Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #63 - John Cena's Next Match, Raw On Netflix Bigger Than WrestleMania?, Penta's WWE Debut

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

Welcome to AskCVV #63! On this episode, Chris answers questions about who John Cena's first opponent will be in 2025, whether Raw on Netflix will have ads, the best era of The Undertaker, The New Day turning heel, Dolph Ziggler returning at the Royal Rumble, Pentagon making his WWE debut, the return of RVV and much more! If you have a question for next week's AskCVV leave a comment on Spotify or ask it on social media using the hashtag #AskCVV Quote I'm thinking about: “Failure is an event, not a person.” - Zig Ziglar 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. Oh, yes. Welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV. Chris Van Fleet, thank you for being with us on this one. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. Hit a running power bomb on that follow button on Apple or Spotify or wherever you're listening so you don't miss out on any episodes that we have coming up. Episode number 700 is next.

I've made a few posts about this, but it is one of the most, if not the most requested guests ever. And they're going to be on the show. You guys have been asking me to have this person on the show for months, years. And I guess a little hint here, because a few people have said,

can we have a hint? I don't want to give too much away. But I guess as a little hint is this is someone who has never been on the show. before. So this is not a new interview with a previous guest. This is a brand new guest that someone who's never been on the show before. And I can't wait. I can't wait for you guys to be part of this on Tuesday. Hope you had a great Christmas. If you celebrate, we had a great time here. We have a nine day old baby as I'm recording this right now. B, BVVV Baby Van Fleet is here, Cooper James Van Fleet. So yeah,

like I mentioned last week, I'm now a father of two. It's the best. And if you know, if you are a fellow parent, you know. I don't even have to explain this. You already know. So we're just having, we're having, our hands are a little full. Our hands are a little full here, but we're just having the best time with two precious little babies. I love it. Welcome, my friends, to ask CVV number 63, the Gene Upsha, Jeff Saturday, and Brad Marchan edition. If you have a question for the next Ask CVV, send it in on social media using the hashtag AskCTVV. Send me an email, CVV at chrisfamily.com or leave a comment on Spotify because I've looked at the numbers here. It's fascinating to me. It blows me away how many people

listen on Spotify. I don't know about you, but that wasn't the case for me for a long time. I was listening on different platforms and something changed for me. And I get that I'm only talking to maybe half the audience right now, but something changed for me where, I don't know, Spotify just upped their game with podcasts. And now I've got everything all in one place, the music. And man, they have free audio books on there too. This is not a plug for Spotify. I'm just explaining why I listen to podcasts on Spotify now. Now they have comments as well. but everything's all in one place. The music and the audiobooks and the podcast.

That's where I'm listening to podcasts. And I appreciate you guys for leaving all of the comments that you do on there. If you are listening on Spotify, please leave a rating on there. It takes four seconds. I know I've been saying four seconds. It probably takes more like two or three seconds. But if you have some time between now and the end of the year, man, that would mean a lot if you just clicked on the rate show

and then clicked on the stars when they're, pop up. So I will thank you in advance for that one. And thank you for all the questions that you sent in for Ask CVV. We also have the return of Ask RVV on this one. Obviously, she's been a little bit busy over the last few weeks and couldn't pop in here as we were recording this, but she will be showing up at some point here when the Ask CVV or Ask RVV questions pop up here. But we'll start off with this one from the Heel Mark 14 on Twitter who says, everyone is talking about John Cena's last match, and you've given your prediction about that, but who do you think will be Cina's first match?

That's a tough question. That is a tough question. But you're right. There's been so much focus on how this ends. There's been focused on two things, really. There's been focused on the WrestleMania match, and there's been focused on the last match. And I'm going to hold true to this until we hear otherwise, I still think the last match is Randy Orton.

And that's the story that makes the most sense to me. There's also a lot of matches that I think we're going to see throughout the course of the year. I'd say there's probably five or so that I know that we're going to see, or at least we should see at some point in time. My big question here is how many John Cena matches do we get in 2025? Because there's a lot of pressure on John Cena to stay injury-free. He said he's going to work a full-time schedule. That was something that came out just last week from Chris Legentel in WWE.

So John Cena's cleared his schedule. He's going to be full time in WWE. He had previously said about 36 dates. I don't know if he's now added more to that or if he's still sticking to the 36 dates, which means basically like he's going to be there every week and a half or so, which is a lot of John Cena dates versus what we've seen over the last few years. But who will that last match be? we're not going to include the Royal Rumble here because we already know that he's declared for the Royal Rumble.

I don't know really consider that. I mean, it's a match, obviously, but that's not a one-on-one opponent here. I'm curious if there's going to be a build-up to his first match or if they're going to give him like a tune-up match, kind of like what they did with CM Punk, where they gave him a live event show against Dominic Mysterio, just to kind of say, hey, let's get a little bit of the rust off and just have a match. go work the crowd and have some fun. I don't think that'll be the case here with John Cena. I think when he works that first match,

that's going to be the match. That's going to be, it's going to be televised. I don't think it's happening on January 6th, raw on Netflix. I think he's going to come out and he's going to cut a great promo. I don't think that that's going to be a match.

So then we fast forward a few weeks. We note the February 1st. I was going to say the end of the month, but isn't it so strange that the Royal Rumble is not in January. I get it's one day later that it's a big deal at all. But I was so used to saying like the end of the month now. So about a month later, February 1st, we know he's in the Royal Rumble. Does he have a match between Raw Netflix January 6th and the Royal Rumble February 1st? I feel like probably not. Because then we get some story that starts to get told at the Royal Rumble. And then the matches that come out of that, then lead into the Royal Rumpler, then lead into WrestleMania 41. And then I feel like it's kind of like a snowball going downhill from there.

So I feel like I need to now make a guess. I need to take a stab here at who will that first opponent be? It feels like a great first opponent for him. And I'm not talking storyline here or just saying, throw him in the ring with this person and you know it's going to be great. Seth Rollins. I could definitely see, I think John Cena's going to have a match with Seth Rollins at some point in time in 2025. I could see that being his first match.

Seth Rollins can put on an absolute banger with anyone. He is such a freak of nature, he's a workhorse. And he's so good at everything that he does in the ring. So you put in John Cena, who hasn't had a singles match in a while, put him in there with Seth Rollins. They're both going to look like a million bucks. I could totally see that one happening. So that, I guess, will be my guess for now. It's just tough.

That's a really tough question to answer. Because when you look at the roster, there's some one-on-one matches that John Cena has to have before he retires. Gunther seems like one that has to happen there. CM Punk with the rivalry that they've had. Randy Orton, for all of the reasons I have previously mentioned, also Cody Rhodes. And it seems like there's a real opportunity here.

to have a passing of the torch moment. John Sina was the biggest baby face in the company for a long, long time. John Sina is the, or Cody Rhodes is now the biggest baby face in the company. So it feels like there could be a real passing of the torch moment here that involves a match. I know there's been like the arm raise. Cody got his arm rage by John Sina and a lot of people saw that as a passing the torch moment. Sure. Yeah, I could see that.

He also did that with L.A. Knight. and I think that was also the symbolism there. But it just feels to me like if they had a program, even if it was a short program leading up to a match, that could really cement what Cody Rhodes is doing in this current era that we have. I also want to throw some other names into this because I think there's some other people

who would benefit from a one-on-one match with John Cena, like Braun Brewer, Jacob Fattu, L.A. Knight, just to name a few. And I feel like I'm worried. I'm worried that we're going to get some of these like, I never like it when there's some sort of a scuffle at the start of Raw that involves three baby faces and three heels or four baby faces and four heels or a handful of baby faces and then some heels run in.

And I hate when they're like, oh, that's going to be the match tonight, four on four. And it's like if we only have 12 months of John Cena, if we only have these 36 states, if that's, actually what it's going to be. I don't want to see John Sina in these matches that don't mean anything. And I know it's going to be hard. Not every match will be able to mean something unless he's on like that Brock Lesnar schedule or that Roman Rain schedule over the last year where he only wrestles two or three matches. I just don't see that happening. But then John Sina's got to stay injury free. There's a lot of pressure on him to not get injured, not get hurt here. I just don't want to

see these matches where it's like John Sina and three other random baby faces against these four heels just because they had a scuffle at the start of the show. I hope we don't see that. I would really like to think that we're going to get some matches that even if they don't have a big lead up to them, that at least they mean something. And it's like John Sina versus this person because of the history that they have or John Sina versus this person because, man, can you believe that they've never wrestled each other before. So I will be watching this very closely, and I can't wait to see how this all plays out.

And it all starts, raw on Netflix, and I think it kind of just sets the tone from there as to like, where does this go from here? But man, that is a good question to kick this off. Who will his first opponent be? We'll probably know a lot more after the Royal Rumble. and I know the odds at my bookie say that John Sina is the favorite to win.

That'll, I don't know. There's a lot of stories that could be told here. I still think that CM Punk winning the Royal Rumble might make more sense. But we've still got a lot of time here. A little over a month before the Royal Rumble, we've got some time to figure this out. Jamie McNulty on Facebook says, I know there hasn't been a definitive announcement about this,

but do you think there will be ads when Raw goes to Netflix? Jamie, I didn't think so. I didn't think so because I just assumed for people that are paying for the Netflix premium version, I guess, like the full version where it's ad-free, I just assume that if you were paying for that version of it, you wouldn't get ads. And the people who had the basic Netflix,

in America, $6.99 a month, you would get ads. They would get ads. and then the people who were paying more would not. Then I watched the NFL on Netflix on Christmas Day, and it looked like just any other broadcast. There was commercial breaks, just like there was on CBS or NBC or any other NFL broadcast. And I went, wait a second,

if I'm paying for the higher tier of Netflix and weren't getting served up these commercials on Christmas Day NFL, then yes, for sure, we'll be getting commercials when Raw goes to Netflix. At least that's how I feel about it. Because if they weren't going to have ads when Raw goes to Netflix, they wouldn't have ads when the NFL was on on Christmas Day. So it just seems like the precedent has now been set,

that there will be some ads. And I'm curious how this plays out. Are they going to be regulated? is there going to have to be a certain amount of ads every hour? The ad break is going to be a certain length of time. Really curious how this all plays out. Also, when you go to Netflix and you look at raw, it even says that there's going to be ads on it now. So I'm curious if it'll look different than how it currently looks on the USA network. And I think the show as a whole will have a bit of a different feel. But I got to say, I'm a little surprised. I've been saying for months,

oh, man, they don't need to have ads when Raw goes to Netflix because it's a streaming platform and it's all inclusive and they're making their money off of subscriptions. I'm surprised. Color me surprised when I saw ads on those Christmas Day NFL games on Netflix. So I think for me, that was the indication that that's how these live programs are going to look moving forward. And it's not just the NFL. It's not just raw. There's going to be more live programming on Netflix in 2025. And it just seems to me like you've got a captive audience.

You've got an audience who you know are watching. They're not going to be changing the channel. Like, what are you going to do on Netflix? You're going to when the commercials come up, are you going to go to a different show on Netflix? No, you're likely going to look down at your phone, which is what everybody does when commercials come on. You look down at your phone and you check social media

or you respond to some texts. But yeah, I think we're going to have some ads. That has come as a surprise to me. But it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Will it be as many ads? Will the ad breaks be half as long? Will the ads that are shown here in North America be different from the ads that are shown

in other parts of the world? I guess all will be revealed in January. Joe Mitchell O'Leary on Spotify says, firstly, congratulations to you and your family on the birth of your beautiful little boy. I wish you nothing but happiness and joy for the future. Ask CVV question incoming. Do you feel like it's being, that it's a risky tactic booking WrestleMania level matches for the Netflix debut in January? I can't help but feel like some of these matches at the very least are Royal Rumbleworthy and will be hard to top moving forward.

P.S. Alf is considered a Christmas classic here in the UK. Well, Alf is a Christmas classic no matter where you live. What a fantastic movie. And you're just a cotton-headed nitty muggins if you don't like Elf. But I think that they have to kick off raw Netflix in a big way. And that's why we're seeing these massive matches that are being announced. And this is also the opportunity to reach a huge global audience.

And I think they just want to knock it out of the park. And then the bar is now set high then. Like Netflix is going to look at these numbers. And they're going to go. So, wow, we have, what was the number I said? I should probably look this out, but it was like 280 million subscribers worldwide. They're going to look at that number and they're going to go, wow, and this many people tuned in. That's crazy.

And like I said last week, if they release the numbers, Netflix doesn't always release the numbers from their shows. In fact, they really only release the numbers when it's like super beneficial for them. They'll either be like, oh, man, it's our most streamed show ever or most streams in the first 24 hours. or it got X amount of streams in the first 24 hours. But it's funny that those numbers aren't public. Not like Nielsen ratings. You can't just go online and see, man, how many people streamed? Is it cake last week?

You won't be able to see that. It's not a number that's been made public. So I think that the number for the first raw Netflix would probably be made public because I'm sure it'll be a very impressive number. And it will be an impressive number because they're having these massive matches. And this isn't just for them to try to appeal to the audience that they already have, the core audience, the tunes in, week in, week out.

They're also going to be trying to get people who are maybe lapsed fans. They haven't watched for two, three, four, five years, maybe ten years. And I think there's also an audience they're going to try to tap into of people who maybe have never watched a full episode of Raw. Maybe haven't tuned in. Maybe they've seen some clips. on social media. Maybe they're aware of some of the major players here,

but they haven't tuned in. So you've got kind of three different audiences that you need to attempt to bring in here. I think you still have to try to appeal to your core audience who's going to watch regardless. But you've also got to try to tap in to those laps fans.

You've also got to try to tap in to kind of convert some new fans over here as well. So I think that's why they're putting on these massive massive. matches. Like, I don't know anybody who's not excited about Raw on Netflix on January 6th. Even people who don't watch that much, they've seen the home screen on Netflix. Oh, my gosh, what, Monday Night Raw is going to be on Netflix? I guess I got to watch that. How many texts I've got from people saying, did you know that Raw is going to be on Netflix? Yes, of course,

I knew Raw was going to be on Netflix. So I think that they're putting on these big matches so it's must see. This becomes a term in television as appointment viewing. This becomes one of those things where you don't want to watch this the next day. You don't want to just catch up when you see the posts about it on social media. This is something that you want to tune into when it airs live. 8 o'clock Eastern, 5 o'clock Pacific. It's appointment viewing.

So that's, I think, why they're putting on these matches. And like I said, if you didn't tune into last week's Ask CVV number 62, someone said to me off the record, I won't say who it is, but someone said to me like, there's a potential here for like this to be bigger than WrestleMania in terms of viewers. And when you break down the numbers, there's a lot of truth to that. When you break down the numbers of how many people subscribe to Netflix and how many homes this is available in with just the click of a button versus at least in North America with how many people subscribe to Peacock or however you're going to get the W.D.

network, how are you going to watch the PLEs? This is going to be available for so many people. So I think they just want to put on the biggest show possible to try to draw in as many viewers as they can. And it's going to be really interesting. The numbers are going to be big because I think that people are so used to seeing these cable numbers on Nielsen. Two million people tuned in, 2.1 million people, 1.9 million people. You're just talking about. the United States when you're looking at those numbers. And of course, I've, I've said this a lot, but Nielsen ratings are extremely skewed. They just, they don't add up. So the numbers when they are released, if they are released, I guess I should say, for Netflix are going to be a lot

bigger than that. And I think they may surprise a lot of people. Danny on Spotify says, congrats. Welcome BBCV. Baby CVV. Question for number six. Do you think it was a mistake turning New Day heels? No, not at all. They are already doing some of the best work of their career, I think, and we're just scratching the surface of what's possible here. It also is setting up for a possible return. Who knows if they're even able to do this?

But can you imagine if Biggie does get cleared to wrestle? The story that could be told here with Kofi and Xavier, man, so good. And I just feel like there's, there's no filter now. There's no filter with what New Day is doing. And I've heard a lot of wrestlers say this, that it's so much more fun to be a heel than it as a baby face, because you don't have to care anymore. If people want to cheer you as a heel, cool. People want to boo you as a heel. Yeah, you're doing your job right. But when you're a baby face, if people aren't cheering you, oh my goodness, it's hard not to take that personally. What am I doing wrong. How can I win them over? Why are they booing me? How can I get them to cheer me? So no,

I don't think that's a mistake at all. And I think that we're just starting to see the beginnings of this, but give it another like six months. And I feel like we're going to see the best work out of both Coffey Kingston and Xavier Woods. Eric Bromley emailed this one in, Hey, CTVV, I listen to you while I work my second job running DoorDash. So thank you for making my nights easier to get through. Well, thank you for what you do, Eric, and all the doordashing that you do. Appreciate you. We doordashed some food and we were in the hospital.

So thank you for what you do. I've only become a real one about four months ago, so I haven't got through your older stuff. So I'm curious. I'd like to know if you've interviewed referees. Jessica Carr is my health coach and just an amazing human being. And I feel that she would be awesome to interview. Well, Jessica Carr is an amazing human being.

I've met her several times. I've chatted with her many times when I've bumped into her. She's awesome. She should definitely be a future guest if she would be up for that. I would love to chat with her. But yeah, I've had quite a few referees on the show. So go back into the archives after you're done listening to this Ask CVV episode because you are a real one.

Mike Keota has been on the show twice. I would say go listen to the most recent one because we recorded that one in person. and I just always think that interviews in person just flow that much better. So Mike Keote has been on the show. Nick Patrick's been on the show. Jimmy Corderas has been on the show. I'm working on Charles Robinson. I think that's an interview that will happen for sure in 2025.

He's told me that he'll do it. And our schedules just haven't lined up. And that's something that's going to happen. I don't know, maybe in the first half of 2025, but he's such a good guy. man, I love Charles Robinson. And I haven't heard anybody ever say a bad thing about Charles Robinson. So that's one I think you can look forward to in the future. I also think Mike Kyoto should come back on the show because he told me so many great

stories and then I'll be watching these iconic matches or I'll be doing research for an upcoming interview and I'll see him in the ring and I'm like, oh my gosh. He was the referee of this amazing match. We think of like the epic matches for someone like Mike Kyoto or Earl Hebner, who I haven't had the pleasure of having on the show yet. You think of their most iconic matches. But then you go back and you're like, oh man, they were in the ring for this moment or this match or this other thing over here. Like one with Mike Kyoto that I don't think really gets talked about at all is he was the referee when Triple H collapsed because of the stuff going on with his heart. It was a match between Triple H and Curtis Axel.

And Triple H is trying so hard to fight through it and battle through it. He's just like, no, I just need some water. I just need some water. He's like drinking some water, but he can, like, tries to stand but can't stand. And Mike Keota's right there, man. How did I not realize that? Because when you think of someone like Mike Keota, you think of like, of course, Rock versus Hogan, or you think of like Kurt Engel versus Brock Lesnar when Brock Lesnar

attempted the shooting star press. You think of like those big matches. But man, there's so many. So all of that is to say some more referees in 2025 for sure, for sure. Anthony M. Henshi sent this one in on Instagram and said, hey, Chris, I've been a fan of your podcast for a while now. Oh, this was on Facebook, actually. Hey, Chris, been a fan of your podcast for a bit now. I wanted to ask you with your most recent interview with John Cena earlier this year, What part of that interview stuck out the most for you with everything that was talked about? I don't know if it's a specific subject that we talked about or a specific line he said or a specific story, but there's just something about the way that John Sina approaches every conversation.

And I'm not just talking about a conversation with me. I'm just talking about a conversation in general. John Cena is one of the most present human beings that I have ever had the pleasure of speaking with. Tom Cruise also gets this compliment set about him quite a bit. But when John Cena speaks to you, it's as if he's speaking directly to you. And there could be a dozen other people in the room. There could be 500 screaming fans on the red carpet, but he speaks to you and he looks directly at you when he's speaking. and he's just so thoughtful with the way that he speaks and he's so present.

And I think that that's the big takeaway. And when I did my last in-person interview with him, WrestleMania 35, when I did that interview with him, he told me control the controllable, I left that one just on this high of like, man, he just makes me feel like I want to be a better person. And I want to be a better communicator. be a better friend and I want to be a better husband and I want to be a better father. Like there's just something about the way that this is going to sound so cheesy and this is going

to sound so cliche, but there's just something about the way that John Sina sees you. And I didn't mean for that to be any sort of a joke. But he just, he's present with you and he sees you in that moment. I felt that especially after this most recent interview that we did earlier this year, which was the interview that played earlier this week as a re-aired episode. And if you haven't listened to it at all, or if you haven't listened to it since it came out in March, I think it's totally worth a re-listen. And you'll see exactly what I'm talking about here. There's just something about his temperament and the way that he interacts with everybody. And I think that that's what's most

important. And I've, I've shared this before, but it's been a while since I shared it. I sent him a text a few years ago after the interview that we did. Was that 2019? Yeah, I sent him a text just like around this time of the year. And I just said, hey, I was going back through all the interviews from the year. And I just wanted to say thank you. Like, thank you for making the time for the interview. Thank you for the insightful answers. And just thank you for being you. And he could have given me a thumbs up emoji. He could have just liked my text. Quite frankly, he didn't need to respond. I just wanted him to know like I was super appreciative of the time that he made. Someone as busy as him making the time. And he wrote me back. And he said, Chris, you are passionate, curious, empathetic, and hardworking. All the traits needed for success in any field. Thank you for a great

conversation and wishing you the best in the new year. What? John Cena did not need to text me all of that nice stuff. And that's the thing where I was talking about just trying to be a better person overall. Maybe you've had a busy day. Maybe someone cut you off in traffic. Maybe they got your order wrong at the coffee shop or at lunch. And it's so easy to carry that energy with you through the rest of the day. Or for some people, through the rest of the week or through the rest of the month or through the rest of the year. And it's in moments like that where you realize that little things can go a long way. A little, a look from somebody, a smile from somebody, a nice compliment from somebody, a nice text from somebody, especially somebody that you look

up to can go such a long way. And those are the moments. That's the lesson I think learned for me is just like appreciate that other people are also going through stuff and little things. can meet a lot. I think that that's, that's it for me. That's the big takeaway. And I look forward to hopefully being able to have a conversation with John in 2025 to talk about his final year. The, the, the, the John's seen a retirement tour. I'd be amazing. I think we can make it happen. So cross your fingers with me that we can make that happen. Daba, Bian, Dabababianni. It's always so hard when the username's all jumbled up in a bunch of letters like that. Daba Bayani on Instagram says should Dolf Ziegler come back to WWE? I feel like there's a good chance we could see him in

the Royal Rumble. And I think that we need to look at his match that he has at TNA Genesis, January 19th. Right now he's the TNA champion. He has a match against Joe Hendry on January 19th. My gut tells me that Joe Hendry wins that championship. And I feel like TNA had an opportunity a few months ago when Joe Henry was white hot to give Joe Hendry the championship then. And Joe Henry is still mega hot right now. And I feel like they're going to capitalize on it on January 19th. So what I'm saying here is I feel like Joe Hendry beats Nick Nemeth for the TNAH championship. and I would not be surprised.

I'm not saying it's going to happen, but I'm saying I would not be surprised if Nick Nemeth, not Dolph Ziegler, shows up at the Royal Rumble on February 1st. I don't know how that's going to go, though. Does he come out to, I'm here to show the world? Does he come out to his new wanted man entrance theme?

Both of them, written and recorded by Downstate, who also recorded the, Insight with Chris Van Fleet theme song, which I love it. It's also now available on Spotify. But it's a curious question. Does he return to WWE as Dolph Ziegler? Does he return to WWE as Nick Nemeth? I don't know, but it'll be very interesting to see what happens. But I could see that happen. I could see that happening. 19 years in WWE left on good terms by all accounts. I could see that happening. Also with

the relationship that TNA has with WWE. Also, I don't know Nick Nemeth is, I don't know his contract status in TNA. I don't know if this would be a sharing of talent here if he were to make an appearance in the Royal Rumble or maybe he's a free agent. I don't,

no idea. But it just feels to me like those two people in that match at TNA Genesis on January 19th, one or both of them could very well be in the Royal Rumble. And it'll be really interesting because you know the pop for Dolph Ziegler would be huge. And you know the pop for Joe Hendry would also be huge.

Man, the thing about the Royal Rumble is there's only so many spots for surprise entrance. Because you have to give so many spots to the current roster on Raw, the current roster on Smackdown. You're going to have a few people from NXT in there as well. you've then only got a few spots for surprises or returns or legends coming back to have their moment. So, man, I just can't wait. I love the Royal Rumble. I love it so much because of these conversations. But again, I don't think I'd be surprised if Nick slash Dolf made an appearance in the Royal Rumble. All right, my friends, it is the return of my favorite part of these Asked CVV episodes, the return of Ask RVV. It's been a little while since you've been with

the honey. Good to be back. Good to have you here. I love it. You've been a little busy from what I understand. Slightly. Yeah. Hands are a little full literally right now. There's a baby in my hands. Cooper is with us. Rachel's holding him right now. He's sleeping, which is crazy that he's able to sleep through all of this, this talking and recording and everything on. Logan yelling and crying and laughing and doing all the things that she does. He's a really, he's been a really good sleeper so far.

Knock on, knock on what? Yeah, you better knock on every piece of wood you can find. You hear that? Usually the dog goes crazy when she, when she hears knocking. So,

uh, look, the first question here is from Chacey Wacey 93. Who is CJVV looking like? RVV or CVV, CJVVV being Cooper James Van Fleet. Who's he looking like, hon? I think right now he looks nothing like my child because he's got this dark complexion, like this olive, olivey red skin tone with super dark hair like you.

So I'd say more like you right now, but we'll see. We'll see what happened. I don't feel like our daughter looks a lot like me. I mean, she has blonde hair and blue eyes. I do not for anybody who's ever maybe not seen one of my videos. I don't have blonde hair or blue eyes. My wife does.

So I feel like her features are kind of more like mine though. She looks more like you. And everyone says she looks more like me because it's deceiving with the light features. But she actually looks more like you. Yeah. I don't. And it's hard to tell.

Cooper's a week and a half old. He does have dark hair. He doesn't have a lot of hair, though. I'm very short. And you can never tell with babies. Their eyes are gray for the first little while. But I don't know. And closed.

He sleeps a lot, which is great. So I don't, I think he looks more like me at this stage than Logan did at this stage. Yes, agreed. But they look so much like each other. Like if you look at a baby photo of him versus a baby photo of her, they look so similar. Canelo wrote this one on Spotify. Ask CVV. This is not a question.

so much is just a reminder. Please remember to also take care of yourself during this. Mrs. RVV will need you rested. Much love from a first time dad of three months. Well, Canello, that is very kind of you to say. Listen, Canello, he's very well rested. Wow. How much do you have to pay you for a comment like that?

Rest is not a worry for this guy in the least bit. I love sleep so much. I don't know. We haven't been sleeping great over the last little while. All of us, you know, everybody here. I'm just saying that you've been up a lot more than I have. I don't have the apparatus to feed him quite yet. I'm sure we'll be bottle feeding him soon,

but you guys can read it between the lines here. But that's really a nice reminder that I am the one who needs some sleep. Oh, boy. I need this. Yes, thank you. And I'll be going January 6th, raw Netflix. I'll be going full force from that day on. So you're right.

I will need all the rest I can get. You better stock up now on that sleep. I better. And if you're going to the Intuit dome for raw Netflix, I will see you there in L.A. And Ben Meisner on Facebook says, Ask RVV. What are your pet names or nicknames for each other?

We're both honey to each other. A lot of honey. Yeah. We don't really have any. You throw the occasional babe. Baby. Baby. But now we kind of started with honey and stuck with it.

And it's a little old timer of us, I'd say. Most people our age are babe to their significant others. It feels like every time I call you honey, I feel like I'm an elderly woman working at a diner in New Jersey. That would be sweetie. Oh, sweetie. Sweetie. That would be sweetie. All right.

So like a diner in. Philadelphia. That might be honey, right? I don't know. What can I get for you, honey? I feel like that's also sweetie, but that's the only, the only location you could use that. Otherwise, it would be like mean. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, a lot of condescending if someone calls you sweetie on the streets. Oh, yeah. We don't have any, like, fun nicknames. Babe, baby. Honey, hon. Yeah, we're a little boring in that department, I guess. So maybe we've got to come up with some openness suggestions. Let's just, yeah, open-ness suggestions.

If you have any good pet names, send them our way. My parents call each other Rufus. Yes, that I know. And it dates back to like. And it's shortened to Roof. Yeah. Roof. Yeah.

Which then people will hear my dad calling my mom Roof. And think her name is Ruth. And think her name is Ruth. And it dates back to like their first year of dating. I think right before they got engaged. My dad did something silly or dumb. And my mom went, you're such a Rufus the Goofus. And my dad thought it was hilarious.

And that became the running joke to call each other Rufus as a result of that. And it stuck. It stuck around. See, that's a good one because there's a story behind it. There's meaning behind it. We just, we're boring. We need to find a good, good story worthy nickname. Did you hear that?

Oh, that was Cooper. Cooper making his debut here on the show. show. Hey, buddy. I've been calling him buddy a lot. I think that that's also a common nickname for a son, right? I think so. What's up, buddy? Pal. Pal. Pall. Hmm. Champ. Champ. Sport. Powell's a big wrestling term, but I feel like it's so condescending. Yeah, get right on that, pal. Yeah, a nice one, pal. It feels like it's very condescending. Whenever I hear pal, hey bud, whenever I hear pal, whenever I hear pal, how I'm like, oh, I don't know if I'm a big fan of pal. Well, thanks for coming back in here.

Thanks for having me. Um, uh, Maguba. That's not going to work for me. It's like, I was like, I love you, man, when he's trying to come up with a nickname. What is he, what does he call him? It's so good. It's Jobin. Jobin. Jobin, remember? Jobin. Jobin and, uh, pistol. Pistol. Pistol Pete. Yeah, so should I start calling you Jobin? Sure thing, Pistol Pete. I love, I love you, man. This is great movie.

Such a good movie. Man, that whole era, that whole era of late 2000s with Anchorman and Super Bad and I love you, man. And of course, there's many others that I'm not going to list off here. How come you didn't say this one? How come you did? Yes, there's lots. We'd be here all day.

We'd be here all day. And we're not going to do. do that because my wife is holding a very small, beautiful little child here. And I can't believe we haven't woken him up yet. Crazy. But thank you, honey. Thank you. For coming. Good to be back. Good to have you back. And if you haven't asked RVV question, send it in for Ask CVV number 64 next week. And we'll see what questions you can answer next week. How's that sound? Sounds great. I'll be here. Just the best.

Just the best, man. Leo undersore Christopher 13 on Instagram says, new listener. Well, first of all, Leo, thank you. You're awesome. New listener, what are your thoughts on Pentas possible debut and how should WWE book him? Man, it seems like with all the teases here that raw Netflix is when he's going to debut.

And if you haven't seen Pentagon Russell, man, oh man, you just wait. He has this vicious style, and he actually, he may chop harder than Gunther. Gunther actually told me during one of our interviews that that's the person who's chopped him the hardest. Like Gunther, obviously known for his super hard, super loud chops. He said that the way that Pentah chopped him made him bleed. So just the way that Pentah wrestles, it's incredible. and just give it a few weeks.

A few weeks after his debut, everybody is going to be doing the Zaddo meadow with him. He is wildly marketable. He has an incredibly unique look. I think they're going to need to give him a manager, just like they did in AEW, where him and Phoenix had Alex Aberrantes. Penta doesn't speak a ton of English.

So I think they're going to need to give him some sort of a manager so that he can get over. Unless you just want his promos to be short and sweet and to the point, because he could do that in Spanish. But I think that if they give him a manager, that'll take him just to a whole other level here. But I'm really curious what his name's going to be.

I knew him first in Luch Underground when he was Pentagon Jr. AAA owns that trademark. So since then, he's been wrestling as some variation of Penta L. Zero, Penta L-Zero M, Penta L-Zero Mieto. There's a lot of different versions of that. I don't know if they'll just call him Penta.

I don't know if he'll be Pentagon. It'll be interesting to see what his name ends up being. But if they put him in the right storyline, it's going to be just magic. So whatever his debut ends up being, I think it's January 6th, it sure seems like everything's pointing to that happening. Whoever they end up aligning him with for his first storyline slash match, buckle up. Buckle up and do a little bit of research.

At some point this weekend, just type his name into YouTube, look at one of his matches, look at a few of his highlight reels, and get prepared. Get prepared. And it also feels to me like Phoenix will be joining him at some point when his AEW contract is over. I don't think they need to be a tag team. I think that they have done great work together as the Lucha Bros. They've had some iconic matches. They've had some of the best tag team matches in AEW history. But I don't think they need to be together to be great.

In fact, I think this could be a real great opportunity for them to go on their separate paths like so many great tag teams have done in the past. Edging Christian, the Dudley boys, the Hardy boys. they have a great career together, but also a great career on their own. So, man, I can't wait to see what Penta does in WWE. DeVille Pinson emailed this one and said, Hey, Chris, congrats on BBVV, who we just heard from on the podcast.

I can't even imagine how exciting life must be right now. My girlfriend, for Christmas, just got us tickets to see your show in Indianapolis. Oh, my goodness. I think I love your girlfriend. That's amazing. What a present. I'm so pumped to see it live.

Introducing my girlfriend to wrestling has brought us so much closer together. We watch Raw and Smackdown together every week. My question is who has brought, who has wrestling brought you closer to in your life? I know you've talked about your buddy growing up, but is there anyone else who you've been able to connect more with because of wrestling? Thanks in advance from a real, real one, trying to be as real as you. Thanks to Phil.

Well, that's amazing. I love that wrestling has brought you guys together. because I know in some relationships, it's kind of one of those things where it's like, all right, you do your thing, you watch wrestling, but I'm not going to watch it. So I love that that's become a thing for you guys to enjoy together. I feel like I have a ton of stories where wrestling has brought me closer to a lot of different people. The reason I got into wrestling was my best friend when I was 16, Vince Reynolds.

He loved wrestling. I wasn't that into it. I was wrestling on the high school team at that point. It was an amateur wrestler. And, you know, there's always this thing about like amateur wrestling versus pro wrestling. Like, what we do in here is real and that's choreographed, that whole thing. But it was because of my friendship with him that I got into wrestling and then it made us like really close friends. But there's so many other people that like coworkers especially, like just someone you say hi to in the, in the hallway or someone you say hi to in the parking lot.

when you find out that they're a wrestling fan, it changes everything. Like maybe one day they're, I don't know, it comes up in conversation or they're wearing a wrestling shirt and it's like, oh my gosh, did we just become best friends? Yep. Just like that scene from Stepbrothers. Oh, another great comedy from that 2000s era. But I have a lot of stories like that where it's someone who's, they're just an acquaintance. They're just someone you say hello to.

Then you find out they're a wrestling fan. And all of a sudden, what's your Instagram? Let me add you. Oh, what's your number? Let me text you. And all of a sudden, they're now on this very special list of people that you can talk wrestling with. And you know it.

You know exactly what I'm talking about here. When someone is a wrestling fan, not just a casual fan, but someone who's watching week in and week out, they're keeping up with the product, whether it's WWE or A.W or TNA or all of them, when they're aware of who everybody is and they know. know all the storylines and they're in it like you are, it's just something special. So I've had a lot of different friendships with people. I was in a bass fishing club. I've been in many different bass fishing clubs, but I was in a bass fishing club and someone

who I didn't really talk to that much, found out they were a wrestling fan, and now all of a sudden I'm sitting next to them at every monthly meeting and we're chatting with each other in between the meetings. and after the way in at the tournaments, oh, man, where's that? Where is, I got to go find that person, got to chat with them. Hey, did you see what happened on SmackDown?

Oh my gosh. Do you think so-and-so is going to come back? That's been wrestling for me. It has been, I've used that quote so many times, but it is that scene in stepbrothers to a T. Did we just become best friends? Yep.

Two of my other best friends from three, I guess three of my other best friends from high school, and I know we're going way back with this. They were part of my backyard wrestling federations. The HCW, where Chris Sharp was born, they were part of this because we saw someone that was wearing a wrestling shirt. I started a conversation with him.

And then he said, oh, did you know that this other person likes wrestling? Oh, wow, you know, they like wrestling? Like one of my best friends still to this day, Greg Cusack. I became friends with him. He didn't go to my high school. We were at the same age, but we didn't go to the same high school. I became friends with him

because he lived across the street from my friend Will White, who I became friends with because he was wearing an Austin 316 shirt in high school. And I happened to say, oh, you like wrestling? And then we just would pass each on them in the hallway

and we would start talking wrestling. And then he said, I've got this friend who lives across the street for me. He has some gym. Matt's in his backyard and we've been doing some wrestling. Fast forward. Now Greg and I are best friends 20 years later. Crazy. So wrestling is the great unifier. The other cool thing I will say, and this isn't specific to one certain event, but it's happened many times. And I'm sure you can relate. you're in line to go to a wrestling show.

And this isn't just wrestling, but I will use wrestling because all of us here, love wrestling. But you're in line for a wrestling show. What can you talk to the person in front of you or behind you about wrestling? Or back years ago when you would go see a WWE pay-per-view at a theater,

you're in line at a theater or you're waiting for the show to start. A person's sitting behind you, person sitting next to you, start chatting it up. Oh, what do you think will happen tonight? Do you think this personal return? I love that stuff. I just,

I love that that is the ultimate unifier. And that's, of course, not just wrestling. That happens with, happened with Harry Potter movies, happen with Lord of the Rings. That happens at every sporting event when you see somebody else wearing your jersey. Like, that's a thing.

And I just, I love the community that surrounds these types of things. And I am happy that you are in this crazy, wild wrestling community with me. Amit Gabbe emailed this one in. Gabay. I hope it's one of the other. Favorite submission? Ask CVV number 63. Hey, CVV, what's your favorite submission move and who is your favorite submission seller? I love the way Roman sells a submission move. My favorite submission move would be the ankle lock. The way that Kurt puts it on out of nowhere or reverses it is brutal looking.

Love and respect for what you do. Ask CVV is my favorite podcast. It feels like hanging out, and it's a great break from all the news pods on my feed. Well, thank you for the kind words there. I also love how angle can reverse the ankle lock from so many different moves into that. Like, sometimes he would roll through and keep it on. I love that. I think my favorite is the way that Chris Benoit did the cross face, because it just looked brutal. It looked like there was.

was no way to fake it. And he would, there was definitely sometimes when he would like, sometimes he would put it on the forehead and other times it was like putting it under their chin. I think that there was, there was just a certain viciousness to the way that he wrestled, but also the way that he just locked in the submissions. And look, say what you want about Chris Ben Y. I'm certainly not endorsing what happened in the last weekend of his life. I'm just talking about what he did inside the the ring, and I'm specifically talking about his finisher, the crippler cross face. I think that the way that he put that on was just, I was done really well. In terms of selling, I always love the way the rock

sold a submission. Like, he would immediately mouth open, ah, reaching for the ropes, and you have to picture that I'm doing it as I'm making that noise. I think the rock is number one on my list of the way he sold submissions. But yeah, it's, the thing I love about the ankle lock, going back to that, is it can really be done from any position. All you need's a leg.

There's a lot of these other submissions like when John Cena would do the STFU. A lot of like you got to grab the leg and you got to bend the leg and then you got to have the guy in the ground. There's a lot of things going on there. With the ankle lock, I love it's just like grab it and boom,

it's on. Although current angle like ripping the straps off. You knew that was on too. Anthony emailed this one in. Anthony, a man, S-E-D-O-R. I'm going to go with that. Yo, CVV. I was just re-watching your interview with The Undertaker, and I was wondering, what is your favorite era of the Undertaker's career? And what is your favorite Undertaker match? Hope you and your family had a great Christmas. I think for me, it's a toss-up of my favorite Undertaker match. It's either WrestleMania 25,

or 26. I know that's an easy answer, but the matches he had with Sean Michaels were really, really special. So I'm going to go, WrestleMania 25 or 26. And in terms of what was my favorite version of The Undertaker, or my favorite era of The Undertaker, I'm going to split this up into two answers. I'm going to split it up into character and then in-ring work. In-ring work, I think that his best matches were in that same time of WrestleMania 25, 26. I think that his best matches were when like the late 2000s right around there. And if you look at the string of WrestleMania matches that he had around that time, I mean, they speak for themselves.

I'll start it here with WrestleMania 23, the match with Batista. Batista loves that match. how could you not? So it's Batista, then it's Edge, then it's Sean Michaels and Sean Michaels again. And then we're at WrestleMania 27 and not a lot of great matches on that card. And I know that Sam Roberts famously said

that is the worst WrestleMania. I still like to think WrestleMania 36 is the least rewatchable one. Just with everything going on in the world at that point, it's just a stark reminder of like things are not right. when you're watching that. Like things were just in a weird state in the world. But he had a match at WrestleMania 27 with Triple H.

Then it was Triple H again. Then it was CM Punk. And then it was Brock Lesnar. So like, I think that era. And look, they're all great. Then we can go from there to Bray Wyatt as well in WrestleMania 31. That era of Undertaker is my favorite. In terms of the character work,

I think it's late 90s Undertaker when he had a little bit of an edge to him. So it wasn't like Purple Gloves Undertaker. It was when he had a little bit of an edge to him. Like I'd say like right before he starts doing like the really dark stuff with the ministry. So like it'd be, I guess right around the hell and a cell match with Mick Foley. Like that, I think that's my favorite era of the character of Undertaker, like short promos and just a real presence to him.

And that's not to say I didn't like the American badass. I think that everything The Undertaker did was fantastic. And the legacy he has over 30 years is, it's unprecedented. But I just love when there was a certain mystique to that character. And yeah, I think for me it'd be like late 90s is what I'd go with for that. Zach Hoogworth emailed this one and said, hey, Chris, my name is Zach. And I'm from Colburn, Ontario, home of the Big Apple. If you know, you know. Oh, I know. I remember seeing the Big Apple many times.

Driving on the 401 would be on the right hand side of the car as we were heading out, like towards like Port Hope in that area. Oh, yeah. Oh, I know. I know, Coleburn. As of November, me and my girlfriend have been together for five years. Today, I pulled the trigger and bought an engagement ring. Well, my friend, I hope she's not listening to this episode. This would ruin everything. I'd like to know if you can, if you have any advice. I'm very nervous, but can't wait to do it. Thanks, Chris. Merry Christmas to you and the family. Well, congrats, Zach. And again, I hope that she's not listening and we didn't ruin this.

I hope that nobody that knows Zach's girlfriend is listening. Oh, this could be awful. But I think the biggest thing that I took away from when Rachel and I got engaged is this moment's really not about you. Yeah, you're there and you're going to be down on one knee and you're going to be popping the question. But all eyes are on her. this is her moment. This is the moment that a lot of young women grow up and dream about.

So you have to make this moment really special for her. And I'm sure you've already thought about this. You know where are you going to do it. You know how you're going to do it. But this should, you should just be thinking about like, how can I make this absolutely unforgettable for her? And I think one of the things that I love that we did is we have a video of this now. And even though it was our moment, it was just the two of us, I had my buddy Zeus, who runs West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, it's a studio where you see me doing the sit down interviews in L.A. I guess most recently you saw my interview with Ivar there, but I've done a ton of interviews there. I had him dress up like with a big wide-brimmed hat on and he had a face mask

pulled all the way up to his eyes and he had sunglasses on so he'd be like unrecognizable. And we took a hike, a walk to Rachel's favorite spot in Newport Beach, California. It's called the Back Bay. If you know, you know. And I had him kind of follow us for the last quarter mile of our hike. he stayed like 20-ish feet behind but like I said okay you're going to intercept us at this point you're going to see us then you're going to follow behind us and when we get up to this one spot it's like a lookout point I'm going to ask her to turn around and then I'm going to get down on me and like that's what you'll know you'll know to like get in position then I love that we now have the video and the photos from that moment and something really special about that

We have photos of that in our house. And I love that. So if this is possible at all for you, Zach, try to make that possible, even if it's just a friend recording on their phone. But if you can't have someone who has like a good camera or you can hire a professional, I think it'll just be so memorable to be able to look back on that for us a few years later right now as we're doing this. But like, I can't wait to look back on this 25 years from now or 50 years from now and be like, man, look at us. Look at us there. Like the beginning of that journey, beginning of that new phase of our life started right there in that exact moment. So I think that'd be the best advice for you.

But congratulations. That's amazing. Just amazing. You guys should get married in the big apple. It's very small. I'm not talking about New York City here, guys. I'm talking about it's like a, It's like a sculpture off the side of the road. And you can go inside of it. I mean, you used to be able to go inside of it. Can you still go inside of it, Zach? Like, it fits just a few people. It looks big.

But then when you get inside of it, you're like, oh, I guess it's really not that big. But congrats and wishing you guys all of the best. And that is the last question for Ask CVV number 63. Thank you so much for being with us on this one. This is the last Ask CVV of 2024. I just realized that. Oh, my goodness.

Yeah. Episode number 700 is next. Like I said at the start of the episode, this is one of the most requested guests ever. They're going to be on the show on the last day of the year. So that's Tuesday, December 31st. Can't wait for you guys to check out this amazing episode. Then we got another interview to kick off the year. January 2nd. That'll be the first interview of the year. And then it's the first Ask CVV of the year.

One week from today, Ask CVV number 64. So send your questions in for that one. If you're listening on Spotify, leave a comment with your question on Spotify. Shoot me an email, CVV at chrisfanfly.com or leave it on social media using the hashtag Ask CVV. be I will leave you with this quote that I saw from Zig Zigler that I love so much failure is an event not a person and maybe 2024 hasn't gone the way that you wanted it to go I get that I get that we're about to turn the page here on a whole new year we're also about to turn the page on a whole new day tomorrow's a new day just remember failure is an event not a person be great Be grateful. We will see you on the next one.

The Big episode number 700. We'll see you 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. the spitfire of sports smack. Ticket ban you of, 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.