a title shot out of it. I think there's going to be a buildup to something with Randy Orton. And Randy Orton's already kind of teased this heel turn. I could see Randy Orton winning the championship maybe between now and the Royal Rumble. Maybe it is at the Royal Rumble. That'd be very interesting. See what happens. Who's going to win the Royal Rumble? It's too early to tell. Way too early. We would only be throwing out names at this point with wild speculation.

But who's going to win the Royal Rumble? That is going to be really interesting. Because the last two years, I think even at this point of the year, even four months before the Rumble, there were some obvious choices. Cody, maybe C.M. Punk. Well, obviously, at this point last year, we weren't saying C.M. Punk because he hadn't returned yet. But after he returned, it was like, oh, yeah, C.M. Punk could win the Rumble.

that one would make a lot of sense. Oh, Cody could win it again. That would also make a lot of sense. I think if I'm going to book this out and a ton of things could happen between now and WrestleMania 41, but Cody loses to Randy Orton, which then through a series of events, perhaps it's a Royal Rumble win, leads to John Cena versus Randy Orton for the championship at WrestleMania 41. I've been saying for a long time, John Sino will win number 17 at some point in 2025. That would be a heck of a WrestleMania moment. So we will, let's see how this all shakes out.

And bookmark this. Fold the page down on this one. Earmark, asks CDV number 50, and let's revisit this one come WrestleMania time next year. Nathan Vela on Spotify. Ask CVV number 50. First ever question, and I love the content

with the Ask CVVs being my favorite. Well, thank you. With PLE cards being smaller, would it benefit WWE to bring back single branded PLEs? They could do the big five, the two crown jewel events, and then three to four single branded PLEs.

I really think what they're doing right now is working. I totally see where you're coming from Nathan, but I think what they're doing right now is working. And if you do the thing where it's a single branded PLE, you're not able to tell as many, well, look, you're not as able to tell as many stories. And I know you're going to say, well, what do you mean? There's only five or six stories you're able to tell at every PLE. What I mean there is if you're only able to tell a story every two months sometimes,

because the next PLE coming up is a Smackdown only PLE and you work on RAW, now the story has to go for at least two months. this way, if you're doing a PLE every month and you've got a story that's surrounding the WWE Women's Championship, for example, or the Intercontinental title, for example, you're able to tell that story in a quicker amount of time. Look, I think what Triple H has been doing since he's had the book has been pretty great. Sure, there's been the odd misstep here or there. And depending on who you ask, maybe there's been a few more. But I think they've got a really good thing going right now. and the fact that you can turn on a PLE,

and you know that it's only going to be about three hours and not like, hey, when's this thing going to end? I don't know. Might end at midnight. Might end at 1230. We're talking to East Coast time here. I don't know. I guess we'll see.

I like that it's like straight to the point. And boom, boom, boom, boom. You get those matches in and they tell a great story. Gil on Spotify. Hey, CVV, been listening since the start of the year. And the Ask CVVs are my favorite. Question, down the road. How do you think the OG bloodline group will hold up against factions like NWO, DX, Evolution, etc?

Thank you for helping me get through my workday. Cheers from Chicago, Gil. You're talking about two of the greatest factions of all time, NWO and DX. And evolution is certainly up there as well. but NWO and DX are two of the best of all time. And you're, depending on whether you watched WCW or you watched more WWF at the time, your allegiances will be for one or the other. But those are the two.

They're one A, one B when you're talking about the best factions of all time. It's hard to talk about where the bloodline will end up falling in that line as we're in it right now. Because I think that a lot of arguments end up getting made about the NWO of like, well, they ended up adding too many members and then I got too watered down. Sure. That one makes a lot of sense when you zoom out a whole bunch and you look at it like towards the end there. But when you look at that core group of the NWO and how it was formed,

Scott Hall and Kevin Nash and Hogan's the third man, my goodness, and everything that that turned into, it was great. So what I'm saying is if the bloodline continues to go. go on and maybe something happens in a few months that kind of sours your opinion on it. Or maybe they start to add too many more members or maybe there's even more matches where they end in someone from the bloodline running in. It may sour your opinion on the bloodline long term. So I think that the bloodline storyline has been one of those things that's rejuvenated this era of wrestling. And we talk at length about what should this era be called. And yeah, I think

we should probably be calling this the triple H era. But then if triple H is in charge for the next 30 years, is everything from now until he retires the triple H era? Probably not. But for now, we'll call this the triple H era, but you could make an argument that this is the bloodline era. Because the bloodline in Roman Rain's 1,316 day championship run, that really rejuvenated this Sarah and got us out of this funk that we were in during the pandemic. Like pandemic wrestling is not fun to go back and rewatch. And they did a really good job with Roman Raines and turning heel and aligning with Paul Heyman and the bloodline storyline and that running deep and who might show up and fast forward

a little bit. Oh my gosh, the rock is here. What the heck? Now he's a heel. There was so many elements about that that made it really interesting. Do I think it could ever be on NWO DX level? Maybe. Possibly.

But we'll have to see how this thing ends up running its course. Right now it's really interesting, especially as we're on the verge of, does Roman turn on them? And what happens there? Does this lead into Survivor Series? Hmm. That'll be really cool.

This one's from Spotify. Casey Johnson says, ask CVV number 50 in support of RVV. I'm so glad she's sitting next to me and now laughing. And we haven't even got to the question yet. Sorry, Chris, but I'm with RVV on that summer issue. You talked about summer factually, and that's in all caps ending at a certain point,

then literally right after said in Canada, if you think about the seasonality of it, and kind of begin sooner. Yeah, I was talking about how like in Canada, you take advantage of the warm weather from Victoria Day, which is like towards the end of May, to Labor Day, you just take advantage of all those. Yes, I know it's not technically summer.

That's why I said it was the unofficial start of summer. Back to what Casey's saying here. The logic can apply to fall. If you were interviewing yourself, you would have had yourself dead to rights, my friend. Also, shout out to the moment where you unexpected support from RVV and got metaphorically RKO'd out of nowhere. Look, I was certainly not expecting support from my lovely, beautiful, incredibly talented wife, Rachel. I knew she would come in and be like, yeah, yeah, this is what he does. You nailed it. Thanks for the support, Casey. I appreciate that. What I was trying to get to is when it's like September 4th and people are like, fall is here, I just want to be like, yeah, no, I get it. If you want to celebrate fall and drink your

pumpkin spice lattes and put pumpkins out on your front porch, that's totally fine. I'm just saying it's not actually summer. I mean, it's not actually fall yet. It's still summer. That's all I was saying. And November 10th is not Christmas tree season then. Look, this is all I was trying to make the point was like, it would be the equivalent to it being July 17th and people being like, man, it's August.

Like, no, what? He's going to wake up tomorrow and start playing Mariah Carey. I can guarantee it. So don't listen to him. And I'm not like, I love Christmas, but I'm not like Mick Foley or DDP like crazy. about Christmas. I love Christmas. It's amazing. And I didn't tell the full story last time, honey, about our Christmas tree. But when you buy a 12-foot Christmas tree, brand new inbox on offer-up for $300. That thing's worth like, was it $1,500? I think it was $1,200, but yeah.

Right. I like $100, $100 a foot. So when you buy something like that, what a deal. Nobody loves a deal as much as I do. Nobody loves a deal more than this guy. So. Yeah, so use the code CVV literally everywhere and just see if it works for you. It might. It might save you some money. But that's one of the main reasons I like to break out the Christmas tree a little bit earlier. But I just want to take advantage of that deal.

I don't want it sitting. I don't want our incredible deal from offer up just sitting in the garage all year. You know what I mean? It makes sense. It makes sense. And we also keep it up until pretty much the end of January, too. So we have a solid two months with a Christmas tree. It's like the Taylor Swift song.

We could leave the Christmas tree up till January. Keep your day job, honey. Which doesn't really, like, you keep it up until January, so you're going to keep it up seven days longer? Oh my gosh. That's just wild. Never understood that line from the Taylor Swift song. Now you're getting all logical again.

Next question. I just, just saying, and this is the whole thing about wrestling. A lot of things just don't make sense. They don't add up. And I just, I just like to point them out sometimes. That's all. Chef Amazing on Twitter at that 80s show says, Ask RVV, since you guys have been together,

how much of your Jersey influence has gotten to CVV? Last but not least, Taylor Ham or pork roll. Sub or Hogi. These are very Jersey questions that I don't even really understand. These are my kind of questions. Keep these coming. So is it Taylor Ham? or pork roll.

And can you explain what that means? This is a North Jersey, South Jersey thing. So it's a breakfast meat. I'd rather not describe it because it sounds gross when you describe it, but it tastes incredible. And it's the best breakfast sandwich you'll ever have. North Jersey, Taylor ham. South Jersey pork roll.

Because of where I grew up, we're all Taylor ham. It's Taylor hamburger, egg, and cheese on a hard roll. Salt pepper, no ketchup. I had one of these for the first time. I was like, that's pretty good. I don't know it was a thing. What's the, what? Taylor ham egg cheese.

To heck? We always would just say tech on a roll. Tech on a roll, that's it. I remember when we were there at Sam and Mike's house because it'd written down tech and I was like, what is a tech? Taylor ham egg and cheese. And also, it's a sub, not a hoagy.

We ate him on Kaiser rolls, didn't we? Yeah, that's a hard roll. A hard roll. That was another phrase I'd never heard before. So to answer your question here, Chef amazing. Influence has gotten to me a little bit, I think, especially when we're back there. I feel it.

I think you have a new appreciation for good quality pizza versus... Don't. Versus the level of pizza you deem as good quality pizza before me. I love a good deal. I love a good deal. And when you can go to Domino's and get two medium pizzas for $6.99 each with two toppings on them. How can you argue with that? Dominoes is not pizza. Oh my gosh. I love dominoes. When I was a single man at least once a week when I was living in Fort Lauderdale, I would stop

off at the exit right before my exit because there was a dominoes right off of the 95 there. And I would grab a dominoes and I would go home and I would watch Raw or Smackdown or a movie or something like that. And then I would save the rest and eat it the next day when I was fishing or something like that. It's a beautiful thing. I guess. I think it's comparable to us now living in California, though. And like, you can grab, you know, Del Taco and say like, oh, this is fine Mexican food.

But, like, we have such good quality Mexican food out here that why would you get Del Taco when you have all these other places? That's how I feel about Domino's back east. The first time I bought, like, a ordered, like, a quote unquote real pizza. And it was like, like a large pizza one topping because I'm just a sucker for a pepperoni pizza. And it was like 3199. I'm like, you know how many? Do you know how many Domino's pizzas you would get for 3199? Quality.

Look, I love a good East Coast pizza. I love New York. I still, and this is a point of contention here, I think New York pizza is better than New Jersey pizza. I think it's all, it's, I mean, it's hard to beat. New actual New York pizza in Manhattan. Yes, I'll agree with you there. With the little crunch as you bite into the crust. There's still some amazing pizza in New Jersey, though, much better than what we have out here.

We have a couple good spots we found. What was the place that catered Logan's birthday party? Well, catered. They just gave us a bunch of pizza that we ordered. Dominics. Dominics! That was some good pizza. The Brooklyn style.

Dominics. These are very deep cuts here. Right. Thank you, honey. Thank you. And yes, look, I understand when fall officially starts and when summer officially ends, I was just saying. And if there's other logical things, especially wrestling related things that we should talk about, let me know. If you have any questions for RVV, send them in. These are always so fun, honey. You're the best. Email question from Ryan McCartney from Cleveland, Ohio. Hey, Chris, I recently got back into wrestling after taking a 20-plus year hiatus and your podcast is a big part of that. Well, that's crazy. Thank you, man.

Right now, wrestling is enjoyable to me as it's ever been. But if you had to convince a friend who stopped watching after the attitude era, what would you tell them is the best part of today's era? I feel like I have this conversation frequently, especially when I explain to someone like what I do. and like who I interview and what my content is if you subscribe to my YouTube channel. And you get a lot of the, oh man, I used to watch wrestling when I was growing up. I haven't watched it a while. And I, the first thing I say to that is, oh, you got to give it a try. It is hot again right now.

Like they're doing a lot of things right right now in wrestling. I point to WrestleMania 40. Like wrestling's been on this upward tick for a little while now. I was actually telling some of this story recently. I attended WrestleMania at 39. I sat in the press box. And I went to the night one press conference. And then Triple H started the press conference,

and he was like running down on the numbers. And I distinctly remember sitting there. And he said, there's really no other way to put it. Wrestling's hot right now. And I guess I just hadn't heard someone, especially in WWE and in the position that Triple H is in, like explicitly say that. And I went, oh, yeah, I guess it is. And from WrestleMania 39 to WrestleMania 40 is a huge jump up.

Like if we were looking at a chart, like it really hockey stick in growth from there. And I would say to someone who hasn't watched in a while, just watch the main event of night two of WrestleMania 40. and to borrow a line from Moneyball, how can you not be romantic about wrestling? When you look at the story that was told there, and you don't even need to know the story. Like, you don't even need to tell someone like,

here's what's happening with Cody and the history and his father, and he left to this other company, and then he came back and finished the story. You don't even need to explain that. Just watch the match start to finish. And how can you not be romantic about wrestling? Just the way that that story was told. and all of the different components that made that story up.

That's what I would say to someone. You got about an hour to watch this with me or watch the match and FaceTime me after. That's what I would say. The best part of today's story, the best part of today's era to answer your question directly, Ryan, is the storytelling. There had not been long-term storytelling in pro wrestling in a long time. and the storytelling is what gets us invested. Like at the end of the day, that is what makes humans so unique.

That is what that sets us apart. There's a whole bunch of things that set us apart from other animals and other organisms, but storytelling at the core is what makes humans, humans. And the storytelling that's been going on in wrestling over the last year or two

has been at the peak storytelling. It really is. is. So that's the thing that stands out right now. And I think that what stood out in a big way during the attitude era was characters. And you're starting to get a lot of those characters back now. And I think that it's because of storytelling that that's happening. But how can you not, how can you not be romantic about wrestling? Kieran on Spotify, Hey, CVV, Insight is the number one wrestling podcast in the world for a reason. I love your positivity. My question, is what is your all-time favorite money-in-the-bank cash-in?

It's Dolph Ziegler on Alberto Del Rio. And going back, actually, to what we were talking about with holding the Money in the Bank briefcase for a long time, Dolph had it for, I think it was like right up to a year. He had had it for a long time there. And there was something about the way that that match ended, and Alberto Del Rio was in the way. the ring and he was favoring his knee and he was injured there and they were holding on that

shot just a little bit longer. And then Dolv Ziegler's music hit and it was the raw after WrestleMania. If you don't remember, it was a raw after WrestleMania 29 and his music hit and the place exploded. It was so loud. I wasn't there. I actually distinctly remember watching it on TV at my desk at my TV job in Cleveland. And I remember like getting like so giddy like, oh my gosh, it's happening. It's happening. It's happening. And he's coming down. The crowd's going crazy. And Dolf even explained it that like he wanted to like make sure this wasn't an easy win. He wanted to make it seem when these were his words. He wanted to make it feel like Dolf was getting dulfed again, which basically meant like you get right up to the point where you're going to get

something and then we take it away from you. And that's why there was like that one, two and three quarter. One, two. Oh, it barely kicks out. And then he wins the championship. I'd also done a lot of interviews with Daw. I think I had interviewed Dawn off like a few days before that and he still had the briefcase. I'd done a lot of interviews with him before that. So like I felt in a way kind of personally invested into the storyline. A close second to me and I know that for a lot of people it's number one, the heist of the century. That was amazing.

Seth Rollins turning the match into a three-way match, which was really cool because it wasn't just like a and the champion's injured and he's down and out and you cash in and you just kind of one, two, three, boom, got it. He inserts himself into this match between Brock Leszor and Roman Rains and it was just, it was beautiful. And I've told the story before and I'm so embarrassed when I say this out loud. I missed the actual moment because I've told the story before, so I'll make this quick. I had to get back to work the next day.

I had a red-eye flight that night from San Francisco, back to Cleveland, or back to Miami. I was living in Miami at the time. And me and all my friends had a flight that night. So we're like kind of timing this out. It's like, all right, if we stay till the very end of the show and then we got to battle the traffic getting through the parking lot and then battle the traffic to get to the airport or to try to get an Uber, like, this is just not going to happen.

Like, we might miss our flight. And then I need to get home to be able to get to work the next day and make this red eye flight. So we watched the cash in happen, like him run down. And then we kind of went, we got to go. We got to go. So me and my friends, Jason and Alex, I remember we walked down the steps. and we walked out and we got into the parking lot

and we just heard this huge cheer from the crowd and then we saw the fireworks and we're like, well, I don't know. What did we miss? What just happened? I remember like opening up my phone and being like, oh my God, how did we miss that thing? So that's another great money in the bank hasion.

But for me, the Ziegler one, it just means that much more. Sammer? S-A-M-E-R. on Spotify. Kudos to you, Chris, on how you're able to make every guest feel like home five minutes

into the conversation. They first start hesitant to answer certain questions, but then by the end of the interview, they don't want to leave. Any tips on how you can keep that confidence and not freak out when you're interviewing your childhood heroes? I could benefit from that, honestly.

Also, a fellow Canadian from Montreal, Canada. Hit me up if you visit. Well, merci beaucoup. And also, this is the final question that we have here on AskCTVV. Number 50, I think the biggest thing I remember is these are just people. And these are people who just like me or you, they had dreams and aspirations, and they chase after them.

And I think that that's number one where my curiosity begins from. Like, what made you different? What made you stand out? What made you not want to give up when you had every opportunity to give up? Because there are a lot of people. Like think about all the time. many how many people that you pass by at the grocery store, you pass by at the mall, or maybe it's the person who cuts you off in traffic, I don't know, they could have been the starting quarterback

for name the NFL team, or they could have been the next WWE champion and this thing in their life happened or that thing in their life happen. I think about those things all the time. And that's why I'm so genuinely curious in these conversations of like, what was it? What was the thing that made you keep going? Or what was the pivotal moment in your life? But, you know, when you really strip it all down, it's just these are people. These are just people. And, you know, it's super cliche, but yeah, they put their pants on the same way as you do every day.

They go to the bathroom just like you do every single day. And when you remember that you're just talking to another person and they're just a person. And they do all of the same. you know, they eat and breathe and sleep in the same way that you do in a day, I think that it humanizes them. So I've started to think about that. I think I get some nervousness sometimes when you're about to do a big interview like, you know, and I did the Dave Batiste interview recently. And I'm standing outside the door and his name is on the door. We posted a quick little video of this on Instagram. If you want to check it out, but you're like, all right, I'm going to talk

to him. I knew that I knew about how long the interview was going to be. And you're just like, I hope it goes well. I hope we're able to get some interesting stuff. I hope we're able to hit it off a little bit. So the conversation flows. That's where my nervousness comes from now. But I just start to think about like, if I bumped into this person at the grocery store,

bumped into them at Target or whatever, imagine seeing Dave Batista at Target. But I just think about what would the conversation be like? How would it flow? What would you, you'd be 100% like present in the moment and you'd be just like, taking that moment in. And that's, that's really where I try to approach this from. I get that that is

easier said than done. And I'm fortunate that I've now been doing this for coming up on 20 years. Crazy. Yeah, started my broadcasting career as a board operator for AM 570 News in Kitchener, Ontario in, I think my first shift there was December 2004. So we're coming up on 20 years of it. And I get that each one kind of helps a little bit. You know, each one that you do kind of helps. And it makes the next one that much easier. And then that makes the next one after that even a little bit easier. But that, my friend, would be my little piece of advice from the experience that I've had doing these over my career. And that, my friends, will do it for ask, see. CVV number 50, the David Robinson, Corey Crawford, AJ Hawk, Muky Betts edition.

Thank you for being with me on this one. I love being able to spend my Fridays with you hanging out one-on-one, and I appreciate you making this a part of your day. And looking forward to what we got in store for not just next week's episodes, but next week's interviews, I should say, but ask CVV number 51 as we run down the bad blood predictions. And then hopefully I will see you at bad blood if you happen to be going there. If you got a question for Ask CVV number 51, send it in using the hashtag, Ask CVV on social media. Shoot me an email. CVV at Chris Vanfleet.com or best of all, we were like almost,

I think 200. Let me actually check real quick. How many comments did we get on Spotify on this last episode. I was like, could we get over 100? Could we break 100? And then you guys blew it out of the water with 153 comments. Boom. Could we do 200? Could we do 200 comments on Ask CVV number 50? If you're still listening right now, that's how I know you are a real, real one. I always say if you listen to the Ask CVV episodes, you're a real one. But if you listen all the way until the end and we're still here right now, that's how I know you're a real one. 200. totally possible, totally possible. So let's see if we can hit that.

I'll leave you with this quote from Oscar Wild. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist. Be great. Be grateful, my friends. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. We got Trick Williams joining us on Tuesday. We'll see you on that one. And also, have an amazing weekend.

See you on Tuesday. Jim Rome takes on sports Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media

about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it. Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. been warned.