Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #72 - Elimination Chamber Predictions, The Rock Wants Cody's Soul, The Hardys Return To WWE, Randy Orton

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

https://cvvtix.com - Tickets are on sale now for INSIGHT LIVE in Toronto & Las Vegas with VIP Meet & Greet! Welcome to AskCVV #72! On this episode, Chris gives his full predictions for Elimination Chamber in Toronto and answers questions about The Rock's segment on SmackDown with Cody Rhodes where he asked for his soul, The Hardys return to WWE in NXT, could Randy Orton win more Championships than John Cena, how much money wrestlers make, the most inspirational wrestler or wrestling storyline and much more! Quote I'm thinking about: "Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure." — Napoleon Hill Please support our sponsors! PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibcloux TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insight to get 10% off your order of Mitopure! 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 HUEL: Get 15% off plus a FREE Gift for NEW customers with the code INSIGHT at https://huel.com ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insight BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv BLUECHEW: 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 Inside. It's me, the three numbers on the back of your credit card, CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Hope it's been a great week for you. Thank you for being here with us on this one. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. I'm sure you're already following the show. because you're here and you're listening to an Ask CVV episode.

You're a real one. But if by chance it slipped your mind, hit a handspring back elbow on that follow button on Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening right now. And if it is Spotify, could I ask for like a three second favor? Could you leave a rating for the show on Spotify? I know it seems so simple and so trivial,

but it really helps the show grow. And the more ratings we get, the bigger the show continues to get, the bigger the guests can get as well. And you've already seen the guests that we've had on in 2025 so far. We have started off 2025 hot in January and February. Just wait until you see who we have lined up in March and April. We've already recorded a few of them. But man, there's some big ones on the way. I don't know what's going to happen beyond that.

But I just know that if the trajectory that we're on right now continues, it's going to be bonkers. It's going to be massive. So if you're listening on Spotify, just go to the show's page, click the dots, three dots, dot, dot, dot, dot. And then you'll see the option for rate show, and then the stars will pop up. So I will thank you in advance for that. I'm in Toronto right now. And if you are listening to this and you are going to Elimination Chamber, I look forward

to seeing you there. I'm just so excited to be back home in Toronto. It's a little cold here, a little chilly, but I guess that's what you can expect from the last weekend of February. Well, I guess it's, no, it's the last week of February, first weekend of March. A little chilly here, but so good to be back home.

Able to spend some time with my parents. So good to see them. If you don't have any plans tonight before SmackDown, I would love to see you at our second Insight Live show. We had a blast in Indianapolis with Carlito. I'd love to see you out there tonight with Natty at Comedy Bar. There's still a handful of tickets available, including a few VIP tickets, which include a special Ask CVV that happens before the interview with Natty. You won't want to miss that, especially if you're a real, real one. So grab those tickets at CVVTix.com. That's

CVVTX.com. And then if you don't have any plans, post-E elimination chamber, We've got another live show. That'll be Insight Live number three, happening with all three members of the Hurt Syndicate, MVP, Bobby Lashley, and Shelton Benjamin. That's happening. Downtown, grab those tickets as well at CVVTix.com. I can't wait to see you guys there.

And welcome, my friends, to ask CVV number 72, the Carlton Fisk, Ed Tuttle Jones, and Patrick Hornquist edition. If you've got a question for next week's Ask CVV, send it in on social media using that hashtag AskCV. Leave a comment on Spotify or shoot me an email, CVV at Chris VanVleet.com. I'm always so blown away by how many comments there are on Spotify.

Let's keep this going. I'm grateful wherever you listen, but it's just Spotify has comments now. I feel like I have. Apple needs to catch up and figure that out, and I'm sure they're working on it. But it's just always so great seeing those comments on Spotify. Also, there's a lot of people, I get a lot of messages from people that go, especially with the Will Saso episode the other day, a lot of people that go, I listened to the podcast, but I needed to be able to watch it. So I went and watched it

on YouTube as well. So thank you to everyone who, if you do both, that's amazing, but just thank you for consuming the show wherever it is. whether it's on audio, whether it's on video, wherever, just thank you. I am so grateful that a kid from Pickering, Ontario, Canada, like me, is even able to do this. So I just can't, words, I can't put into words how much it means to me that you're with me on this one. So I'll just say thank you. Since this Elimination Chamber weekend, since we are in Toronto right now, Now, let's kick it off with an elimination chamber question.

This one's from Fisher underscore Man 316 on Instagram. What are your thoughts on what might go down at this year's elimination chamber? The thing I love, especially about the men's elimination chamber match, is you could make a really strong case for four out of the six to win this thing. There is no clear-cut winner. And I kind of feel like with what happened with Jay Uso, winning the Royal Rumble, which was, let's be honest, it was a long shot. That was something that not a lot of people predicted.

Like I was saying, man, it's got to be CM Punk. And if it's not CM Punk, then it's probably going to be John Cena. And if it's not John Cena, I guess it's Roman Raines or maybe it's Seth Rawlins or possibly Drew McIntyre. Like Jay Usa was down on that list. And I think it just kind of reminded us that in this era of WWE, anything's possible. possible. And that's how I feel going into elimination chamber. Like when you look at the six competitors, we'll talk about the men's match first, then we'll go to the women's and the other two matches. When you look at this men's match, John Sina, C. Munk, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Damien Priest,

Logan Paul, you really could make a strong argument, maybe even for five of them. No offense to Logan Paul. I just couldn't see Logan Paul winning this match getting that title shot at Russell mania. That to me just doesn't feel like it's within the realm of possibility right now. Logan Paul, I counted the other day, has wrestled 17 matches in WWE, period. Well, he's wrestled 17 matches in his entire career, two of those being Royal Rumble matches. So he's wrestled aside from the Royal Rumble matches, he wrestled 15 matches. So I don't think it's Royal, I don't think it's Logan Paul, winning elimination. chamber, but you could make a real strong argument for any of these former world champions,

any of the other five, to win this. So let's take a look at the odds from my bookie. And of course, when you sign up at my booking and you use the code at CVV, you'll get a 100% welcome bonus on that first deposit. John Cena is the clear cut favorite, according to my bookie. And I got to say I'm shocked. I'm really surprised by that. I still think it's going to be this hero's story for John Sina in this uphill battle. I don't think that he just, I think that the way that the Royal Rumble ended is going to be indicative of how the John Sina retirement tour goes. He's close, but he just can't quite do it. So for John Sina to be the heavy favorite, according to my bookie, I don't know. I don't see it. The next person they have is C.M. Punk.

and then from there it goes to Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Damien Priest, and Logan Paul, they've got as the long shot. I think that if I were to pick a winner here, I think it's CM Punk, but I think there's a little, there's more to this story than we're seeing right now. Let's switch over to the women's match here. And here's the odds here. And I think this is another one where it's like, man, you could make a really strong case. I'm going to say you could make a really strong case for definitely three, maybe four.

Like Bianca Bel Air, Liv Morgan, Alexa Bliss, any three of those could win, and you go, yeah. But then you can never count out Bailey. You can't count out Naomi. And Roxanne Perez just like has a rocket just strapped to her and she's been doing some amazing stuff. So like this is another one where it's really anybody's game. and that was not the case in wrestling for a long time. Like, it was so predictable for a while. The fact that we're looking at these two elimination chamber matches going,

geez, head scratcher. Like, I really don't know where this goes. But if we look at the odds here, they've got Bianca Bel Air as the slight favorite, followed by Liv Morgan, then Alexa Bliss, then Naomi, then Roxanne Perez. And they've got Bailey as the long shot, the disrespect to Bailey.

My goodness. Billy won the Royal Rumble last year. The disrespect in these odds. Then we've got the match where everybody wins. Kevin Owens and Sammy Zane in Canada. Oh, my goodness. This is going to be fantastic. They've got Kevin Owens as the slight favorite here.

I honestly, I didn't even pick a winner for the last one. That's just so tough. it's just it's difficult again it could it could go any of any of these six ways it really could I'm okay with being wrong on this but I'm going to go with Bianca Bel Air on that one I'm going to go with Kevin Owens in this match but I feel like this isn't the end of this story there's there's more story to be told here perhaps this leads into WrestleMania and beyond but you know how good Toronto crowds are.

Yes, yes, I know. I know what you're saying. They're not as good as the backlash crowd in France. They're not as good as the backlash crowd in Puerto Rico. They're not as good as the UK crowds. That's not what I'm saying here.

We're not comparing crowds. I'm just saying Toronto crowds are fantastic. And the fact that you're going to have two Canadians wrestling against each other in Canada, it's going to be so good. Then we've got the women's tag team match with Tiffany Stratton.

and Trish Stratus against Nia Jackson, Candace, LaRae. The odds favor Tiffany and Trish here, and I got to agree with that, but I think there's more to this story. I think that we're building up, maybe not this weekend, but I think we're building to Tiffany Stratton versus Trish Stratus at some point in time. And I feel like that would be like a passing of the torch kind of match. Like, did you see the photo that they posted this week? They were in the ring, I guess, doing some training together,

They posted a whole series of photos. And they look like they could be like sisters. Like, it's crazy that Trish has aged like 10 minutes in the last 25 years. Like, it's wild to see that. But I think that there's, like, Tiffy gets a lot of comparisons to Trist Stratis. And rightfully so. They have some similarities. At the same time, they're also both individually their own great wrestlers on their own.

but I just feel like there's an opportunity there to kind of have a passing of the torch moment. And I feel like they're pairing them up here to maybe kind of hint at something down the line. So we'll see. But I got to say, I think that this is the toughest PLA to call. And you've been listening to these Ask CVV episodes for a while now. You know that we've been like five for five or four for five for most of these. I think I got, did I get, I got everything right, but the men's Royal Rumble winner last month. It wasn't even last month.

That's, it's so funny. Last month, I guess it was February 1st, it's February 28th as you're listening to this. But we've been, we've been pretty solid. Like, if it's not 100%, it's like all of them but one. This is one of them where I'm okay with being wrong. I love the unpredictability. of what's going on right now. And this just feels like it's the hardest PLE to nail down.

Like I feel like we've got the, we've got the other two matches kind of nailed down and figured out, but those elimination chamber matches, I just don't know. And that's what's so exciting here is, I just want to see how this whole thing unfolds. Ryan Lownder on Spotify says,

hey, ask CVV, I'm very curious on your thoughts of this whole rock Cody thing. It feels odd. Not wanting the world title, but wanting his soul. My real issue to the whole thing is, what would happen to the winner of the chamber

if they're supposed to also get a mania title match? Does that make this some kind of triple threat for one of the titles? I think we'd all love to hear your thoughts on this. From a new dad to another new two-time dad with love. Well, thank you, Ryan. Lots of love going back to you as well. I will admit that that segment

on its own was strange. The rock wants Cody's soul. But I think that we need to remember that that segment doesn't just exist in a vacuum. That segment doesn't just exist on its own. That segment is planting some seeds for the things that are to come. So I think that the rock, and especially this iteration of the rock, has a lot of layers to his character. And I know it's frustrating because we just want answers right now.

And we don't want to listen to your CVV when you tell us to have patience. We want answers right now. Like we want The Rock to go out there and just like drop the people's elbow on Cody Rhodes and boom, we've got something. And I think instead we've got a slow burn here. And I will say this. There was a lot of criticism for The Rock and his appearance on that first episode. of raw Netflix. This segment on Smackdown

actually ties in to that. Like, why was the Rock being so nice to Cody on that first episode of Raw on Netflix? Like, why was he being so nice? Why were they drinking tequila in the back together? And now the pieces here are starting to make sense. It's starting to add up.

He's referring to him as a friend, but it kind of feels like he's manipulating him, like he's doing it in like a corporate boss kind of way, like, hey, if I like, kind of get close to you here and give you that thing you're asking for, you know, maybe you could help me with this thing over here. Like, that's kind of what this feels like. It's very manipulative. And there's a lot of different things going on here. The press conference that the Rock did after that had me scratch in my head, had me a little confused going. well, does he not want the title now? Like, is he, is he going to play some sort of a corporate role?

Like, is this a, is this the corporation 2.0? And I've, I've seen some theories about that online. I don't think that's it. Because for that type of storyline to work, the rock would have to be there every single week to allow the story to play out. I don't feel like that's what we're going to get here. But again, going back to what we were just talking about with. Elimination Chamber. I love that we are in this world of unpredictability. But you've heard me say this before. I will say it again and it will not be the last time I say it. Have a little bit of patience. Let's see where this goes. I don't think that this segment we're getting at Elimination Chamber in Toronto this weekend with Cody and the Rock and like the Rock's going to get his answer from Cody.

I don't think that's the end of this. I think that there's some other. components tied in here. I don't know what they are. And we can speculate wildly here, but the Rock is clearly looking for someone to join him. The Rock is looking for someone to turn heel with him. And it sure feels like that'd be a great role for CM Punk. Maybe it's not CM Punk in the Rock, but maybe CM Punk is cashing in this favor with Paul Heyman, and there's some sort of tie in there. Cody turning heel just feels too obvious. Like, you know when you're watching a movie?

You know when you're watching a murder mystery movie? And they have what they call a red herring, where it's like something is so obvious. It's staring you right in the face. And you're like, well, that one's too obvious. Like, that one's too easy. It can't be that thing. But if they're giving us a red herring,

what's the thing they're hiding from? us like the magician's hot assistant right like if the magician's doing this one thing with his hand here and like waving it and you're you're all focused on that what's he doing under the table what's he doing with his other hand and i kind of feel like that's what this is like cody turning heel and joining the rock and giving him his soul it just feels too obvious and i i really want to see where this one plays out and i i don't think it ends at elimination chamber i think it continues to plant some seeds as we continue on this road to WrestleMania. Because we only have two officially announced matches as of right now.

Tiffany Stratton versus Charlotte Flair, Gunther versus Jay Uso. There's a lot of other stuff, you know, going on out there. John Cena's going to have a match with somebody. Cody Rose is going to have a match with somebody. And then you've got a lot of other pieces that need to fall into place. CM Punk, Seth Rollins, is Logan Paul going to be there? Is Randy Orton going to return?

There's a lot of other pieces, but there's still a bunch of time before WrestleMania, and we've still got a lot more stories to tell. Sec 112.380 on Instagram says, is the plan for you to do a live show at every major event that WWE holds in each city? The short answer is, hopefully,

So as of right now, I have the shows in Toronto this weekend that we were talking about earlier. I've also got one announced in Las Vegas. So if you're not in Toronto, but you plan on being in Las Vegas for WrestleMania 41, I've got to show that Thursday night. And we've already sold a ton of tickets. I think VIP's almost sold out, which is crazy because it's like there's almost two months to go to the show. So if you're looking to go to that show, Thursday night at Circa Resort and Casino, Grab your tickets for that one at CVVTix.com as well.

I haven't officially announced it yet, but because it's just me and you hanging out right now, we are planning to do a show in New Jersey, SummerSlam weekend. So we're talking about August 1st here. So I'll be announcing that I think maybe next week or the week after that. SummerSlam is in New Jersey.

But SmackDown, I'm assuming, will be, oh, maybe it's in New Jersey. It could be in New York. I guess we'll have to figure that out. But we're planning to do a show there. And I'd love to do one in Paris. I don't know about the logistics of doing a show in Paris. I don't even know if you guys would show up if we did a show in Paris. I would hope that you would show up if we did a show in Paris.

But that one, I don't know if we're going to be able to pull that one off. but I think the hope is for every North American show that, yeah, we're doing a live show as long as as you guys keep showing up and you have been so far, then we're going to keep knocking these out. Like, I can't speak for the shows we're going to do this weekend with Natty and the Hurt Syndicate. I'm sure they're going to be amazing. But we had such a good time with Carlito. If you haven't listened to that episode or watch it on YouTube, it was just a blast. And the crowd was so fun, like all these crazy.

chance and we were cheering certain things and booing other things. It was such a blast. So, yeah, the hope is to try to do that. And we'll just, we're going to keep doing it until we can't do it no more. That's the hope. And maybe, maybe, I'm just, this is wishful thinking here, maybe we can get to a point where it doesn't have to be doing it in a city when there's the Royal Rumble or Elimination Chamber or Summer Slam or WrestleMania. Maybe it's just we pick a great wrestling city on a Friday or a Saturday and we just go there and we bring a massive guest and we just have a blast. So we shall see. We have one of these done so far. So let's, before I get wild and crazy with any more of these ambitious goals, let's get a few more of these

under our belt. Wesley L. Lee on Facebook says, can Randy still catch up to Sina, especially if he gets another win? We're talking about number of world championships here because they're close. John Sina, as we know, is at 16. Randy Orton is at 14. The last time that Randy Orton won a world title was 2020. So I think we need to take that into account here. And the last time he won before that was 2017. So I think if we're factoring that in, then I, let me pause myself here. I think Randy Orton wins one this year. I firmly believe that we're setting up for Randy Orton, John Cena, and it's a title match.

I know that that is, that doesn't seem possible or plausible right now because Randy Orton still hasn't returned yet. But I really think that that's what we're working towards. I think that I definitely think that John Cena's last match is against Randy Orton. Is it a title match? I don't know. Could be.

It would make a lot of sense for it to be a title match. But I think that they have been calling John Cena the greatest of all time, not just as a nickname. And I've talked about this a bunch. but they are they are ingraining that into the minds of all of us fans, that John Sina is the greatest of all time. And I don't think that just a few years after John Sina has this year-long retirement tour, and in my opinion, he breaks the record and is the 17-time world champion, I don't think that a few years after that they're going to have Randy Orton break that record

and become a 17-then-18-time champion. I just don't see it. But if we're talking about recent title wins, John Sina hasn't been the WWE champion since 2017. So we're going on eight years here since John Sina was a WWE champion. Like if he was still active, if he was a full-time superstar with a full-time schedule for the last eight years, he'd be well into the 20s by now. it's not to say that Randy Orton isn't deserving of it, but I really just feel like they are going to hang their hat on this.

They are going to say, look at John Sina. He is the greatest WWE superstar of all time. And he held the most WWE championships, period. End of discussion. That's truly what I think that they're working towards here. Matt A. Trafft on Facebook says, with all of this TNA slash NXT title match between the shows right now, do you think that it's at all possible that WWE has purchased TNA or at least a majority

of their company? That is a wonderful theory, Matt, and it's been so great to see TNA stars in NXT and NXT stars in TNA. I don't think that W.WE has bought TNA because I do think that if WWE bought TNA, this wouldn't be a secret. This wouldn't have been some deal that's done under the table. There would have been a lot of publicity around this. This would have been something that WWE would be touting to everybody and saying,

look at this thing that we did. I don't think this would be a secret thing because what good would that do them? What good would it do them to purchase the company and then not tell anyone about it? I think what they're doing now is it's a brilliant move to bolster both brands. to help raise up TNA and to help raise up NXT as well. And it also gives you the opportunity to see some amazing moments. Joe Hendry at the Royal Rumble, I know that it's kind of a one-off because that was a main roster thing,

but we're getting great things like the Hardy Boys back in WWE, Moose in WWE. There's just been so many great moments there, and it's also making both shows like must-see TV. Because, sure, they're announcing some of them. the things that are going to happen, like the Hardy Boys appearing on NXT this week, but there's also some nice surprises that always end up happening. So it makes both shows like, you got to tune in because you've got to see what's going to happen here. So no,

I don't think that WWE has purchased TNA. I think that if TNA were to ever be up for sale, and if you went back and listened to the interview I did with Scott D'more, Scott D'Amour put together the funds and put together a pitch to buy TNA and was told it's not for sale. If TNA were to ever be for sale, I would have to think that the two buyers that they'd be looking for and certainly the two most interested parties would be either WWE or AEW. But no, I think the TNA is still, it hasn't been sold at all and it's still under the same ownership that it's had. Derek McElwain on Facebook says, why has John Sena's retirement tour been so disappointing so far?

Derek, what a question. I think that there's a lot of people who are upset by the fact that he's only made, I guess it's three appearances. He's only made three appearances in two months. Well, he said he was going to make 36 appearances this year. He didn't say when those appearances would be. He didn't say, all right, it's going to be 36 appearances. And I'm, let's do the math here. That's three per month. So you will see me three times every single

month for the next 12 months. It's not what he said. He said he's going to make 36 appearances. I also kind of feel like John Cena is going to tack on an extra one or two or three or four. Like, is it going to be 36 dates exactly? I don't know. I feel like it's going to be minimum 36 dates. but he's revolving this whole thing around his current schedule. So if we're looking, if we are holding him to that number, if it is only going to be 36, then my friends, we still have 33 more dates to look forward to. And I have a feeling that he's not going to be missing any of the PLEs.

Knock on wood, let's knock on everything you can. If there's any wood where you are right now, knock on wood right now that John Sina stays injury-free, and that he's able to compete at all the PLEs. But I just feel like we are on a good path here. And there's going to be a lot more appearances, I would have to guess, after Elimination Chamber leading up to WrestleMania

because how are you going to just show up at Elimination Chamber, have one or two other appearances, and then go to WrestleMania? I don't see that being the case. I think that you could probably stack a bunch of those appearances leading up to WrestleMania. And then I just, I have to think, you stack some of those appearances towards the end of the year as well

as we lead up to whatever that final match is and the storytelling that we'll go into that. But John Cena's retirement tour is not disappointing at all. You just can't see him. That's the problem. You haven't been able to, no, he's just getting out of the starting blocks.

Like this is just getting, started. We are three dates out of 36 dates. It is just getting started here. Live life wrestling on Spotify says, hey, it's Levi, and I'm 14 and I love you. But what did you think of the Hardy Boys in NXT? And the Fraxium versus Hardy Boys match scheduled for Roadblock. I can't wait. I'm with you, Levi. I can't wait either. So great to see the Hardy Boys back in WWE in 2025. Also great to see them back in WWE while still under TNA contract. And they've been doing a lot of great stuff in TNA in this most recent run.

Both of them being healthy, both of them being just in a good frame of mind, Jeff especially being sober and clear-headed. Jeff even said it during our interview, that he's hitting like really great swan tom bombs. He's like, look, for a while, man, they were crew tom bombs. Like the ones where he would just like Like pancake on someone.

Like he's doing the really smooth like hit it and roll off like very vintage like 1999 Hardy Boys and you love to see it. I also think that this is setting up for the Hardy Boys to make some sort of a main roster appearance or maybe main roster run in 2025. And it's it's just so funny how quickly some things can come together. like it was just what six, seven weeks ago that I was sitting down with the Hardy Boys. We did the two interviews individually when we did that in Dallas. Interviewed Matt, interviewed Jeff.

And they talked about like, yeah, no, there's the possibility. Yeah, sure it'd be great to do something with WWE in 2025. And here we are just a month and a half later. And it's already happened. And it's about to happen again at Roadblock. Also, I'm very pumped. about Obafemi versus Moose, like, that match. You might not be that familiar with Moose if you don't watch TNA,

but if you watch this match that he had on NXT, like the guy is huge. Like, he's massive, especially when you meet him. He's huge, and he's moving like a cruiser weight in there. Obafemi versus Moose is going to be fantastic, and the Hardy Boys match with Fraxium. so good. And it's not like, it's not like we're seeing, like the Hardy Boys can still play the

greatest hits. And that's what's so amazing about it. And they are a cross-generational tag team as well. Like, I was watching them when I was a teenager. And then you've got people who are, you've got people who grew up with them. Like, I'm not that far off in a. age, like a handful of years away from them. And maybe that's why I felt like I always related to them. And also just there was nobody doing what they were doing at that time. But you could be like

eight or nine when they were coming up or you could be in your teens. You could be in your 20s. You could be in your 30s. What I'm saying is there are now people who are in their like 30s and 40s and 50s and 60s and so on who could say, yeah, I've been watching them for that long. And I just think that there's something that's really unique about that. And it's not, yeah, there's been lots of people who have wrestled for 25 or 30 plus years. But it's the fact that they still look great doing it. And they're going out there and there's, sure, there's a little bit of a nostalgia factor to it. Like it's the Hardy Boys and how good is that music?

But it's also like, yeah, they could still go. Tim Patterson on Facebook says, hey, CVV, what did you think when Jericho told you that top wrestlers now make $30 to $40 million a year? Is that actually true? So in the interview with Jericho, I said, what's been the biggest change that you've seen in wrestling? Because Jericho's been doing this for 34 years, 35 years. It'll be 35 years this year. He said the biggest difference is money. And he was saying, like, I was a top. guy back then and I'm a top guy now and I know the difference that is being made. And he said, you know, you've got top guys now that are making 30, 40 million. And I said, 30 to 40 million.

And he goes, oh, yeah, you'd be surprised. And I said, why, I am surprised. And then he said, well, you know, like 15 or if he said 15, no, he said 20 to 30 million. And I thought about that a lot. 30 to 40 million is a ton of money. And look, I know that you can Google right now and you can see what the estimates of what the salaries are for your favorite superstars. Those may or may not be accurate, but those also don't factor in anything other than the salary. They don't factor in sponsorship deals. They don't factor in merch. They don't factor in any percentage of the gate, if you're the main event on that show. They don't factor in royalties. They don't factor in all of those different things. So if you're looking at these numbers and going,

he's way off 30 to 40 million. I'm looking up these numbers and they look like they're, you know, on the very high end, someone like Roman Reins, according to this Google search, again, this is not gospel. This is a Google search. That's saying that Roman Reins makes 10 million. Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. But I recalled this story that The Rock told when he was on Patrick Bet David's podcast.

And he was talking about negotiating with Vince McMahon. And Vince, for the longest time, Chris Jericho even mentioned it during our interview, that Vince for the longest time had $1 million was the top that he paid anybody as their downside guarantee. Like a million was it. No one could make higher than that in terms of just straight up salary. You could make more in all those other things I just listed. But a million dollar was the guarantee.

And the Rock was like, all right, well, if I may ask, who gets paid the most right now. And at that point in time, it was stone cold. He said, all right, well, what does he make? He makes a million dollars. And the Rock said, well, I want two million. And the Rock jokes like, oh, man, the ball is on that guy. And Vince goes, okay, what I want you to do is I want you to go out on the road

and I want you to follow whatever it is, CFO or someone that handles like finance. I want you to follow them around. I want you to get a real understanding for how the numbers work. I want you to go to all these different shows and see what the profit and lost margin is on all of the different things that we do there, whether it's merch or tickets and all of these different things. And then in a handful of weeks, we'll meet up back again and you can let me know what you think. So Rock did this and it came back and you went, all right, no, I see what you mean.

It was like a big business lesson for the Rock at that point in time. And I'm completely paraphrasing this. please go watch the clip on YouTube or watch the entire interview or listen to the entire interview with Patrick Bet David and Dwayne Johnson. But basically came back and said, all right, no, you're right. A million sounds good. And Vince goes, all right, well, knowing everything you know now, how much money do you think you're going to make?

And Rock goes, well, you know, up to that point, I was making like 50% more than my my guarantees so make 1.5 million and Vince goes you're going to make 15 million this year. So when I hear a story like that where his salary, his guarantee was a million and he made 15 million and then when Kurt Engel was on the show, Kurt Angle said that his salary was 75,000 in his first year and he ended up making a million dollars that year. That's 14 times what his salary was. The Rock story is 15 times what his salary was. I'm not saying that it's, I'm not saying that it's, you can use that same metric and that same math now.

But if you're seeing these numbers online, $2 million, $3 million, $5 million, $10 million, whatever it is, I think you need to add on at least a little bit of money under that for all of these other things. Like Cody is driving around in a bus. And that bus is wrapped by Wheatley vodka. That's not just because Cody Rhodes thinks that Wheatley vodka is fantastic, which I'm sure it is. I haven't had it.

I haven't actually haven't had a lot of drinks since the wife became pregnant and then breastfeeding and then pregnant again and now breastfeeding again. And, you know, when your best friend who is also your wife isn't having drinks, you know, casual drinks here and there, yeah, I'm not really having too many either. the point here is Cody's not just doing that for fun there's a sponsorship element attached to that so 30 to 40 million seems like a lot but if in the rock story which is 25 plus years ago rock had a guarantee of one million and then made 15 million i think that maybe for the top two or maybe three people in WWE, maybe it's not 30 to 40 million, but maybe it's more like, again, using these numbers that the Rock gave us in this story from 25 years ago, maybe it's 20 to 30 million in a great year? I don't know. Again, I'm kind of pulling all the clues together and

putting all the pieces together from various different things. But 30 to 40 million, Tim, seems like a lot. And maybe that's why Jericho readjusted his answer there. But I think the point here that he was also trying to make is that you're not signing a $75,000 a year deal like Kurt Engel was making.

Again, that was 25 plus years ago. But the money in general has gotten more. And I think a big reason is because there's competition. Competition is great for business. Because if you've got the option, contracts come into an end. You're about to be a free agent. You've got the option to go here or you've got the option to go here that drives the price up.

Doug on Spotify says with all the talk about the Hall of Fame inductees coming up before WrestleMania, do you think we'll ever see a physical location for a Hall of Fame? If so, what city would make for a great place for the home of the Hall of Fame? I don't know why this hasn't happened yet. Like it's, it's, they've, they've had the Hall of Fame for so long. The Hall of Fame, just as a concept, has been around for 32 years. 1993, the first inductee was Andre the Giant. It's a concept right now.

It's an idea and it's obviously a tremendous honor. Yeah, I think that they need one. And if you've ever been to WWE World or previously when it was called WWE Access, it feels like that kind of like a Hall of Fame feel like you're seeing the you're seeing the costumes used or you're seeing like this is the

mat canvas or this is the turnbuckle from this legendary match that stuff is so cool to see and if they were to have this in a physical location I think that'd be amazing there must be a reason why this hasn't happened yet but if they were to have a physical

location, I guess the one that makes the most sense is Stanford, Connecticut, simply because of that's where WWE's headquarters are. I think you could also put one in Orlando around the performance center. That one would also make sense. You've already got so many fans going there on Tuesdays for NXT. That one would make a lot of sense. Although, I've been to the performance center, and it's kind of like an industrial area. Like, if it were to be in Orlando, and I think Orlando's a good spot for it. Vegas would make a ton of sense as well, especially since that's where the headquarters for the UFC is. If it were to be in Orlando, I think it'd have to be on international drive. I don't think it would be around the performance center just because of, that's not like

in a really touristy area. So Vegas makes a lot of sense. The more I think about this, and I'm just thinking out loud here, because that's what these Ask CVVV episodes really are. Just one hour, just continuous, just brain dump of thoughts with you guys. I could definitely see this being in Las Vegas. Like it would be a total tourist attraction there, whether it's on the strip or maybe it's slightly off the strip. Because where the UFC headquarters are, they're off the strip. Like if you take the highway out of the city, you see the UFC headquarters to the right

there. So I think it's Stanford, Orlando, or Las Vegas. I think those three seem to make the most sense to me. And I just feel like with all of the big moves, a lot of them being big business moves slash big money moves for TCO as a whole, I'd be surprised if there's no physical Hall of Fame before the end of the decade. So like within the next five years, I don't know, it just, it feels to me like they're making a lot of these moves like that where they've already got all the stuff.

they've already got all of the items. In fact, they'd have a bigger problem figuring out what doesn't go in the Hall of Fame. They've got all of these items and they'd have to like somehow whittle it down to like, all right, we're just going to have like, what would it? It would only be a small percentage too. That's what's crazy. But then there's, now my business mind is like working in overtime here. Then you've got the ability to now do like a museum does where you have different attractions

and different exhibits, you'd have the ability to be like, all right, so we've got, I'm just making something up right now. But it's like, all right, we always have some ultimate warrior things in there, but we're going to have an ultimate warrior exhibit. And it's only here until July 1st or something along those lines. Or we're going to do like, whatever it happens to be, there's an opportunity there to make even more money, more revenue, meet and greets there, all of that different stuff. So I'd be surprised if this doesn't happen sometime soon, Doug. Nirvana fan 58 on Instagram. What's it like seeing all these heels out of character?

It just makes you realize how good they are at their job. Like some of the ones that come to mind, like carrying cross, like one of the nicest humans, grateful to be able to call him a friend, to see who he is as Kevin is just makes you appreciate the work. that he does as a heel so much more. And I'm sorry, guys. I'm sorry that after the interview that we have with Ludwig Kaiser, it's hard to boo him.

He's just such a good guy. He's such a good guy. So it's funny because from the second you shake their hand, from the second you meet them, except for MJF, he's just awful. But from the second you meet them, you're just like, it's a massive amount of respect for like, oh, I can appreciate how good you are at this.

And there's been a few. Ludwig Kaiser is the obvious one that comes to mind right now. But Gunther, it was a while ago and we did it over Zoom, but go back and watch that interview with Gunther. You're seeing a lot more comedy elements now, but at that point in time, like, Gunther wasn't that funny. But Gunther is just the person. Very funny.

And I'm glad that we're starting to see a little bit more of that. in the promos that he does. So it's very cool. It's very cool seeing heels out of character. Chris Combs on Spotify says, Hey, CVV, I have to say that quote about destination addiction really resonated me with a time, really resonated me in a time when I'm struggling to reach my own goals.

It made me think about how even in my mid-30s, I have found many of the stories and characters inspirational, be it the underdogs like, Sammy Zane, hard work like Jay Uso or finishing your story like Cody Rhodes. My question for you is who was a wrestler or storyline that truly inspired you to work harder or stay strong. Thank you for your content and your positive energy. So this destination addiction thing that Chris is talking about here, and by the way,

I've never met a Chris that I don't like. Great name. Destination addiction, this is the quote that I shared on last week's Ask CVV. So quick recap, it's beware of destination addiction. The idea that happiness is in the next place, the next job, or even with the next partner, you'll never be able to experience happiness in the present moment until you give up the idea that happiness is somewhere else. And that's why I love gratitude and talk about it as much as I possibly can. For me, the wrestler and the storyline that really inspired me was

seeing what DDP did. And I think that we, get this idea in our head that we're too old or we're too young or we're too this or we're to that. And he didn't allow any of these labels to define who he was. Thirty-five, he makes his debut. 41, he becomes the world champion for the first time. And I think it's that that's inspiring to me. It was inspiring to me then, and it's inspiring to me now. Because I just think that, unfortunately, we allow ourselves to like we allow ourselves to be labeled and to put into the put into these little boxes and we do it to ourselves we label ourselves as like well I can't do that because whatever the silly reason or the silly excuse is and the two most powerful words in the English language are I am

because whatever comes after that you start to believe that about yourself so I know DDP wasn't attempting to be inspirational then. I mean, he's sure as hell is inspirational now with everything that he does and just who he is as a person. But it's DDP. It's, it's, and it's everything that DDP now stands for.

Like, you listen to the interview with Lex Lugar, I'm sure, the one that came out yesterday. And you've seen the work that he's done with Jake the St. Roberts or Butterbean or the late great Scott Hall. I think it's the fact that he cares. And every time that I get the opportunity to spend some time with him or stay at his house or we talk on the phone, I just feel so inspired because he helps so many people not for any other

reason other than the fact that he wants to help people. And I think that we all, know somebody in our life who does something with the expectation of getting something else in exchange. And if you're helping somebody else because you're trying to get something out of it yourself, you're not doing it for the right reasons. You're then doing it selfishly because like it's tit for tat then. I did this thing. So you got to give me this thing. And the fact that DDP does this like just with an open heart, And he helps people just because he wants to help people and he wants to see them do better and be better. There is a real lesson to be learned from that. And I asked him, and go back and listen to the episode.

He's just awesome. But I said, why do you do it? Like, what is, what's the reason that you do it? And he said, I heard a quote a long time ago from Zig Zigler. And it's if you, you can get anything you want in life as long as you help enough people get what they want. And that's the quote that he lives his life by. Chris Barrett emailed this one in. Hello, Chris, I had a question after listening to your latest episode with Will Saso.

Out of nowhere, you threw out the town of Dingman's Ferry, Pennsylvania, and I was pleasantly surprised. As a three-year-old, I moved from West Milford, New Jersey to about half an hour west of Dingman's Ferry and consider myself to now be a northeast Pennsylvania native. So my question is, how in the world do you know about that small town? As a lifelong wrestling fan, I do not recall it ever being mentioned. Thank you for your time. Chris from PA. So Chris, again, fantastic name. Haven't met a Chris that I don't like. Look at that. Back to back, Chris questions. My wife is from Sussex County, New Jersey. Her mom moved to Dingman's Ferry.

So her mom, my mother-in-law, is from Dingman's Ferry. That's how I knew it. It's a very small town. I'm going to look up the population right now. It's a very small town. You know this, Chris. It's a small town. There's like a little rickety one-car bridge that gets you in and out of the town. I think it used to be $2 to get over the bridge. They raised the price to $3, I believe, is the price of the Dingman's Ferry Bridge.

According to the worldwide internets, Dingman's Ferry has a population of just over 1,000 people. So, yes, it's a small town. I don't think there's ever been a wrestling show there. But I've spent a lot of time there. My mother-in-law has a beautiful property there. We would have deer come every single day. There would be bears walking through the yard on occasion. There would be turkeys there.

Amazing. Although I guess I should say that Dingman's Ferry, their population just went down by one because my mother-in-law, my wife's mom, like just this week, moved to California. But I will still have a very big place in my heart for Dingman's Ferry and the time that we spent there. But yeah, I just, the whole bit here, if you don't know what we're talking about, is when Will Sassell was on the show, he was doing his Rick Flair impression. And he was talking about how funny it is that Rick Flair would like not have any concept of what a big city was. So he's doing the impression and he's like, we're going to go to New York.

whether it's in New York City or it's in Los Angeles or it's in Raleigh, North Carolina. So it's like, you know, you're naming huge city, huge city, significantly smaller city. And the bit was that like, you'd name Rick Flair would always name these big cities and then he would name a small one. So I was just tossing out names to Will as he's doing the impression. And I thought it'd be so funny to toss out Dingman's Ferry. And you're like the third person that messaged me. And they were like, how have you heard of Dingman's Ferry?

Well, there you go. I've spent many a days, many a nights in Dingman's Ferry. Jerry Blanco put this one on Spotify. Hey, CVV, a real, real one here from Miami. I have a question for AskCV, the 72 Miami Dolphins, perfect season edition. That's right, perfect season, 1972. When you work down here on WSVN, you had a segment called Keeping Up with Chris.

Can you share some of the crazy experiences that you got to do during that segment? Congrats on everything, and I hope that a live insight makes its way down to South Florida. All the best to you and the family. All the best to you as well, Jerry. So I had a segment. I worked for the Fox affiliate in Miami on a show called Deco Drive, and they were looking for a weekly segment. So I got called into the boss's office, which is always a sales.

scary thing. But I called into the boss's office because they were like, we're looking for a weekly segment. It would be, I think it was every Thursday. I did the segment every Thursday. So they're like, we're looking to do a segment every single Thursday. They would also run on the news. Do you have any ideas? And we pitched a few ideas. We floated a few ideas out there, but nothing that like really stuck and nothing that I could really see myself sinking my teeth into. And one of the big things they kept repeating was you've got to come up with a concept that you can continually do every single week. Like you've got to be able to come up 52 of these for this year. There was, there's bite with Belkees. So there's a news anchor there, Belkees Norei. She does a cooking segment. She's been doing it

for years. And it's like it's easy because it's just it's cooking with a different chef or it's in a different restaurant or it's cooking a different dish. There's endless. I'm ideas. So I had a bucket list of all these different things I wanted to do. And I said, well, what if I did my bucket list? Like, what if I started taking things off my bucket list and we make a segment out of that? They went, all right, well, could you, if you can come up with 10 of these, then we'll move forward with it. And I was like, all right, let's see what we can do. So in Florida, there's no shortage of crazy and wild things that you can do. Like I did some, I did some crazy, crazy things there.

Like, I swam with alligators. Gator Boys Chris on TikTok and Instagram, go check him out. He does tours where you can swim with Casper. He's a nine foot alligator in the Everglades. Like, you're not in the Everglades, okay? like he's a rescue alligator that you the the sanctuary is in the everglades but like yeah swam with an alligator i drove a tank i took batting practice with the miami marlins and and i had a bet that if i could hit one out if i could hit a home run in batting practice they were going to let me play in a game obviously

that did not happen i learned how to be a long snapper with the miami dolphins Like, I got to do so many crazy. I did goat yoga. I did hang gliding. I did a shootout with the Florida Panthers. It's like so many amazing segments. And it was just like, it was so much fun to just every week come up with these wild ideas and then get them approved by the boss.

Like, you're going to let me climb a coconut tree? And I climbed a coconut tree with like no apparatus. I learned like the technique of how to climb a coconut tree. Climed a coconut tree, retrieved a coconut, came back down. I was doing so many of these fun things. But it got to the point which was our fear with the segment was like, if you're going to be doing this every single week, you're going to have to come up with new fun ideas every single week.

And we started to like run a little thin on ideas. And I ended up leaving the station. like right around that time anyway, so it timed out perfectly. But yeah, some really, really fun things that I got to do there. And I'm looking at a list right now. And I'm like reliving all of these fun moments. There was over the edge where we repelled down a building for charity. I repelled down a 16-foot building for charity.

You know I love fishing, specifically bass fishing. and there is a very unique thing you can do in Miami where you can catch peacock bass, which are not native to America. They brought them into the United States and like, I think it was the 80s. Oh my goodness. I'm going to a history lesson here.

But they brought them into Miami. They brought them into like take out some invasive species and now they've peacock bass now live in the canals of Miami. And they're such a beautiful fish. fight so hard. Anyway, needless to say, it was a crazy, crazy idea. I got to check so many things off my bucket list. Like, I learned how to, I learned how to do the trapeze. Like, not just swing on the trapeze. Like, I let go and, like, got caught and I was, like, got caught by someone else. Like, we were swinging on the trapeze. I did a little flip off of that. I learned how to surf during

this segment. I also did, I fell on my face on a mountain bike and I cracked my helmet and that could have been super scary. I put on a mermaid tail and became a merman. Murman. Like it's a thing where you can it's a thing where there's mermaid performers and they're like it's like a life size mermaid tail and I put it on and I learned how to swim like a mermaid. I caught the fish of a lifetime, a 480-pound Goliath grouper. I'm going to stop with the list now. There were a lot of amazing and really fun things. And it was also a cool opportunity to showcase just a different side of my personality and like showcase. I mean, I'm genuinely not really scared of anything. Heights not really a thing. Clearly, alligator's not a thing.

it was cool to kind of be able to look at things in the eye that a lot of people are scared of and kind of go, well, if I can do this, then you can do this too. That was a really fun part about that segment. So thank you, Jerry, for allowing me to go down memory lane with some of those keeping up with Chris segments. There's highlights of them on my YouTube channel. If you type in a Chris Van Fleet Adventure reel on YouTube, you'll see a bunch of those kind of all put in there.

And I know the question that's probably in your mind right now is, is there anything they said, no, you couldn't do? And the answer is, yes, they wouldn't let me swim with sharks. And I get it. Like, there's a real liability there. But the idea was, I was going to go out, like, in the ocean. And they were going to put some chum into the water. And I was going to swim with sharks.

And it was met with a very quick no. And I went, well, come on. Like, it's fine. Like, what if I sign off and say that it's okay? and they were like, no. And then we ended up having a second meeting with the boss and the company attorney. And the company attorney was like, Chris, we can't do this. You're not doing this.

End of discussion. And I was like, okay, I guess I'm not doing it. Well, that, my friends, wraps it up. That was the last question for Ask CVV number 72. Thank you for being with us on the Carlton Fisk, Ed Tuttle Jones, and Patrick Hornquist edition. If you've got a question for next week, leave a comment on Spotify, send it in on social media using that hashtag AskCTVV or shoot me an email, CVV at chris fanfleet.com. Can't wait to see you guys at the two shows we have in Toronto this weekend. It's going to be so good Friday night tonight with Natty and then Sunday with the Hurt Syndicate. Grab those tickets at CVVVTX.com. CvvvTiX.com. We'll leave it up. I'll wrap this up with this quote from Napoleon Hill. Most great people have attained their greatest success, just one step beyond their greatest failure.

I know there's somebody listening to this right now that needed to hear that one. Be great. Be grateful, my friends. Have an amazing elimination chamber weekend. We'll see you back here on Tuesday with the phenomenal. A. J. Stiles. It's such a good one. You don't want to miss it. 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. But get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What should be?

Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.