Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #74 - Bigger Heel Turn - Cena Or Hogan? John Cena's New Theme, 'Queen Of The Ring' Review

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

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Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Flee. Oh my goodness. Welcome back to another one here on Inside. I'm CVV. Chris Van Fleet. I just get so excited when I hear that intro song from Downston, just because we're so fired up. Thank you for being with us on this one.

Happy Friday. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on planet Earth. If you haven't yet hit a running knee. on that follow button on Apple or Spotify or wherever you're listening right now, I just don't want you going to miss out on any of the huge ones that we have coming up. For the real, real ones, at the end of this episode, I'll let you know who we have coming up next week. There's two big ones in various different ways.

Two very big slash important interviews are coming up next week. So make sure you've hit a running knee or a power bomb or a moonsault or a rock bottom or whatever it is, an RKO on that follow button so you don't miss out. I was going to keep listing off finishers. I was. But then I'm like, this is just going to get ridiculous because then we're going to, we're going to name too many. And then we could take up the whole episode doing that.

So we won't. Just make sure that you've hit follows that you don't miss out on any of the episodes that we have coming up. Who's going to WrestleMania? Who is going to WrestleMania? I will see you there. in Las Vegas. I can't wait. We're almost exactly a month away. Tickets are available right now for Insight Live that we're doing Thursday, April 17th, 8 p.m. at Circa Resort and Casino. There's only

like six VIP tickets left right now. So if you were thinking of going, if you were thinking of grabbing up those VIP tickets, now's the time to do it because they will sell out. And I want to make sure that I can see as many of you guys as possible there. So grab your tickets at CVVTix.com, CVVTiX.com. Circa is going to be the place to be that week. They're hosting Circamania. Busted Open is doing a live show that Thursday afternoon. My show is that night.

They're doing watch parties at Stadium Swim. It's a 143-foot screen outside with pools and cabanas. If you're not going to WrestleMania, but you're going to be in Las Vegas, that is the place to watch. Like, it is. I was there last week just checking out Circa. I've been there a few times before, but I was just picturing WrestleMania on this screen

and all of these wrestling fans going wild, watching it on this ginormous screen. Oh, they've also got room deals at Circa. So if you haven't figured out where you're going to stay, well, that'd be a, maybe an awfully good spot to stay and those room deals are looking real nice. But thank you, my friends, for being with us and welcome to Ask CVV number 74, the Bob Lilly, Bruce Matthews, and T.J. Brody

edition. If you have a question for next week, Ask CVV number 75. How have we already done 75 of these? If you've got a question for next week, leave a comment on Spotify. It's always so fun going through those comments on Spotify. And sidebar, thank you for making us like, I think we're the number three or number four sports. podcast, period. Just all sports podcasts. We're number three or four on Spotify. So thank you for that. You're amazing.

So either leave a comment on Spotify, send it on social media using that hashtag, Ask CVV or shoot me an email. CVV at chris vanvlet.com. That J.D. McDonough episode that we put out yesterday, it's one of my favorites for, I think just different reasons. like I loved the AJ Stiles interview and we went deep into his career.

John Cena interview from last year, The Undertaker, like those are the legendary interviews. They're obvious choices. But what was really cool is J.D. McDonough's never done a podcast before. So number one, he trusted us to tell the story and to have an in-depth conversation about his career and everything he's been through. I'm super grateful to him for that. But number two, we saw a completely different side of him. and I just feel like with that very playing a very small role but more importantly like the way that

he handled the way that he handled the injury on raw and he fought through it and he still finished the match there is no way he's coming back as a heel I know he's part of judgment day and I know that judgment day is kind of falling apart without him there whether that has anything to do with him not being there or just judgment day's falling apart in general. Judgment day is not doing so well right now. I just feel like there is this wave of support behind JD. And when he does come back and he says he'd like to hopefully be able to be back in the next few weeks, he's got to come back as a baby face.

I know that might mean him leaving judgment day or maybe being the baby face in judgment day and he's getting baby face reactions and everybody else is still doing heelish things. But just the wave of support behind him right now, there is no way that he can be a heel. That's just my two cents. But if you haven't checked out that interview with J.D., I highly recommend it. And if you guys haven't noticed, we've been on a bit of a tear lately. We've been cooking recently. J.D. McDonough, Scott Steiner, Will Osprey, A.J. Stiles, Lex Lugar, the hilarious Will

Sassau, Road Dog, Ludwig Kaiser, and that's just the last month or so. I can't wait for you guys to see who we have coming up in the next few weeks. Man, some really, really good ones. But let's dive in to today's episode, Ask CVV number 74. And we will kick this one off with James Nugent on Facebook. Hey, CVV, I just started listening to the show at the end of last year, and I'm proud to say that I am a real, real one. My question for you is this, which show do you think is objectively bigger right now? Is it Raw or SmackDown?

Well, I've been saying this for a while that they've really been doing, they've really been keeping us on our toes recently. And I mentioned that when Jay Uso won the Intercontinental Championship on a random Raw in Ontario, California, I happened to be there. That's why I know the location of it.

I was there when he won the title with very little buildup. And I was like, this is just setting the precedent that anything can happen at any point in time. And we've seen that continue, especially with the raw Netflix deal and just everything that's been going on on Raw and SmackDown. I think if I'm going to answer your question directly, which one's bigger? I think it's raw. And I think it's just because of the numbers. The numbers don't lie. To quote Scott Steiner.

I think it's just because of how much is on the line with the raw Netflix deal. A five-year deal worth $5 billion. I just feel like with that kind of money, WWE and Netflix, they both want to make sure that this works. The Smackdown deal is nothing to scoff at. It's a five-year deal as well, but it was worth $1.4 billion.

So not nearly the same amount of money. money. So I just think that numbers alone, I think that the raw deal is a more important deal, and I feel like they're putting more resources into raw to make it the show where the bigger things happen. But with that said, both shows have big surprises. Both shows have great storytelling right now. And I will say last week on Ask CVV, I said, raw and Madison Square Garden is not just going to be a normal rock, right? It's, it's Madison Square Garden. It's the world's most famous arena. And what happened? Roman Rain's returned, right? Like, I think that we were resolved to this idea of, like, only big returns can happen at PLEs. Titles can only change hands at PLEs. And we've been seeing

time and time again, that is not the case. And it's making us conditioned to, to realize that, okay, raw on Monday, something big could happen here. Cody showed up on Monday. Cody's not even a raw guy. And he showed up on Monday. I think that that speaks volumes too. He's a Smackdown guy. He is the world champion, but he's a Smackdown guy and he's showing up on Raw to cut a promo. I think that that right now, this could change over the next handful of months. I doubt it will. But as of right now, Raw is, I think for sure, the bigger show. But with that said, what happened on SmackDown last week. I was talking about how I really just don't feel that they've done a lot with

Shinski Nakamura. And I feel like that's the one title ring right now where there just wasn't a lot of story behind. It just didn't, they just didn't tell a story in a way that made us care. And I said, I've just got a feeling in my gut that Shinski Nakamura will not be the U.S. champion going into WrestleMania. And then what happened on SmackDown? L.A. Knight. I paused because I knew you guys said, yeah, yeah.

L.A. Knight wins the championship and is now a two-time United States champion. And I know that there's a backstory here. Shinske's mentor, a guy he considered his big brother, had terminal or had stage four cancer. And I think that that's a big factor as to why Shinskay dropped the title here to give Shinske a chance to properly mourn the loss of someone who was a role model to him, someone who is as close as family to him. And my thoughts and prayers go out to Shinske at such a difficult time. I know personally how difficult that is, dealing with loss and dealing with grief. So my thoughts are with Shinska during this. But I just, I knew in my heart, just the way that his title reign was being presented, that there was, this wasn't going to be a title,

reign's story heading into WrestleMania. So now we've got L.A. Knight. Again, pause, so you could say, yeah. I'm curious. I'm very curious what his story is going into WrestleMania 41. And it's starting to shape up here. We'll talk more about the full WrestleMania 41 card over the next week or two

as it continues to shape up here. But that's just another example. Shinske losing the title to L.A. Knight. I paused again. Yeah. on Smackdown. It's just another example of the weekly television product matters. The weekly television show matters. And that was not the case for a long time. It was just so often where it was like, yeah, maybe the tag team titles would change

hands, but like even the midcard titles weren't changing hands. I'd have to look it up. Maybe I will look it up. The last time a world title changed hands on a television show is a long time ago. And I just feel like in this. current era of wrestling, anything can happen. And I love it. It's so exciting. Anything can happen here. So my answer, objectively, is raw. But I don't think you can skip any show. Even the things that are happening on NXT, huge things are happening on NXT, especially with the partnership

with TNA. Like, it's firing on all cylinders right now, especially because we're in WrestleMania season, but just in general. It's must see TV, it's appointment viewing. Bonner underscore 81 on Instagram. Dog, does WWE tell you when someone's going to get inducted and you just like hint at it the whole interview? Because damn, now you're two for two this year and it's great. First Michelle McCool.

Now Lex Lugar, I'm on to you with a whole bunch of eyeball emojis. I'll just tell you this. I have got really lucky with the timing of both of those. The interview I did with Michelle was recorded in November. And it just, we didn't need to put it out immediately because like she didn't talk about something like super topical. So there were other interviews that we recorded where someone was referencing something that happened last week or something that was going to happen next week.

So those were the ones that needed to be put out right away because they were, they were so topical and relevant at that time. So I put out the Michelle McCool interview. Complete coincidence the next day she was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame. The Lex Lugar one is a bit of a different story. As you guys know, I'm good friends with DDP. He is an absolute legend of a human being. I am so grateful to be able to call him a friend.

I knew that he had been working with Lex Lugar. And if you go back and check out the interview that I did with DDP, when was that? it was October. I did the interview with him. Yeah, it was in October. It was bad blood weekend. He was just hinting at the fact that he had just started working with Lex Lugar and like, Lex was starting to get some mobility back. So I had been talking with DDP about like, well, I'd love to do an interview with Lex at some point in time. And he was like, I'll let you know, like, when's a good time? And what he meant by that wasn't anything to do with the Hall of Fame. what he meant by that is I'll let you know as Lex's progress either continues or doesn't.

Like he was hopeful that his progress would continue, but he's like, let's do it when there's actually like something to talk about here. Like that his mobility is increased that maybe there's a chance of him standing or possibly taking a few steps. Like let's talk to him when that's happening. So then the video got put out on YouTube of DDP and Lex working together. And there was this video of like standing up and it's like okay wow like they've made substantial progress like way more than especially from way back in october when ddp and i first started talking about this so it just kind of timed out it's like now would be a good time to do an interview with him and then i'm like well this is perfect because i've been talking to a j styles about doing an interview he lives in and around atlanta lex lives

in and around atlanta scott stiner lives in and around atlanta so we did that those interviews, boom, boom, boom, back to back to back in the same day. You've seen them all. They're in the beautiful DDPY performance center. Can't thank DDP and his business partner, Steve, you enough for allowing me to go in there and the entire crew for like making those shots look as beautiful as they did. I had a feeling that with Triple H now in charge that Lex Lugar would be inducted to the Hall of Fame at some point in time, whether it was. this year or next year or the year after that. And we had talked about this on Ask CVV for the last while. I knew that it was possible. But more importantly, it was about Hawking Alex Lugar about the progress

he had made working with DDP. And then what was it? A few days later or a week later, the announcement came out that he was inducted. I knew nothing about either of these. I am not given any sort of inside track. No one's saying, hey, you know what? You should interview so and so. I actually recorded the interview with Lex on Tuesday, February 18th. And then the whole thing with Cody and Cody coming by DDP's house where they were working out, that was recorded the very next day. That was recorded on Wednesday, February 19th. So I didn't know.

I couldn't be happier for Lex Lugar and the amazing progress he's made. and I can't wait to hear that speech and just, it's going to be an emotional moment. But I do not have the inside track. I don't know anything more than you guys. But I will say a huge congratulations to both Michelle McCool and Lex Lugar. And I can't wait to see who the next few names are. I don't know who they are. There are none of the people that I'm interviewing over the next little while.

I don't think anybody I'm interviewing over the next bunch of weeks would even be considered for the Hall of Fame at this point. in time, but I can't wait to see who else it would be. It's got to be demolition. That demolition is very deserving of it. It's got to be demolition. If it's not this year, it's next year, right? Come on.

Eric Beset on Spotify says, what do you think of WWE calling Cinas Heeltern the greatest heel turn of all time? I feel it's premature as we haven't seen the full story yet. Keep up the great work from Quebec, Canada. And in case you missed it, WWE put out a list earlier this week of the top 30

heel turns of all time. They had John Sina turning on Cody Rhodes as number one, Hogan joining the NWO as number two. And I think when you're looking at any of these things in the grand scheme of like their importance in wrestling history,

you just need some time. You need some time to see what this turns into because hypothetically, if this John's seen a thing with the Rock ends up just not telling a great story and just completely nosediving and turning into, again, hypothetical. If it turns into a WrestleMania match that isn't good, we're not going to care so much about the heel turn. We're going to go, man, that heel turn was great, but they wasted it.

And I think that with the Hogan thing, with him being the surprise third man, and then the NWO becoming as big as it was. And then really the NWO, kind of lighting a fire under WWE and making them create the attitude era. There's just so much history there. There's so many different layers to it. So I think in order for us to truly see what's the biggest heel turn of all time, we need to distance ourselves from this. We need to see this through and then distance ourselves from this. So like we won't really know the answer for like, 10 years or something. But I think without argument, it's the biggest heel turn in WWE history. That's for sure. And Hogan's the biggest heel turn in WCW history. Like,

that you can't argue. But I just think that we need to know more of the story in order to be able to figure out where does this fall in history. We can't really fully gauge it because it's like reading the first chapter of a book. Like, wow, that's a really good chapter. So seeing the first episode of a miniseries, man, I'm hooked. But the next four or five episodes better be great. And that's how I feel about this. I have no doubt that there is an incredible story.

And what a ride we're about to be on, especially between now and WrestleMania. But I think that we need to see this through until we can really gauge what it is. there were also some there were some questionable ones on that list and i think that when wwe puts these lists out what they're really trying to do is they're trying to promote how great the stuff is right now they're they're trying to say hey that stuff that happened in the past that was really good but make sure you're focused on right now because it's really great like on this list of the top 30 heel turns of all time and i posted it on facebook

and also on Instagram, if you want to go check it out. They didn't even have Stone Cold joining Vince McMahon at the end of WrestleMania 17. Like, what? Not even in the top 30? That's wild. And for those of you that are wondering, here's the top five. John Sina, the most recent one, Hogan joining the NWO,

Seth Rollins turning on the shield. I like that. Sean Michaels in the barbershop window with Marty Genetti. and then number five, Dominic turns on Ray. Like, yeah, Dominic turning on Ray is good. Top five of all time? Yeah. Yeah.

I feel like the, I don't think so. I don't think so. What a username for this next one. Ho, ho, ha, ha, he, he on Instagram. That's amazing because when you look at it together, it's just a whole bunch of H's. Hi, Chris, from New Zealand. Do you think that Sina will have a new song?

I love your work, brother. He has to. He absolutely has to because if he comes out to time is now, everyone's going to be singing along. Maybe they'll be singing, John Sina sucks again. But I think that the song's too upbeat. It's the exact same reason that AJ Stiles was telling me

in the episode last week, why when he turned heel, he had a different song. and people did not like that new song. A lot of hate on that song when he came out of that new theme about a year ago right around WrestleMania. It was the last year? No, it was right around WrestleMania.

Yeah, right around WrestleMania time. And it's like, well, I don't want, like theme song's really cool. I don't want people that like me when I'm coming out there. So I want a song that like people aren't going to like. Same thing with Shinske Nakamura. When Shinske turned heel,

you don't want the crowd singing when he's coming out if he's a bad guy. So that's going to be the case here with John Cena. Will we finally hear that Heal theme song that he teased in the interview I did with him last year? He said that right before he was, the plans were for him to turn heel right before Rock Cena 1, which would have been 2012.

He had a whole new theme song recorded called Fear My Name. and he said that it was saxophone driven instead of trumpet driven. Told a great story about it. If you haven't listened to that interview or if you haven't listened to it recently, go back and give it a listen. It is my favorite interview that I've ever done. I think it's either that or it's some version of that song that we're going to hear. I would be shocked if he comes out to the

da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. I don't think so. I just don't think that that'll be the case. We're going to find out really soon. John Cena's next announced appearance is this Monday live in Brussels, and I believe it's with the time change, I believe it airs at 3 o'clock Eastern and noon Pacific. And I love that it's live. Like that speaks to another element of the era that we're in right now.

Because with traditional broadcast television, the time slot would have been, Raw's on at 8 o'clock on Monday night. That's the time slot that it airs in. But if it's streaming live on Netflix, they could air it whatever time it wants. It could air it two in the morning. It can air at noon like it's going to here on the West Coast.

And we're not going to have things spoiled. We're going to be watching it live, just like the people in the arena will. But John Cena returns live this Monday, March 17th. So a lot of questions will be answered, not just about the theme song, but just about his whole persona. I think he's going to look very different. We already can see that the way he's approaching this character is different,

but I'm excited. I can't wait to see what Heel Sina looks like. And I feel like Sina's been thinking about this and ruminating on this for a long time. And this is going to finally just be all of that just coming to fruition. Dillon.Wallis 93 on Instagram says, Hey, CVV, well, John Cena, with John Cena turning heel, does this cement Cody as the guy, if it hasn't already? Absolutely. But let's be clear here. Cody's been the guy since, I guess the exact moment, the moment of him being cemented as a guy,

was WrestleMania 40 last year. But when you look at just the workload that Cody has taken on both on camera and with everything he's done behind the scenes, whether that's doing media interviews or whether that's doing appearances or the amount of autographs he signs. Like he's the guy who shows up first and stays like first to show up and last to leave. He calls himself the captain. And so yeah, Cody is the guy. And I think there's no question about that.

And with the trust that WWE has put in him, I think they're trying to make him like this generation's like white meat baby face. So I know there were a lot of hints and there was a lot of chatter about Cody potentially turning heel. Now that John's seen as a heel, I can't see Cody turning heel anytime soon. Anything, of course, could happen as we have been recently seeing in WWE. But I feel like he's going to be the guy for a while. David Jones emailed this one in, Dave Jones. Well, it says David in your, like, email signature here, but you signed it Dave. So let's go with Dave.

Hey, man, I absolutely love your podcast, your positivity, your interviews, and the AskCTV days are what starts my early mornings at work. All right, well, kicking it off here. My question for you is, what did you think of Queen of the Ring? I was a huge fan. Emily BetRickertz totally transformed her from a roll and arrow as Felicity Smoke. I also enjoyed the Iron Claw, but we can't forget about the wrestler, and ready to rumble. excited to see who you have in store for your interviews.

I love the JD one from what would now be yesterday as you're recording this. Thank you for your continued hard work. You're awesome. I'm going to head over and hit a slice bread number two on that follow button right now. Heck yeah. I got to see Queen of the Ring last week at the Los Angeles premiere. That was a star studded, L.A. premiere. You might have seen some of the photos that I shared online, but a ton of stars were there because

AEW was in town. AEW had Revolution this past weekend in Los Angeles. So a lot of people, I think it was Sacramento is where they did. Yes, Sacramento is where they did Dynamite on Wednesday. And then a ton of talent drove down to the premiere on Thursday night and then stayed in L.A. for Revolution that weekend. So like I got to see John Morrison, Johnny TV.

I got to see the Hurt Syndicate. Had a nice chat with Tony Storm, saw Renee Paquette. Saw my good friend. I haven't seen him in so long. Saw RJ City. He's hilarious. It was so good to be able to see him. I saw Caleb. You know her as Caleb Braxton. Saw Caleb Beckett. I had a lovely little chat with the Garcia twins, who you would know better as WWE Hall of Famers, the Bella Twins. And I was like, hey, could you guys come on my podcast? I wanted to have you on for so long. So that is planting a seed. perhaps that one could happen. But I loved Queen of the Ring.

And it was so cool seeing so many familiar faces from the wrestling industry in that movie. You see Naomi, Camille, Tony Storm, Mickey James, Brit Breaker, and you also see Jim Cornett. And I think a lot of people were questioning, like, is he actually in the movie? Like, yeah, I know he's in the movie, but does he actually have like a role,

like a main role in the movie? Yeah, he definitely. does. He plays the commissioner of the NWA and he's in like five scenes, something like that. And he's just perfect in that role. But the movie, for those of you who don't know, it's about Mildred Burke. And she's like a total pioneer for women's wrestling. This is the 1930s. And she's like fighting and clawing to like have women's wrestling be a thing. And the story is really, really well done. and I just as a wrestling fan love seeing wrestling stories told on the big screen.

You named quite a few great wrestling movies in your email there and I agree with you Dave. Those are some great wrestling movies. Iron Claw, The Wrestler, I'm ready to rumble, of course. I'd love seeing those stories told and I just love seeing the thing that we love pro wrestling being shown to like a bigger audience.

So I know that it was a very limited release for Queen of the Ring. And they were basically saying that if it did well in that first weekend, hopefully it would stay in theaters and then open up to a wider release. So fingers crossed on that one. But I loved it. And I think what you might be hinting at here is what's my favorite wrestling movie of all time. And my answer has not changed.

It's the wrestler. just the way that that story is told, that was a movie that was up for Oscars. Marissa Tomey nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Rule. Mickey Rourke, nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Roll. Totally should have won that year. I feel like he was robbed. I even interviewed him and I said, man, you were robbed.

Totally should have won. It absolutely should have been you. But it was Sean Penn for Millie. that ended up winning the Oscar that year. And like, yeah, great performance. But I guess just have a lot of bias there. But there's some scenes in that movie that just get me every single time. So the wrestler's number one for me, for sure.

But the thing that's so great about Queen of the Ring, the wrestler and Ion Claude, the thing they have in common is just these movies tug at your heartstrings. Because wrestling is such a beautiful story. Like, how can you not be romantic about, pro wrestling. I'm going to continue to say that because it is so true. But those are movies that tell these beautiful stories about this beautiful form of entertainment that we love watching. And if you haven't seen Queen of the Ring yet, if it's playing in or around your city, do whatever you can. Make sure to go see it while it's still in theaters. Ben can reach on Instagram

says, hey, Chris, this is my question for Ask CVV. I'm curious. What makes a good champion? I always see people in the comments complaining about so-and-so's championship being boring. Other than holding the belt for a long time, what makes a good champion a good champion? Thanks, man. I'm a real, real run from Canada. Well, hello to my fellow Canadian. Thank you for the question, Ben. I think when it comes down to what makes someone a good champion, it's so subjective. So subjective. Like you mentioned that someone holding it for a long time makes them a good champion. I think there are a lot of people who would complain that Roman Reins was not a good champion, even though he held it for 1,316 days. It's so dependent on you as an individual fan and what you are

looking for in a wrestler and a champion. So I think that if we're going to talk about some things that maybe aren't as subjective, I think it comes down to like, what's the story being told? It always comes back to story. I think that's the most important thing here. And then what memorable matches or feuds have you had? I think that those are the biggest things. So you could have a short reign, but you could have some really memorable moments in there, some really memorable matches. And then people will go, oh, man, that was a great championship reign. And then I think on the flip side, you could have a rain that goes for a while, but just nothing really just takes. The audience just doesn't seem to care about any of the storylines or any of the matches.

And they go, oh, man, I kind of almost forgot that that person was the champion. But again, this is, I think, similar to the conversation we were having about the greatest heel turns of all time. It's so difficult to judge it while it's happening. It's not until you zoom out a little bit. And then you're able to compare it to the other things that are happening around that, where you can go, oh, you know what? That person's title reign was, for example,

if we're talking about the current champion right now, like whoever Cody ends up dropping the title two, and then whoever that person ends up dropping the title two, and then whoever that person drops the title two, then we can zoom out and go, okay, so it was Roman Raines to Cody, to then this person, to then that person, to then that person.

And then within those five reins, you can go, oh, this is how I would rate Cody or here's how my perspective of Roman's reign is or whatever it happens to be. But I just think that for every person who thinks Cody's having an amazing title reign, there's a whole bunch of people who also think that Cody's reign is boring. So I just think that you can't please everybody. And that's just kind of a lesson in life. The idea that you can't please everybody.

So I think it's, it just comes down to storytelling. And I think that Cody's reign, whatever you feel about it, Gunther's reign for that same matter, Tiffany Stratton's reign, I think it will come down to where does it go from here? Like, Cody's reign could be cemented by a great match at WrestleMania or maybe a not so great match at WrestleMania, Rattaining it at WrestleMania 41 or losing it to John Cena at WrestleMania 41. with Gunther. Like, you may not think Gunther's reign has been great, or maybe you think Gunther's reign has been great. Whatever you feel about Gunther's reign, though, it could change if he loses the title to Jay Uso at WrestleMania. So there's just so many factors. And I also

feel like, Daniel Bryan said a best, Brian Danielson, wrestling fans are so fickle. You'll never be able to please everybody. So even if it was a widely accepted great storyline in the of most, there's always going to be that small minority of very loud people who online will be like, I didn't like this. This sucked or whatever the case is. Chase vlogs on Spotify says, after this AJ interview, I love it when wrestlers appreciate you and your style of interview, going as far as to ask personal questions about your own life. My question is, which superstar was most interested in you throughout your career. AJ was like just so kind about it.

Even from the first conversation we had on the phone about setting up a time to do this interview, he was like, oh man, I'm just so honored that you'd want to have me on the show. And I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, well, you've interviewed like actual famous people. Like, you've interviewed like movie stars. You've interviewed like actual famous people.

I said, yeah, like you? Like I've interviewed like famous people like AJ Stiles. He's like, oh, come on. man like and then like just off camera he was talking about like who are some of the most famous people you've interviewed him like oh no like the rock and sandor bullock and stephen spielberg and tom cruise and organ freeman julia roberts like been so fortunate to interview so many of these people robert deniro like the list goes on and on and on they're great but those interviews are short they're like four or five minutes i sat with a j for an hour or four or four or four or

and then we hung out afterwards as well. So like those are the things that, yeah, nothing compares to that. Like nothing. I've done 10 interviews with The Rock, not that I'm counting or anything. But if you combine all of the time I've spent with the Rock over those 10 interviews, it's, I don't know, it's got to be 45 minutes, maybe. And in some of those interviews, he's paired with other people. Like I interviewed The Rock with Kevin Hart for Central Intelligence.

I interviewed The Rock with Jeffrey Dean Morgan for Rampage. So there's a lot of those where like, yeah, I'm sitting with the Rock, sitting across from the Rock for four minutes. But maybe I only get two of those minutes that are actually like conversing with the Rock. So I don't know. It's been cool that like there just seems to be this like, yeah, you've interviewed people in our industry. that's cool. I'm happy for you. But you talk to somebody like you talk to my favorite actor.

You talk to, I'm just making up things like you talked to Tom Hardy. I did a interview with him not so long. You talked to Christian Bale. It's cool when there's that like respect of like, oh, you, you don't just interview wrestlers. Oh, man. What was it like when you interviewed so and so? AJ was asking me about like how tall Tom Cruise was. And I'm like, well, actually. just look at his shoes in the photo and, uh, you can figure it out from there. But it's been cool. And it's also cool that like,

I've become friends with quite a lot of people that I've either interviewed or I've just in the wrestling world who have, our paths have crossed many times. And I'll do an interview with someone like, I did an interview with J-Lo, the amount of like people that hit me up after the J-Lo interview. Like people I hadn't heard from in months. They were like,

man, what was it like? It's just, it's always just so fun when that happens. Danielle Cross on Spotify. I hope I said it's Cross KRAUS, Krause, probably Krause. Danielle Krauss on Spotify. What are the major differences that talent in WWEC from when Vince is in charge to now with Triple H being in charge? Love your show.

Well, thank you so much for the question, Danielle. I think the biggest thing has just been the willingness for WWE talent to be able to do things outside of WWE. For example, future stars of wrestling, FSW in Los Angeles is doing a benefit show for Chris Bay this Sunday, or next Sunday, March 23rd, and Carrying Cross is on the show. So the fact that Cary and Cross can go back to his home promotion, FSW, to do this promotion, to do this show, this benefit show for Chris Bay, that is something that would, I don't want to say never, but I will say that is something that would very, very rarely happen under Vince McMahon. J.D. McDonough was just talking about it in yesterday's episode. He was talking about how W.W.E. allowed him and Finn Baller to go home to their home

promotion in Ireland as the WWE tag team champions. And that's something that wouldn't happen before. So I think that that's the biggest kind of outwardly facing thing. I don't want to speak to how things are behind the scenes because I haven't been behind the scenes. I don't know what it's like behind the scenes. It seems like people might be happier now. But again, I don't want to speak to it because I don't have any firsthand knowledge of

that. But I just think from the outside looking in, that's been one of the biggest changes. And also the fact, like, remember how much of a thing it was a few years ago with WWE superstars having Twitch and then WWE not allowing them to do that? Our cameo as well, it's another example. That whole thing has changed. And I just think it comes with like the landscape of media has changed drastically. And I think that if you have any of these third party things,

W.WE is just kind of going, yeah, that's cool. No problem. Just make sure to let us know about it. But for the most part, yeah, we're good about that. And I just think that as a whole, the industry wins when that happens. The obvious one, too, is the partnership with TNA, I just don't feel like that would have happened before. But it's been really cool seeing TNA stars in NXT and vice versa. And it's just, it helps the industry as a whole. and it helps all of the wrestlers as well. And I'm curious to see what the other changes might be as well. Ryan Lounder on Spotify says,

it's been a long time since I laughed at something out loud while being by myself. Chris Sharp heel comments are the best part of my day today. Well, thank you, Ryan. If you didn't listen to Ask CVV number 73, someone said, hey, is Chris Sharp going to turn heel? And I said, well, Chris Sharp is a heel? Chris Van Fleet's the baby face.

Chris Sharp is an awful human being. We don't want to, we don't want to entertain Chris Sharp. So Chris Sharp popped in to remind everybody that the YouTube channels have almost 2 billion views. More than a quarter of the population of this planet has seen this face. Of course, I'm the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. It'd be stupid to think that there's, anybody else even in this league.

I can't do it anymore. Chris Sharp's so mean. Chris Sharp's, uh, it's not a nice guy. Chris Sharp's a little arrogant. But thank you, Ryan. Maybe I'll work on some more Chris Sharp bits and we can pull them. Pull them out every once in a while. I'm glad that that popped you.

Glad that made you smile. Paul Chappell on Facebook says, Hey, CVV, big fan. Thank you for letting Lex Lugar. Nick Aldous and AJ Stiles speak so openly about their faith. It's refreshing that you didn't cut them off or move on to another subject. Well, of course. And I think the biggest thing about this show is, yeah, it's called Insight with Chris Van Vleet,

but it's not my insight. I'm along for the journey with you guys. I am getting the insight with you guys. I'm getting the insight from these people who are the very best of what they do. So this is their story. It is not my job to come in and say, all right, well, let's change the subject. This is their story and their life. So if they want to speak openly about their faith, then that's great.

Then I want to hear more about how that's been the focal point of their life or how they feel like in Lex Lugar's case, how he feels like that really changed him as a man. And I'm genuinely very interested in that. So thank you for picking up on that, Paul. And whatever someone's beliefs are, I'm curious about what makes someone tick. And maybe you're not a religious person. Maybe you don't have any sort of faith-based relationship. That's okay.

But I still feel like there's something that can be learned from that. So I'm just sitting there genuinely curious going, okay, that seems to be a really important thing in your life. I'd like to hear some more about that. Jan Christoff on Spotify says, after listening to the Osprey interview, I wonder, who has dropped the most F-bombs in your interviews? Will Osprey has both the number one and the number two spot as of right now. It's an unofficial list. Like, I'm not going through and saying, oh, man, he dropped 76 F-bombs.

I don't know that for a fact. I didn't go through and count them. but I do know that one second after I made that Will Osprey video live on YouTube last week, it immediately got age restricted by YouTube, which means that they thought that the content, aka the language of this video, was not appropriate for anybody under the age of 18. So the only way you can watch that Will Osprey interview on YouTube is if you are

logged into your YouTube account and you have, said that your age is 18 or older. The previous interview I did with Will Osprey in May of 2003, it didn't get age restricted, but it got ad restricted, which means that it was not appropriate for most or all advertisers. And it was again, because he just, you know, he speaks freely. He's from Essex. That's just, that's who he is. Kind of actually ties into the last thing we were just talking about. Like, this isn't my story. I'm not going to go, hey, hey, hey, hold up on the F bombs there, pal. Hold up on the faith talk there, buddy.

This is not my story. And I think that that's what makes this such an interesting conversation that I'm sitting there just, we're just chatting. And you guys get to be a fly on the wall in these conversations. I think number three would have been the interview with Lacey Evans, former W.W.E. star, Lacey Evans. There were a lot of F bombs on that one as well. after that there's no one that like immediately comes to mind there's no one that I can think of

that was like yeah every once in a while there's like one here or there it's always funny when someone's like hey can I swear like our truth was so funny can I curse on here yeah he's like man hell it's like well people have said much worse things but there's no one after those top three there's no one else that like really comes to my mind that was like dropping more than call it five. Like maybe one or two or three peppered in here. But yeah, go back. I mean, if you haven't listened to it,

Will Osprey is, in my opinion, one of the best wrestlers in the world right now. I just was fascinated with his just approach to life and his approach to putting together a match. And if you haven't listened to it, I highly recommend it. Shane McGee on Spotify says, any advice for an aspiring college student with a love for sports, media, and wrestling?

By the way, the Ask CVV episodes have become my favorite episodes to listen to. They are great. I gotta say, I'm always so blown away when somebody says that. And thank you for saying it, Shane, but when someone's like, they're my favorite ones, and maybe it's because you and I just get to hang out for an hour. Whatever you're doing right now, driving to work, working out, walking the dog, whatever it is, we're just like, we're here. you and I were just chatting. But then I'm also like, does that mean that you don't like the

interviews as much? No, that's not what I'm saying at all. That's not what I'm thinking at all. Thank you for the kind words. I love that you have a love and a passion for sports media and wrestling. Everybody has completely different paths. No two paths in media are the same. I'll tell you what I did when I was in your position, when I was a college student. student who was just passionate about journalism and broadcasting and storytelling in general is I did everything I could while I was still in college to pad my resume. So that when I came out of college and when I graduated, I would have a resume that I was hoping an employer or a possible internship would look at and would go, that's someone who we at the very least need

to bring in for a job interview. So I wrote for my school newspaper. I volunteered at a local radio station. I volunteered at a local TV station. I was doing everything I could to get the real world experience. I auditioned, this is funny, I auditioned for my college radio station, Radio Laurier, and I didn't even make it past the first round of auditions. Ironic, isn't it? This is actually not a part of my story I tell very often. But I went out for the auditions. I guess I didn't have a very important. I guess I didn't have a very good interviewer audition and didn't get a callback, didn't get a second audition, didn't ever get to work at my campus radio station. Fast forward a year and a half later,

and I was hired by the AM News radio station in town. As a board operator, not an on-air personality, but just funny that I couldn't volunteer because it was not paid when you worked for the campus radio station. I couldn't even volunteer my time, couldn't even work for free at the college radio station, yet the actual radio station in town gave me a job. It's just so funny. But all of this is to say, like, I was doing everything I could, it just had my resume. Anybody who would give me any sort of opportunity, whether it was writing, whether it was radio, whether it was TV, I was just taking it all. Like, I was just like a sponge, just trying to soak it all in. So if you are passionate about sports media, if you're passionate about wrestling,

try to get a yes from anyone you can, whether that's writing for a wrestling website, whether it's volunteering for a wrestling YouTube channel, whether it's editing your own clips, like do whatever you can to build that up to make yourself as hireable as possible when you come out of college. And also, I will say this, to any college student with whatever you're looking to do. Don't feel like you need to figure this out right away. Like, just because you graduate at 21 or 22 or 23, don't feel like you need to have that job lined up right now because one of your friends does.

Like, it's okay to take your time in your 20s to figure out what you want to do, but more importantly, to figure out what you don't want to do. Like, I was writing and doing radio and doing TV, and I wrote for a magazine. I was doing as many things as I could. And I kind of realized, yeah, writing was okay, but it wasn't really my strength. It wasn't really my passion. It wasn't the thing that I loved to do. And I was like, if TV is really my goal, which it was, I'm going to try to do more

things that hopefully allow me to do that. So seek out opportunities, send messages, knock on doors, do all of those things, and don't be afraid of the word no. Because every know that you get gets you that much closer to the next yes. And I'm a big believer that there is room at the table for everybody. So you just got to figure out what that position is. You've got to figure out where you fit into that world. Sometimes it's a host, sometimes it's a producer. It could be an audio engineer. It could be someone who transcribes interviews. It could be someone who shoots them, someone who's like the camera operator. There's so many different roles. Figure out which one speaks to you, and you'll figure that out by doing them all.

When I was a volunteer at Rogers Community 20 television station in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, I did everything. I ran cameras. I was a floor director. I was a VTR operator. I was an audio guy. I did so many different things. And I kind of figured out, oh, today is my day to be a floor director.

I actually really like floor directing. That's a fun thing. I hope that when I come back for my next shift on Thursday, I get to be the floor director again. But if I'm not, I'll learn a new role by, I don't know, being a tape runner or whatever it happens to be. Wear as many hats as you can, get as much experience as you can. And that will really help you to really lean into the things that you like the most. And that, my friends, is the final question on this. Ask CVVV number 70 for the Bob Lilly, Bruce Matthews, and T.J. Brody Edition.

Thank you so much for being on this ride with us. Thank you so much for spending a little bit of your Friday with me hanging out. If you got a question for next week's Ask CVV number 75, or if you have an idea for who number 75 should be, leave a comment on Spotify, send it on social media using the hashtag AskCTVV or shoot me an email, CBV at chris vanfleet.com. And if you're still listening right now, you are a real, real one. I appreciate you for being with us on an Ask CVV question number one. Ask CVV episode number one, I should say. And for listening all the way until the end. So I appreciate you.

If you're listening on Spotify and you're a real, real one, which you are because you're listening to these words right now, drop in the comments what your favorite Easter candy is. Because right before I recorded here, I had some Cadbury mini eggs. They are number one for me. just love that outer shell like you let it melt in your mouth till you get to the chocolate. Amazing.

Peeps at the very bottom of my Easter candy list. Not a fan of peeps, but drop in the comments if you're listening on Spotify what your favorite Easter candy is. And I saw a quote earlier this week. I was a caption on an Instagram post and I loved it so much. And I feel like this really spoke to me and I'm sure it'll speak to you. as well. If you want to feel better, blame others. If you want to get better, blame yourself. Man, that's good. Be great. Be grateful, my friends. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. We've got Rob Van Dam on Tuesday and an incredible, inspiring conversation with Chris Bay

on Thursday. The first interview that he's done since his accident in the the ring in October. That's one that you won't want to miss. Have an amazing weekend. We will see you back on Tuesday with RVD. 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 should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.