Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #66 - Penta's Debut, Best 'Big Man' In Wrestling, Is This The Most Star-Studded Royal Rumble Ever?

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

https://cvvtix.com - Tickets are on sale now for INSIGHT LIVE in Toronto, Las Vegas & Indianapolis with VIP Meet & Greet! What's up Real Real Ones! Welcome to AskCVV #66! On this episode, Chris answers questions about Penta's WWE debut on Raw, the possibility of this being the biggest Royal Rumble ever, the match stipulation that should be brought back, what happens before we hit record for an interview, Chad Gable being a throwback to mid-2000s Kurt Angle, the best big man of all time and much more! If you have a question for next week's episode, send it in on social media using the hashtag #AskCVV. Quote I'm thinking about: Quote I'm thinking about: “People who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt those who are doing it” ― George Bernard Shaw 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. How are you, my friends? Welcome back to another one here on Inside. It's me. It's me. It's CVV. 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 the number three sports podcast on Spotify. Yeah, all sports podcasts. So I appreciate you. Thank you for being a real one and listening to an Ask CVV episode. I'm sure I don't need to ask this. I'm sure you're already following the show. But if not, slap an ankle lock on that follow button on Spotify, Apple,

or wherever it is that you're listening. We've got some, man, you know that we've got some big episodes coming up. I mean, just look at who we've kicked off 2025 with. We're on a run right now. So slap an ankle lock on that follow button so you don't miss out. on anything that we have coming up. Speaking of stuff that's coming up, oh man, I'm so excited about this.

Tickets are now on sale for the live episode of Insight in Toronto. I'm coming home, baby. It's the day before Elimination Chamber. That's Friday, February 28th in Toronto. We've now got tickets on sale for three different live shows in three different cities.

Indianapolis, the day before the Royal Rumble, Toronto, the day before Elimination Chamber, Las Vegas, the Thursday before WrestleMania. Oh, man. And we're just getting started here. So I'd love to see you in one of those cities or maybe even all three of those cities. Tickets are on sale now at CVVTX.com. CVVTX.com.

There's also the option there for the special VIP tickets, which is, it's like one of these. We're going to do a special VIP Ask CVV before. the show starts. So before the interview with the guest, all of you guys, all the real, real ones are going to come in that bought the VIP tickets and we're going to do an Ask CVV live, answering all your questions live. Then we do the episode and then the VIPs also get the special meet and greet with me afterwards. I think those are sold out in Indianapolis. I believe the VIP tickets are sold out in Indies. So if you're looking to be there in Toronto or Las Vegas, I would jump on those tickets before. Those also sell out as.

well because it seems like they're going to sell out. But CVVTX.com. Welcome, my friends, to ask CVV number 66, the Super Mario, Mario Lemieux edition, the Trent Alexander Arnold Arnold edition, the Yassahel Pug edition, and the Route 66 edition. And yes, I am well aware. Thank you for all the comments and all the messages. I realized that last week, I, for some reason said it was ask CBV number 50 50. I don't know how I conflated 65 with 50, but thank you to everyone who pointed out my error. They happen. They happen more frequently than I'd like to admit, especially when we're recording these all in one take. Like seriously, I just hit the record button and then me and you just hang out for an hour. So sometimes there's some slipups like that one. So

thank you to everyone who caught that. Also, I think maybe even more importantly, thank you to everyone else who caught it and didn't care to say anything. You just brushed right by. You're like, I know what he meant. I saw it in the title of the episode. It said 65. I don't know why he said 50, but I get it. Kyle Sweets pointed this out on Spotify. CVV, I might have to stop listening if you don't make an amendment to your greatest Ontario artist list. How did you forget Rush? Shame. Well, it wasn't a greatest Ontario artist list. It was the, when my wife was on, when Rachel was on, and someone asked her, who do you like better? John Bon Jovi or Bruce Springsteen, because she's from New Jersey. They're both from New Jersey. Two legendary, iconic artists,

who do you like better? And then I just went off on this, went off on this rant about, not your rant. I just started talking about all the great artists from Ontario, because that's what we do. That's what people do. If you're from a certain area, you like to go, oh, yeah, you know who's from there? Oh, yeah, you know who's from that country or that town or that state? So just off the top of my head, I listed off, I don't know, half a dozen artists from Ontario. It was not a greatest list. I've also forgot to mention like Drake. I forgot to mention Brian Adams.

I forgot to mention Blue Rodeo. So there's lots of them there. And of course, yes, Rush from Ontario. I am a proud Ontario. I'm a proud Canadian. So there's the amendment, Kyle. And now, I can't believe you forgot Silverstein. And I can't believe you forgot Billy Talent.

And yes, there's a lot of tons of artists from Ontario. These are never exhaustive lists unless it's Mount Rushmore. And then in that case, whenever you do a Mount Rushmore, I always point this out, you list four names. And then everyone goes, what about so and so? How could you forget so-and-so? Well, it's my list. It's my list.

And if I want to just include those four people because they are the people who, to me, represent whatever the parameters are of my Mount Rushmore, that's all that matters. What about them? Well, they're great. They just didn't make my top four list. So, sorry for not listing. Rush. Rush is fantastic.

I'll never not think about Rush and think about the movie. I love you, man. when they're talking about Russian. Slabby to BS. Slabby de BS. They just don't make movies like that anymore. That, I think, is the best era. Late 2000s, the best era of comedies.

It was unhinged. They were doing a lot of stuff in those movies that they could not get away with now. So thank you, my friends, for being with us on this episode. Leave a comment on Spotify. you've got a question for next week's Ask CVV number 67.

Leave it on social media with the hashtag AskCTVV or shoot me an email. CVV at Chris VanVleet. com. We will dive into this with the first official question here. This is from Matt on Spotify

who said, hey, CVV, I love the podcast. What did you think of Pentas debut? I've never seen him wrestle before and I was amazed by what he did and how he looked. Keep it up and thank you for all of the interviews. Heck of a day.

Depe. Heck of a debut. And I know there was a lot of conversation in the week leading up to it of like, why aren't they keeping this a secret? And then when WWE announced that his merch was already available Monday morning on WWE shop, people went, well, come on. Why'd you ruin the surprise? And I think that that was actually part of it. It was kind of like a soft launch, if you will. Instead of keeping this under wraps, they had people who either knew Penta from his previous work in Lucha Underground or MLW or AEW going, oh my gosh, I got to tune in. What's Penta going to look like in WW? And like I pointed out before, what's his name going to be? He's had so many different names, Pentagon Jr., Penta Elzerra Mieto, so many different things. What is Penta going to be like

in WWE? And then you also get people who don't know him, are not familiar. with his work going, okay, well, that's a match on the card that I definitely need to tune into. So I appreciate the reference that Michael Coleman did that when he came out and he said, it's the worst kept secret in the business. But what a match. Also, just what a presentation for him. He had a big time entrance there, like great entrance music and then a big time entrance. They also let him take his time with the entrance. And then I don't think he could have had a more perfect opponent than Chad Gable. Great back and forth match, but the way that Chad Gable sold for him was amazing.

Gable sold like crazy for him, especially that destroyer. Wild. And then they gave him the time afterwards to cut the promo as well. And I just think that it was one of the strongest debuts in recent WWE memory. Like this wasn't just like come out cut a promo leave. This was come out great entrance. Then great match. Then great promo.

And the thing that really got me about his promo is even if you don't speak Spanish, like myself, it made you feel something. His promo made you feel something. There was just so much passion behind it. And you could also tell at the end of that promo how much this meant to him. So after he's cutting this impassioned promo, he then says to the audience, thank you so much, guys. And you could just tell what that moment meant. And it also leaves us wanting more. So now what? Is Penta, does Penta only look good because he wrestled Chad Gabel? The answer to that is obviously no if you've ever seen a Pentamatch. But I think that that's what a lot of

fans are saying, man, what's he going to, what's he going to be like next week? Who's his first feud going to be with. I think that if you put him in a feud with someone who can go, someone who can wrestle, it's going to bring out the best of both of them. I have been a fan of Penta since Lucha Underground. And I always get so nostalgic talking about Lucha Underground. Lucha Underground feels to me like the girlfriend that broke up with you before you were ready for the relationship to be over. Like I love Lucha Underground. I was getting so into it. I was fortunate enough to go to a live taping in L.A. It was like season three, I think.

Like, oh, man, the atmosphere inside the temple was bonkers, just wild. Every fan there was like screaming at the top of their lungs, myself included. It was so cool to be there in Boyle Heights for that. So I've been a fan of his work since back then. And it's just been amazing to be able to see what he's done in every single company that he's been in. And there's really no one that wrestles quite like him. You saw a little bit of it on display.

You saw a little bit of it in the entrance that kind of the creepy way that he walks. Just give it a few weeks for this to really like settle in and you can really get used to it. And I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong. I said it would take a couple weeks for people to be singing his catchphrase along with him. Yeah, well, it didn't even take one week. All he had to do is say Zetto and then the crowd finished his catchphrase. It was amazing to see that. So the reception there was great.

Heck of a debut. It kind of feels like when your favorite band starts getting played on the radio. And you want to just say to your friends like, no, no, yeah. I've known about them for like two years. I'm so happy for them. Like, yeah, they're finally like getting the opportunity. It's kind of how I feel here. We're like everybody now who maybe just watches WWE is able to see what he's capable.

of. And he brings this like real intensity. And I think that it allows us now to open up the opportunities here. They open up the door for like some real dream matches that could happen here. Just like stylistically. Like if you put Penton there with like Gunther, oh man, stylistically, that's going to be a hard hitting match. Put Pence in there with just the way that he moves and the way that he like doesn't hold back. Put him in there with like Braun Breaker. That's going to to borrow a phrase from the great Jim, Jim Ross, it's going to be a slob knocker. It's a lot of those really good matches that I think that we were going to be seeing over the course of this year. Also, we'll talk about the Royal Rumble, that whole bunch during this

episode, but Pent is going to do something in the Royal Rumble. I know he hasn't announced that he's in the Rumble, but I don't see why it wouldn't be. He's going to do something in that match that's going to make us go, huh, well, where does it go from here? So overall, I think they knocked it out of the park, and Penta knocked it out of the park. And it was just really, it's always cool when you can see like when it's when you can kind of peel back just one layer of the onion. And you can see like, oh man, that means a lot to that person. And you see that now with like John's seen his entrances, how he kind of slows it down a little bit. Or when he's in the ring and he's about to cut a promo, he like pauses a little bit.

looks around and takes it all in because he knows that it's all going to end at some point. Actually, it's going to end in December of this year. I think that those are some really special moments. And we saw that with Penta on Monday. And can't wait to see what's next for him. This one is from J. Mark Lucas 85 on Instagram. Hey, CVV, help all as well with the family. Quick question.

Given the success of Monday Night Raw on Netflix, do you think WWE would benefit or consider bringing their other content shows such as Smackdown, NXT, main event, and PLEs exclusively to Netflix. Best of luck in 2020. Can't wait to see you at Sin City Mania in April. I also hope to see you at Insight Live in Sin City as well on that Thursday. So in every other country except for America, that is the case. When you go to Netflix in Canada, for example, because

buddy of mine, my buddy of mine, Greg, who is one of my backyard wrestling nemesuses, nemeses. His name was Rage, Raging Chris Sharp. Man, we had a long tenured fuse, feud. But he sent me a photo of his home screen on Netflix, and it was just like everything lined up there. It was raw and Smackdown and NXT and whatever the upcoming PLE is. So that is the case outside of the U.S. here in the U.S.

there are quite a few different deals that are currently in place right now. So we'll go through them by order here. So everybody knows the deal on Netflix with WWE. It's a five-year deal. The deal with Peacock that WWE has, so the PLEs in America are on Peacock, that deal ends in March of 2026. And as I understand it,

Peacock will be given the first right of refusal, and then they will open it up to other offers. I would imagine that if the numbers continue to be as strong as they have been for raw on Netflix, the Netflix is going to throw their hat in there, and I would think put a big offer in to get the PLEs to also come to Netflix. NXT and Smackdown is a long way down the line. That's not even going to be a conversation until the end of this decade. The NXT deal with the CW was a five-year deal signed in 2023. So that doesn't end until I think it's November of 2008. The Smackdown deal with USA was just signed a few months ago.

That's a five-year deal. That one doesn't end until 2029. So I think the biggest thing that we could be looking at here is a little over a year from now, there's a possibility that there could be PLEs on Netflix. fact, I heard someone in WWE that I won't name. I heard them point this out that they were saying, this is the last WrestleMania on paper, at least, that will air on Peacock.

Of course, anything can change. Of course, they could re-up that deal and the next bunch of WrestleMania's could be on Peacock. But as of right now, WrestleMania 40 is the last contractually agreed upon PLE that will air on Peacock. But I think there's going to be, there's already a lot more eyes

just on wrestling in general and so many people have Netflix. And I think that's also another big thing that's not talked about. So many people have Netflix, like the number or whatever is 282 million households. How many people are sharing passwords though? Like I don't know a single person

who doesn't have a Netflix login. Like maybe they don't have their own Netflix account, but they're borrowing their uncle Bruce's login or their sister-in-law's login or whatever the case may be. I don't know anyone personally that doesn't have Netflix. And it was also interesting when I was talking to my buddy Greg, who lives in Canada. He was saying, man, it's been so hard to keep up with PLEs because you can't just get peacock in Canada and watch the PLEs.

I mean, you can with a VPN. Of course, you could go to NordvPN.com slash CVV. but he was like, I don't want to pay like the full pay-per-view prices for that. And like, it's just so much to keep up with. Now, man, I just put it on Netflix. And even if I'm not watching it live, I can watch it the next day and I don't have to pay for it. It's just part of the Netflix subscription. I think it's really going to change things.

And I think that a lot of other different live content providers, whether that is the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, UFC, BKFC. see, I think they're going to be looking at the success of what's going on with raw Netflix and go, huh, what will our next media deal look like? Our Goddard's O2 on Spotify says, hey Chris, happy new year and congratulations on BBVV. Baby Van Fleet, Cooper Van Fleet. My question for you is with John Sina, Punk, and Roman Raines lined up so far, with the possibilities of Rock, Rollins, McIntyre, and Orton, too.

could this be the biggest star studded of announced participants in a Royal Rumble since 2017 when you had Goldberg Undertaker Lesnar, Reins, and Jericho? Just that's a, that is a great observation. And you think about it, you named some of the big ones there, John Sina, C.M. Punk, Roman Raines, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre. You also had the possibility here of a returning Randy Orton, a returning AJ Stiles. Possibly Goldberg. know he's going to do one more match, but maybe he does one last Royal Rumble. Maybe he comes

into the Royal Rumble to set up the storyline with whoever happens to be his last opponent. You also have the partnership here with TNA, which we've seen over the last few years with the Royal Rumble. But you could, you know, who signed a TNA? The last two guests on the podcast are signed at TNA. So you have the possibility here of Jeff Hardy or Matt Hardy or both of them together being in the Royal Rumble. So yeah, to answer your question, I think this could be the most star-studded one since 2017. It really could be one of the most star-studded Royal Rumbles ever when you think about it. So it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

And of course, I only listed like nine people there. This is the great thing about the Royal Rumble is you get so many people that are announced and then you get the surprise entrance and then you get the like, kind of like scratch your head. With all due respect, you get the like, huh, why is that person in the Royal Rumble?

That's a interesting use of only 30 spots. But there's going to be a ton of big names in this one. And this also could be, this also could be the last one-night Royal Rumble. I think that, yeah, of course it makes sense for WrestleMania to be two nights. But if there was ever a PLE that really lent itself to being two nights, it's the Royal Rumble. You put the men's match on one night.

You put the women's match on another night. Boom. Saturday and Sunday night one night too. It writes itself. So this could be the last one night Royal Rumble. And it's also just speaks to how strong the roster is right now. It's just, it's stacked. It really is.

stacked. Got an email here from Edgar who says, Hey, Chris, I've been a fan of your work since the beginning of 2024. I listen to your podcast while I drive eight hours back and forth from home and school. Eight hours, my friend. That's a lot of driving. You make the drive less miserable. My question for you is this. Can you walk us through the events that happen leading up to an interview?

Does the person you interview drive to your place? Do you pick them up from the airport, if that's the case? What's the small talk like that happens before the interview? Or do you save all that talking for then? In other words, can you give us a behind the scenes of insight? Love your work, man. Edgar from Roma, Texas. Excellent question, Edgar.

It is different for every single episode. But I'll talk about like what it's like in the home studio when I'm recording at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood. That's the studio. You've seen me do interviews with Joe Hendry, Seth Rollins recently, the hilarious one with Will Sassau. We've done what? I think I did 25 of them there last year.

Yeah, man, almost a quarter of the interviews were done there. I'd say that some of them are, I'm picking the person up from the airport. Like, for example, Ken Shamrock. I've literally picked Ken Shamrock up from Terminal 2 at LAX. And I've known Ken Shamrock for years. So it was just like catching up. It was just like, hey, man, how you been? and you're kind of also getting, it's just small talk.

It's just how are you? How are the kids? In Ken Shamrock case, how are the grandkids? Then you also get to like, all right, what are the main things that you'd like to promote? And Ken Shamrock has his bare knuckle league that he was talking about. So like, yeah, of course we can promote that. Absolutely. There's also some situations where it's just like, here's the address.

And when you get to the studio, we'll see you there. Like, that's what happened with Seth Rollins. he got to the studio, we walked him in, got him sat down, you want some water, you don't want any water, you got your coffee, okay, great. And then it was just like record. Like small talk, like, hey, how you been? Like, you know, you feeling good, all that stuff. But it's different all the time.

The one I did with the Hardee's, that was in, that was in Texas. So that was a completely different situation. And it's different when you're on the road because you're usually trying to find a place to set up. And then, all right, what is the shop? look like on camera. Do we have enough depth of field here so that like the person is in focus and hopefully the background's out of focus. So it gives a nice visual here. So I've done a lot of interviews in hotel rooms, which to be honest, never look that great. Like it works in a pinch.

It works especially well if it's a busy weekend like a Royal Rumble weekend or WrestleMania. If there's a convention in town and everybody's staying in the same spot like I did that last year for a Squared Circle Expo in Indianapolis. And I'm planning to be there again this year. I'm just waiting to hear back the details about that. That one's perfect because everybody's in the same hotel. So it's just like, oh yeah, well, when you're done with this thing, come to my room, room 414, and we'll start recording that.

And again, it's usually just like small talk and mic check and then we start recording. With the one with the Hardee's, though, I flew into Dallas and they were doing media, all over Dallas, like different radio stations and TV stations all over Dallas. And they said, we'll be in Garland, Texas right before. So could you get a spot in Garland, Texas? Sure. So got an Airbnb in Garland, Texas. And it was this really cool, they called it a barn dominium. It was a barn that was converted into an Airbnb. And I looked at the photos on Airbnb. I'm like, oh, that looks really cool. Like we've got a little bit of the wood in the background and like the bright open windows because that's an important thing you want lots of light so we got there the night

before to the Airbnb I hope the person who owns the Airbnb isn't listening to this we moved all of the furniture out of the main space like moved all of the couches tables side tables plants moved it all out into the corner and then just set up two chairs and the mics and everything and then very carefully moving it back when we were done with the interviews. So the Hardys came. Haven't seen them in a little while. Matt was on the show, I think it was last April. Actually, it was at Squared Circle Expo in Indianapolis that we did the interview. So came, chatted with them. And then it was like, all right, who wants to go first? Matt or Jeff, who wants to go first? All right. We'll go first with Matt, recorded with him. And then we hit stop. Jeff came in a little bit more just like how you doing.

what's new, what's good, and then hit record with him. That's typically, I think, how it is. There are a handful of them, though, where I'm picking them up from the airport or from their hotel by the airport. Then, in a lot of those cases, I'm also driving them back to the airport. There's a lot of them where the person flies in just to do the interview. And I'll pick them up from the airport hotel, drive them in. and it's like, got to love LA traffic. It's like 12 miles and it takes 55 minutes or something like that.

So chat and catch up. It's good to see a lot of these people are my friends. It's good to just catch up with them. And then a lot of times I'm dropping them off like at the actual airport, not back to the hotel. Like they've checked out and it's right back to the actual airport to fly out. But there's no like no two are the same. So a lot of different situations. I also have to say that in what I'm saying with all of this,

I'm so grateful to be able to have these conversations in person. And I'm so grateful that these wrestlers trust me to be able to have these conversations in person. Like that means the world to me. I think it's been a year since the last virtual interview that we did. And it obviously means a lot more work. it means a lot of time I'm on the road meeting that person where they're at and then finding a space to record these interviews wherever they are. But the conversations that we end up having are

just so much better as a result of that. And I know that you guys appreciate that too. There's just something about Zoom interviews that just never feel the same. They feel very impersonal. You're talking to a quite literally, if you break this down, you were talking to a two, dimensional representation of a three-dimensional person. You're looking at a two-dimensional version of them on a screen. And there's always the like, no, no, no, no, no, I, no, you go. No, so, sorry. No, you go. And I just, I've never loved that. I just, I love the seamlessness of a conversation in person and you can look someone in the eye, shake their hand or give them a hug. And you can also read those like cues that naturally happen in an in person conversation,

like someone's like getting ready to say something and you're just you're able to just stop and pause and let them have their thought but there are a lot of different things that go on with these and I will say it's always great when you get to do like round two with someone like someone that you've interviewed before you get to see them again like also so grateful when these interviews can happen at someone's house like when I went to Goldberg's house and he lives on I don't know what I was in 200 acres in Texas and like he meets me at the the gate of his house on his little uh would that be like an tv he met me on that follow me and we take this long winding road over to like where his goldberg's garage is that's cool and just to be able to just like chat with someone and there's no

pressure of like the cameras are on so there's a that's a very long answer but i hope we walked you through the behind the scenes of a lot of those. Maybe I should document one of these. How would you guys feel about that? If we did a little, like it may be a documentary style thing of like the day before the setup, the day of the hours leading up to the interview, the minutes leading up behind the scenes of the actual interview and then what happens afterwards, you've probably seen in a few of these videos.

I've had some people sign some things. And I'm looking at them right now. I have eight by tens in my office of some of the people I've really enjoyed having conversations with some of the people that I grew up watching. And they'll write like two Chris and like a nice little note on there. So that's another part of the interview too. Like the Hardee's did. Yeah, you saw that in the interview with Jeff. He did his autograph, as he calls it, because he has the best looking autograph in all wrestling. So that's another part of it. But all of that is to say, maybe we should do a little behind the scenes document.

I don't know. If you'd like that, should be a message. Let me know. Maybe we'll do that for an interview with perhaps an invisible man. You wouldn't be able to see him, but maybe the documentary part of it would be interesting. Sean Martel sent this one in on Facebook. Hey, CVV,

recently started following the show after seeing the clips all over my social. So I'm going to pause for a second. That's amazing. It's working. If you're seeing the clips, we're doing something right here. Proud to say that I became a real, real one very quickly. Would love my question to appear on the Super Mario edition being from Montreal.

Tre bien. What is a match or gimmick that you would want to bring back? I personally missed the one-night King of the Ring tournament and a traditional five-on-five Survivor Series contest. I feel like there's room for that even with the current war games format. Congrats on Baby Number Two, all the best to you and your family. Those are two matches. I can't disagree with those.

I would love the actual King of the Ring pay-per-view, king and queen of the ring pay-per-view to be, I did it again. I called a pay-per-view. That's okay, right? There'll be paper-views forever. You can call them whatever you want to call them. But it'd be great for King and Queen of the Ring to be all in one night.

I understand how that might be difficult. Because even if you had the semifinals and the finals for both the men and the women, that's four matches right there. So then if you back that out where you've got quarterfinals, that's two on each side. It's a lot of matches. You'd be up to eight matches just with quarter finals. It's doable, but I just think that in the current format of WWPLE is having about five matches, I think it'd be difficult to do eight of them.

But I agree. I like when King of the Ring was like one show. Give it to me. And then you get some people who are competing two or three times. I love that. Five on five Survivor Series, you've heard my qualms about Survivor Series. It needs to make sense. Give me a reason why this Survivor Series match is happening.

And we've seen it far too many times over the last few years where it's just like, well, it's that time of year again. It's November. So let's get these five random people and put them against these five random people and call it a Survivor Series match. I've never liked that. So if you can do something that's going to make us care, and they did a really good job of it this year, with it being the new bloodline versus the old blind line.

That was great. I don't know how you continue that, though, with the next Survivor series this November. It just, it needs to make sense. I think one of the match stipulations that I would love to see back is a submission match. Some of my favorite matches are submission matches.

So if you put two really great technical wrestlers in there who maybe have a submission finisher like Chad Gable or just have submissions in their arsenal like carrying cross give me a submissions match like i loved when that was a stipulation back in the attitude era like backlash 2001 card angle chris benoit 30 minute ultimate submission match oh man with the overtime if you remember that they went to they were three three tied and then i went into overtime and then benoit pulled it out um so four three give me that injected into my veins, baby. I'd love another submission match. I love that style of wrestling. I love a lot of

different styles of wrestling, but, and it's interesting that I bring up Kurt Angle, because he's our next guest on the show. So, because you're a real one. Now you know, he said that some of his favorite work is when, like, you just wrestle. And it's hard to, like, not do a bunch of move, but moves or, like, go up on the top rope, but just, just wrestle. So, you. So, it's hard to, like, it's hard to, So, and I think that Chad Gable would be incredibly capable of doing that. And wow, this leads us right into this perfect, perfect segue. I didn't even plan to do this here. Kirby Richel on Instagram says, Kirby here, the real, realist guy in the room.

How you doing? With this 2025 version of Chad Gable, the best version yet, you say. Do you get mid-2005 of current angle? He has a familiar sounding intro. the ring and tire screams Kurt Angle in America, and there's a bit of balding maybe. Oh man, that's not very nice, Kirby. Come on. Anyway, thank you again for all the great interviews

and the time and the work that you put into it. Well, thank you for the kind words about me, Kirby. But man, come on, Chad Gable. Looks great. Come on. I think that there's a lot of similarities there to like a mid-2000s, right before he went to TNA, like mid-2000s wrestling machine, Kurt Angle in WWE. and I think it's clearly done on purpose.

They're leaning into the U-Sucks. Their, his ring attire looks very similar to Kurt Angle. He's using the ankle lock. There's a lot of similarities there. They're also both Olympians. And I think that that's something they're leaning into. And I think you're going to see even more of that in 2025. I know you didn't ask, but I'm going to say it anyway.

Chad Gable's going to win a championship of some sort this year. He put it out there publicly that that's one of his goals for 2025. And he was so close. It feels like it was a big mistake for him to not get the Intercontinental Championship at some point in one of those matches in 2024. That wrong can now be righted in 2025. If I had to make a prediction, Chad Gable wins the Intercontinental Championship as his first title,

as his first singles title, should say. But yeah, there's a lot of similarities there. And I think it also makes people appreciate Kurt that much more. Like I think when you see Chad Gable, it's easy to think of Kurt Engel. And that's a really good thing for both of them. For Kurt, his legacy is remembered and continues on. For Chad, he's compared to one of the greatest of all time. So it's a pretty good relationship, I think, both ways with that. But it is no secret. I'm a big fan of Chad Gable. And, the work rate that he has. He really hasn't had a bad match.

And that's not a statement you can make about a lot of people. You can make that statement about like Crankel. You can make that statement about Chelten Benjamin. You can make that statement about Chad Gable. But there's not a lot of people where you can say, man, that person's never out a bad match. And then you think about it. And you're like, ah, hmm. Yeah, you know what?

Huh. Yeah. You're right. It kind of reminds me of what Seth Rollins was saying during our interview where it brings out the best in his opponents. And it's true. Like, Seth Rollins is also one of those people where you put him in the ring with whoever and you know you're going to get something great. Good job, Cobb on Instagram says, now that we've had a week to digest, what ride is the final boss taking us on? Do we see him at WrestleMania?

I think we absolutely see him at WrestleMania. And we may see him at WrestleMania wrestling for the last time. I don't know if that's actually going to happen, but I don't know how many more matches the Rock has left. So I think what we saw on the first raw Netflix on January 6th was a one-off. And we talked about this at length on Ask CVV. number 65, where that was kind of a standalone show. What existed on that show kind of existed within a bubble. And now we're going to start to see Raw returning to its normal weekly

episodical shows and the storyline following through. I understand the criticism that the Rock's appearance got on Raw on Netflix. People saying, what the heck? There was this heat with Cody Rhodes and now you're putting them over and making jokes and then backstage. having a drink with him, like, what happened in the animosity here? And I think it should be pointed out that what we saw on that first raw Netflix was not the final boss. What we saw was Dwayne Johnson, Hollywood guy in Hollywood. We were in Los Angeles for that raw Netflix.

What we saw was Dwayne Johnson going, hey, everybody, look at how great raw Netflix looks. I think when we see the final boss again on Raw or Smackdown or that way, well, we did see it on NXT. We're seeing a little bit more of like storyline driven final boss. And it just, it still seems to me like this is leading up to Rock versus Roman. Like even just with the comments that are made, like the Rock made some sort of comment on social media that he's now the high chief. So there's the tribal.

chief, but the Rock's the high chief. And I don't think what the Rock does is ever by accident. He also made some sort of comment that the Rock is playing 20 steps ahead. So I know that you hear me say this a lot, but it bears repeating. Have some patience. Have some patience. See how this plays out. Give us to at least the Royal Rumble. I wouldn't be surprised if the Rock is in the Royal Rumble. I wouldn't be surprised if Roman Reins is in the Royal Rumble. And it just seems to me like there's an opportunity there to start planting some seeds as we head towards WrestleMania. But I think that, yes, the Rock wrestles at WrestleMania. I don't know against who.

I don't know if it's a main event. I don't know what the case is. But around this time last year, don't forget, we were all a little confused with what was going on. what's what's happening here why is the rock coming back and then a few weeks if we're going exactly 12 months ago from now then cody wins the rumble and then the rock goes to take his spot and then we want cody and then the cody cry babies and all the wonderful promos we got out of that leading up to this great moment that cody has at russomania 40 give it some time give it some patience I truly don't think that much of what you see, if anything, of what you see on screen in

WWE is a mistake or an accident or I don't think it's just thrown out just for the sake of throwing it out there. Like there's a purpose behind it. I remember a director when I was doing an interview years ago saying nothing that you see on screen is an accident. And what they mean is like if there's a product. that's on screen or there's a character that appears on screen, it's not done by accident. And I think that applies to wrestling as well. And to borrow a line from my friend San Roberts,

everything counts. It's not just what you see on Raw or Smackdown or NXT or PLE. Everything counts here. Social media videos count. Appearances on podcasts count. When you're a guest on the Pat McAfee show, it counts. So just give it some time here. But yes, I think that they are building this up to be a massive WrestleMania. I don't think they're going to do WrestleMania in Las Vegas without the Rock. But I've been very wrong about the Rock a lot.

So me saying, oh, yeah, of course he's going to be there. Feels like he's not going to be there now as a result because I've been wrong so many times about that. Jeremy Shartland on Facebook says, who is your favorite big man in wrestling? Well, this is going to turn into another one of those situations where if I only list like three people, everyone in the comments is going to go, what about someone so what about this person? So again, these are just my favorites. But when you talk about big men and wrestling, you can't not talk about Bamben Bigelow.

Not just a big man, but like insane athleticism. And I think that the way that he wrestled really opened the door for other big men. to be incredibly athletic. Like, I don't think you would get the athleticism out of someone like a Bronson Reed now if it wasn't for being inspired by Bam Bam Bigelow. And I think you can say the same thing about Vader, especially the matches the Vader had in Japan. Like, Vader is one of those people who he's such a big guy, such a big guy. And then he does certain moves. And you're like, what? Someone who's that size shouldn't be able to do things like that. And I think when you're talking about people that are that big doing very athletic things,

early big show was that. When he was the giant in WCW, I think he did a moonsault. He was doing like missile drop kicks. Like, here's a guy who's seven feet tall and close to 500 pounds coming off the top rope. That must just be terrifying if you're his opponent. But early big show, early giant, early Paul White, whatever you want to call him, really redefined what it was like. to be that big.

And like, they called them the world's largest athlete in WWE. And it wasn't just like a nice catchphrase. Because we've seen, we're not going to name names here, but we've seen some big men who don't move so well. That's not their fault. Maybe they're a little bit awkward. Maybe, you know, again, I don't want to name names here. But we've seen big men who kind of look like a baby horse.

you know, it was just born. A baby horse is like kind of wobbling on its legs and trying to figure out how to walk. And Big Show was never that. Big show's a guy who at that size was still able to move like someone who was much smaller. I'm also going to throw out a name here who doesn't get nearly enough respect and just isn't talked about enough. Mike Awesome. Specifically, ECW. Mike Awesome. Here's a guy who is six foot six. 295 pounds and just was so fluid with all the things that he did and just so it just moved like someone who was so much smaller so everything he did was just so clean i always loved when when he was the ecv champion i always loved paul haman on commentary pointing out how like i remember watching

live, watching ECW live and him being like, like pointing out like you couldn't see Triple H doing that. And I can't remember who the WCW champion was at the time, but like specifically called out the champions of the other companies, like specifically by name called out the champions of WCW and ECW and WCW and WWF at the time. Actually, it wasn't, no, it wasn't Haman. I think was Cyrus. I think it was Cyrus that was on commentary. I don't know why I said Paul Heyman. It was Cyrus who would point that out. And I was just like, it's so true.

The way that Mike Awesome moved at that time was far more athletic. It was almost like a luchador, it was far more athletic than the current champions of the other company. But it's just so funny that they, they had the balls that just point that out and like name them by name. The latter days, the final few months of ECW, when they just really stopped. caring and they knew that TNN, the new TN, Spike TV, whatever it was at the time, just like was not going to renew them. And they just didn't care. So they were just like, just saying whatever they wanted.

It was almost like inviting them to like, yeah, you don't like what we're saying. Let's kick us off of here. Let's keep saying what we're going to say. And I think if you just talk about just overall big men, Canaan the Undertaker with the way that they wrestled and the longevity that their careers had. You can't have a conversation about big men without talking about them. Chris Barrett on Spotify says, do you think Michael Cole talking about the new reinforced announce tables

is just setting up for a big heavy hitting finisher in the near future? Oh, absolutely. By the way, Chris, great name. Never met a Chris that I don't like. Yes, there was a point there on Raw, like towards the end of last year, where I think almost every week, if not every other week, someone was going through the announced table.

And I think almost every PLA, someone should do the actual math and stats on this. I think it was almost every PLE there was some sort of announced table spot. So yes, I don't care how reinforced it is or how reinforced they talk about it being. Yes, there will be many more announced table spots. I would be shocked if we don't see one by the Royal Rumble. If we don't see one between now and including the Royal Rumble, I would be very surprised. There's something about the announced table spot. It's very safe for the most part, very safe how they're done.

Of course, there's, there have been accidents. I think of that triple threat match with the Rock and Kurt Angle and Triple H and Triple H. And Triple H going to give the pedigree to Kurt Angle and the table gave out and Kurt angle falls on his skull and he told a great story about that which you'll hear on the podcast on Tuesday but for the most part announced table spots are pretty safe the table like collapses and takes the the brunt of the the fall and kind of like takes the real sting out of it but yes of course we're going to see many more announced table spots i love announced table spots i'd love when shame would do the elbow from the the the top rope to the outside through the announced

table. Logan Paul's frog splashes have been great. And then he adds in like the, just the added element of like he's holding his phone and he's, we could get the selfie view of that or the one he recently did with the drone shot doing a full 360 around him as he was on the top rope. It was such, just made for such a cool visual. Announced table spots are not going anywhere. In fact, maybe we should talk next week. about what your favorite announced table spot of all time is. Because I think an easy one is McFoly getting thrown off Hell in a Cell by The Undertaker? Easy one.

But there's so many other great announced table spots. So maybe that's asked CVV number 67. Maybe we talk about the best announced table spots on that one. Dustin Vaughn wrote this one in on Spotify. If you were to change one thing about the industry as a whole, what would it be in why? the entire wrestling industry as a whole, the thing that I would change is just this misconception that seems to exist, this tribalism that we have right now, this misconception that you can't like more than one company. I've always watched everything. But there's this, the tribalism is

just, it's so much. It's this tribalism almost like akin to like cheering for one particular sports team. And then when your team plays against the other team, you're like, well, man, I'm a, I'm a Jets fan and they're playing the Giants. I'm a Packers fan and they're playing the Bears. I'm a Red Sox fan and they're playing the Yankees or whatever the situation is. Of course, there's dozens of examples of this. That's how it's treated without understanding that these companies are not like you're not within one night it's not like the monday night wars was and by the way i watched both raw and nitro during the monday night wars was actually so fun to flip channels between the two of them if you like to match on on raw you watch the match on raw if

you didn't like the segment you went over to nitro to see what they had going on there but it's not like in the era that we're living in right now it is so entirely possible to watch everything and if you don't like certain things, that's okay. But I think the biggest thing I would change is just for people to understand that you can like what you like. And you can also, in that same breath, not like what you don't like. But I don't think that you need to hate on someone or you need to rag on someone or you need to pick on someone because they don't like the thing that you don't like.

And I think that that's the biggest thing I would change. You like WWE? Great. You like AEW? Great. You like New Japan? Great. You like TNA? Great. And instead of taking this approach of like judging it, why not be curious about it? Like instead of, like, be curious instead of being judgmental. Oh, really? Why is TNA the one you're watching the most these days? Oh, really? Oh, tell me more about the rascals. Tell me more about Josh Alexander. Which of his matches do you really like? Oh, wow. Maybe I should go check that one out later on today.

Instead of being like, oh, man, I don't watch that stuff. Just be curious. Like, instead of just like attacking someone for something you may not even know a lot about, why not just be curious about it? That is the biggest thing that I would change. If someone doesn't like something that you don't like, that's okay. that's what makes us who we are. Don't yuck other people's yums.

I love that. I know it's such a preschool quote because it was a quote that a friend of mine told me from their kids preschool. But it is so applicable to what we're talking about here. Don't yuck other people's yums. If somebody likes a certain style of wrestling, cool. Great. It doesn't affect me in any sort of way that you like that.

And I don't. That's all right. That's why I love the fact that wrestling is a buffet. And if you went to an actual buffet, you would just pick and choose the food that you would like. You wouldn't like get your plate and then go back to your table and look at somebody else's plate and be like, you got the crab legs? What's wrong with you, man? There's filet mignon on there.

So you're telling me you skipped over the filet mignon to get the crab legs. Are you an idiot? I'm never going to this restaurant with you ever again. You would just go, oh, cool, man. you're having crab legs. Great. I'm going to eat the filet. And when I'm done, maybe I'll get some more fillet. And that's the thing I would change about this, that it is okay to watch more than one wrestling company. That's it. And in fact, we're living in a time right now where there are so many options, not just the big companies that happen to be on TV, but there's just so many options with a lot

of great independent companies as well. Like what you like. That is the biggest thing that I would change because it's an exciting time right now to be a wrestling fan. And that is on display so much when you meet someone who just started watching wrestling, or maybe someone who just got back into wrestling after 10 or 15 or 20 years. All you want to do is say to that person like, oh, man, like welcome in. Like it's that scene from stepbrothers. Did we just become best friends? Yep.

Like that's where I think like the real magic happens is like finding a new wrestling fan. Like there was a there was a Twitter account. Maybe you saw this. There was a Twitter account that popped up. I think it was right after Ron Netflix. The username is new to wrestling X on X. And they put out a tweet that says, hey guys, I'm a new wrestling fan.

Ron Netflix was the first wrestling show I ever watched. I think wrestling is interesting. That's why I made this account. I want to explore more wrestling stuff in the wrestling community on X. If you see this, follow me, and I'll follow back. That one tweet got 2.1 million views. And I think that speaks to exactly what we're talking about here. There's this excitement of like, it's like the little kid that wants to show you their brand

new toys. Like when the fun uncle comes over, the fun aunt comes over like, oh my gosh. And like they take you right to like where all their toys are. and they're like showing you like it's like show and tell all the new toys that's what this is and it was just so cool to see this like a lot of positivity around that of like let me show you my favorite match or my favorite person or my favorite promo and that that's the i think that's the really cool thing about the time that we're in right now so new to wrestling x shout out also that is the last question for this ask CVV number 66 the mario lemu

Trent Alexander Arnold, Yassi Al-Puig edition. Thank you for being with us on this ride. Thank you for being a real, real one and listening all the way until the end of one of these with the Royal Rumble around the corner.

If you're listening on Spotify, drop a comment of which year do you think was the best Royal Rumble. Just leave the four numbers of the year. I'm going to go 1992. I know that's an easy pick, but I would go 1992. That would be my comment on Spotify.

but leave that comment on Spotify, so I know you're still listening and you are indeed a real, real one. If you got a question for next week's Ask CVV number 67, shoot me an email, CVV at chrisfamily.com. Leave a comment on Spotify if you're listening on Spotify or leave that question on social media using the hashtag, Ask CVV. You already know who the guest is for next Tuesday. Oh, it's true. It's damn true. your Olympic hero, Kurt Engel, is joining us a great conversation that we did in Pittsburgh earlier this week. That was one of those where like, I reached out. He said, yeah, I'll do it.

And I said, okay, where? And he said, Pittsburgh. And I said, all right, what's a location that is most convenient for you? We're doing the whole like behind the scenes of these. He said, this hotel is like 10 minutes from my house. I said, great. He said, one o'clock. I said, I will see you there. And that was it. They met him in the lobby. He came in. Went up the elevator to room 305 of that hotel. And we set it up. And it wasn't a hotel. I know that hotels, like I said,

don't look that great. And you'll see it looks okay. But this is a long, I've diverged into a long story here, just to say that Ask CVV is, not Ask CVV. Current angle is the next episode on Tuesday. And we will wrap this up with a quote

from George Bernard Shaw, which, man, this feels fitting. in so many different ways, especially in wrestling. People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it. Whoa. Be great, be grateful. Have an amazing weekend. We will see you on the next one

for some more insight with Kurt Engel. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air.

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