Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #61 - Early Royal Rumble Picks, Best Feud Of 2024, Raw On Netflix, New Day Are MEGA Heels

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

https://cvvtix.com - Tickets for the first ever INSIGHT LIVE the day before the Royal Rumble on January 31, 2025 in Indianapolis are on sale now! Welcome to AskCVV #61! On this episode, Chris answers questions about the roster shakeups happening on Raw, SmackDown and NXT, who the early picks are to win both the men's and women's Royal Rumble, the best feud of the year, whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie, what might happen when Raw moves to Netflix, the New Day getting booed after turning on Big E, my favorite interviews of 2024, Will Ospreay becoming AEW Champion and much more. Quote I'm thinking about: "Never admire quietly. If I admire something about someone, I tell them. We humans are so fragile. It's important we give people their flowers while they are still here. Never admire quietly." Sponsors: PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank which was designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibcloux 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 ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv 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 BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at https://bluechew.com RHONE: Rhone’s premium performance clothing is made to move you. Use code CVV to save 20% at https://www.rhone.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

Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Fleet. Yes, welcome back to another one here on Insight. It's your friendly neighborhood, CVV. Chris Van Fleet, thank you so much for being with us on this one. And thank you for making Insight, the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. If you haven't done so already, hit a handspring back elbow on that follow button on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. so you don't miss out on anything that we have coming up. I set this goal like a month or two ago,

this silly goal of 7,500 ratings on Spotify. So if you're listening on Spotify, a rating would go such a long way. And it's so easy to do. It takes like three seconds. You go into the main page, you hit the three little dots, dot, dot, dot, dot. And then it'll say rate show.

That's it. The stars pop up. And my goodness, I will give you the best high five ever if you can show me that you have rated this show. So next time I see you, man, the best. It's going to sound like this. Boom. The best high five ever for following the show, rating the show, all of it. It's amazingly helpful. And just on a real note here, not that it wasn't real when I was talking about handspring back elbows on the follow button, but on a real note, thank you for making 2024 the biggest year by

far. Like, it absolutely crushed every other year that we've had before it. And it's because you're a real one. You show up on every single episode, no matter who the guest is. You show up on every single Ask CVV, just so you and I can hang out like this on a Friday. And I appreciate you so much. Full disclosure, by the way, as I record this right now, it is Tuesday, December 10th. The due date for Baby Boy is tomorrow. Baby Boy Van Fleet. BVV. So he's due tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 11th. There has been no sign yet that he's on his way or he's going to be arriving soon. But, I mean, it's literally any minute. My wife could barge in here at any second and we could be on our way to the hospital. So bear with me. But I figured we should record this now on Tuesday because I just, have a feeling that by the time you're listening to this on Friday, he'll already be here. But we did have a doctor's appointment today. We had an ultrasound. Everything is looking good.

I just feel like by the time Friday rolls around, he'll be here. And this episode would not happen. So we've got some time. We're just playing the waiting game right now. So I figured it would make sense to record this on Tuesday. With that said, though, our daughter Logan was eight days late. So really anything could happen. Like anything between now and Christmas is fair game. Hopefully it doesn't take that long. A lot of you sent me messages because we re-aired the episode with The Undertaker. A lot of you said, oh, my goodness, congratulations.

You're re-airing an old episode. That must mean that he's here. And I appreciate how you connected those dots together. And thank you for all of the messages. They were pre-congratulatory, though. I had the plan all along to re-air some of my favorite episodes from the year. We talked about this a few weeks ago. And just it's the holidays.

You've got a lot going on. We've certainly got a lot going on here with a baby on the way. So the plan has always been to re-air one, at least one episode between now and into the new year, just because we're around the holidays. And there's also some of these were my favorite conversations I've ever had. and my favorite interviews that we've ever done. And I just wanted to re-air them. Maybe you just started listening to the show a month or two ago.

And you missed the conversation I had with Adam Copeland, aka Edge, back in May. Or you missed the conversation with The Undertaker or whichever other ones we're going to re-air. I do want to point out, though, that yesterday's episode with DDP, that was a brand new one. DDP's been on the show many times.

I'm so grateful to be able to call him a friend. that was a new episode. So if you saw it and you went, oh man, DDP's been on the show before. Yes, that is true. This was a completely different conversation. And if you missed it,

it was DDP and I drinking beers. Not planned. It just kind of happened and I tell the story, but it's DDP and I drinking beers, talking about wrestling, and it's awesome because DDP is, he's just the best. So don't be surprised

when on Tuesday you see an old episode re-aired. But I will point out the next Thursday's episode is a brand new one. Ivar is back on the show. Man, what a story he has. He had a bad injury in May of this year. And all signs were pointing to his wrestling career being completely over. And I don't know if you want to call it a miracle or a second chance at life or whatever it is, but it's an amazing story. He's back. You already knew that. War Raiders are back.

They're not Viking Raiders anymore. It's an amazing story. So next Thursday, brand new episode with Ivar, but I'm thinking every Tuesday for the next few weeks. You will be seeing a re-aired episode. And also, I'll be able to tell you all about

BBVV, baby boy Van Vleet, when it gets here. Literally, any day, any minute, any, it could be, it could happen. So we'll see. But welcome, my friends, to Ask CVV number 61, the Josh Beckett, Bronson Arroyo, Chanho Park, and Nate Newton additional. A lot of pictures in there, man. Thank you for being with us on this one.

And thank you for all the questions that you sent in. And if you have a question that you want included for Ask CVV number 62 next week, leave a comment if you're listening on Spotify. And if you are listening on Spotify, I know you've rated the show. know you've already done that. You can also send them in using the hashtag Ask CVV on social media or shoot me an email. CVV at chrisvanfleet.com. If you can't spell Chrisvainfleet.com that I would suppose you should do one of the other methods. And now I'm going to go off into a little tangent here. I love domains. I love websites. I've spoken about this many episodes ago, but I've talked about it before. And I feel like I always go down these rap.

of like I think about a word or a phrase and I'm like, oh, is that, is that dot com taken? Yep, it is. Like 99.999% of the time, my bright idea for that domain has been taken. I really wanted to buy CVV.com that was taken in like 1996. Any three letter domain, I believe they were all taken by like 1999 or something like that. Like they were taken early. And it makes sense. They're three letters. So easy to remember. But c-vvv.com was not taken. And of course it wasn't taken, right?

Why would anyone buy C-VV-V-com? You got to put the dash in there. But needless to say, I bought it. I bought it for a dollar or whatever. So if you do ever end up going to c-vvv.com, it will direct you to the homepage for the podcast. Also, just as a fun little fact, go to rasslin.com, either with an R or a W, rasslin.com. It now redirects to the podcast. And I've

told that story before, but again, a huge thank you, the person who made that happen. Also, if you go to wrestling interviews.com, it redirects the podcast. And a big thank you to Angel for making that one happen. But I don't know why I went off on this tangent here. I was just thinking about Chris Vanfleet.com, which, by the way, there's a whole, other story to this, and maybe I'll tell it in the next few weeks. I didn't own Chrisfanfleet.com originally. Someone else named Chris Vanfleet that also happened to be from Canada. They owned it. And we had to have a conversation about, well, would you even think about selling it? And then that's how I ended up getting it. But isn't that crazy? I didn't originally have chrisfan,vly,

com. But welcome, my friends, to Ask CVV number 61. We will kick it off with this question from Mike Andrade on Facebook. He says, what are your thoughts on the roster change and do you think they're doing too many call-ups? They call up a few people that got lost in the shuffle on the main roster. They won't have anyone left to make NXT interesting, I feel. What do you think?

You guys know that I am not a fan of the draft. It makes no sense because it works for. like a week or two. And then, of course, someone who's supposed to be on Raw shows up on SmackDown. What is he doing here? Someone from Smackdown shows up on Raw. What's she doing here? And it just makes no sense. And I have made this analogy before, but it's just so silly. It would be like you're playing for the Buffalo Bills and then you just randomly start playing for the Bengals one week, just because. And I've just never understood that. Like, if we are to treat the draft for what it is. These people are going to the show on Monday. These people are going to the show on

Tuesday and these people are going to the show on Friday. He needs to stay like that for at least some length of time. So this new roster portal or whatever they're calling this where there's a superstar shakeup, remember when that used to be a term, this is just, they're really just stating what has been happening all along. What is the main point of this is so that, you know, it's, the main point of this is so that whoever they want to show up on Raw, when Raw goes to Netflix, I think it just opens up the ability to do that without having to explain storylines here. I think that at the end of the day, that is all this is. And I also think that they need to put this out there now a month in advance so that when this does start happening and all the rosters just go all willy-nilly and you don't

even know who belongs where anymore, they've at least covered their tracks here and went, oh yeah, but remember that thing we talked about? Anyone can go anywhere. But like I said, this has already been the case. So all they're doing is just like giving it a name. To your point about, are they not going to have anyone left in NXT? That is so far from the case.

The WWE Performance Center is filled with so many hungry wrestlers and just so many young talent that are raring to go, that want to be out there, that want the exposure on the CW, that if the people who are currently on NXT get called up to Raw or Smackdown, there is a line of people that are ready to take that spot in NXT. And I think that's what makes it so interesting. You've got so many young, hungry talent there. And maybe a lot of them don't have a ton of experience, but they're getting their reps in every day at the PC. They're getting the reps in on the weekend,

what they call the coconut loop, which is where they're doing the live shows around Florida. There is, it is an embarrassment of riches, the amount of talent that they have in NXT. And that's just the homegrown talent, not to mention the people that they have signed from the Indies and they've brought them in, there's no shortage here.

There's no shortage. And to borrow a phrase that I keep seeing online, Sean Michaels is cooking. Sean Michaels is cooking. and if he has a few different ingredients there, he's going to be just fine. He's going to continue to cook in NXT. I guess the one question that will come out of all of this, though,

when it comes to Raw or Smackdown, is for a while, we have had one world championship on the Monday show and one world championship on the Friday show. If that continues to kind of get thrown around here, if the word is that Cody's going to be on Raw, And so if Cody's on Raw and Gunther's also on Raw, what happens here? I have a sneaky suspicion that Cody's going to start pulling double duty. Cody will be on every single Smackdown because that's his quote unquote home show.

So what he got drafted to. But I think he'll appear on Raw. Maybe it's every other week. Maybe it's twice a month. I just have a sneaky suspicion that because he's such a big star. And if we're to believe the rumors, and it seems like they might be true, Raw, Netflix is asking for some of the specific names to be on Raw. Look, Cody was at the event that I was at last week at Netflix headquarters. And that was a Raw on Netflix event. Well,

why would Cody Rhodes be there other than the fact that he's the WWE champion? But why would he be there if he's not representing Ross? So I just got a sneaky, sneaky suspicion about that. Noah Sumner sent this one in on Spotify. Chris, you are my number one podcast for 2024. Thank you for all the great content. Well, thank you, Noah. And again, appreciate all of you who tagged me as the number one podcast. Insight was your number one podcast on Spotify wrapped.

That's crazy. So if you haven't done Spotify wrapped yet, Spotify wrapped yet, and Insight happens to be number one or in your top five, snap a screenshot and tag me and I will share it out. It's been so cool to see. 11,000 people. That's a huge number. Head Insight as their number one podcast for the year.

That's crazy. All right, back to Noah's question. Every time that I throw your show on, I'm uplifted by your energy and your outlook on life. You're awesome. Whoa. My question is this.

You mentioned that you have 104 guests a year. How far out in advance do you schedule these interviews? Do you ever find yourself stressing out, trying to find people to interview for certain dates? Keep up the great work, brother. And keep on being you, brother. Well, thank you so much, Noah. Sometimes, yeah, sometimes it's like, all right, we've only got like two pre-recorded. What do we do now? So I look at a lot of like convention

schedules. Like last year, I went to the squared circle expo in Indianapolis, like kind of last minute. And I was just like, all right, there's like three or four interviews I can get there. Great. And I think about, I think about these in terms of like how many weeks of content do we have? two a week. So like four interviews. Okay, that'll get us two weeks. It's about, you know, it depends on the month, but it's roughly eight interviews a month. So like there was last month I went to Brooklyn. Raw was in Brooklyn. No, Smackdown. Smackdown was in Brooklyn. Yes. Smackdown was in Brooklyn. And I kind of looked at the roster and I went, okay, who do I think I could maybe line an interview up with and put some work into it, put some time into it. And we ended up with the

interviews with Grayson Waller, Austin Theory, and Nick Aldous. And it's like, okay, cool, there's three. All right, great. Oh, and I did one with Sam Roberts, the next day. So it's like, all right, there's four interviews. So I think, I would say I'm probably two-ish, two, three weeks ahead of things, maybe four weeks ahead of things. And then sometimes you'll get an interview that's not specifically timely. Like there's somewhere you get them and you're like, oh, this doesn't immediately need to come out like next week. For example, the DDP interview that aired yesterday, I recorded that bad blood weekend. So that would be two months ago. But we just talked about just like life and stuff. And it didn't need to immediately come out because we were talking about a storyline that was like

happening right now. On the flip side of things, when I did the interview with Dominic Mysterio, like we really had to turn that around quickly. I think that happened on a Tuesday and we turned it around for Friday. That was like a surprise Friday episode. That's the quickest turnaround we did this year. But I'd say we're scheduling them out. Like as I sit here right now, again, it's December 10th. 11 in the past right now.

As I sit here right now, I have like three already booked in January. and I have maybe three or four. But yeah, so I'd say we're a month-ish. Yeah, two to four weeks, I think would be fair. And then there's other times where someone's like, hey, I know we've been talking about doing an interview for a while. I'm going to be in L.A. like two days from now. Are you available?

And it's like, let's see. I don't know. Like, see what the schedule looks like. See if the studio's available and figure that out and go from there. And you guys also know that I'm willing to travel to make this happen. Like if there's someone who we've been trying to line up our schedules and it just doesn't work and they're like, all right, this Friday in Dallas, this Monday in Minneapolis, you know, next week in Orlando. These are all places I went to last year. How about two weeks from now in Austin? Yep, sure.

We'll make that work. And I think that's the that's been one of the biggest differences with this show over the last year or two is I don't want to do them over Zoom anymore. And if someone offers it up over Zoom, I'll say, how about I just come to you instead? We can do it at your house. We can do it. I'll get a hotel room. We can do it there. But I just so much rather do it in person. And you guys know, you've been listening to this show long enough that you know it's so much, it's so much of a better conversation in person. You're shaking someone's hand. You're looking them in the eye. You're not having that awkward. talking over each other that sometimes can happen with a virtual interview.

So I'm always looking ahead at like what's possible. I made a like a, just a list of like possible people for next year. And like you mentioned, like I've said before, 104 guests a year. So I made a list of like who would be great to be on the show in 2025. And I made a list of like a hundred and maybe 60 names, 160 names. And yes, a lot of wrestlers. who you know and love, Hall of Famers,

future Hall of Famers, like huge names, a lot of them. Then I was like, who's like wrestling adjacent? Who's like someone who, maybe they're a WWE Hall of Famer in the Celebrity Wing,

but they just love wrestling. Or maybe they've been part of wrestling in some former fashion. Maybe they made an appearance of WrestleMania or something like that. Could they be on the show? And just a few names I floated out. I was like, man,

jelly roll would be great. Especially after that crazy, one-arm choke slam that he gave to Austin theory at SummerSlam. My goodness. You could just tell by the way he executed that, this is a wrestling fan. Like, this is someone who's been waiting for this moment their entire life. So I'd love to make that one happen. Snoop Dog, I think would be so interesting. Like, the amount of things that Snoop Dog has done within WWE, I think most memorably recently was the last second, call it on the fly, people's elbow during WrestleMania 39 when Shane blew out his quad, like just on the fly, like, yeah,

figured this out. It's so wild how that all came together. Those are two names off the top of my head. Jason Kelsey, there's another one, made an appearance of WrestleMania 40. That guy clearly loves wrestling, came out in a luchador mask. That was so much fun. So there's, yes, there's the people that I get tweeted about and message about all the time. I see the same names and I'm trying to make those happen.

Trust me. But then there's some other ones that I think are interesting. And we've had some other wrestling adjacent guests over the last year or so that have just been fascinating conversations. Paul Walter Houser, what an episode. Will Sassau. Hilarious. Like, I got to get him back on the show again soon. He's just so funny.

O'Shea Jackson Jr. going like deep into like storylines and like different things with production. And he also has a great podcast. So when you're done with this, if you haven't listened to the episode that I did with O'Shea Jackson Jr. Go check that out. And then after that, go check out his podcast called No Contest Wrestling. He's had some some huge guests on there. Most notably, he had CM Punk on there in one of CM Punk's. really only long-form interviews that he's done recently. And yes, that's another name that we're trying to make happen. But just thinking in general about these wrestling adjacent guests. And I know that I answered your question already,

but it just got me thinking because I know that there's probably a few people that are popping into your head. So shoot me an email or drop it in the comments if you're listening on Spotify. But there's a few wrestling adjacent guests. Shaq, Shaq's done a few things with WWE. There's another person. It's like, yeah, they're not a wrestler, but they get wrestling that we could totally, totally talk wrestling for an hour.

Big Bro Mania 117 on Twitter says, I know you collect some cards. What did you think of the Hulk Hogan wrestling card selling for $132,000? So this was a new record that was set last week. It was a wrestling card sold on heritage auctions. Speaking of great domains, they have ha.a.com. That's crazy. Newletters.com. but it's the

1982 Hulk Hogan Wrestling All-Stars Series A and the card was a PSA 9 which if you don't know anything about cards PSA grades cards

on a scale of basically authentic to 10 10 being perfect a gem mint 10 and this is rated a 9 out of 10 so it's not even a gem mint 10

there are no gem mint tens of this Hulk Hogan card. There are seven 19 nines. And there hasn't been one that's gone for sale in years. So this one up on heritage auctions. It was estimated that it was going to sell for like $50,000 or $60,000, which I understand is a crazy amount of money. It ended up selling for $132,000, which is a record. It's the highest price ever paid for a wrestling card, which is just bonkers. We don't know who bought it, but

bonkers. It's just crazy. What a silly. That's a silly amount of money. And here's the really crazy thing about it. I think that that record is going to be broken in the next year or two. And I think that at some point in the next call it decade, there's going to be a wrestling card that sells for a million dollars. I don't know what card it is. There's like a kind of a holy grail, like a Mount Rushmore of the top, well, if it's a Mount Rushmore, it's got to be your top four. but there's like four or five like really sought after cards. I really think that as the collectible market continues to trend upwards, there's going to be a card one day.

There's going to be a wrestling card one day that sells for a million dollars. I have the 1982 Hulk Hogan, Wrestling All-Stars Series A card. I have, the best I have is a seven. PSA 7. It's my favorite card. It's one that I was so pumped. when I was able to add that to my collection. But I was very closely watching that auction.

Not that I had any interest in spending $132,000 on a wrestling card, but I was just really curious because I think it's a litmus test for like, where is the market at right now? What could a card like that sell for now? And for the other 16 people or 16 cards out there, because I know that there's some people who have multiple versions of that PSA 9, Hulk Hogan. What are they thinking right now? Are they thinking, man, that one's sold for a lot? I better put this one up for sale now. Or are they going, let's wait. Let's wait another year or two or

three and see if I could sell it for even more. So I'll be like really closely watching that. Just to see where does it go from here? I can't see it going down. Maybe it stabilizes a little bit. But I think that in the long term, like if you zoom out in the macro like this ends up just continuing to trend up. This is a card that, let me look at the actual numbers here. It sold for 20,000, the same, a PSA 9, not that specific PSA 9, but a PSA 9 sold for 20,000 in 2020. So then, and here we are now, four years later, and it's selling for 1302,000. So crazy. I'm going even further back in the records here. PSA 9 sold in 2017 for $2,400.

So imagine that. Imagine buying that card in 2017 for $2,400 and then being able to turn around seven years later and sell it for $132,000. Wow. Crazy. Jim Hollow Vaco on Facebook says, hey, CVV, congratulations on number 61, the Chanhope Park edition. The best cut of steak is ribby, but I have been on a skirt steak kick recently.

Do you consider diehard a Christmas movie? And if you do, which I personally do, isn't lethal weapon then a Christmas movie too? It opens with a Christmas tree scene and Riggs and Mr. Joshua fight with Christmas lights in the background. This is the million dollar question, right? Maybe it's the $132,000 Hulk Hogan question. But yes, I consider die hard a Christmas movie. I also don't have very strict parameters on like what can be a Christmas movie and what can't be a Christmas movie. If for you, Die Hard is a Christmas movie and it makes you feel all warm in your tum-tum,

shout out there to Simon Miller. If that's something you like to watch around the holiday season, then it's a Christmas movie for you. Amazing. I don't think it needs to be a Christmas story or Home Alone or Elf or Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer or The Grinch. Now I've listed so many that people are going to be like, why didn't you say this one? Why didn't you say that one? There's so many Christmas movies to list. If that's a Christmas movie to you, great. And then if by the same token, if you have very loose parameters, then sure, lethal

weapon could be a Christmas movie. Why not? Why not? Sure. That one seems like a stretch. Die hard, I'm with you. I can see that. Lethal weapon. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe a, maybe a holiday movie. I didn't realize when we were talking about Christmas songs last week that all of the other reindeer is actually a thing. Okay. Thank you to everyone who pointed this out. Thank you for all the messages telling me about the book and then movie.

I didn't know. I was just trying to make a bad dad joke. That was it. Like I was literally just trying to take the line from the song, all of the other reindeer. And for years, I've been like, Olive, man, that's a, not all of the other reindeer, olive. It's, it's a, it's a funny, silly joke. My wife

laughs at it, groans at it now, all the time. So thank you to everyone who pointed that out. And I know the question is probably going to come around now of like, what's your favorite Christmas movie? I think it's Alf. I could put Alf on, it doesn't even have to be

Christmas time. I could put Alf on at any time of the year, and especially the holiday season, but I just love it. There's just something about it. It's just, I don't know, it's so quotable. It's so funny. I love it. Special shout out, honorary mention, honorable mention to a Christmas story. And that has a very special place in my heart because I lived in Cleveland. It's set in Cleveland. The Christmas Story House is still in Cleveland. So there's something. really special about that movie. And I don't know, that's just a classic, like an absolute classic, but living in Cleveland for five years and you guys know how much I love Cleveland, a Christmas story just means just that much more to me because of that. Ed Maharaja. Maharajah,

this is also on Facebook. I'm a fairly new listener. I've been watching your reels for a long time, but if recently listened to about 20 full-length insights. Question. Tell me which three episodes of all time should I absolutely listen to. Which three do you hang your hat on that would make new listeners instant fans? Well, Ed, thank you for joining us on this audio adventure. I appreciate you. If you've listened to about 20, then hopefully this one is number 21, and you're hearing this question get answered right now.

I don't know if I would hang my hat on any of these. Like, I'm a big believer in the idea that, like, with any sort of work, you should be trying to improve a little bit every single time. And you should be looking back on your stuff from like six months or a year ago and like kind of cringing a little bit like, oh, I thought that was good. Like, oh, man, I can do such a better job now. I also understand, though, that each one of these episodes is a slice of time. like this is this exact moment that neither you or me can never get back again. And it is a representation of just all of the things that are going on and that my guest's life in my life. And it's just like

also in the wrestling world, you know, if we're talking about topical things, it's a slice of life at that time. I think that if I were to give you three episodes that I'm really proud of, like some of my favorite conversations, not even just like my favorite episodes. or my favorite interviews. It's like three of my favorite conversations that I've had that have, I've been so fortunate that they've been recorded, the Undertaker is definitely one of them. That's why it was the first episode that we re-aired. We talked for almost two hours.

And I feel like we could have gone for like 19 more. It was amazing. And when you think about just who the Undertaker is, the lore of the Undertaker character and what that meant in the 90s and the 2000s and the 2010s and also. So the 2020s is crazy. The work that he did to span all of those decades in, I'm just speaking about WWE specifically, by the way. I know that he wrestled in the 80s.

I'm specifically speaking about his WWE career. That's one of them, the John Cena interview from earlier this year. The fact that John, John Sina, it's so weird to just call him John, for John Cena to give me an hour during a press tour. At that time, it was for Ricky Stenke, which if you haven't seen, go check it out on Amazon Prime. Hilarious. He gave me an hour at the end of his day after he'd already done 40 other interviews that were quick interviews.

Those were all like four or five minutes long. But he specifically built an hour in his day for our interview. And then when we got to the hour mark, he gave me 15 more minutes. And I just love his honesty. And there's so many little beads of wisdom that he weaves in. to every answer and every story, that's one that I personally could go back and listen to again just because there were just so many, the tenants he like lives his life by are fascinating to me. And I appreciate how much thought he puts into not just interviews, but how much thought

he puts into everything he does. For example, you may think that his Instagram is just him throwing stuff away and like silly images. The amount of thought he puts into those images and the deeper meaning behind them and sometimes the double or triple meaning, it's, it's impressive. And John Cena himself is nothing short of impressive. So that's another one. And then the interview with Edge slash, aka Adam Copeland, that was another one.

Like you think about the career that he had, the career that he still has, it's amazing. And the fact that that was taken away from him and he didn't think that he was ever going to be able to do it again. And then by whatever it was, a miracle, a stroke of luck, whatever, whatever you want to call it,

he had one of the greatest returns in the history of pro wrestling, the 2020 Royal Rumble. Amazing. And I think there's something to be said about the Undertaker interview and the Edge interview. I recorded both of those at their house.

So I recorded, and both of them in their home gym, too. So I recorded them at their house. And I think there's just something about speaking to someone on their turf. Like, they're already relaxed. They're already just hanging out and you just happen to swing by. And it's, there's an aspect of it where it's like you're their visitor then. Like you're coming into their house and they are now hoaxing you, if you will, even if it's just for a conversation, like an interview.

but there's just something about that where it's like you're now on their turf and there's just a certain extra layer of comfort. Like they didn't have to drive to come to you. They didn't have to fly to come to you. You're not in the middle of like some crazy packed schedule. They just said, yeah, I'm free that afternoon. You know, swing on by. Like Edge, when you watch the interview, he was just sitting there and flip flops.

We're just hanging out in his home gym and he's wearing flip flops. We're hanging out and he's sipping on a coffee. and Undertaker's sipping on an energy drink while we're doing it. So I think there's just something to be said about those. So those are the three. And I'm sure you will hear them. They will probably be episodes that we repeat throughout the holiday season here. But Undertaker, John Cena, Edge, those are just three of my favorite conversations that I've had.

Brian Baseland on Facebook says, hey, CVV, would you ever bring back that blonde patch in your hair from the OG Bobby Lashley interview in 2007. That was legendary. Well, I think depending on your definition of the word legendary, then sure. I don't think the blonde patch will ever be coming back. I did have bleach blonde hair twice when I was 16 and 17. I had bleach blonde hair. That was like a big thing.

So we're talking like the year 2000 and then 2001. that was a big thing at that time. You bleached your hair blonde, and then like four to five weeks later, it would start to grow out, and then you'd have frosted tips. So I never did the highlights or the frosted tips. I would bleach my hair the whole thing, which looked awful. And my goodness, my mom, I'm so sorry, Mom. My mom was not a fan.

Not a fan at all. Actually, one of my favorite memories of my sister was, when I dyed my hair blonde the first time, I was talking about doing it. And my mom's like, you better not do it. You better not do it. I would be so upset if you did it. I wanted to do it so bad and I didn't just didn't care.

My sister drove me to the drugstore. Shoppers drug mart. Shout out to my fellow Canadians who will get that reference. We bought the blonde, the bleach blonde hair dye, and she helped me dye my hair. So we died and then a month or so later, it would grow out and then it would look cool. You'd have the frosted tips. So cool.

2007, when I had the blonde patch, that's a completely different story. I had been a TV host at this show, 969, on Razor, which ended up later being rebranded as MTV to Canada. I had been there for like three months. So I'm a VJ. I'm on this show. It's an absolute. blast. I'm interviewing musicians and celebrities and actors and playing video games and reviewing

them. Like, it was the absolute best. And I just come from being a local news reporter for Chex TV in Peterborough, Ontario, like small TV station in a small town. And now I'm on a national show and I'm interviewing celebrities like crazy. So I'd been there for like three months. And I worked with some extremely talented on-air personalities. Lauren Toyota, Jessica Reddy, Joel Herod, so, so talented. They had already been on this show for a few years. And there had also been someone that was hosting the show before I got there named Brian Adler, who had been there for like five years.

And it was just, he was a legend. It was just so, so good, so talented at just the way that he spoke on camera was just so comfortable. There's always this thing that we were taught, especially when I worked there, was talk to the camera like it's your friend because it's so easy, especially in broadcasting, to like put that broadcasting voice on and be like, oh, my goodness, we've got a great new music video from Snoop Dog coming up next. Like, you talk like a morning radio DJ or something like that. Brian was so good at speaking to the camera like it was his friend. Actually, everybody on the show was. And I was like starting to figure this out. And we were getting reps every day because

the show aired every single weekday, which was amazing because you're getting the reps. And when I watched my first episode versus like my even 10th episode, it was night and day, the difference. And then you watch like, you compare that 10th episode to like episode number 30. And you're like, oh my gosh, like I'm already getting even more comfortable. So I had been there like three-ish months and my co-hosts were like constantly just getting like this recognition of like, hey, you're that person from that show or you did that great interview with so-and-so or Joel especially, you're that funny guy from TV. And nobody like had any

idea who I was. I was like, well, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing day in and day out on the TV station. But I want people at least take note that I'm there. This was so silly. And it was such a big lesson learned. We had an agreement with a local hair salon in downtown Vancouver. where they would cut our hair, cut and style our hair six times a year. So six free haircuts in exchange for us promoting it on the show. So I went and I got my usual haircut the first few times. And then I was like, well, if they're going to like do our hair, like they're putting highlights in Lauren and Jessica's hair, what's like, what's possible for me? And you've got to understand. At this stage in my career, I'm not making very much money. I know there's this like

misnomer that people on TV are rich. That was most certainly not the case. So like, especially in a city like Vancouver, it's very expensive to live in Vancouver. So I'm like barely getting by. Free haircut goes all a long, long way. And I was like, well, a friend of mine had just recently put that little blonde patch into his hair. And you guys know, I'm a big pop punk fan. This is like a thing that was going on with, I don't even know what band that would be. Like, I don't know pretty much name any band at that time, someone in the band, whether it's the bass player or the drummer or whatever, someone in the band had the little blonde patch. I'm like, I'm on a show that's interviewing these types of bands.

Like we frequently would interview like Panic of the Disco or Fallout Boy, like lots of bands within that space. So it's like, well, this would fit right in. I mean, I'm already like wearing skate shoes on TV and like, You could see in the Bobby Lashley interview and wearing a zoo York hoodie. I was that guy. And that was just the style that I had at that time. Like very, very 2007.

So when I went in to get my haircut, I said, could you do this? And I showed them a picture of, I don't even know who it was. They were like, sure. So they like, digest that one little, just off center left part of the front part of my head. I did blonde. And I went into work the next day. And everyone's like, oh. whoa, what they, what is this? And I was like, okay, cool. Like, this is my thing. I had that blonde

patch for like 10 days, maybe, because my boss came over to me one day when I, like a week later. And she's like, hey, Chris, when are you going to get your haircut again? And I said, oh, I don't know, I just got it done last week. So I probably got to cut like another like, you know, four weeks, five weeks from now, something like that? She's like, I think you should get it cut tomorrow and you should dye your hair back. And I went, oh, okay, I see exactly what you're saying here. And our show in Vancouver was kind of overseen by much music in Toronto. They were like, we were all part of the same parent company. But much music, the executive producers there would watch our show. And one of the big bosses there was like, none of your talent should be like making major changes to their appearance without asking for permission first, which makes total sense.

So it was a big lesson learned, number one to ask for, I'm a big, I'm a big beg for forgiveness person instead of ask for permission. But it was a big lesson learned there of like, maybe with some things like that, you should just ask and just see like, what's, what's, I'm three months in. still very much the new guy. Maybe we should just ask and see, like, what's the, what's the general tone? What's the general thinking around this? And number two, which is the bigger overarching lesson that I learned from that, that I still carry with me now, almost 18 years later, is let the work speak for itself. If you're trying to just create some sort of gimmick, because you're the guy with the blonde patch in his hair, or you're the person who wears the silly shoes or the funny t-shirts or whatever the thing happens to be. If you're relying on some

sort of gimmick to be your thing rather than just the sheer talent of what your actual job is, and in this case, television, making television was my job, then you're approaching it the wrong way. And I think I was looking for this validation that this hadn't earned yet. I'd only been there for three months. We'd only recorded at that point, like, 11 or 12 weeks of the show, I think I was just looking for this validation that didn't exist yet. And it was like, this is going to come. I wish somebody just sat me down and said, it's going to come. Just give it some time.

Be patient. It's going to end up happening. Just be patient. And that's been the big overarching lesson is like let the work speak for itself. And I just had to learn that one the hard way. Tom talks rubbish on Twitter says, while I'm writing this, on my way to my work Christmas party. Do you have any fun stories from any of the Christmas parties at your previous jobs? Also, I know you have a team that helps you right now. So,

Merry Christmas to them as well. Well, Merry Christmas to you, Tom. The story that pops into my head is before I got the job in Cleveland, I worked as an entertainment reporter for W.OIO, the CBS affiliate in Cleveland, which is, it's exactly why I love Cleveland so much and why I was talking about a Christmas story so fondly. That interview happened right around this time of year. So I had the, they wanted to bring me in for an audition. The audition was on a Monday. I flew in on a Sunday and I was going to do the audition that Monday morning like 10 a.m. or whatever it was. I think the boss, the news director, who I love and I still chat with frequently, Dan, Sanamone.

I think that he just wanted to kind of like see, how would this guy mesh? How would this guy mesh in with everybody else that works here? Because as you know, talent can only take you so far. It's also like the ins and outs of like working at a place, especially a collaborative place like when you're working in broadcasting, like a TV station or a radio station, how do you interact with your coworkers? That's not just a broadcasting thing. That's just an everyday job thing, no matter what.

you do. How do you interact with your coworkers? Are you easy to get along with? Can you roll with the punches? These are all very important things. So I flew in that Sunday and he said, oh, I'll pick you up from the airport and then I'll drive you to your hotel. And it just dawned on me that we have our work Christmas party that night. Nothing formal at all. We've just rented out of room at a local restaurant. there'll be some like some hors d'oeuvres, there'll be some drinks, and just everybody will be there hanging out. How would you feel about coming to that?

And I'm like, oh my gosh. I mean, I can't say no. This is my potential future boss. I can't say no. I'm like, yeah, of course. I'd love to be there. So he literally picked me up from the airport and I think dropped me off at the hotel.

No, I don't even think he did draw me off of the hotel. I think he just picked me up from the airport. We went, yes, we went right to went right to the Christmas party. I remember my agent saying to me, like, whatever you do, Chris, do not have any drinks. Do not have a single sip of alcohol. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I got it. And I, you know me.

I'll love a good drink. I love a good beer, a good Moscow mule, or a good margarita, or a good whiskey. I love it. And I was 26 at the time. So, yeah, picked up right from the airport, right to the Christmas party. And now I'm thrown into a room with, I don't know how many people, it was 40, 50 strangers. And I can just tell everyone's like, oh, that's like, that's the guy who's like auditioning tomorrow. And it was just, it was.

And I, you know, I was chatted with, I think, almost everybody in that room. and they couldn't have been nicer, but it didn't really occur to me till later that that was the test. That was the real job interview. I mean, I'm sure if I blew it the next day with the on-air audition, it would have been different, but that was the real interview. Was me going in there and chatting with everybody from every different department

and just like, can he mesh? And it's something that I'll never forget. And also my friends Jason Hammond and Brian Tully, and Tyler Orobone, who became my best friends in Cleveland, Matt Darris as well, they were there. And they like kind of, I remember Tyler saying to me, he's like, so where are you going to live when you get the job here? And I'm like, well, like, I haven't even auditions yet. Like I need to, I need to audition tomorrow before we can even talk about moving. And he's like, dude, you're at the company Christmas party.

Like, they are hiring you. Okay. So you're going to live at the Bingham. It's the building downtown. where all of us live, it's the best, you're going to live there as well, okay? Just letting you know that. And it's true.

I ended up moving into the Bingham, and it was fantastic. It's like a converted old warehouse that they turn into warehouse lofts. And amazingly located, like a five-minute walk from like where the Browns play and where the Indians play.

The Guardians now, they were the Indians when I was there. They also, right next to where the Cleveland Cavaliers play, the best at the best time. So that's my, that's my Christmas story party where I got invited last minute for essentially an impromptu on the spot job interview that I ended up getting the job and I'm forever grateful to Dan Salamone for changing my life and giving this kid from Pickering, Ontario, Canada

the ability to legally work in the United States. So Dan will never hear this, but I'm So grateful for that. Charlie Van on Twitter at Charlie Van Jr. With the year wrapping up, what has been your favorite storyline? For me, it's been CM Punk versus Drew McIntyre. And I think that the original plan was clearly not for it to go on this long,

but CM Punk had the injury in the Royal Rumble. The way that they were able to continue telling that story while CM Punk was injured. And then as a result of that, we got the best Drew McIntyre that we've ever got. Like, if you had told me just a few years ago that Drew McIntyre would be cutting the best promos or some of the best promos in all of WWE in 2024, it'd be hard to believe that. But the work that he's done in every aspect of his game is so impressive. And the same goes with CM Punk.

like CM Punk calls himself the best in the world. It's not just a nickname. Like when you look at the work that he's able to do, depending on who you ask, that nickname is extremely applicable. So the work that they did together, culminating at Hell and Assel with what could easily, a strong case could easily be made

for that to be the greatest Hellenicel match of all time. It's amazing. The storytelling was, it was just well-paced, it was nuanced. There was real aggression there. Like there were actually, there were actually people who thought that they hated each other. There's people to this day that think that they hate each other.

And if they think that, that's great. That means they did their job. Like the amount of people that were talking about that behind the scenes photo that leaked of everybody hanging around the ring before a show and you could see that punk and Drew were standing next to each other talking. if people actually thought that they hated each other because of how fiery those promos were and how personal those promos were, amazing. That just shows you how good they are.

So that's the one for me. It's CM Punk versus Drew McIntyre. And one of my favorite matches of the year is Helen Assaila Bad Blood. It's just amazing. There have been so many different Hell on a Cell matches. CM Punk's been in so many different Hellenicel matches. For them to be able to tell a completely different story in that and not leave the cell, because that was a big thing for a long time.

How can we work something into this where they can find their way to get out of the cell and then, in most cases, on top of the cell and then, who knows what's going to happen from there? They kept it contained inside Hell and a Cell and made it arguably, one of the greatest Hell onus Hell matches of all time. Incredible. Incredible. A.A.R. 2010, 21, on Instagram.

A.A. Ron. Ciquellen. That is my favorite KMPILS skit of all time. So good. What title do you think Will Osprey should win before the end of 2026? Well, you're giving us lots of time. You're giving us two full years

to speculate on this one. Crazy. he's going to be the AEW champion at some point in time. I think that you've given us a very comfortable window here for him to win it within the next two years. I'd be surprised if he's not the AEW champion by the end of 2025. I think he's going to get worked into a storyline there where it makes a lot of sense for Will Osprey to be the champion. He's just so incredibly talented. he's one of my favorite wrestlers who's working right now. And I will say that Will Osprey's promo work over the last few years,

not unlike what we were just talking about with Drew McIntyre. It's been so impressive the work that Will has put into his promos. So it's AEW champion. And thank you for giving us such a nice buffer of time here. Instead of being like, what titles are you going to win by like double or nothing? I don't know. It depends how the storylines would shake out. that doesn't give us a ton of time to tell stories there.

You've given us two years? Amazing. Tommy emailed this one in. Hey, Chris, with the return of Roman Reins and the retirement of John Sina, there are rumors that either Roman might win to further the bloodline story, or Sina might win the Rumble as it will be his last. I'm someone who dislikes having repeated winners. It's disappointing to have a repeated winner because we've seen them win one already. It's refreshing and exciting to watch the Rumble when someone knew wins every year. I'd love to hear your thoughts, acknowledging the one and only true podcast tribal chief.

Well, thank you, Tommy. And that is not a knock at Sam Roberts. If Sam Roberts would like to create this nickname for himself and call himself the original podcast tribal chief, that's fine. Sure. You can create whatever nickname you'd like. I'm just someone who deals more in facts, you know, and I look at the first. you know, and I look at the numbers. I look at the numbers on the audio side.

I look at where the rankings are of the shows. I look at YouTube and the amount of views that these episodes get. And I've recently looked at the CVV clips channel. And it has 1.4 billion views. I haven't looked at Sam's channel. I love you, Sam. You're awesome. I haven't looked at Sam's channel, but I don't,

I don't think it has 1.4 billion views. I could be wrong. Again, I haven't looked. Could be wrong. I don't think it has 1.4 billion views, but if it does, then you, my friend, have earned that created title of the original podcast, Tribal Chief, the OPTC. But if that's not the case, if the numbers are what I think they are, then I don't know. just saying, just saying that it seems to me like, um, maybe, maybe I got that title.

That was quite the impromptu promo that I wasn't even thinking about. When we talk about the Royal Rumble, the odds right now, according to my bookie, and of course, when you sign up there and you use the promo code CVV, you'll get a 100% welcome bonus. Yes, you can bet on the winner of the Royal Rumble. You can bet on if John. Sena's WrestleMania match is going to be for a title or not. There's lots of, and of course, you can also look into the NFL, NHL, NBA, boxing, UFC, all of it. But the odds on favorite right now, as I record this, to win the Royal Rumble, is actually the Rock.

The Rock has the best odds right now. Then it's John Cena. Then it's CM Punk. Then it's Roman Raines and it kind of falls off. after they're like much, they're like longer shots. But those are the top four right now. Of those four, you talk about someone winning the Rumble for the very first time, how would you feel of CM Punk won?

Like a real case could be made there. And it's really difficult to speculate about the Royal Rumble right now without seeing how the rest of 2024 plays out. And then I think especially seeing how things go on that first raw. Netflix. We're really not going to have a real sense for what's going to happen in terms of Royal Rumble Storytelling until at the very least that first week of January. But how would you feel if CM Punk won? That's something CM Punk's never done. CM Punk has famously never main evented WrestleMania. He's talked about that a lot. That is a goal that he wants to accomplish.

It sure seems like WrestleMania 41 is an opportunity for him to do that. The perfect way to set that up. would be CM Punk winning the Royal Rumble and then going on that road to WrestleMania. Of those four names that I just listed, I could really see any of them winning. I really could. I don't know, though, that those are going to be your final four. I think it's still too early to predict that, but there's always someone in the final four that kind of makes you go, what if? God, man, could they do it?

Like Santino Morella famously, like when he was so close to winning the Rumble and then Alberto Del Rio won it. W.W.E. likes to do that. So I think you could see like a Braun Breaker. Bronbreaker could be like in the final four. Gunther could certainly be in the final four.

Jay Uso could be in that final four. Where you're going, man, could, would they? I don't know. It seems unlikely. always seem to give it to like a real favorite, but you could make a storyline for all four of these people I just listed. The Rock, that storyline there is it the Rock versus Roman Raines. Do we finally get that WrestleMania after basically them trying for two years and talked about in 39 for WrestleMania 39 and they couldn't come to whatever agreement.

WrestleMania 40, that was the plan. And then the fans had another idea, hashtag we want Cody. So the Rock winning the Rumble could make sense. John's seen him winning the Rumble. Yeah, that obviously makes sense too. It's his final year of wrestling. It's his last Royal Rumble. It's his last WrestleMania. It's his last everything in 2025.

That one makes sense too. Roman Rains, that one could make sense. So I agree with you that it's fun to see somebody new win. Yes. But I think what's more. More important is the storyline making sense. What is the best story that can be told there? That, I think, is the most important thing that we need to see out of the Royal Rumble.

And we've still got time. We've still got time to figure that out. On the women's side, the odds-on favorite right now. This is very interesting. Becky Lynch is the favorite, according to my bookie. She hasn't even returned yet. We don't even know the official status of Becky Lynch. The next favorite, Charlotte Flair, who also hasn't returned.

I would guess Charlotte Flair returns at the Rumble. That seems like a pretty safe early bet. Charlotte Flair, that seems like someone who feels like a lot of stories could be told out of that one. Then it goes Ria Ripley, Jade Cargill, and then the odds kind of fall out after that too. But Becky Lynn, Charlotte Flair, Ria Ripley, Jade Cargill, in that order. Very, very interesting. I figured if I was giving you the odds for the men's side, we had to talk about the odds for the women's side.

Marlon P.J. Manalise on Facebook says, if you were a wrestler, what would your catchphrases be? What about your promo style? I think I kind of accidentally went into my promo style there when talking about the original podcast tribal chief there. When I was training, when I was training to be a pro wrestler, Actually, before I started training to be a pro wrestler, I was still a backyard wrestler. And my backyard wrestling promo style was, I was very heavily influenced by Triple H.

I taped my right hand and wrist like Triple H did. And then I just taped my left wrist, just like him. I would say my promo style, it's very heelish. I was certainly a heel. That was what I leaned into a lot. I would say that, so coming out of the backyard wrestling stuff, I went to university. Went to Wilford-Lorea University in Waterloo, Ontario. I was starting to, I was thinking about where I was going to train and when I was going to

train at a wrestling school. And I was like, I was starting to build this idea in my mind of this character who, you know, those people who use words. that are far too big, like words you would never use in an everyday conversation, but they just like pepper them into the conversation. These pepper them in to make them like sound really smart and also to try to make you feel really dumb. That was the type of character I was trying to like build towards. So much so that I used to subscribe to dictionary.com's word of the day. I don't know if they still do it, but this was like 20 something years ago. I would subscribe to

to the dictionary.com word of the day. And if I thought that the word could be worked into a sentence without sounding like a word that, you know, you would know how to pronounce, a word that would make sense

if you said it in a sentence, I was starting to save those in a separate folder of my email. This is so silly. So I was saving all these dictionary.com words so that if and when the day ever did, come around when I would start to write promos and start to really figure out who was Chris Sharp

the independent wrestler. I knew who Chris Sharp, the backyard wrestler, was. I didn't think that was going to work because I didn't really have any depth to that character. There was clearly no psychology in the way that any of us wrestled when we were doing the backyard wrestling we were doing in Pickering, Ontario. But I was starting to save these dictionary.com word of the days. And I, I, I, I, just open up my email. I actually still have the folder. I still have the folder of all of these words that I said. This is ridiculous. There's so many of them. I started saving these words on December 28th, 2002. And I saved them all the way until April 22nd, 2004. Man, I was doing this for like two, yeah, almost two full years. Like, and these are,

a lot of these words, I can't even pronounce. A lot of them are like normal words, like trepidation. There's a word trepidations in here. Plac, placate, rapport, neophyte. What's a neophyte? This is so ridiculous. Neophyte, a new convert, a novice, a beginner. Oh, yes. I would, be cutting a promo about all these neophytes in the audience. It's just ridiculous. So that's kind of a little glimpse, a little glimpse into how the mind of my aspiring wrestling mind was working. So, man, it's really fun to actually open that up and look at that folder. I can't believe that folder still exists. Can't believe that email address. Yes, I still use it. It's one of those one, like one of those embarrassing ones.

Like it's not like Chris Van Fleet at Gmail or something like that. This is the embarrassing email. We all have one, right? This is like the one that's like the thing you were into. I think I created that email when I was in ninth grade, 10th grade. That is like, that was like opening a time capsule looking in that folder. Ice cream underscore guy 3998 on Instagram. Yo, CVV.

thing about the new day getting booed on raw. That was a fantastic segment. And like I I'd love how it was booze. And then when Woods or Kofi would try to speak, the booze just got louder. Like we don't we don't care what you have to say. I love it. Seeing this side of the new day has been so much fun. I know we're only a week into it, but it's been so much fun. And I can't wait to see where this goes. I've been saying it a lot, but I think something big is going to happen that first raw on Netflix. Like something big, a return, a title change. And I feel like them winning a title, maybe it's not the first raw on Netflix, but them winning the tag team titles on one of those raws early on.

Maybe it's the first episode. Maybe it's a few weeks in. I see that happening. New Day as Heel Tag Team Champions is going to be. must watch TV. And every wrestler will tell you that they much prefer working as a heel. They have so much more fun working as a heel because there's this weird, there's this weird dichotomy to use one of my dictionary.com words. There's this weird thing that happens where when you're a good guy, you want everybody to cheer you. But that's not going to happen because people like

what they like and they don't like what they don't like. So even if you're a good guy, there's going to be a section of the audience that doesn't like you. I mean, just ask John Cena, just ask Roman Raines, just ask Cody Rose right now. There's even if you are the absolute best possible baby facing you're doing everything right, there's going to be a section of the audience that doesn't like you. On the flip side of that, when you're a heel, you don't care. If people cheer you, whatever, if people boo you. Yeah. Okay, great. It's what I want from you. You don't care so much about the reaction. So you can push the envelope a little bit more. You can say things that you certainly would never think about saying it's a baby face because you can just kind of test the waters.

You can just kind of see, oh, oh, they didn't like that. Well, let's push that a little bit more and see what happens next week if I dig in even a little bit deeper. I feel like Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods have just been waiting for this moment. And this is going to be so fun. And again, speaking about Netflix and that first raw Netflix, someone said to me when I went to that event at the Netflix headquarters, the raw Netflix event, I'm not going to say who it is.

But they said to me, like, there's a potential that, like, more people watch that first raw on January 6th than watched WrestleMania. And they're not saying this is going to be as big as WrestleMania. They're not saying this is going to be as exciting as WrestleMania. They're simply talking numbers here. And when you break it down, like when you look at the numbers, Netflix has 282 million subscribers. They're available all around the world. 282 million subscribers. That's wild. Peacock, I just looked it up, has 36 million subscribers. And this is not a shot at Peacock at all. But I know a lot of people, myself included, who only subscribed to Peacock because of the WWE network and because of watching the PLEs on

there. That's not the case with Netflix. I'm sure the Netflix subscriber account will go up with this Netflix deal. But there's already 282 million people. A lot of those are probably not wrestling fans. I'm sure. sure there's a percentage of them who are lapsed fans, you know, the people were like, oh, I used to watch wrestling when I was a kid. Well, guess what? When Raw keep showing up on your home screen for the next few weeks, and then it's really pumped out around that first week of January, you might give it a try. And even if you just tune into that first episode, the numbers are going to be big. And they're going to go all out with that one. So I'm very,

very curious. And it's in Los Angeles. And there's just something about LA. There's going to be a ton of celebrities in the crowd there. I'm sure there's also going to be quite a few celebrity cameos that are happening during the show. But this isn't just going to be a typical raw. Like, I really think that this is going to have the feel of a PLE. And if the rumors are true, we've already got one match that's rumored is CM Punk versus Seth Rollins. Like, come on. That's on a match that you just put on a throwaway raw. I feel like the the pacing of this card, the matches that are on there, it's going to feel like a PLE. And I think in the same way, it's going to feel like a PLE where like it's special to be on this episode. So I can't wait to

see what ends up what the show looks like. What are the promos that we see? What are the matches we see? What are the surprises that we see? What are the maybe? Maybe. possibly title changes that we see. I've been saying this before, but if you didn't listen to those Ask CVV episodes, I'll repeat it again here. I think that titles changing hands on Ron Smackdown was few and far between for a long time. I was there when out of nowhere, Jay Uso won the championship on a random raw in Ontario, California from Bronbreaker. I was like, what? And then I also happened to be there when the Motor City, Machine Guns won the tag team titles in SmackDown.

I think that this is being done purposely. This is planting a seed to remind people of like, anything can happen. To quote Vince McMahon in his famous quote, anything can happen in the WWE. I think they're planting the seat of like, anything could happen. You don't want to miss an episode because who knows what could happen.

Who knows who could return? Who knows what kind of match could be on? Who knows what title could change hands? It'll be very, very interesting. And maybe, maybe it's the new day becoming Heel Tag Team Champions there. But that's, I think that's a given at this point. That, my friends, was our last question here on AskCV. Number 61, the Josh Beckett, Bronson, Arroyo, Chanho Park,

Nate Newton Edition. Thanks for hanging with me on this one. I'm sure that BBVVV is likely here right now as you're listening to this, so I'm speaking to the future right now. And I'm, I guess I'm really excited. I'm really excited right now,

but I'm speaking to the future version of myself. Oh my gosh, a father or two now. This is crazy. So thank you for being with us on this one. Thank you for being a real, real one. You are a real one if you listen to an Ask CVV episode, but you are a real, real one when you listen all the way.

Until the end, I can't wait to see all the, the real, real ones at the very first Insight Live, happening the day before the Royal Rumble, January 31st in Indianapolis. I've had a lot of questions because they announced that Smackdown is going to be in Indianapolis that night as well, which we kind of knew was going to happen. We've even talked about it last week. To answer the question that everybody's been asking, yes, there will be plenty of time to do both. My show starts at five. It is across the street from where Smackdown is.

So you will have more than enough time to do both. So real, real ones, I hope to see you there. Very few tickets are still available, but you can grab them. CBVTX.com, CBVTX.com. Lewis Howe shared this on Instagram earlier this week. I took a screenshot. I had to share it with you here because I just love the sentiment here so much. Lewis Howes hosts a great podcast called The School of Greatness.

If you're looking for amazing podcasts, I love his show. But this is so good. Never admire quietly. If I admire something about someone, I tell them, we humans are so fragile. It's important we give people their flowers while they're still here. Never admire quietly. Be great. Be grateful.

Have an amazing weekend. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air.

It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.