Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #65 - Raw On Netflix Review, Triple H Interview, My Royal Rumble Picks

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

Welcome to AskCVV #65! On this episode, Chris gives his review of the premiere episode of Raw on Netflix and answers questions about Hulk Hogan getting booed, a possible Triple H interview, early picks for the Royal Rumble, the wrestling trading card partnership with Topps and WWE, best live musical performance at a wrestling show and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: "Once you realize you're on the wrong train, get off at the next available stop; the longer you stay on, the further you'll be from your intended destination." - Japanese proverb 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 TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insight33 to get 33% off your order of Mitopure while supplies last ORGAIN: For 30% off your order, head to https://Orgain.com/INSIGHT and use code INSIGHT SQUARESPACE: Head to https://www.squarespace.com/INSIGHT to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code INSIGHT 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. Happy Friday and welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. Hope it's been a great week for you. Thank you for being with us on this one. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. And in the top 10 of all sports podcasts on Spotify, that's crazy that that's.

an actual thing, but it's all because of you guys. If you haven't yet, hit a running knee on that follow button on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you're listening so you don't miss out on anything that we have coming up. We've got some big ones. We've got a Hardy-filled week next week. Jeff Hardy on Tuesday, Matt Hardy on Thursday. It's all leading up to TNA Genesis, which is happening next Saturday live in Dallas. Those are going to be two. two great interviews, so you won't want to miss those ones. It's been a heck of a week for wrestling. We've got a ton to talk about here.

Thank you for sending all those questions in for this episode of AskCVV by leaving a comment on Spotify, by shooting me an email, CVV at chrisfanfleet.com, or by leaving a comment or a question on social media with that hashtag AskCV. Welcome, my friends, to AskCVNumb! Number 50, the Gary Zimmerman, Lane Johnson, Elvin Bithea, and James Paxton edition. I think we already know who number 66 is going to be. It's a very famous Hall of Famer that wore number 66. But who else has worn number 66 or currently wears number 66?

Let me know for that one. Let's dive into this with the first question coming from Brad Daniels, 0321. on Instagram. Hey Chris, love the podcast, and I'm a long-time WWB fan, and I love the throwback interviews with superstars from my generation. That being said, raw Netflix was something that I was really looking forward to. The pace of the card was weird. I felt like the main event was fine with Seth Rollins and C.M. Punk, but why did Roman Raines and Solo start the show? I feel like that was a big match to start off with. Maybe Jay versus Drew would have been a better start. Then the women's, then the bloodline, then end with Seth and Punk. What are your thoughts?

on the card. Well, I was there. I have a bit of a different perspective because I was there. I haven't watched this back yet on Netflix, mostly because I went to the show live on Monday. Then I flew to Dallas on Tuesday. Then I did the interviews with the Hardee's on Wednesday. It's been a busy week. But I think what needs to be pointed out, if you haven't realized this yet, is this was very much a standalone show. This kind of operated like Saturday night's main event. And I think what we're so used to seeing with Raw is these episodical type of shows where last week's show leads into this week's show and then this week's show leads into next week's show and so on and so forth. This was much more of a standalone show. And this was also an introduction to new fans or a reintroduction to lapsed fans or

people who haven't watched in quite some time. That's why there were so many video packages describing who these characters are, what the storyline is all about. That's also why there were so many big names that were thrown into this. I think that it's important to realize, while this was called Raw on Netflix, and while this was the premier episode of Raw on Netflix, this wasn't really an episode of Raw. And I think we're going to really start to to see what raw Netflix looks like. Certainly on the next episode, but I think that as the month continues to play out, and then as the year continues to play out, I think they'll start to get the rhythm and the beats of what raw on Netflix is going to look like. But this was much

more of like a standalone show. With that said, I thought that four matches wasn't enough. I personally think they should have gone with five matches to kind of keep it consistent with the PLEs, most of the PLEs recently have had five matches and the pacing's felt really good on that. Four matches and a bunch of promos, it just didn't feel like there was enough wrestling. On the flip side, though, the matches we did get did not feel rushed. They had a ton of time to tell great stories and have great matches. And I appreciate that. I don't know if we'll ever see another episode of Raw, at least no time soon, where you've got four matches that are just allowed to have time to breathe. And I'm talking about like, On a normal week of raw, maybe we'd get six or seven or eight matches.

I don't know if you'd ever have time for four of them to breathe in the way that they did here. Like, it really felt like a PLE with the way that those matches were able to have some time. They didn't feel rushed and it didn't seem like they needed to get to a finish really quickly. They had time to just do their thing. I will admit, I was completely wrong about who would open the show. I talked about the odds on my bookie about it was either, was John Cena going to open the show or was the Rock going to open the show? And I was like, well, you know what? This is John Cena's retirement tour. They've been focusing so much on that. John Cena's going to kick off the show. Why wouldn't

he? Well, I'll tell you why he wouldn't because that whole idea of reaching this new audience and introducing or reintroducing this to new wrestling fans. And when you kick off the show with one of the biggest stars on the planet and the rock comes out there and does what he does, I think that people who don't watch wrestling or haven't watched wrestling in a long time go, oh, man, that's the rock. I love the rock from these other movies. It was interesting, and I know it's been pointed out by a lot of people that the rock came out there. It was almost like Dwayne Johnson was out there, and it wasn't the final boss.

And again, I think we need to defer back to what I was just saying, that this is a stander standalone thing. I don't think that the rock coming out there was done to advance storylines at all. I think the rock going out there was more of just like a look, look what the WWE has to offer. And the rock was also out there kind of thanking Netflix and thanking the audience. And this was more of like a raw, raw moment instead of like a moment that was advancing storylines on. Something's going to come of this, though. I don't think that this completely exists in a vacuum. I still think that they have been talking about and working towards a match between

the Rock and Roman Raines for a long time. It still seems like that might be possible here. And that little exchange there, what we saw on Monday, that could end up playing a factor in a match between the two of them at some point. that that little heart could play a factor at some point as we continue to tell a story over the next three or so months leading up to WrestleMania 41. Seems like the biggest story out of the night, though, was Hogan getting booed. And people seem to think that Hogan got booed because of his political beliefs.

But then the Undertaker came out, who also voted for the same person and did not get booed. So there's a lot more going on there than just Donald Trump. Trump support. I think it goes much deeper than that. I mean, look at the reaction at WrestleMania 37. When Hulk Hogan went out there with Titus O'Neill, I was there. And I don't know how it played out on TV, but it was really loud. The booze were really loud at WrestleMania 37. So it's more than just him endorsing him at the Republican National Convention. And I think that W.W.E will likely put a lot more thought into the appearances that Hulk Hogan makes?

Will they be live in front of a crowd? Will they be pre-taped things? Because there was a pre-taped, was that wrestling? It was WrestleMania last year. There was a pre-taped, no, was it a Royal Rumble? Whatever it was. Hulk Hogan did a, oh, it was Royal Rumble. Yes, it was Royal Rumble because it was in the Tampa area.

There was a pre-tape package with Hulk Hogan there, and there really wasn't any reaction, not really cheers or booze when his face came up on the screen there. the John Sina promo, by the way, was, it was so loud in there when John Sina came out. And the thank you, John, or thank you Sina chance when they started up, so loud. So loud. That was one of the big moments of the night, I think, for sure. And John Sina is really staking a claim there for the Royal Rumble. And that's going to be very interesting to see what happens at the Royal Rumble in a few weeks.

But when you look at just the numbers for the show, it seems like a huge success. Raw is now the number one series on Netflix. It booted out Squid Games season two. So Raw is now the number one series on Netflix. It reached 2.6 million households in the U.S., which is 116% higher than the average numbers that you'd normally see on the USA network. reached almost 5 million households in total, and it's not available in India yet. Raw Netflix is not available in India yet.

So I feel like the numbers could be boosted up a little bit when that ends up happening as well, but 5 million people tuned in. And they also had record-setting merch from that night. They also had the highest gate. Record-setting merch for a non-PLE event happened on Monday night. They also had a record set in gate on Monday night. And there were also, it was 223 million views on social media. All in all, this is a lot of eyeballs on wrestling.

And I think it's just a great thing for the industry as a whole that wrestling is now available in all of these households that have Netflix. Let's just hit the timeout button. hit the pause button on what we think about raw Netflix as a whole. And just understand that that show was just one show. If we want to talk about raw Netflix and the presentation as a whole, I think we need to wait four to six to eight weeks to see how does it play out? Does it look that much different?

Are the shows going to be, have that few matches and that many promos or whatever the other criticism has been? I think the answer is going to inherently be no. So let's just hold off. Let's just see. Let's see what the go home show for the Rumble looks like. Let's see what the Monday after the Rumble. Let's see what that episode of Raw looks like.

And then we'll kind of have a full scope or a better scope of what this looks like. This year actually achieve your New Year's resolutions. This is your year to feel your best, regain your energy and conquer your goals. No matter what your goals are for 2025, this supplement can help because it supports your health at the foundation by encouraging cellular renewal. Mitopure is a precise dose of the rare postbiotic urolithine. It works by promoting an essential cellular cleanup process that cleans out dysfunctional

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Timeline is offering 33% off your order of Mitopure while supplies last. Go to timeline.com slash Insight 3.3. That's Timeline. T-I-M-E-L-I-N-E dot com slash Insight-3-3. You guys know that being healthy is a big focus of my life, and I'm always looking to incorporate better habits into my life, like getting more protein in my diet. And our next sponsor makes that so easy to do. This podcast is sponsored by Orgaine.

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give organ 30 grand protein shakes to try. Head to organe.com slash insight and use the code Insight for 30% off your order. That is the best offer you will find, but you have to use my code. Insight and you'll get 30% off. One last time, it's 30% off when you go to orgaine.com slash insight. That's O-R-G-A-N dot com slash insight and use my code insight. Moschindig left this comment on Spotify and said, Ask CVV, real, real one here. I want to know, what are you going to use your superpower for?

Are you going to say the rock isn't going to show up for for the? The Insight episode number 1000 show special or an earlier show. Can you say The Rock isn't going to show up at an AIW show? Yeah, I've got this wrong a few times. And I'm happy to admit that. Happy to admit that. I said, oh, man, the Rock's not going to open up the show. That wouldn't make any sense. Well, actually, CVV, that makes the most sense for one of the biggest stars on the planet and one of the most iconic wrestlers of all time to open the show. Yes, of course that makes sense. I also said, oh, man, the rock's not going to show up at bad blood. It wouldn't make sense for the rock to just show up at bad blood and just stand there.

Well, what happened? The rock showed up at bad blood and just stood there. So I'm batting a mo for two on the rock prediction. So don't listen to me when it comes to the rock. If I'm ever sort of making some sort of prediction about the rock, don't listen to me. Like what I said earlier and that other answer about Rock Roman at WrestleMania, don't listen to me because I'm just getting a wrong. all the time. So yes, Mo, I want to say The Rock will definitely not show up in an AIW show in

Cleveland, Ohio. Why would that happen? Could you imagine? I mean, there is a tie there. If we want to go real deep, Ethan Page has wrestled many times in AIW. The Rock and Ethan Page shared a wonderful segment on Tuesday. And I know how much that meant to Julian, aka Ethan Page. He told me during our interview, if you remember, that the dream match for him is him versus the Rock. That seems unlikely that that match would happen.

But again, me saying something about the Rock, the opposite seems to always happen. But Rock probably only has a few matches left. But this is probably the closest Ethan Page is going to get to that. Ethan Page sharing some screen time in a segment with the Rock, man, that's pretty cool.

That's pretty cool. I remember Ethan coming up to me at an AIW show, actually, like 12 years ago and being like, man, I just saw you interviewed The Rock again. Like, could you introduce me to him next time? So I know how much that must have meant to him. So, man, I'm so happy for Ethan Page and everything that Ethan Page has going on in an NXT, former NXT champion. And the great run that he's having there and the,

really good character work that he's doing, but man, to be able to share a segment with the rock, that's pretty special. Man Peach left this comment or question on Spotify. Man, why did I say it like that? Man peach. On the Seth Rollins episode, Seth said some harsh things about CM Punk. Do you think that was the character, or was that really him? Sometimes the superstars that get interviewed are in character, and sometimes they are

themselves, and it's hard to tell. well that my friend is the beauty of pro wrestling when those lines can get blurred like that and you think that two people actually don't like each other i think that's when it's special i think that there's a little bit of truth to what he said and i think that there's a little bit of character work going on there as well he did make some very valid points if you go back and listen to it a lot of the things that he said make sense and they would be fueled to have one person not like the other person. So I don't think he was fully Colby. I don't think he was fully Colby Lopez as he was sitting down there with me. And I don't think he was fully Seth Rollins when he was sitting down there with me. And that's why

Seth Rollins is a Hall of Famer because he's so good at being able to make you keep guessing. Like look at how much we thought that Cody and Seth hated each other when they were feuding. And that turns out they're like really good friends. In fact, Seth Rollins said during our interview when he was listing off his best friends in wrestling, Cody Rhodes was on that list. Well, who else was on that list, CVV? Well, I'm glad you asked. I will tell you exactly because I'm sure you're wondering if you haven't listened to the interview yet.

He said to some of his best friends that he's met through wrestling are Sammy Zane, Kevin Owens, John Moxley, Claudio Castanoli, Roman Ray and Zan. and Cody Rhodes. Hmm, Sam Punk. Not on that list. But I agree that it's sometimes hard to tell. Sometimes it's easy to tell when someone's in character. Like when Dom is talking about,

when Dominic Mysterio tells this funny story about like growing up in the hard streets of San Diego and he asked for a Mercedes, but he got a BMW. Like, that stuff's hilarious. And it's easy to tell when he's in character. I think when stuff like this happens, Seth's so good at this. That's where a beautiful thing happens. Got an email here from Nage who says, hey, CVV, this is Nage all the way from

the Philippines. I've been a real, real one since the pandemic. And I've enjoyed listening to your podcast while driving my son to school and even while hitting the gym because it fuels me up. I'm with you. I listen to a podcast at the gym. And my wife thinks I'm crazy. Just like, you're a psychopath for listening to people talk while you lift weights. I need like, she's like, I need music to like pump me up and get me to lift the heavier weights. And I got it to to each his or her own. With the positivity, it fuels me up with the positivity that I need to keep moving forward. I would also like to congratulate you on the birth of BBVV. Fatherhood is such a wonderful experience. It is. My question is, since we saw Triple H apologize to you during the press

conference on the debut of raw on Netflix, does that mean there was supposed to be an interview with Triple H? We know he was your guy growing up. I just wanted to know how you handled the situation when facing some unfortunate tournament tournaments, especially as big as this. Stay positive. P.S., we love that everyone recognizes you now and calls you by your name, especially Triple H. Well, yes, that's exactly what happened. I was supposed to do an interview with Triple H. We didn't have anything scheduled. I think I should, I should, I should, preface all of this by saying there was nothing like written in stone we didn't have a time or a location what we had was i got asked late last week i got a phone call on friday of last week and it was like

hey i know that when you talked to triple h at the netflix headquarters in december that he said he wanted to do an interview with you and i said yeah and he said well you're based in LA, we're obviously going to be in LA next week for raw Netflix, would Tuesday morning work for you? I'm like, uh, yeah, of course, of course Tuesday morning would work for me. And then it just was like, all right, we, you know, nothing confirmed yet, but we'll, we'll send you some confirmation when we figure that out. And it just turned, I never got any confirmation. I just, I ended up getting a message on Sunday that said, sorry, it's, it's not going to work out.

But we're going to make this happen at another point. So that's where we're at. It wasn't like I was sitting there in the studio and he was supposed to arrive at 10 o'clock and it's 10.05 and he's not there. And then I get a phone call saying, sorry he can't make it. That was not the case at all. This was a, are you available? Okay. We'll let you know what his schedule looks like. Like Triple H is one of the busiest people in all of wrestling. So I completely understand that why it wasn't able to happen, especially since, since, It was a huge show on Monday night and all of the other things that went on around that, including the red carpet. And there was also the press conference after. Like, I don't think they've ever done a, I don't, no, they've never done a press conference after an episode of Raw. So there were a lot of other things there and a lot of other moving parts.

So I do know that this is going to happen. I don't know when. I know it's going to happen likely in 2025. that's way that's too broad. There's 51 weeks left in the year. It's definitely going to happen this year. I don't know at what point it's going to happen, but you guys will be the first to know, all right?

And I'm very much looking forward to it. I don't know if an hour is going to be enough time. In fact, I know what hour is not going to be enough time to talk about Triple H and the business side of things because there's a ton to dive into there with everything that he's doing in his corporate position. But then there's also so much to dig in two with his wrestling career. So we're going to have to find a fine balance between the two of those.

But it was really nice when I asked him a question at the press conference and he said, oh, man, sorry about earlier today and, you know, got really busy. It's like, yeah, no, I get it. And like, no problem at all. But that was very cool. And then John Cena also like came over after he answered the questions and shook my hand. Hey, man, how are you? Good to see you. But it's good to see you too. John Sina. See what I did there? You can't see John Sina. You can't see him. But that's another one I think needs to happen at some point this year. John Sina for another hour? My goodness, that'd be great. Connor Wolf Flanagan on Instagram, Flanagan C23 says,

Ask CVV number 65. I wanted to know how much of the press conferences are K-Fabe or scripted. Are you told what might be off limits to ask or are you given the freedom to ask anything? It's always cool hearing you in the press conferences. No, there's no guidance here at all. They don't tell you what to ask or what not to ask. The only thing that happens is you go in and they tell you who's coming in so you can at least prepare for, prepare the questions you're going to ask. That didn't always happen. There were some WWE press conferences that we went to last year where the person would walk in and you'd be like, oh, okay.

well, I got to think up a question for Gunther or CM Punk or whoever it happens to be that walks in. Now what they do is everybody sits down. The pre-show starts and we see Joe Tessitour. We see Stu. Stu. Wade Barrett. Stu Bennett. Wade Barrett.

And we see Biggie. And then in-walked John Cena. Well, actually before that. So we see the pre-show starts. And then Byron Saxton got on the mic and just said, hey, just a reminder to everybody, if it's your first time here, all you need to do is raise your hand. If you're called upon, say your name, state your outlet, and then ask your question. That's as simple as that. And just for planning purposes, the people that you're going to be seeing today are, and then he listed them off. That's it. No one gets in there and says, hey, everybody, when CM Punk comes out here, make sure you don't ask him about this. or about that. That's not the case at all. It's an open forum to ask questions. Nobody in the room knows if the person's going to be in character or not. If you look back at some of the press conferences with, say, Live Morgan at Bad Blood, certainly much more of a character there.

When you look at like Cody Rhodes when he comes out, man, he's just shooting straight. And I don't think there's really any K-Fabe that's going on there. So, yeah, nothing's off limits. And I think it's really up to the person, whether they want to stay in character or not. And now we'll bring in my beautiful, incredible wife, Rachel, into this for an ask RVV question. First of all, hi, my love. How are you?

I'm good. How are you? Good. Three week old baby. How are you feeling? Feeling good. Yeah, you're looking good, as always, of course. but feeling like you've gotten,

feeling like you maybe got a few hours of sleep? Yeah, a handful. Just sleep when the baby sleeps. That's what they always say. And do dishes when the baby does dishes. Do laundry when the baby does laundry. Yeah, all those. Vacuum when the baby vacuums.

The baby loves to vacuum. Jim HalaVaco sent this one on Facebook. Ask CVV number 65, The Big Maple, James Paxton Edition. Ask RVV. She's a Jersey girl. So Bruce or Jovi? What, what a question. Bruce Springsteen or Bon Jovi. I don't think I could choose between the two if I had to. I love them both. Can I love them both equally? Sure. You can love them as much as you'd like. Two Jersey legends there, Bruce Springsteen, the boss and the jove Bon Jovi. I think that they are different in their own way, but I think Bruce is probably more legendary, I would say, than Bon Jovi.

I would think I know more Bruce fans than I do, John Bon Jovi fans. I will say, we have a Bruce Springsteen coffee table book in our house. It's great. So I feel like that might be the answer for you. Yeah, I guess he, Bruce is probably. probably my favorite child here. That would be the, if you have to pick a favorite child. This is going to be like sacrilegious to say, I probably know more Bon Jovi songs than I know Bruce Springsteen songs. And that just might be like, I don't know, where I grew up.

Someone's going to ask me a question next week of like, who's the better like Ontario musician? And the answer is probably going to be Justin Bieber. Oh, boy. This guy has some serious Bieber fever. Let me tell you. I'm joking. Probably bare naked ladies or Shania Twain or Avrilavine. There's so many. Some 41. This is the classic Canadian thing that you can't just list one person from Canada.

You have to now spitball everyone else that comes to mind who a famous Canadian is. This is also like it's also the same thing when someone asks for Mount Rushmore because you're only giving four and then people always go, well, what about so and so? It's like, well, you asked me to only list four. What do you want me to do now? So yes, that's why when I list Ontario artists, I have to list as many as I can. The tragically hip, of course, we can't forget about them.

People are like, what about Nickelback? Does anybody know about them? Of course. What are you? How dare you? How dare? Of course they know about the tragically hip. My goodness.

And Nickelback's not from Ontario, by the way. That's why I'm not listing them. They're from Alberta. But you're going to go with, Bruce seems to be the answer you're leaning towards here. I think that I would lean towards Bruce. But I love, I love Bon Jovi, too. I could listen to his songs on repeat all day, but I think, I think, yes. Bruce is more the elite artist, I would say.

What's your favorite song from each of these artists? Oh, I can't do that. So this is where you just slip into what I do and just list like 10 of them, like, really fast and then people won't even notice you did it. That's true. I guess born to run, probably for Bruce. For Bruce, first name basis, him and I. Brucey.

I think living on a prayer has to be for Bon Jovi too. It is the classic. Yeah, it's the classic. It just, it hits hard. Yeah. Well, here we go. We have our resident New Jersey expert. Anytime you have a question about New Jersey,

my wonderful wife, Rachel, will answer it for you. So if you have, look, if you have any questions in general, I love these parts of the show. I hope you do as well. Send them in using the hashtag ask RVV. It's always so fun to see these. And I guess we'll see you back here for next week. Ask CVV number 66, the Super Mario Mario Lemieux edition. Who?

What? Oh, my goodness. You don't know who Mario Lemieux is? What is? Oh, my. Oh, boy. We've opened up a whole other can of worms here. I'm sleep deprived.

One of the greatest hockey players of all time. Pittsburgh Penguins? No, I don't know anything about hockey. That's why. Okay. Oh, my goodness. We'll see you next week, honey. I won't talk to you until then.

I love her, which is the best. Coach Nage Bakes on Instagram says, Hey, CVV, who are your current picks to win the Royal Rumble? And we'll tie that in with this question from Andy Swanson on Facebook. Do you think an underdog could win the Rumble this year, either the men's or the women's? Any surprise returns that you think might happen from the current or past performers? In my mind right now.

And it's important to point out we're three weeks from the Royal Rumble. There's still a lot more storytelling to happen on Raw and Smackdown before then. And I think we only have like, I think we only have like two official entries in the Rumble right now. I think, right? John Sina and Siam Punk are the only people officially declared for the Royal Rumble as we sit here right now. So we've got 58 other people that are going to be entering this thing. As we sit here right now, I think there's two. pretty obvious picks for both the men and women's Royal Rumble.

And again, things can change. Things will likely change between now and February 1st. But if I had to guess right now, I think it's either going to be John Sina or CM Punk winning the men's Royal Rumble. And they are also the odds unfavored on my bookie. Of course, use the code CVV when you sign up. You'll get a 100% welcome bonus on your first deposit.

on the women's side, interesting, because the two people that I'm going to pick, we haven't seen in a while. I think the two obvious picks on the women's side are Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch. So between those four people, I think we have two winners there. In terms of surprise returns that I think might happen, I think I just named two of them right there. Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. Alexa Bliss, you could throw her into the mix here as a song. surprise return, that would be the perfect spot for her to come back. I hope we get a few legends. But I talked about this last week. There's only so many spots. And I think when you give a spot to a

legend for that nostalgic pop, it's kind of unfortunate for someone who's on Raw or Smackdown or Renn XT that they now have to wait another year for an opportunity to be in a Royal Rumble or for some of those people be in their first Royal Rumble. So I love the nostalgic pops when they make sense. I would love to see Santino or Santina via the Rumble and with the relationship that TNA has with WWE. That seems pretty likely. I'm also going to throw, I'm going to throw a little curb ball here since we're talking about TNA. I think Joe Henry's a possibility. I think Nick Nemeth, formerly known as Dolph Ziegler, is a possibility as well. I think Jordan Grace coming into the Royal Rumble and maybe doing some more stuff in WWE.

when we saw her make her Rumble appearance, then have a few matches in NXT, and then she's been doing her thing in TNA. I think we could see much more from Jordan Grace and WWE soon. So those are some of my kind of off the top of the head picks right now, but I'd be surprised if three weeks from now, a little over three weeks from now, if we're talking about other people winning the Royal Rumble,

it just seems like all signs point to them, especially on the men's side, you've got two really solid storylines there. John Cena basically saying, man, I don't know how I could ever win number 17. I haven't won a match in 2,000 days or whatever the exact number was. But maybe I could get myself a lottery ticket. And then he says he's going to enter the Royal Rumble. So that one, that storyline makes sense. That could also morph into a storyline of, oh, man, he didn't win the Royal Rumble.

Oh, man. He didn't win Elimination Chamber. Those would have been two lottery tickets right there. But he did win money in the bank. And I feel like that could be an alternate storyline here, an alternate idea of how that one plays out. And then CM Punk, there's the obvious storyline there of he's never main event at WrestleMania.

You don't necessarily need to win the Royal Rumble to main event WrestleMania. But that would certainly set things up from February 1st. If he wins the Royal Rumble, then we've got all of that runway, all of that time to build up from there all the way up until WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas. So we'll see. We'll see.

And since we're speaking about the Royal Rumble, there are just a few tickets left for my live show that's happening in Indianapolis. It's the day before the Royal Rumble. It is Friday, January 31st. It's right across the street from where Smackdown is. So you can do both in the same night. You can go to my show first and then you can go right across the street to Smackdown right afterwards. Tickets are still available at CVVTix.com. CvvvTiX.com. And yes, we are doing a show

in Toronto, February 28th. The details, I think we're going to announce this next week. So if you're going to be in Toronto for Elimination Chamber, or if you are a, someone who lives in the Greater Toronto area, just mark down on your calendar. Friday, February, 28th, again, it'll be before Smackdown because Smackdown has. has been announced in Toronto that Friday night. My show will be the pre-show of Smackdown, if you will. Come to my show first, go to Smackdown after. And since we also mentioned WrestleMania,

yes, I will be doing a show. We'll be announcing that probably pretty soon as well. But I believe that will be Thursday, April 17th, at Circa in Las Vegas. More details on all of that stuff to come. But for now, CVV-TICS. We will see you there. That leads, well, naturally,

leads right into this great question here. Indydub 17 says, where's the first steakhouse you're hitting when you're in my hometown of Indy? Big love. I've got a story about that, actually. It's funny. I won my first Emmy in Indianapolis.

Actually, won my first two Emmys. I won them both in the same night. And I was so nervous because I had gone to the Emmys the year before, I was nominated and I didn't win. And it's just so heartbreaking to like hear your name be listed as a nominee. And then you sit there and you wait all night for your category and then you lose. And then you just have to sit around the rest of the night.

Man, it's tough. It was really difficult. But indie is a special place to me because I won my first Emmy there and then later that night was so fortunate to win my second one. And then after the show, oh, and by the, by the show. way, the Emmys were held at the Indianapolis Speedway, which was so cool, like a legendary location. And for that to be one of the greatest moments of my career, so cool. Afterwards, we went to celebrate and we went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

And I remember sitting there in the booth right downtown. You know what I'm talking about. I was sitting there with my two Emmys sitting next to me in the booth. and I will never forget that visual. They were in the box, by the way. They come in a very nice, like, velvet box. It's not like I was sitting there with, like, two giant trophies sitting next to me. Like, hey, check me out.

Look at these things right here. So I think I got to go back to Roots, Chris, just to relive that moment and be back there now. Man, 13 years later. That was 2012. Wow. When I won those. So that's probably where I'll go, but I know that's going to be a busy weekend because it's not only is it the live show that I'm doing, not only is Smackdown that Friday night. Of course, the Royal Rumble is happening on Saturday.

I've also got some interviews lined up while I'm there. So it's going to be a lot of stuff going on there. But if you're going to the Rumble, I look forward to seeing you guys there. EY. Tommy on Instagram says with the new day being heel, it's time for a new. theme song. I'm thinking Downstate. What are your thoughts? Well, they seem like the obvious choice. Of course, Downstate does my theme song, Insight with Chris Van Fleet. And yes, they do Dolph Ziegler's song famously. They do Cody Rhodes theme song. They do the Mrs. theme song. They've done so many great

theme songs. New Day, you can't be clapping along when New Day comes out, right? I guess you could. You could be new day sucks, new day sucks, but the song's too happy. The song is too upbeat. And right now, Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston are not happy or upbeat. They're just miserable right now. But they're doing great work. I'm sure they're very happy behind the scenes, but they're doing such great work. Man, it's fun watching them have like 10 years of like built up tension of being a baby face

and everything that goes along with that story. It's fun seeing that all come out now. But maybe I should talk to Downstate. Maybe I should send Zach, their lead singer, a text and say, what do you think about this? Maybe we should connect them together and make that happen. Because Downstate has some real bangers, including, of course, the Insight with Chris Family theme song.

Luca Murdo wrote this one in on Spotify and says, Hello, CVV. What are your thoughts on the new, WWE Tops card collection and are there any cards that you want to get? I just bought the Rock and Roman card and the John Cena return card, both from the raw Netflix debut. Greetings from a Brazilian living in London. Well, as you guys know, I've mentioned this a few times before, but I've gotten back into collecting cards and I've got myself a handful of some pretty solid wrestling cards. They're like one of the like most famous cards, if you will, the 1982 wrestling all

stars Hulk Hogan card. I've got a few of those. I also have, I'm going to hold it right now. It's the side of my desk here. There it is. I also have the very rare 1981 Hulk Hogan Poppy card. I think there's only been 18 of these that have ever been graded by PSA. And I'm holding one right now.

It's a PSA 7 in case you were one. So when I saw that announcement from Tops and the WWE, I thought that was super exciting. And Tops is just, I don't know if anyone does it quite like Tops does it with cards. I've been following them on Instagram for a long time now. But the way they will come out with these cards for specific moments and like week in and week out, game in and game out, they're coming up with these really unique cards. And we're already starting to see that with WWE. I mean, they have a card right now to one of one that is a piece of John Cena's sock

from his debut, autographed by John Cena. I really like that duo autograph between the Rock and Roman Raines. And I think that was limited to, don't quote me on this. I should probably look this up while I'm talking about it. But I think it was limited to 25 of those. I thought that card looked badass. But here's the thing. by this time next year there's going to be so many of these one of tens one of 25s one of ones one of 50s

because that's just what tops does they come out with so many of these yeah i found it here it is oh it's one of one the rock and roman reigns autograph is one of one so well well yeah i'd like to get that card well that'd be pretty cool the rock and roman rains combined for their first ever duo autograph card. Man. Well, I'm not going to be getting that. So I guess I'll just wish for another one. There is a one of 25 rock card that the rock is autographed that says smell it on it.

And what's cool about the partnership is it's WWE's first, no, it's the Rock's first licensed autograph card since 1998. I will say that in my collection, let me see if I can pull it up here as I'm talking about it. I do have the other autographed rock card that they're talking about. Ha ha. Oh, it's not even, oh, no, it's not a tops card. It's the 1998 WWF superstars card.

And then there would be like the autograph version of it. I have, I have one of those. So maybe I've got to add one of these new tops cards to the collection. Christian 07 Luna on Instagram says, what's your favorite Hardy Boys match in either WW, TNA,

or AEW? I know TLC is such an easy answer here, but I think the match that really means the most to me is the tables match between the Hardys and the Dudleys at Royal Rumble 2000. You've probably heard me mention this match before,

but that whole Royal Rumble 2000 card was, man, so good. That's Cactus Jack versus Triple H on that one as well. There was something about that match and Jeff Hardy jumping off the entrance way. That's, that was, I already liked the Hardys. I already like the Dudleys. That match took it to another level for me. So that's the match that I always go back to. But it's tough. It's difficult because the Hardys have had so many great matches across their career. I love a lot of their matches they've had with the Young Bucks. And I mean, certainly the matches they had with Edging Christian or the Dudley boys.

There's so many of them. But Royal Rumble 2000, that is my answer and that will likely, no, that will always be my answer. Ashton Robert Lapple. That's got to be libel. Ashton Robert Lipple wrote this in on Facebook and says, hey, CVV, real, real one here. Congrats on BBVV. Your show has played a big role in getting me back into wrestling after nearly 20 years away. Whoa. I've hopped back in at the Rumble last year and I haven't looked back.

Here in OKC, I front a hardcore band and a dream of mine is to someday play someone out at WrestleMania like Motorhead with Triple H or POD with Ray or motionless and white with Ria last year. What's your favorite live band entrance that a superstar has had? Mine will always be POD playing Ray out. Well, I wish you had said the name of your band so we could have shouted you out here, but we got Ashton in a hardcore band in OKC. I think that it was, so this isn't my favorite performance. But I will say that in 2002,

WrestleMania 18, when I went to that show, it was pretty cool to see both saliva and drowning pool play live. Like two of the biggest, whatever new metal or whatever you'd call that, just rock bands at the time, to see them play was pretty awesome. I love the motorhead entrances. The game is one of my favorite themes.

You guys know this. I've talked about this so much. It will always make me laugh. When you watch back the WrestleMania 17 entrance with Motorhead playing Triple H to the ring, and Lemmy kicks it off by going, We are Motorhead. And we're going to kick your ass.

It's so good. It's so good. But I think my favorite entrance is Limp Biscuit playing The Undertaker out at WrestleMania 19 because especially in that era, there was no one more linked to wrestling than Limp Biscuit. Like Limp Biscuit's just feel had wrestling written all over it. And of course, WrestleMania 17 in the buildup video using the song My Way, like, there's no better buildup video than that.

and then Taker using Roland for his entrance theme was amazing. And I think that Limp Biscuit will always be tied to wrestling because of that. So I think it's Limp Biscuit playing Taker out. That's my favorite entrance. I'm not saying it's the greatest entrance or the greatest live performance, but I just think that there was something so nostalgic about that. and also at the same time, so perfect for that moment, nostalgic now, but so perfect for that moment in time.

Joshua Stucky on Facebook says, a popular what if seems to have come up recently. What if Brett Hart stays with WWF in 1997? And it's Sean Michaels who leaves for WCW. Personally and sadly, I think Sean's demons run amok to an even more destructive end in WCW without Triple H to help him out.

I think that's, I think you nailed it there. I think that this will always be one of the biggest what ifs in wrestling. What if Brett doesn't go to WCW? What if the screw job doesn't happen? Because there's so many things that ended up being the fallout from the screw job. The Mr. McMahon character is created

as a result of the Montreal screw job. And Brett Hart ends up leaving as a result of that and going to WCW. There's a lot of different things that end up falling out from that. I think you're absolutely right. If Sean Michaels had gone to WCW, he would have been there with his two friends,

Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, and I think that maybe he would have allowed his addictions to get the best of him there. Maybe it would be like a situation like Scott Hall where that ended up becoming

a big part of his life. And I also think that with the way that WCW was, and maybe not in 97, but 99, 2000, with the inmates kind of running the asylum there, I think that there could have been some storylines or matches. We already saw some pretty ridiculous situations in WCW when you think back about that. But if you insert Sean Michaels into that and you put Sean Michaels into some of those strange, weird situations, maybe it would hurt his legacy. And then I think another part of that, which doesn't, doesn't get talked about nearly enough is the way that a lot of WCW talent was presented

when they came over to WWE after Vince bought WCW. And you had like, there were a few people that were able to succeed, like very few people that were able to succeed. But Booker T's a prime example of that. But then you have other people like, look what they did to DDP, put them in this strange stalker storyline with The Undertaker. Like, And these are DDP's words, not mine, but they basically did that to just, I think, humiliate a WCW character. Like what they did to Buff Bagwell and Scott Steiner. Like, there were just a lot of things there where I think Vince was trying to show that, like,

you know, we didn't make you a star, so you're not going to be a star here. And that could very well have been the case with Sean Michaels as well. But I like playing these little what-if games. It's fun jumping into our DeLorean and trying to predict how the past could have been and how that would affect the present time that we live in now. Hank Burling emailed this one and asked CVV. What's up, CVV? What are you going to do when you reach episode 100 and can no longer name your episodes after an athlete's jersey number?

Oh, Hank, I think about it all the time. I think it just ends. I think it ends at 99 with the Wayne Gretzky edition and then when number 100 rolls around, I think it's just welcome to ask CVV number 100. And then that's it. Because no one's wearing jersey number 114.

Although, although I didn't start doing the additions. I didn't start naming them. after people until number 23 when it was the Michael Jordan edition. So I guess technically, I never did it for episodes 1 through 22. So perhaps, with your permission, of course, all of you who are listening, perhaps with your permission, we will run episode 101 to 122 as if they were episode 1 to 22, because we didn't do episode 1 to 22, because we didn't do episode one to 22. I don't know. It might be strange, though, to go, welcome to episode number,

Ask CVV number 102, the Derek Jeter edition, because then you'll be like, what? Derek Jeter didn't wear number 102. So I don't know. I might need your help on this. And thankfully, it's episode number 65 right now. We have 35 more weeks to figure this out. 35 more episodes to figure this out more than half a year. I'm good with that. But that's definitely something we're going to have to figure out. Definitely something we're going to have to make a decision on as we got closer to that. And that was the final question for this.

Ask CVV number 65. The Gary Zimmerman-Lane Johnson, Elven Bathia, James Paxton edition. If you got a question for Ask CVV number 66, the Super Mario edition next week, send it in using that hashtag Ask CVV on social media. Send in the Ask RVV questions as well. Leave a comment on Spotify or shoot me an email. CVV at Chris VanVleet.com. And if you are still listening right now, that means that you are a real, real one.

I appreciate you for hanging out and hanging out all the way until the end. And if you're listening on Spotify, beach or mountains? Which one is it? Do you prefer the beach or do you prefer the mountains? Leave a comment on Spotify so I know you're listening and I know you listen to all the way at the end and you actually get this reference now. I appreciate you. And my thoughts and my prayers are with the people in L.A.

I don't live that close to L.A. I've had so many of you guys reached out to me and thank you. I so very much appreciate you checking in. The fires in L.A. are bad. The fires in Pacific Palisades are so sad. And it's been devastating to see that entire town has just been wiped out. And then there's also been fires in other parts of the city. There was actually a fire in Studio City, which is where I used to live. It's the city I lived in when I first moved to L.A. And I still have quite a few friends there. I know some people who've lost their houses. This is terrifying. And it's so, so sad to think about it. So my thoughts are with everyone in L.A. Or if you have a loved one in L.A., my thoughts are with you. And I just hope that they can get this thing figured out and under control

because it is really, really scary to see. We're like 50 miles, 40, 50 miles from there. And we can see the smoke here. That's how bad it is. So thank you for checking in. we're doing okay here. We are not the ones to worry about here, but the people who are in L.A., oh, man, my thoughts are with them. Thank you guys so much for listening all the way until the end here. I will leave you with this Japanese proverb that I heard this week that I think is so fitting for

a situation that maybe you're in right now as you're listening. Once you realize you're on the wrong train, get off at the next stop. The longer you stay on, the further you'll be from your intended destination. Maybe there's something in your life that you're doing just because you feel like you have to keep doing it or you're too scared to stop or leave or whatever the situation is. And I know that this Japanese proverb speaks to me.

I'm sure it also speaks to somebody else as well who's listening to this. Be great. Be grateful, my friends. Have an amazing weekend and we will see you on the next one for some. more insight. We've got Jeff Hardy with us on Tuesday. We'll see you back here for that one.

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 it banjove but get up in here the jim rome show podcast what should be follow and listen on your favorite platform you've been warned