Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #56 - John Cena’s 17th Title, Goldberg’s Retirement Match, Baron Corbin Released

Episode Date: November 8, 2024

Welcome to AskCVV #56! On this episode, Chris answers questions about Crown Jewel, Cody Rhodes pinning Gunther, who Goldberg’s retirement match might be against, Baron Corbin being released from WWE, whether John Cena will win the WWE Undisputed Championship or the World Heavyweight Championship as his 17th title, the most underrated entrance themes and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: "There's no such thing as a long time ago. There's only memories that mean something and the memories that don't." - Sylvester Stallone 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 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/ ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://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 https://bluechew.com ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv MANSCAPED: Get 20% off plus free shipping when you use the code CHRISVAN at https://manscaped.com PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at https://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. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Thank you so much for being with us on this one. There's a lot of wrestling podcasts you could be listening to right now. There's a lot of just podcasts in general. There's a lot of things you could be doing right now, but you're here with us, and I appreciate you. And thank you for making Insight, the number one wrestling podcast on planet Earth. I'm sure you've done it already because you're a real one and you're listening to an AskCV episode. And as we know, the real, real ones listen all the way until the very end. But if you haven't yet, hit a choke slam on that follow button on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you don't miss out on any of the episodes that we have coming up. If you haven't yet, please also leave a rating for the show on Spotify or a review on Apple Podcast. Man, those help so, so much as we continue to hopefully just get the word out about the show. we're getting very close to episode number 700. Who could, and I was, who could the guest be?

And then number two, I was just like looking at the schedule. Episode 700 is going to fall in the last day of the year. It's going to be December 31st, 2024. So I feel like we got to, got to go out with a bang on that one. But I honestly have no clue how that one's going to go. And I'll peel back the curtain a little bit here. I don't know how, I don't know how the, schedule is going to look in December. We've got baby boy, you know, baby number two for us,

a little baby boy. He's coming to the world. The due date is December 11th. So we're going to be a little tied up for the early and mid part of December. So I definitely won't be traveling for any interviews. So it'll be interesting to see what we do there. But don't worry. We will still have an episode every Tuesday, every Thursday. And I would think, every Friday with the AskCTVV, but if we're rushing to the hospital on a Thursday night, you might understand why there won't be

an AskCV episode on one of those weeks, but we'll see. We'll see what happens, you know, if and when we need to cross that bridge. I actually want to look at the calendar. When is December 11th? What day of the week is it? It's a Wednesday.

All right. So he could be born, well, I mean, he can be born whenever he wants to be born. He can be born now if he wants. Well, not right now, I hope. because I'm not home right now. I'm actually recording this in probably the most unique place

I've ever recorded one of these episodes. I don't know if it sounds a little bit different to you. Probably doesn't. But I am sitting in a rental car right now in Austin, ready to board my flight, but I had some, it's a Thursday right now as I record this. Of course, we always record Ask CVV on a Thursday

so you can listen to it right when it comes out super early Friday morning. But I was like, Do I record this like late when I land at home? That doesn't make sense. I've got some time to kill here. So if on Thursday, yesterday, you saw a white Chevy Malibu rental car randomly sitting in a parking lot in Austin, that was me.

You should have come over and said hello. But I'm in Austin. Right now, as I record this, we did two interviews here. One of them was with Michelle McCool. the other one I don't want to reveal who that was it wasn't The Undertaker so I think we'll just put that out there

he was just on the show a few months ago I won't put it out there but I will say November 26th is when that other guest will air that episode and you'll see exactly who it is and you'll it'll all make sense you'll understand oh that's why he didn't like drop that hint

early but welcome my friends to ask CVV number 50 The Lawrence Taylor, Julius Peppers, and Terry Tate Office Limebacker edition. Deep cut with that one. Oh, my goodness. For anyone who's close to my age-ish or older, you will know, Terry Tate Office Linebacker from those Reebok commercials. They're so good. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, take a minute today to just look on YouTube and check them out.

They are hilarious. Like, in a nutshell, basically he was the guy in the office that if you did things in the office that, you know, you weren't being a good co-worker, like he didn't refill the coffee or you were like talking too loud on a phone call or whatever. He would come in and tackle you out of nowhere and then talk trash to your face. Absolutely hilarious. But welcome, my friends. Thank you for being with us on this one. If you have a question for next week's Ask CVV. send it in using that hashtag AskCVV on social media,

leave a comment on Spotify, or shoot me an email, CVV at chris van Vleet.com. We'll start it off with John Demetri on Facebook. Your crown jewel predictions were spot on except for the Cody and Gunther match. What did you think of the finish there? Well, you're right.

I think actually I got, I think I picked all of the matches correctly. Like if you were placing a bet on my bookie and of course using the promo code CVV when you sign up to get a 100% welcome bonus, you would have made out with quite a bit of money if you followed my predictions because I think I was spot on with all of them. I said there would be some tomfoolery in both of the champion versus champion crown jewel matches. And I was certainly right about what happened in the women's match. Like almost spot on. Tiffany's got to come out and she's going to tease cashing in. she might even cash in, but like that's going to be something that ends up happening here. And that's exactly what happened.

Like to a T, that is what happened. The men's match surprised me. I did pick Cody as the winner, but I thought there'd be some shenanigans, some tomfoolery going on in that match. And what we got instead was just a straight up amazing wrestling match. And I like the finish that we had on that one, too. And I think what that finish does is it subtly tells us two things. One, it says to the audience, Cody is the guy. And I feel like we kind of already have known that for a long time.

But this just furthers cements that, like, while there are other people, and they are performing at a very high level as well, Cody is the face of the company. Number two, I think it also says the WWE Undisputed Championship, it means a little bit more than the World Heavyweight Championship. And I think that that's something we already kind of knew. Like it has been looked at as a secondary title for a long time. And regardless of what they say, it's not a secondary title. It's also a world title.

Yeah, sure. You can say that all you want. But I think the perception from fans is pretty clear that it's not like when you win the World Heavyweight Championship, that's great. Yes, it's a world title. And it'll be added to your reign of world titles. but it's not the WWE championship. And I think that that's what that did.

But what is just straight up great wrestling match? And in no way do I think that this hurts Gunther at all. And I know he's been pinned by very few people. So that now gives a feather in the cap to Cody. Like, yes, he's the guy. Yes, he's the WWE undisputed champion. And he's also pinned Gunther. I just think Gunther continues to do what Gunther does.

No one's looking at Gunther in a match now and going, well, I don't know. He did get beat at Crown Jewel. I don't know if he's a good champion anymore. Come on. That is rubbish. That is absolutely rubbish, my friends. I saw an interesting stat the other day that Cody Rhodes is the only person in WWE history to pin Roman Raines, Gunther, and Brock Lesnar.

Crazy. He is on a generational run. whether you like Cody, whether you don't like Cody, whether you love Cody, whether you hate Cody. However you feel about Cody, you're feeling something. So he's doing something right, because that's what wrestling's all about. Wrestling's about making you feel something. But I think, and I talk about this all the time,

it is so important with what's going on right now in wrestling, to just take half a step back and appreciate the amazing, amazingly stacked roster that we have. right now and just the great matches that we're getting. And also appreciate that what Cody Rhodes is doing right now is on that level of like what John Cena did. Like John Cena is a 16-time world champion, face the company for a long time, all for a reason.

And that's who Cody is right now. And I think that it's important to just take that half step back, zoom out just a tiny little bit, and just realize that. And whether you like him or not. that doesn't really matter, but I think just appreciate it. Speaking of stacked rosters, I posted something on Facebook and Instagram and also YouTube on the YouTube community wall earlier in the week. And it's the roster from 2002 to 2003.

And it's not everybody on the roster, but it's just showing like how stacked that roster is. You can go and check it out on my social media. But I'm just going to look at these faces and just read them off to you. Brock Leznor, Undertaker, Triple H, Austin. Rock, HBK, Engel, Cain, DDP, Hulk Hogan, Steiner, Goldberg, Jericho, Big Show, Xbox, Rick Flair, Booker T, Chris Benoit, DeMelanco, Perry Saturn, John Sina, Rhino, Roddy Piper, Eddie Guerrero, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Dave Batista, Edge Christian, The Dudley Boys, Randy Orton, Matt and Jeff Hardy, Raven, and RIVAN and RIVD. I missed a perfect. Well, I didn't, I didn't miss a step there. I looked

everybody's face and went, wow. But the point here is like, I think we knew in 2002, 2003 that, yeah, the roster was pretty great. But it takes us now, 20 plus years later, to look at an image like that and go, man, we had it good. We had it so good.

And I think that on a certain level, we're going to look at the roster that currently exists right now and go, man, man, those were the good old days. Chris underscore Mason 12 on Instagram. No CVV. You probably didn't write it like that, but I read it like that

because there's an exclamation mark. I saw the reports that Dustin Rhodes' contract in AEW is up and he's a free agent. Do you think that we'll see him back in WWE? I think that at some point in time, he is, I mean, he's absolutely a Hall of Famer. There is no question about that. Will we see him back in WWE for a match?

That's the big question here. Because, of course, when his career's done and he decides to hang him up, he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame and it'll be an absolutely beautiful thing and incredibly well deserved. Is that happening sometime soon? I don't know. It'll be very interesting to see. And that will ultimately come down to him. So if he's a free agent, it'll come down to does he want to stay in AEW and do what he's doing? And he's been wrestling a lot there. Like this, and this is not a knock on other people that are around his age, but I think he's on pace right

now to wrestle the most matches that he's wrestled since 2018. So while there's a lot of other people that as they get on in their career and they get a little bit older, that number starts to dwindle down, right? Less wear and tear on the body. But he's like, no, give me more. I want to go out there and wrestle more matches, tell more stories. One of the big hangups here is if he does end up leaving AW, just period, or if he does end up leaving AW and going to WWE, they've got a few loose ends they got to tie up. Like he has two championships there right now,

and that's a big thing they're going to have to figure out. He's one half of the Ring of Honor World Tag Team Champions along with Sammy Guevara. He's one third of the Ring of Honor World Six-Man tag team champions, along with Marshall and Ross Von Erich. So they've got to figure that out, whether that's a brief contract extension for a few weeks or months for them to tie that up and him lose the championships and move on, or whether that's, here's a new contract, would you like

to stay for X amount of years? Fightful reported that the negotiations are going on between the two of them, but they haven't like neither party. Like he hasn't signed yet, and he hasn't also, like, walked away. So I would love to see him back in WWE at some point, just. to get that moment again between Cody and Dustin. One of my favorite matches of all time, just because of the story that was told going into it,

and just how emotional the match was, was Cody and Dustin's match at Double or Nothing 2019, AEW's very first show. I was there. It was beautiful. There was not a dry eye in the building. And I think that whether it's Dustin wrestling a whole bunch of matches,

if he decides to go to WWE, or if it's just him. him being there for a few one-offs or being part of a story with Cody. I think that that's something that wrestling fans have wanted to see, and they've been talking about this for a while, but ultimately, Dustin seems really happy with the position that he's in right now. Two championships, I can't really complain about that, but it'll be really interesting to see. This is that time of year with the Rumble just around the corner, right, two and a half months away.

This is that time of year when we start to float some names out there, and we start to look at contracts and when do they end and look at injuries, okay, when's that person possible to come back from injury? Because the best thing about the Royal Rumble is the surprises. Yeah, it's cool at the end when there's four people left and you're trying to figure out what the story's going to be, okay, who's going to eliminate who here? And if that person wins, what's the WrestleMania match?

I love all that, but there is nothing better. And I've been to a handful of Royal Rumbles. There is nothing better than, Ten, nine, all the way down. Slight pause. Music hits. Love it. So this is that time of year.

When we'll start to look at like, all right, who could come out? Could it be Dustin Rhodes? Could it be Matt Cardona? Is that when Charlotte Flair comes back? And I've just thrown out like three names here, but there's at least probably half a dozen or ten more that we could throw out. Maybe we'll do that as we get a little bit closer to the Rumble. but I'm definitely interested to see what ends up happening with Dustin.

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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 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. Alex on Spotify, hey, Chris, big fan from Australia here. You were part of the reason I got back into wrestling this year for the first time in 10 years. So thanks for that. My goodness. No, that's cool. My question for Ask CVV number 56 is, how does an open challenge work in K-Fab?

I'm talking about backstage, who gets to be the one to go out there? Is there like a brawl each time for who gets to be the one to answer the challenge or do they decide between themselves beforehand? I love when we speak logically about wrestling. Because think about how an open challenge would work. If we are speaking in K-Fabe here, right?

Well, obviously we understand how it truly works. But if we're speaking just in K-Fabe here, let's use the John Sina United States Open Challenge for an example. He goes out there and this is before we know it's a weekly thing. He goes out there for the first time. Anybody in the

back. Anybody in the back wants to come out here. Think of if this was like a real life thing. If this wasn't, you know, K Faba whose name is on the rundown, all right, yeah, go have a great match. If this was real life, would it be the first person who runs up to guerrilla position?

Would it be like would be the first person who stands in front of Triple-Aid. It's me, let, give it to me. Give it to me. Is it someone politicking all day long? If there's ever an open challenge, I've got to be the guy.

Is it people having a fist fight? Maybe there's, you know, four people in catering that are like, let's do it. It's got to be me. And they're running to guerrilla position, like pushing each other out of the way and like stabbing each other in the eye. I don't know where that came from,

but just doing whatever they can for that opportunity. and then when you get there, do you get there to guerrilla position and wait till they have your music and entrance ready? Like you're the first person to race into that spot? And then you're like, all right, you guys ready? Okay.

Well, I will stand here and wait until you hit my music. Okay? No, but I'm the guy? All right, cool. And you're hoping that whole time that no one else is going to push you out of the way or they're going to play somebody else's music. I just, I love wrestling from the bottom of my heart.

but I love thinking about these logical or slash illogical situations that arise. I mean, I'm sure you guys have another take on this, even another layer of silliness to add on to this. But what a fun thing to think about, Alex. The true, if this was truly an open challenge, and we were treating this in K-Fabe, what kind of chaos would that look like? Trevor McKinnon 17 on Twitter.

Hey, CVV, with Goldberg announcing that he will have his retirement match in 2025. Who do you think his opponent will be? Well, I'm excited that he's getting his retirement match. And I'm a big person about being a man of my word. And he was told that when he had that match with Roman Raines, that he was basically, yeah, I'll do that match with Roman Raines if I got a retirement match in exchange. And it was like, yeah, sure.

It sounds good. It's obviously Vince that made that agreement with him. Vince isn't there anymore. So I understand why that end of the bargain hasn't been held up. I'm glad that it has now. I'm a big believer in do what you say. If you say you're going to do something, you've got to follow through on it. That's always how I've been.

In my personal life, in my professional life, I think you need to be a man or woman of your word. So I'm excited that he's finally getting the thing that he was promised. who is it going to be against, though? I think there's a lot of options there. And I think this is just a one-off match. I think this is, if I were to predict this, I think this is a one-off match, not WrestleMania.

I don't think this is a WrestleMania match because there's so much talent that I don't think that that's going to be a WrestleMania match. I could be totally wrong here. I think it's going to be like any other pay-per-view other than WrestleMania. This also gives Bill Goldberg

some time to get into shape and to get into ring shape as well because there's a difference between being in shape and being in ring shape. So this gives him some time to get into ring shape. I think this is one final match with a relatively quick buildup, like a month-ish, like four to six weeks of buildup. They certainly seem to be teasing a possibility here with Gunther. So I think that it's either Gunther or I think there's a long history there and a long relationship slash friendship with Braun Breaker.

and Bronbreaker has talked about how inspired he is by Goldberg and they've known each other since Brom Breaker was younger. So I think there's also a story that could be told there. There's lots of other possibilities here, but I think that as we start to inch closer to that one, I'm going to put my money on either one of those matches. And I know there are a lot of people that feel a certain way about Goldberg. And if he's not your cup of tea, that's cool.

And I think there's a lot of people that feel that way that weren't WCW fans. Because if you were in WCW, when he was on the streak, there was nothing quite like it. There was nothing like it in wrestling at all. Like for him to just go out there like a superhero and just blow through people and just decimate people, it was special. It was special when you were watching it live. And I think it's easy now, 25 years later, to go, oh, yeah, as matches were short and I didn't like the way that he worked, sure. Yeah, you can say that all you want, but I think that you are really downplaying how special that was at that point in time, especially in the peak of the

Monday Night Wars. Goldberg was such a critical part of the Monday Night Wars, and I've said it before. And I've said it in interviews as well. I said it with Booker T. I think when you look at the Mount Rushmore of WCW, you're ridiculous if you don't have Bill Goldberg on there. I think it's Goldberg. I think it's Sting. I think it's DDP, and I think it's Booker T because those are four people who are like born and bred WCW people.

Oh, what about Rick Flair? Rick Flair was already a star when he came to WCW. Those four people that I just listed off, WCWCW made them. And I think that they're such an important part about it. But I'm excited for this match. And I think that if you weren't watching when Goldberg was in his prime,

I don't think you can really appreciate just the beast that he was and the importance of what he was doing. Comet underscore landing underscore on Twitter. Do you think John Cena will win the WWE Championship or the World Heavyweight Championship? I posted this earlier this week on social media as well,

so I'm glad that you asked me what my opinion is on this one as well. I think for sure he's winning a 17th championship. I think there's no question about that. And I saw a lot of the comments from people going, no, I think he'll win the Intercontinental Championship instead, so that he can be a Grand Slam champion. Sure.

I think that that's very much within the realm of possibility. He has 12 months to work with here. This is 12 months. 36 dates, I think, is what he was quoted as saying recently in an interview. So 12 months, 36 dates. I don't know if that's 36 matches, but that's 36 appearances. I think there's an opportunity to tell a handful of stories here. One of them could be being the intercontinental champion for a few months, a few weeks, a few weeks.

But I think the main story that we'll be told will be him winning number 17, and then somehow he loses it, and then somehow that plays into his retirement match. And I talked at great length with Sam Roberts about this, and we speculated wildly because that's what we love to do as wrestling fans. So if you haven't checked out that episode, we talk a lot about that. which is great. I think his 17th championship is the World Heavyweight Championship.

And I don't know how it's going to play out. I don't know who he wins it from and I don't know who even the champions will be as we get into WrestleMania season next year and then at WrestleMania and then everything that comes after that. But I think it's the World Heavyweight Championship and I just think that with the pedigree

that the WWE undisputed championship has had with Roman Raines holding it for 13, 116 days, with Cody holding it for nine months, nine, eight months now. And it seems like, unless things start to change, seems like he could be the champion going into next year. And then he could possibly be the champion going to WrestleMania, although I still, my gut tells me that that's not going to be the case. I think he, I think he loses it to somebody else.

But I think that it's, I think John Sina wins the World Heavyweight Championship. and I don't know. I don't know if it's Gunther. I know there's a lot of people going, well, that means it's maybe it's John Cena versus Gunther at WrestleMania. Absolutely a possibility.

I don't know if Gunther holds it all the way until WrestleMania. I just feel like the World Heavyweight Championship is going to be a championship that changes hands with a little bit more frequency. Maybe you have two to four champions a year. That's my guess.

And I think that if you look at the WWE title, one to three champions a year or one to three title changes a year. Well, it gets to be one to two title changes a year because you'd have the champion. They would lose it once, lose it again. That's two title changes, three champions. But I think that he wins number 17. I think there's also a very good possibility that he wins the Intercontinental Championship. But let's be honest here.

Let's be completely honest here. He doesn't need it. He doesn't need it at all. Like if John Sina retires and he's not the Grand Slam champion, are we going to go, oh, man, wow, what a terrible career he had. We're just going to go, oh, he was just booked in a different way. Like he really elevated the United States championship in a way that really hadn't been done before. John Sina was also a guy who wasn't afraid to lose. He saw a stat the other day where John Sina hasn't won a singles match on 30.

TV since 2018. Of course, so we're talking TV, raw, our Smackdown main event. That was gold, he beat gold dust. So May 3rd, 2018 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, John Cena beat gold dust. Wow.

Like, talk about a guy who's just not afraid to put other people over six and a half years since he won his last match on TV. We're going to see something, I think, very different. in 2025. I don't think this is the John Cena that's putting everybody over. I do think there's,

I still think there's going to be a lot of opportunities for him to get in the ring with new talent and just showcase their skills. But I, I would have to guess here that John Cena's having a pretty good winning percentage in, in 2025 on that retirement tour. Ron Barry emailed this one in. Ask CV, number 56, the Julius Peppers edition.

Live has mentioned retiring, Becky Lynch a few times and recently at Raw. Do you believe this is setting up Becky's return and maybe a rumble appearance? Well, I think first and foremost, Liv is just doing that to continue to be a heel and continue to just add to more things to make you not like her. I think that that, at the surface level, that's what it is. If you dig a little bit deeper, if you go below that, just a little bit more, I mean, it's not untruthful.

We don't know Becky Lynch's contract status. We don't know if she's coming back to WWE. We don't know if maybe she has resigned and they're waiting for the perfect time to have her come back. We don't know these things. But I do, I think, I think that the obvious story

that needs to be told there is her trying to get her championship back. I wouldn't live, won it from Becky, or won it in a match with Becky. So, yeah, I think that that's what it is. Rumble return? Sure. Sign me up.

That'd be great. And I also think, I just mentioned it before, but I think Charlotte makes a return at the Rumble. But I think that as we see those entrance coming out in the Women's Royal Rumble, I would have to think that Becky Lynch is going to be part of that. I don't know what's going on and I don't know the reason for her break. I don't know anything behind the scenes there.

But I say this with a lot of different situations like this. It's so easy to project your own things. onto any of these contract situations or to project your own things onto whatever. This person should be booked this way or this person should be in this company

instead of this company. They should leave and go to this company. I get that. But at the end of the day, are they happy? That's the biggest thing that I think we need to talk about here. Selfishly, as fans, it's easy to go, man, I miss that person, or I wish that they had gotten a better final match,

or I wish that they had been able to say goodbye. I get it. Are they happy? That's the biggest thing here. And it seems to me, from everything that I've heard, that Becky Lynch is very happy right now, just being a mom, being able to be with their little girl, and just enjoying life off the road. Because I know that wrestlers talk about a lot, that grind of being on the road. You know, you're in a few different cities every week. Hotels and airports, it's a lot. And I think there's something to be said about just being able to just be at home and be with your people. So I'll be keeping an eye out. Royal Rumble, and I wouldn't be surprised if she came back. Roddy Blaze 24 on Instagram says, will Chris Van Beard ever return? Well, I've got it probably like a, probably got like a week old beard right now, but I feel like I got to shave this, shave it down. I feel like I mean, I always have that just permanent stubble.

and I let it grow probably to like a week. And that's just from like, really more than anything. Like, yeah, I think it looks okay. But more than anything, it's just like, I don't really want to shave every day. So when you watch the interview with Michelle McCool and then the other interview that comes out on the 26th, you'll see like, you know,

more than a five o'clock shadow. That's for sure. I don't know. I don't know if the beard really suited me. I've come and gone with the beard, you know. I've had a beard maybe four times in my life. I don't know. I don't know if it's for me.

And also, I think the scary thing, it's probably going to be a lot of you guys that can relate to this. When you start to see those stray gray hairs in your beard, you're like, ah! It happened! And I got more than, more than I'd like to, more than I'd like to have in there. So I don't know.

Chris Van Baird could make a, reappearance, but I don't think it'll be anytime soon. Jose Hernandez 95. Actually, there's a lot of underscores there. Jose Hernandez underscore underscore 95 on Instagram. Will the Indianapolis interview end up being on Spotify? So you're talking about the live show that we're doing. The day before the Royal Rumble in Indianapolis, I'm so pumped about this.

We've been talking about doing a live show for like a year and a half, maybe longer. and it's finally happening here. So to answer your question, yes, that will be on Spotify, it will be on YouTube, it will be on, it'll be everywhere. We're treating this like it's a normal interview. The only difference is we are recording it

live in front of all of you guys in Indy that day. I don't know if we're going to have one guest or two guests or possibly more. We'll be letting you guys know as the guests get announced. But yes, that will,

it'll just be a normal episode. we'll just, the only difference is we'll be hanging out on the stage. Well, actually, one of the other differences is we have a VIP tickets. And part of that is you will get access to a special, like this. It'll be a special Q&A before the show, just for the people who bought the VIP tickets. So we'll be able to have like our own little personal one-on-one, ask CVV like this. So that'll be for the real, real ones for sure. But other than that, yeah, this is just a normal,

episode, and the plan is to do a few of these. We're going to do one in Las Vegas for WrestleMania. I haven't figured out all the details on that one yet. I'll be announcing that hopefully in the next month or so, maybe, maybe sooner. But that's going to be Wednesday night in Las Vegas, Wednesday night of of WrestleMania week. So if you're going to Las Vegas for WrestleMania, I hope that you come in Wednesday afternoon. So you can come to that show on.

Wednesday night. But for the show in Indianapolis, tickets are on sale now. Those VIP tickets that I talked about, they're selling out very fast, but all tickets are still available right now. CVVticks.com. So, CVVTX.com. And I also get that Royal Rumble tickets aren't going on sale till next Friday. So maybe you don't even know if you're going to the Rumble because maybe you don't know if you're able to get tickets or not yet. I get that. But tickets will be on sale for a while. So maybe next week when you figure out if you're going to be going to be. run to the Rumble or not, if you were able to get tickets for the Rumble or not, join us Friday night, 5 p.m., helium comedy club

for a little insight live. I mean, it's the first one ever. So it'll be history. Christian 07 Luna on Instagram. Do you see Baron Corbyn going to AEW? Also, what is your favorite Corbyn match? I was so shocked to see Baron Corbyn get released. I love Baron Corbyn. He's just such a good, guy. I've always enjoyed the interviews that we've done and just also the messages that we've sent to each other, the times that I've seen him. He's just a really, really good guy.

And I thought for sure he was going to be one of those people that's with the company forever. And I was so shocked to see, first of all, I was just shocked to see another round of releases. It was only a handful of people, but still, that was just hurt. I always hate to see that. But I thought Baron Corbyn would be around forever. That guy, is far too talented to not be on TV. And he also doesn't get enough credit for how good he makes other people look. He is so good at making other people look like a million bucks. I don't know if it's going to be AEW. I don't know if it's TNA. I don't even know if it's still wrestling. I could actually see him doing something to do with movies. Like, it wouldn't be surprised if you see

him in a movie in the next, well, he might film it now and you wouldn't see it for another year or so with all the production and everything. But I wouldn't be surprised if you see him in a movie soon. And I also wouldn't be surprised if you see him diving even more into his passion for cooking and all the stuff he does with

culinary. That guy is just a master chef. And he'll probably be upset that I called him a master chef because that's like a technical term, but he is just so, he's brilliant when it comes to that stuff. I could see him diving into that a little bit more.

But, man, my heart goes out to anybody, not just in wrestling, but anybody who gets let go from their job when they're not prepared or they're not expecting it. And that just, that just sucks. So I'll be excited to see where he pops up next and what that ends up looking like. Is it wrestling? Is it something else?

We'll see. Izzy underscore 102 on Spotify. Hey, Chris, a real, real one here on the Lawrence Taylor edition of Asked CVV. What entrance theme do you think is slept on or doesn't get enough credit for being good. I would say for me it's Saboos in WWE. I've always thought it was cool,

and it fits him perfectly. Thank you for the amazing content, as always. Sabu, that's definitely a good one. Triple H is one, two. Is this so on? That one just gets lost in the mix, because everyone just immediately goes to Motorhead, which he has three Motorhead themes,

if you're including evolution. And then my time ends up getting like falling down. I'm going to make a, it's a hot take here. It's an unpopular opinion. But my time is my favorite Triple H entrance theme. I love it. And yes, it's one, two, is this on? One, two, is this on?

I love pointing that out all the time. That one gets slept on all the time just because Triple H's had so many other great entrance themes. Ken Shamrock's theme is such a banger. And I always loved his theme when I was younger, but when I interviewed him again recently, and I was rewatching some of his matches and then just listening to his entrance theme

as I was driving to the airport to pick him up. I'm like, man, that theme is just so good. And I'll give you one more, Alex Riley. And that's not just because I love Downstate and that's not just because they do the theme song for Insight with Chris Van Fleet, but that was, man, so good. Yeah, so there's just three quick,

off the top of my head. Leave it in the comments, which one you think is the most underrated, because there's a lot. Like, we could be sitting here all day, talking about all of the underrated entrance themes, but I don't have all day because I have a flight to catch here in Austin

as we hang out. Spencer Forgs, from a real, real one, this is on Spotify. Ask CVV number 56, the Lawrence Taylor Edition. I love when you guys point out who each of these different editions should be. Who's the person you think of when you think of that number? I love it. My question is, since you interview,

since your interviews with wrestlers are more conversations, which I love, how do you handle it when wrestlers stay in character? Like guys like Dirty Dom, who stayed in character 95% of the interview? Well, here's the thing. I didn't know, I don't know, if the person's going to stay in character or not. It's not like,

especially with the Dom and Live interview, if you listen to, especially the Live episode, I was like, they came in, like, we were set up, and we immediately had to start rolling. There was very little time for like, Hey, how are you? How you been? How's everything? Liv had to catch a flight, so we got her in and, like, we just started rolling immediately. Liv stayed in character for the most part.

Dom stayed in character for also the most part. There were definitely some times when he dipped in and out, which I thought was so funny. MJF, I also feel like you never know what you're going to get with that guy, and he's just an awful person. to begin with. But I think that's, like, I think when the camera turns on, maybe he turns up his dickishness even more,

if that's possible, because he's just not a, yeah, not a, anyway. And Tiffany Stratton did that, too. And if you watch the, any of the press conferences she's done after any PLE,

she stays in character there. I can handle it either way. Like, if they want to stay in character, great. We'll have some fun. I really leaned into it with Dom. We had a lot of fun, and he was just, like, throwing out the one-liners, and it was just like I felt like I was just sitting there listening to just comedy happening in front of me.

It was hilarious. I think I personally prefer finding out who the person is behind the character. I love learning about the struggles to get to where they're at, and I love being able to, like, you know, you had this road bump block in your life or this speed bump in your life. How did you get over that? Or like, your character was doing this one thing and then this other thing happened that threw it off course, or maybe this other thing happened that put it on course.

I love being able to figure that out. But I also understand that when I'm speaking to these wrestlers, you're not always going to get the entire story. And I also understand that we live in a time when, yeah, K-Fabe has been broken quite a bit, but it hasn't been broken completely by some people. Like even I know people were like, oh, the Undertaker, he just broken K-Fab completely. There's still a lot of things he won't talk about.

Like I asked him about in the interview where I was a guest on his show, I asked him about like, how does he do the lightning? Like, how does he shoot lightning from his hands? Obviously he's not shooting lightning from his hands. And he was like, yeah, that's one I'm not going to talk about. I was like, cool, all right. So for everybody who's like, oh, man, he just talks about everything,

he's exposing the business. No, there's still a lot of things. He keeps close to the vest. But I also get that when you're in a storyline like the one that Dom and Liv have right now, they want to play the fans. And they know there's fans out there that are going to listen to all of these interviews

and watch all of the videos on YouTube. And I think they want to play the fans a little bit. So I'm okay with it. and I think to answer the question of how do I handle it, you'll find out pretty quickly, are they in character or not? Like, I feel like 30 seconds in, one question in, you're like, oh, okay, I see where we're going with this. Great.

All right, well, then that's it. We'll just kind of adjust this a little bit, and we'll just, we'll roll with it. Jeremy Varnel on Spotify says, with Netflix reportedly wanting the likes of Roman, Cody, and Punk, and Raw, When it switches over, do you see WWE going away from the brand split? I don't think they'll ever completely go away from the brand split, but is one of my biggest points of contention is the draft is just ridiculous.

You don't talk about being logical in wrestling? The draft makes so little sense. You draft someone to a show, and then within a week or two or three, it's willy-nilly, this person's showing up here and that person's showing up there. And I understand at the end of the day, it's not a real draft. I get that, okay? And I also understand that it's really just about ratings and viewers, like getting eyeballs onto the show,

whether that is, while it's airing live on TV or on Netflix, whether that's on social media clips, whether that's on YouTube. I understand that at the end of the day, the idea is telling the best stories that you possibly can to get the most amount of eyeballs on it. I get that. I don't think you're ever going to see a point where

there was no brand split at all. I think there needs to be some structure with the way that it is right now, especially when they go to Netflix and you've got Raw on Netflix and you've got SmackDown on USA. There needs to be some sort of division there, but it still will never cease to bother me.

This person got drafted to Raw. Okay, great. Two weeks later, what's that person doing on SmackDown? they're not supposed to be here. Yeah, that one bothered me so much. But I don't think the draft is going anywhere anytime soon. I don't think the brand split's going to ever go away.

But I just, if we are going to operate in a world where these people are on the blue show and these people are on the red show and these people only wrestle on Mondays and these people only wrestle on Fridays, let's keep it that way. Okay? It needs to stay that way then. That's, if it's truly going to be a draft, you can't just one day be playing for the Cleveland Browns, and then the next week, because it's convenient and it might sell some more tickets, you can't just show up for the New England Patriots, and then the next week just be back on the Browns.

It's called a trade. If you want trades to happen, and they do that in WWE, make the trades happen. But I think if you're going to have a brand split, it needs to make sense. It needs to make sense. Ominous 310 on Instagram says, why do you think people look at the attitude era with such rose-colored glasses? It's true.

And we pointed out on many different occasions that the attitude era wasn't perfect. I think the simple answer here is because the good outweighs the bad. There was a lot more good, a lot more iconic moments, a lot more great characters than they were bad ones, than there were bad ones.

And I think that that's it. That is the simple answer to that question. For every beaver cleavage, you had Stone Cold Steve Austin. For every valviness getting his pee cut off. You had the rock. You know, for every, geez, we're going to go down this long list here. People always point out, like, May Young giving birth to the hand, that is not even close to one of the worst gimmicks, one of the worst angles in wrestling.

Not even close. It's ridiculous, yes. but Katie Vick's at the top. Katie Vick is at the top. But for every May Young giving birth to a hand, you've got Triple H and The Undertaker and all of that other amazing stuff that happened then. And I think that that's why.

If you go through and do it, go on the network or go on Peacock, depending on where you live, and watch, just watch Raw for, watch it for two months. Watch eight episodes of Raw. And there's going to be some stuff in there that you're going to go,

ah, man, that's not good. And, like, there's definitely a lot of stuff in there that would not fly today. But there's just other stuff that's just flat out bad. Like, for every naked midian, you've got, like, Mick Foley winning the championship on Raw. Like, I just think that there's the good outweighs the bad. And that's going to be the case with, I would hope, most eras in wrestling. but there was there was there's a lot of stuff from the attitude error a quick google search of worst gimmicks in the attitude era or worst storylines in the attitude error will show you this

but there was a lot of bad stuff that people seemed to forget about because of all the legendary talent that we had then it outweighs it see a lea corey what's up man good to see you in here on instagram says nxty's women's roster is stacked. Is it crazy to think an NXT woman will win the Royal Rumble? Well, if we're being realistic here, yes, it's probably not going to happen. But not only is the NXT women's roster stacked. The raw women's roster stacked, the Smackdown women's roster is stacked. All the rosters are really stacked right now. I don't think they would have someone from NXT win the Royal Rumble simply because I think that there is a general understanding

from the higher ups in WWE that people, that not everybody that watches Raw or Smackdown also watches NXT. I think that there is a big overlap there. I think the Venn diagram has a very large area in the middle of overlap, people that watch Raw and Smackdown and NXT. But I don't know if, I don't know if they understand or, I think they probably realize that the casual fan may not watch NXT, may have never watched NXT, may not be familiar with those.

people. So I think you could get to a situation where a hot NXT talent is in the final four of the Royal Rumble, but I don't think you'll ever see an NXT talent who hasn't been called up to the main roster yet win the men's or women's Royal Rumble. It's a nice idea, and I think it's a really fun like David versus Goliath type of thing, like underdog story. It's a great idea. I just don't think that's going to happen. I don't think that you're going to put someone from NXT. who hasn't been called up yet on fast track to the main event of WrestleMania. I think instead it's like, all right, you've worked the NXT circuit. You're doing the

they call the Coconut Loop. So you're doing the shows around Florida. Then you're working in the performance center in front of the small audience there. Now they're on tour a little bit more. Okay, great. I don't think it's like go from that to immediately you're winning the Royal Rumble in a stadium. I just don't think that that's going to be the case. Could totally be wrong. And I am often wrong about a lot of different things,

but I don't think that's what I'm going to be wrong about. Kirby Richel on Instagram says, Ask CVV. Yeah. Yeah. CVV. I hope you said, yeah, there. With the state of the world that we live in,

what are three things that you are grateful for in this moment? I'm grateful for you allowing us to take a break from the norm and the stresses of life. These episodes feel like a big, discussion of some good old-fashioned rasselin spelled with an r. And by the way, this is the last question here on Ask CVV number 56. So thank you to everyone who sent your questions in. I appreciate you so much. I think I still have time to make my flight here. This has been a fun way to wait for a flight. It's been great. Three things I'm grateful for. I do this every single day.

So I love that you're doing, you're asking me this to end this episode. Health for sure. health of my health and the health of those that are close to me, that is paramount. That's such an important thing. I'm grateful for my family. Not just my immediate family, which would be my mom and dad and my wife Rachel, our little girl, Logan, baby boy on the way. But my friends that are close to me as well, and I'm so grateful for the people in my life. That's how I'll wrap that up, the people in my life. And I'm just grateful for opportunity.

I'm grateful that I am able to sit in a Chevy Malibu rental car in a random parking lot in Austin, talking to a microphone, and have you, wherever you happen to be in the world right now, doing whatever it is that you're doing, be able to listen to it. I love that. I'm also grateful that I'm able to be able to travel to do these interviews

in person. I think that it just adds another layer of it just makes them that much better. I mean, I did the Zoom interviews when we had to do them when that was the state of the world, but, and I will do them if I have to, if there's no other way to do it. I don't think we've only

done like one this year, which I'm also grateful for that. But I'm just grateful for opportunity. I'm grateful to be able to sit down with these people who have accomplished so much in their careers, so much in their lives, and be able to just chat with them. Leach a little bit of knowledge off of them and hopefully be able to apply it to my own life.

So thank you, my friends, for joining us for Ask CVV number 56, the Lawrence Taylor, Julius Peppers, and Terry Tate Office Linebacker edition. Send in your questions for the next Ask CVV. Ask CVV number 57. Send them in on Spotify, but leave it a comment. Send them in on social media. Hashtag Ask CVV or send me an email. CVV at Chris Vanfleet.com. Also, thank you. you to everyone who reached out after I shared the news about the passing of my sister Kimberly last week. It's been, it's been tough. And look, we've all dealt with loss in some way in our lives. And I think that that's something that brings us all together. And we all know somebody

that has passed away from cancer, that has battled it so hard. And they've passed away. and I just appreciate everybody, everybody who sent texts or call or sent DMs or emails and it meant a lot to me. And it's been tough and I think we all grieve in different ways. But I appreciate that there's so many of you that you can relate. You know we've all lost somebody. And that's what's so unfortunate about it.

And it's been a struggle. It's been tough. This is not something we expected. It's not something we planned for. And the funeral was really, really hard. But just know that it meant a lot to me, that you guys were with me on that and thinking of me and the amount of people

who I've never met reached out and said, if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here. and I just appreciate that so much. So just know, even if I haven't had a chance to write back to you, just know that I saw everybody's messages. And it means so, so much to me. And I'll leave you with this quote. It's actually from Sylvester Stallone when he was on This Is Us.

And if you haven't seen it, it's such a powerful scene. And he's talking about the idea of memories and someone being gone. and if you have some time this weekend, watch it, just type in Sylvester Stallone. This is us. Such a great two-minute scene. He says, there's no such thing as a long time ago. There's only memories that mean something

and memories that don't. Be great. Be grateful, my friends. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. We got Grayson Waller on the show on Tuesday. Have an amazing weekend, and we will see you then. Jim Rome takes up. 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. You've been warned.