Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #75 - John Cena's Heel Promo, CM Punk's Favor, Stone Cold At WrestleMania, Most Underrated Wrestler

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

https://cvvtix.com - Get your tickets for INSIGHT LIVE in Las Vegas with VIP Meet & Greet! Welcome to AskCVV #75! On this episode, Chris gives his thoughts on John Cena's heel promo on Raw and answers questions about what's next for John Cena, whether Cody Rhodes will retain the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 41, what CM Punk's favor from Paul Heyman will be, whether we will see "Stone Cold" Steve Austin at WrestleMania 41, the most underrated wrestler currently in WWE and much more!   Quote I'm thinking about: "The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand, we listen to reply"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=tibclouxSEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount   TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insightto 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  FABRIC: Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes at https://meetfabric.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.comMIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF   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   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  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Fleet. Greetings and salutations, my friends, welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Happy Friday. 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.

Hit an elbow drop on that follow button on Apple or Spotify or wherever it is that you're listening right now, whatever the podcasting app of your pleasure may be. And if it is Spotify, could I ask you for a favor? It'll take a second. I mean, realistically, it will take three seconds, but it would be so helpful for the show. Could you go in there and rate the show? That's it. Just rate the show. It'd be so helpful if you could do that. You just go to the main page of the show, hit the three little dots there, dot, dot, dot, dot, then click rate show, and then some stars will pop up. That's it. And I will thank you in advance for that. And just thank you for all of the support.

I mean, you are here with me on an Ask CVV episode. Clearly, you are a real one. And I appreciate that. Since you are a real one, and we'll chat with the real, real ones in about an hour at the end of the episode, I'm assuming that's going to be you. But you know that I'm doing a live show in Las Vegas Thursday, April 17th. There's like three VIP tickets left, which includes a Q. and A before the show, so like a special live Ask CVV before the show and then a meet and greet after the show. We'll be announcing the guests for that real soon. Tickets are still available. CVVTX.com, CVVTX.com, but it's a little sneak peek here, a little preview.

We're also going to be announcing a live show in New York City for SummerSlam weekend. You know that SummerSlam is in New Jersey. We're going to be doing a live show that Friday night. All the details will be coming out. next week, but I just wanted to float that out for you. If you have any plans to be at SummerSlam, or if you live in and around the New York, New Jersey area, I would love to see you there for that inside live as well. So that's a little, I wasn't supposed to announce this, but I just got so excited because we confirmed it today. So I wanted to put that out there for you. But thank you for

being with us in this one. Welcome, my friends, to Ask CVV number 75, the mean Joe Green Howie Long, Ryan Reeves, little NHL shout out there, and Barry Zito edition. If you have a question for next week, send it in on social media using the hashtag Ask CVV. Shoot me an email, CVV at chris fanfleak.com. Or if you're listening on Spotify and you're done following the show and rating the show, you can leave a comment on there for next week. Ask CVV number 76. I don't have any famous people who wore jersey number 77. pop into mind right now, but I'm sure you guys will help me out on this one. We got a ton of questions. A big week in wrestling. We saw John Sina's, his first heel promo in like 20 years.

Like, when he was the doctor of Thuggonomics, there was a lot of heel stuff there. This is a whole different version of John Sina. So we will kick this off with this question from Tyler Schreiber on X at T. Shrives underscore 05. Hey, CVV, what are your initial thoughts on Heel Sina? didn't get a new look or new music. The vibe, in my opinion, is that he didn't want to sell out. How much do you think Roman Raines plays into this? Much love from London, Ontario. My fellow Ontario, this John Cena promo is, in my opinion, going to go down as one of the most important promos in raw history. This is going to be one that they replay for years and years and decades to come. That line, I'm not a baby face.

I'm not a heel. I'm a human being. That's going to be a quote that I think continues to get replayed, certainly on the road to WrestleMania here between now and WrestleMania 41. But you couldn't have picked a better crowd for that segment. Like that segment went 30-ish minutes, I think a little over 30 minutes. I don't know this for a fact,

but if I had to guess, I bet that segment was booked for 20 minutes, but that crowd taking over with all of their chance and just getting right into it, booing for Sina, the terrible chance for him, cheering for Cody when he came out. And I've never seen this before.

I've never seen it where the promo gets punctuated and instead of hitting someone's music as they walk out of the ring, the crowd cheers or booes them out of the ring. That was the wildest thing. So Cody leaves, punctuates the promo, The crowd cheers for him as he goes out. Sina punctuates it, leaves.

Na, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, hey, goodbye. I've never seen that where the music doesn't end the segment. And I think that that just really spoke to like how crazy that crowd was. And wasn't it so interesting that just on Tuesday when I was talking to Rob Van Dam, he was just randomly saying how great the crowd in Brussels was. And then here we go. It was just like showing how like that all came to fruition with this John Sina promo. The fact that he didn't change anything about his presentation was brilliant.

Same theme song. Same clothes. And I was wrong. I'm never afraid to admit when I'm wrong, but I was wrong. Sina hammered home the point in his promo. Ever since he turned on Cody Rhodes at Elimination Chamber, it's always been about like, what do we get? What do we get?

What does he'll see him? to look like? What is Heel Sina where? Do we get a new theme song? Maybe it's the theme song that he mentioned in that interview with CVV when he was going to turn heel in 2012. This has been the talk on social media for weeks. Is he going to come out in a suit? I saw a lot of people talking about him being corporate Sina coming out in a suit. I also saw, I saw one silly rumor that he was going to shave his head. The fact that nothing changed is the ultimate heel move. Because how Had he changed his theme song, the whole focus would have been like, I don't like his theme song or, well, I really like his theme song. If he had changed what he was wearing, people would have been like, why is he wearing that?

And I think that that's the really interesting thing here. By Sina coming out to his own song, like he said, that's my voice. That is my voice, my song. By him coming out in the clothes that were used to seeing him in, it made you focus on his words. and I thought that that was so brilliant. If he had come out wearing a suit, we would have been focused the whole time on while he's wearing a suit

and it would distract away from the words he was saying. And I just thought that everything with his presentation was the same, except for the fact that he wasn't smiling, didn't run to the ring. This is not the version of Heel-Sina that he told me about in our interview that we recorded last year. This is a different version of that.

Maybe there's some seeds. planted from that. Maybe there's some similarities between what he had planned in 2012 before Roxena 1 and what he's doing now. But I think that there's, this is a little different. And the fact that everything he was saying from a character standpoint is true. Like he wasn't lying. Everything he was saying were things that the John Cena character would be feeling. And I'm really curious where it goes from here. Like, where do you go from here with this character? How do you continue to build on this? And what else this promo did? What else this segment did? Was it continued to solidify Cody Rhodes as the biggest baby face in the company? And that Brussels crowd really helped with that. Cody, Cody, Cody,

that was such a great chant. And the way that Cody kind of punctuated that promo by being like, who is this guy? Don't bring this guy. Don't bring this guy. I had a WrestleMania at 41. This isn't the guy I want to wrestle. I love that. I think it sets it up as like, John Cena is this whiny cry baby. And Cody's going,

give me your best. Give me your absolute best. The one question, though, that didn't get answered in this whole thing is why did John Cena side with the rock? I don't know if that's a question

we're going to get answered soon, but it feels like it needs to be answered. Johnstein was basically saying like, here's why I'm so mad at you guys. I was in a dysfunctional relationship. It was in an abusive relationship with you guys. And I understand again from where the John Sina character is coming from. He did all the right things. He did all the things he was supposed to do.

And you guys still booed him. And he continued to do them to try to make you guys happy. And you continue to boo him. It makes sense. The logic here makes a lot of sense, but the one thing we still need answered is why did he align with the rock? Other than for the logical reason of like rock's the biggest heel. And the final boss is the biggest heel. So when you align yourself with the biggest heel, that makes you a heel as well.

But there was nothing in that problem of like, well, the rock saw this too. And that's why I'm with the rocks. I wonder if in John Cena's next appearance, if either A, we get an explanation for why he sided with The Rock or B, do we get the Rock out there? B doesn't seem so likely. I don't know when we'll see the Rock next, but I'm sure that when that is going to happen, WWE will announce it and all of us will be watching. But this was appointment viewing. And I also love the fact that this wasn't on tape delay. The fact that this aired a lot of on Netflix, 12 o'clock where I live,

three o'clock on the east coast of the United States. And like for people who live in the UK, you guys are watching it like instead of watching it two in the morning or one in the morning like you normally would, you guys are watching it at a decent hour. And I appreciate that. But if this was on tape delay, which it would have been,

if this aired live on the USA network, this would have been a segment that you guys would have seen happened live in the arena, and then we would have caught it on tape delay later. The fact that it was, live and we saw it all unfold as was happening, I think makes it that much more special. But how do they top it from here? I don't know. There is a lot of anticipation leading into WrestleMania 41. It's, man, it's a month away today. That crazy? Wow. I didn't put that

together till right now. Well, it's a month away today as I record this. It's less than a month the way today as you listen to this. Night two of WrestleMania is April 20th. Wow. So there's still some more story to be told between now and then. And I'm very curious how they continue to build on this. Jared Wilkerson on Twitter says, and this is a really interesting point. Sina, the clean-mouthed heel, Cody, the dirty-mouthed baby face, making parents choose.

I just thought that was a really interesting observation. You're right, Jared. because I know that if I was a father of a kid who was eight, 10, 12, who was a huge Cody Rhodes fan, I'd be maybe a little bit upset with the language used at Elimination Chamber. You know, like this guy, he's supposed to be the good guy and he's telling someone to F off or go F yourself. I just imagine a little eight-year-old Cooper Van Fleet or Logan Van Fleet watching that

like running around the house for the next week, go F yourself, go after yourself, go after yourself. On the flip side, you've got Sina, who is the bad guy, we're supposed to be booing. He's not telling people that. So I thought that that was a very interesting observation. I don't think we'll be hearing any more F words out of Cody Rhodes between now and WrestleMania, but who knows? It makes them authentic. I'm not holding against it.

I'm just saying for WWE to be this global family-friendly product, it's an interesting observation of like your baby face is using language like that. The biggest baby face in your company is using language like that to get over, where there's going to be like a certain, there's going to be a certain part of the audience going, oh, I like Cody, but why did he say that? It's a very interesting observation. Tony Cross emailed this one in. Hey, CVV, Tony Cross from sunny Glasgow, Scotland here.

Hope you're good and loving life as I am. Well, I am, Tony. Thank you for asking. My question is, do you think that when WWE put the belt on Cody, they could have imagined just how big and popular he was actually going to be? Or do you think that they just thought he'd have the belt for a few months and pass it on again? Because he's killing it right now and I personally can't see him losing to Sina at Mania. That's how big I think he's gotten. Loving the show, as always. And man, please keep it coming. Love from Scotland, brother.

Well, thank you for the email, Tony. I've heard them say on multiple occasions. And Road Dogg actually said this during the interview that we had a few weeks ago. He said that they plan their storylines out pretty much like WrestleMania to WrestleMania. So I would think maybe even just in some rough version of an idea of WrestleMania 40 into the WrestleMania 41. They probably, barring any sort of injuries, they probably said, all right, Cody's going to win it here at 40.

And if everything lines up here, WrestleMania 41 is going to be Cody defending it against John Cena. I truly think that they were thinking that far ahead. And I don't think that it's any accident that Cody's holding it now. Fun fact, I just saw this on Facebook. I shared it out, actually. If Cody retains a night two of WrestleMania, he'd be just. three days shy of breaking the record of John Sina's longest title reign. John Sina's longest title

rain was 380 days. So if Cody retains on night two, there'd be 378 days. That just puts things in perspective, I think. It really puts things in perspective that he's already, as we sit here right now, he's already at like 340 something days. It's been a long reign. But I don't think they're surprised by this. They have put a lot of faith in Cody. And I, there's a lot of things that I don't think fans see. Cody's showing up early. Cody's doing the meet and greets. Cody's signing the autographs. Cody's creating these core memories at these house shows. Like when he does things like pulling the little Cody fan, like pulling them up over the barricade and having them do the entrance with him at the live shows, like that's something they want in a company guy. And I think that Cody

left AEW to go back to WW with that in mind of like, I'm going to do whatever I can to be the guy in WWE. And I think WWE said, all right, yeah, we'll give you a chance to do that. And every opportunity he's had, he's knocked it out of the park. So I don't think that there's any sort of surprise here. And I think that when you talk about the baby face of the company, It's certainly Cody Rhodes right now, and I think it'll be Cody Rhodes for the next handful of years. And I don't see that changing at all. As for what happens at WrestleMania 41, I don't know. I'm sure we'll get a bit of a clearer picture in the next few weeks as to what might happen, what could happen here.

But I just, I don't see any scenario right now. I don't see any scenario where John Cena doesn't win number 17. at WrestleMania. And I, you know, I could be eating these words and I'd be happy to admit in 30 or 29 days that I'm wrong. Totally okay with that. But just the way that I see the situation playing out right now, it's John Cena's last WrestleMania.

It's John Cena's last WrestleMania main event. He's won. I think I'd have to check on this. And please, fact check me on this. I would love that. I think he's won all of his other championships as a baby. face, I think. So for him to win this one as a heel would be something different. It would be something that would allow him to be challenged on this. I don't know that for a fact that he will

win, but my gut just says, John Sina wins at WrestleMania 41. The odds back that up as of right now, too. The odds on my bookie.orgie. Have John Sina as the favorite over Cody Rhodes. Of course, when you sign up at MyBooky, use the code CVV. You'll get up. a nice little welcome bonus there. But those are the odds right now. That could shift. And again, this is the fun thing about the road to WrestleMania.

The really fun thing is watching how all of this unfolds, peeling back all of those layers of the onion. Heel Sina is going to go hard. Heel Sina is going to go hard. And I think the thing that maybe people don't realize or perhaps they've forgotten about John Sina is he is so meticulous

with everything that he does in a wrestling ring. Like, you always hear these stories about how much thought he puts into promos and how he's moving words around trying to figure out the best way to say things. I don't know this for sure, but I would have to think that with him dipping his toe now into being a heel for the first time in two decades, it's probably putting even more thought into that in his heel promos. and like just feel like as this continues to play out. And John Cena is going to be live on raw this weekend or this Monday,

live on raw again the following Monday. He's going to get cooking. And this will be really, really interesting to see. Also, that poor kid, that poor kid that he singled out in his promo. That's going to be another one. When we talk about this promo being played back in years and decades to come, that kid's going to be like the. the Ms. Girl. Remember when Ms. won the title? You know what I'm talking about that girl who made

that very angry, angry Ms. Girl. And they like, show her now, what is it, 13 years later, 14 years later, that's, that's going to be this kid. I don't know where we're calling him, angry Sina Kid or Shocked Sina Kid and Glasgow's or Brussels Cina Kid, whatever it happens to be. That's going to be one that we play back, I think, in years and like, oh, look at him now. he's he's 20 years old. Look at him now. He's 30 years old. That'll be a really, like the poor kid. But man, it helped to punctuate that promo in such a big way. The Black Lobowski on Spotify says, that's crazy shooting on peeps like that. That's my favorite Easter candy. It's all good, though. I still love your content, especially Ask CVV. Every time I listen to an episode in the intro when you

introduce yourself, I always do the DDP thing and say, it's me, it's me. It's me. It's VV. I was wondering, why don't you do that in the intro? Is it trademarked to DDP or is it just out of respect to not copy his thing? Again, love your work and all that you do. So last week, I'm sure you were listening. I said, leave in the comments if you're listening on Spotify. Leave in there what your favorite Easter candy is because I was on a real kick of the Cadbury mini eggs. There's just something about the outer shell on them. And a lot of people in the comments said Cadbury cream eggs, which was my favorite for a long time. And I think I overdid it. Because, you know, they're sweet, right? Like, they're really good. I love Cadbury cream eggs,

but I think I really overdid it one year. I ate like a lot, like eight or ten in one sitting. I know. A bad decision. And I still liked them. Like, I had one the other day. But I think I ruined it for myself by having too many. So Cadbury mini eggs are my go-to. But I feel like, look, if you like peeps, that's fine. That is to each his or her own. And like I always say, don't yuck somebody else's yums. But peeps are very divisive. Like you either love peeps or you hate peeps.

There is no in between with peeps. Okay. So if you're one of the people who loves them, that's great. I was in Target the other day. and there's like a whole peep section in Target. Has anybody seen this? This blew me away because it wasn't just, it wasn't just the marshmallow candies.

It was the marshmallow candies in all kinds of different, very bizarre flavors. But then there were like peep stuffed animals and then there was a peep's hot chocolate mix. There was a peep cereal? Like we're a, we're a pour a bowl of marshmallows and pour some milk on it.

do it? I don't know about that. Yeah, very healthy meal to start your day off with. Mmm, bowl of marshmallows. So look, if you like peeps, the Black Lobowski, that's fantastic. I just think you might be missing out on some better Easter candies. That's some, I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I have done the DDP thing. There's been a few episodes where I've said, it's me, it's me, it's CVV. But, you know, that's me paying tribute to my good friend Diamond Dallas Page, who's awesome. But I just think it's funny. And I get tagged in this frequently when they ask for this CVV on your credit card, the three numbers on the back of your credit card. So I've been saying that, I guess, a decent amount where I'm like, it's me, the three

letters or the three numbers on the back of your credit card. Now, who else? Who else gets to say that other than, I guess, my son, Cooper, also CVV. But that's steed piece thing. I also don't know what else to say in the intro. I feel like there's only so many different ways you can say, welcome to the show. Thanks for being with us. Hit a whatever move on that follow button. And I've kind of like played around with it for a little while. I was saying different things. But I'm like, you know what? We're going to start off every show with a similar type of Thank you for being with us on this one. And thank you for making insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet.

But yeah, I don't know what else to other. So I think I've got like, I've got three or four renditions, three or four different versions. It's either me, the three numbers in the back of your credit card, CVV. It's me. It's me. It's CVV. Of course, hat tip to DDP for that one. It's me.

Your friendly neighborhood CVV. Chris Van Fleet. I've said that one a few times. And then there's just the one like today's episode, just a straight up. It's, it is I, CVV, or, you know, just, hey, it's CVV, Chris VanVleet. If you have a better idea here, we can freshen it up. And also, I just get so pumped up when I hear the Downstate song. So that's why it's a big, like, oh my goodness, welcome back. Or like a today, greetings and salutations, which is an inside joke. with my good friend Jason Handman whenever we call each other. I'm sure you have this with one of your friends where you see their name pop up on the phone

and you greet them. You say hello in a certain very specific way for them. In fact, when DDP calls me, I more often than not answer the phone with bang. But for me and Jason Hammond, greetings and salutations, which is a Seinfeld reference, I believe. Like, that's a deep cut, but that has a, there's a Seinfeld reference there. So maybe, maybe we'll throw in, maybe on the next episode, we'll throw in a, it's me, it's me, it's CVV, just to kind of mix it up. It's been a, I guess, a little while since that one. Reese Bell on Instagram, Reese B underscore 26 says, hey, Chris, I love the show, especially the one

with AJ Styles. Thank you, because that was one of my favorites as well. What a legend. What a great guy he is, too. I got a couple of questions for Ask CVV. With AJ Stiles' career soon coming to a close, well, we get another title run, whether it be a major title or a mid-card title. Also, is there a chance we get AJ versus Sina in 2025? I think it would be phenomenal, pun intended, keep up the great work. I have to say, a little peek, a little peek behind the curtain here. I was a little shocked. I was a little surprised when I asked AJ Stiles, do you ever think about life after wrestling?

Do you ever think about how much longer you want to do this? And he was like, yeah, I think about it all the time. And then just came right out with it. It was like, I don't want to do this past 50. It's like, well, you're about to turn 48 this summer. So that means we only have like twoish years left. And he was like, yep, that's it. So it's funny that he's already had this number in his mind,

clearly for a while. And I was just surprised that he like, right out with that because we know how things work in wrestling. But fans will hold you to that. So if he says 50, it's like, that's it. Fans are going to say, well, what are you doing wrestling in August of 2027, AJ? You're 50 years old. Like fans would do that.

But he was like, no, like, please do. Like, please hold me to it. So this is something he's put a lot of thought into. So I was surprised that he came right out and said that. I would love to see him one another title. And I'm curious what it is because he said that he had some plans

for what he wants his retirement story or arc or whatever to look like. And he's like, I'm not going to reveal it here. But if it all comes together, you'll know. So I don't know if that's an opponent he's talking about. I don't know if it's a certain story that leads to some sort of final payoff.

I don't know, but I'm very curious to see it. I've been a huge AJ fan for over 20 years. And it's been fascinating to see his career change and grow, and he's evolved so much with what he's done. Because when you look at like 0405 X Division A.J, great, like doing things you had literally never seen from any other wrestler. And then he evolved from there into like being a main event player. and having some incredible matches with the top talent that was in TNA.

Then we saw him like turn. We saw him turn heel and we got like kind of a grittier side of him, which I feel like he taps into that in WWE. Like he's very intense in WWE, which I feel like we started to get towards the end of his TNA run. That really got turned on. He like, he really like leaned into that when he went to New Japan.

So just his entire career has been incredible. I'd love to see another title run from him. And with the way that the mid-card titles have been changing hands with quite a bit more frequency, I could see that happening. Or maybe you throw him into the world title picture. He wrestled a live event this past weekend. He had a match with Gunther. So maybe, I don't know, maybe something's cooking there. There's, it could be just, that was a match they wanted to put on for the,

fans of that live show and that was that. Or maybe they're kind of like working towards a program together. I don't know. But I'm saying you certainly can't argue that he's not deserving of it. So I would love to see that. Another match with Sina be fantastic. But I think that there's a long list of people who want to work with John Sina. And I said it many times. I don't think he's going to have a lot of matches. When we first started talking about this, when the John Sina retirement tour was first announced and he had 36 to 8s, I'm like, maybe it's six to eight matches, maybe? And I don't know if in that were including the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber,

because if that's the case, he's already had two matches. Then we got WrestleMania 41. That'd be match number three if he doesn't have any matches between now and then. And I really don't think that he will. because not to sound like a broken record here, but there is a lot on the line for John Sina during this retirement tour. He can't get injured. He can't. There's so much riding on this. So I think that he's being very selective with the bumps that he takes. And I think that he just doesn't want to get hurt, doesn't want to get injured and wants to be able to ensure that he can work

all the way up until December when I know there's been a lot. When he hangs him up is what I was going to say, but I know there's been a lot of people that are like, well, if John's seen as a heel, what if he lied to us this whole time? What if this wasn't a retirement tour at all? I don't think that's the case. That's a lovely theory, especially considering he's a heel and you wouldn't want to believe the things that he says. But there's no way they put all of this thought and effort and promotion into the last time is now for him to pop out in December and be like, well, guess what? I'm going to wrestle six more months. That's not going to be the case. Like, I think that if there is anything that we can hold John Cena too, even though he is a heel and even though you can't trust

what a heel has to say, I think that the one thing we can hold him to is this is it. At the end of 2025, that's it. So I would love to see AJ Sina one more time. I just, I don't know if it's going to happen. I don't think that we get a lot of John Cena matches. I think that we get the Cody match, obviously. I think that we get a Randy Orton match. I'm still of the belief that that's his final match. And then we get what, two, three, maybe four other opponents in there?

Like two, three, four other matches total. and as much as I'd love to see aging and seeing it, I just, I can't, the math ain't mathin for me. Maybe I got to call Scott Steiner and figure this out, but the math ain't mathin for me to somehow try to get to a point where that works. Richard Hodges, Richard Hodges emailed this one in. Hey, Chris, Rich here. Why don't you keep calling? So your name is Richard. You call yourself Rick.

I'm sorry. Hey, Chris, Rick here in the UK. real, real one for about a year now. Thank you, sir. Had an Austin theory about mania. Like what I did there? These are his words I'm still reading. I'm talking Stone Cold.

What if he's Haman's favor, night two of mania? He's a haman guy, right? Punk wins the triple threat, night one, and Austin helps him win the title, Night two. Big swerve, because everyone will assume he's coming to help Cody slash attack rock. It is a wonderful Austin theory.

Richard slash Rick in the UK. And I think that we keep getting reminded about this favor. This is not one that they put to bed. This is not something that they're hoping that we're going to forget. It feels like the payoff for the Paul Heyman CM Punk favor happens either in the lead up to mania or at mania itself. We now know that Stone Cold Steve Austin will be in Los Angeles. Vegas during WrestleMania week.

He is officially announced as part of WWE World on April 19th and April 20th. Those are the exact days of WrestleMania. So we know he's in town. This isn't like previous years where Stone Cold's not even in the building or the city or the state. We know where Stone Cold is going to be on April 19th and 20th. So if he's signing autographs and doing meet and greets at WWE world, I'd be shocked if he's not at WrestleMania in some way. I don't know if he's going to be tied to a story or tied to anything like that.

But if he doesn't make some sort of appearance, if he's in town, that would be seemingly a wasted opportunity. So I think we can bet on a Stone Cold Steve Austin appearance. on either night one or night two. He hasn't been part of major storylines for a while. I don't know if he's tied into this part. I don't know if he's tied into a CM Punk story. It's an excellent theory, though.

I, and also this triple threat match is not official. It sure seems like that's what we're going to be getting. But isn't this so funny? We are a month as I record this away from WrestleMania. and we still don't like have a full match card. I love it. I think that's what's so exciting is we're still seeing how this all builds up together. But I like your theory. I think that the payoff of the Paul Heyman favor with as much buildup as they put into this is going to be big. Stone Cold could be a really big one. Or did we just get a random glass shatter? Stone Cold comes out.

welcomes everybody to WrestleMania, drinks a few beers, stunts drinks a few beers. I don't know how I'll set it like that. And then goes to the next, maybe stunts one or two people and then leaves. That's also a possibility as well. But I think that if you were putting your money on, is Stone Cold going to be there? Yeah. I think we're going to see Stone Cold at WrestleMania. I just, I, I'd love to be wrong.

but I can't see him being part of a bigger storyline there. I don't know. Dan Johnson on Facebook says, Hey, CVV, I absolutely loved your interview with Chris Bay. Thank you for letting him share his story on your platform and for not interrupting him when he was speaking. I found myself tearing up quite a few times during that episode. Do you ever find it hard to not get emotional when you're recording?

Oh, big time. Big time, especially with that one. And if you haven't listened to this episode with Chris Bay, if you're only going to listen to one interview all year, it should be that one. And maybe you're not that familiar with Chris Bay. Maybe you're not following TNA, but his story is just absolutely inspiring. In a quick nutshell, Chris Bay broke his neck in the ring during a TNA event in Detroit, October 27th of last year. It was the day after Bound for Glory.

He was in the main event, a Bound for Glory. So like the highest of highs, the next day, 24 hours later, breaks his neck, immediately paralyzed from the neck down. Doctors gave him a 10 to 25% chance of ever walking again. And he said, well, screw those odds. And he's learning to walk again. It's so touching. And just the way that he speaks about,

just he has such a positive outlook on life. and he's removed the word can't from his vocabulary, and instead we'll say something like, I don't know how to do that yet, or I haven't, you know, I can't do that yet. It's like, man, I love that so much. So, yeah, there were definitely times when he's explaining his story and that I was really fighting back tears. And I've become so much more emotional since becoming a father. And any parent listening to this can absolutely agree with that. It's just something amazing that happens to you. Or I don't know, I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the fact that you look at your own mortality in a completely different way. You now have something so much more to live

for because you have kids. But ever since I became a father when we had Logan in May of 23. It's like, I cry all the time. Like the wind changes or something. And I'll start crying. But there's definitely been a lot of times, not just this interview with Chris Bay, but I just recorded one with Raquel Rodriguez, which you'll be seeing and a hearing soon. She started crying during the interview. And I'm trying my best to also not cry. The Mike Santana interview for. from, like I said, be about a year and a half ago when he's talking about getting sober.

He got sober for his little girl. And, you know, here's a guy who's just the epitome of, like a New York tough guy. And I'm watching tears roll down his face. And I'm trying to keep it in myself. So yeah, this has happened quite a few times. I just did an interview.

It's Tuesday's episode with Lily and Garcia. And same thing. She got really emotional talking about her late father. And that was one of the reasons she walked away from WWE in 2016 was to be with him in his final months. And I really related to her losing a family member. I'm sure you know the story. I've talked about it quite a bit. But my sister lost her battle to cancer in October.

And I just think about the world And it's such a different way now And like little things remind me of Kimberly all the time And that gets me choked up. So yeah, like, I'm grateful that like in an interview with Chris Bay, the camera's on him for the bulk of the story that he's telling. Because yeah, there were definitely some times where I was like,

oh man, I got to stay strong here. Because if I start crying, then he's going to start crying. and then what are we going to do? And there's nothing wrong with that. But I was so just fascinated by his story and the strength that he had to tell it. That was the thing that blew me away the most about Chris Bay is like as soon as we were done,

the interview, I was like, I don't think you could have articulated this any better. You told the story so, so well. All of it. Everything from the way the injury happened to being at the hospital to the surgery, to all the people you called. And it was just so beautifully told.

It wasn't filled with ums and ahs and, you know, he was just so sure of everything you was saying. And it was just beautiful. And I was very motivated and very inspired and very moved hearing his story. And I listened to it back when we were editing the episode together. And I had tears just welling up. my eyes. And I had a lot of people send me messages of like, man, I got emotional listening to that story. And I feel the same way. So thank you, Dan, for your message. And it's just amazing how, like,

how hearing someone else's story can reflect so deeply on your own life. And that's really how I felt. And it was also so, so beautiful all day after the episode came out. Just seeing all the love that was pouring in for Chris Bay. I mean, it's been pouring in for him ever since the accident in October, but just seeing it all after the episode came out, all of the love and all of the support for him. And he said it. It is the greatest story ever told.

And I can't wait to see how this story ends. because he's like blowing all the benchmarks out of the water of like, hey, if you're lucky, you might be standing by this date. And he's like standing a week later. Well, if you're, you know, if things really start progressing, you could be walking by this date. Well, guess what? Now he's walking. Well, if you're, if things go really well, you could be jumping.

Now he's doing that. Like, he jumped for me after the interview. He's like, man, I can't jump that high. But I'm like, dude, look at you. You're jumping. Four and a half months ago, you were told you might not be able to walk again. So, yeah, very, man, very inspired. John Rigby 50 on Instagram says,

could we one day see a WrestleMania being overseas? I'm, I still think it's going to happen in London, especially as they keep doing these European tours and they keep doing some PLEs overseas and seeing just how hot the crowd is. Yes, I think it's just a matter of time. I wonder when it will be. be. Is it going to be like

WrestleMania 43, WrestleMania 44, WrestleMania 45? Like, I would be shocked if it's not in the next five years. We know that it's Las Vegas this year. We know that it's New Orleans next year,

WrestleMania 42. We know that it's going to be in Indianapolis at some point soon because they signed that deal where it was Indianapolis. signed a deal with their sports commission that they're going to be doing. WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and the Royal Rumble all in Indianapolis. At some point in time, they didn't give a window of time.

Well, the Royal Rumble's already happened. So is it SummerSlam next year? And then WrestleMania the year after that, it feels to me like Indianapolis gets WrestleMania either 43 or 44, one of those. So, yeah, I think that it's bound to happen. Of course, we've had international. National WrestleMania 6, WrestleMania 18 in Toronto, but we haven't had one that's gone outside of North America.

And I think that with all of the reports we've seen about the mayor of London, like really lobbying to make this happen. Also, John Cena came out at Money in the Bank in London just to basically cut a promo of wouldn't you guys want to have WrestleMania here? Yeah. Like, I think it's just a matter of time. I would say within five years, but what do I know? It's totally, literally just a guess.

Khalil Karazo. I hope I said that right. Email this one in. CVV, I love pro wrestling and accidentally discovered your podcast while binge watching TikToks in the hospital last October when we welcomed our newest little one. Well, congrats to you. Congrats on BBVV. I hope you're having as much fun as I am in fatherhood.

To piggyback off your final question on Ask CVV-75, the Ask CVVs have become my favorite episodes as well. Not because I dislike the interviews, but because it feels like this is our turn to interview you in as close a manner as there is to you interviewing your guests. Oh, thank you. Finally, my question for you is you've interviewed most of the Judgment Day by now. Priest, Our Truth, Dom, Liv, Carlito, and most recently, J.D. Is there a chance, we'll get an interview with my favorite wrestler and missing Judgment Day member from your guests, Finn Baller. I would love to have Finn on the show. I've done like two very brief interviews with him, like just a few minutes. But I, I did drive J.D. back to the airport. I picked

him up from the airport and also drove him back to the airport after our interview. Like, he literally just flew in to do the interview. And then soon as we were done, drove him right back to the airport. So he spent, I think there was a connecting flight in Dallas. So it was like, for any, lives in Tampa, like most wrestlers live in Tampa or Orlando. It's amazing how many of them live in that area. Flew from Tampa. I think it was seven hours, including the layover, spent six hours in L.A. spent seven hours flying home. So thank you, J.D. As I was driving him back to the airport, I said, hey, you think you can, think you could put in a good word for me with Finn Baller? Because they've been friends forever. He even talked about it during the interview that he met Finn Baller when he was

12 and then train at his wrestling school. Like they're, they're tight. He's like, I, yeah, I'll put in a good word with you. So cross your fingers for me. Hopefully it happens. And I will go anywhere to make it happen. I would love to have Finn Baller on the show. I believe he lives in South Florida.

So be happy to go back to South Florida. I love South Florida. So maybe we, yeah, maybe we make this happen. But that's definitely one that is missing. Also, call it Judgment Day adjacent. A Ria Ripley interview. you needs to happen, right? I was at that raw Netflix event at Netflix headquarters in December. You might have seen the photo I took with Triple H or CM Punk. She was there. We took a photo together.

And she said, you know, I've got to be honest. I'm a little surprised. I haven't been on your show yet. And I'm like, well, I'd like to make this happen. So that's one I would love to make happen at some point in time this year. So cross your fingers on that one, too. I mean, there's a ton of people that I still haven't done like a full hour-ish long sit down with. But Finn Baller, Ria Ripley, if we're talking like the current WWE superstars, they're definitely on the short list. Randy Orton, I think, of the current active people, Randy Orton, that's at the top of the list. Okay, the Randy Orton one needs to happen. I can't believe I've never done interviews with my fellow Canadians, Sammy Zane or Kevin Owens. That one needs to happen. A full sit-down interview with CM Punk. I would love for that to happen at some

point this year. That'd be amazing. And of course, Ria Ripley and Finn Ballard. There's a lot. There's still quite a few people. Trish Stratis. I've been trying to get on the show for like two years. and she's like, yeah, I'll do it. And we just, we haven't been able to line up our schedules. I'm like, look, I will, I'll go anywhere. We'll come back to Toronto. We can do it there. I'll fly to wherever to make this happen.

But these are obviously very busy people. And we've got to figure out schedules and timing and locations to figure this out. But just know that I'm working on. Okay. Just know that I have a list. I have an Excel spreadsheet, or maybe it's a Google sheet. I think it's a Google sheet of like 120-ish. I think it was that.

I mean, it was like 128. I think that was the exact number. Like right around, there's 128 names on it. Right, the week between Christmas and New Year's, I was just sitting there, baby boy had just gone to sleep, BBVVV, Cooper Van Ville, Logan, our daughter, who's, man, almost two years old.

Crazy. She was asleep and I was just like tapping away at the computer. I'm like, if we're going to do two interviews, two interviews a week, every week, that's 52 weeks, 104 guests, 104 episodes this year. I just started like just brain dumping into this document. I'm like, well, that'd be a good guest. Well, that'd be a good guest. We've already had a few of them this year already.

Like when I'm thinking about, man, this year, been just bonkers for the first three months. Not even completely three months into this. It's just been huge guest after huge guest after huge guest. Like I didn't know I'd ever be able to get Scott Steiner. Scott Steiner has done like one other podcast interview. And it was like a few weeks before mine, it was with Jericho on the Jericho cruise. And then they reached out and said, all right, let's make this happen.

I've been trying to get Scott Steiner on the show for like six or seven years. Boom, made it happen. AJ Stiles. Boom. Made it happen. Just recorded one with Samoa Joe. Boom. Made it happen.

You'll be hearing that one soon. So there's been quite a few, like really good ones. Seth Rollins to kick off the year. It's been a lot of really good ones. So on that list are a lot of, yeah, there's a lot of big names on there. So like I said, keep your fingers crossed with me. And thank you for your email. Brian Lucas on Facebook says,

Hey, CVV, when will we see the triumphant return of RVV? We miss her. That is a fantastic question, Brian. You know, I guess this should be next week. We haven't had RVV, my lovely, beautiful, incredible, wife, Rachel, on the show since Ask CVV-C-V-65.

It's been 10 Asked CVVs since she was on the show. So if you have a question for RVV, send it on social media, leave it on Spotify. I can tell you what her favorite Easter candy is. I think it's jelly beans now because I just came home. I came home from doing an interview today. And there was just a big bag of gourmet jelly beans. sitting on the counter. I'm like,

oh, what are you doing to me, honey? What are you doing to me? You know, I'm going to eat like three quarters of this bag. Oh, when it comes to sugar,

I, like, I'm so weak. Sugar is my kryptonite. Pizza as well. But sugar for sure. And the thing about sugar, and I was so good about it for so long,

and I've gone off the rails a little bit, but it's not as bad as I used to be. I was like bags of candy every day, like just go. into the gas station or 7-Eleven just buy like the movie-sized bags of like Swedish fish or Sour Patch Kids or the gummy bears, you know, the Harbo gummy bears. I hope I said that right. I'm not that bad anymore. But the problem with with candy is like you eat a little bit and then your body goes, well, how about some more? I'd like some more candy, please. And then you can't just

eat like a few jelly beans. You got to eat more. And then the next day, you eat something like healthy. And then your body goes, be real nice to have a sweet treat now, wouldn't it? And then you fall into this trap of like, you eat healthy, you eat something bad. You eat healthy. You eat something bad. So I've been trying to get out of this. And one of the really good techniques, well, the really good things I used to do, and I still do it a little bit, not as much. I should definitely do it more often. It's just chewing gum. You want that sweet heat, sweet hit. And this is by no means healthy for you, because then you're taking in like aspartane or whatever all the fake sugar is. But then you're chewing a piece of gum. It gives you that sweet hit. Doesn't have a lot of calories in it.

Doesn't have any added sugar because it has all the artificial sugars. Certainly better than eating a bag of candy. But yeah, working on it. All of that, what a tangent that was. All of that is to say if you have a question

for RVV, drop it in the comments or send it in or email me and we'll have the triumphant return of RVV next week.

Ask CVV number 78. 78, 76. Geez, getting ahead of myself. She'll be back on 76. And maybe also back on 78. We'll see. We'll have to see.

John 4S.v1. John? Oh, I see. It's Jonas. You were spelling out Jonas. Dot V1. Ah, very nice. Version one like Matt Hardy.

Oh, yeah. Real one here. Who do you think is the most underrated wrestler in WWE right now? A lot of different ways we could go. go with this. Depends what your definition of underrated is. I think for me, the best talent in WWE who hasn't held a singles championship is Chad Gable. Yeah, he's been tag team champ many times, but as a singles competitor, he is just so, so good. And there's a reason that Chad Gable was the first opponent for Penta when Penta debuted, because Chad Gable has this innate ability to

make anybody that he's in the ring with look incredible. And he's so underrated. I still can't believe that he didn't win the intercontinental championship. Like that one, that just didn't add up to me. It didn't make a lot of sense. It was right there. The story was amazing. And it, they just went a different direction with it. But, you know, that ended up making sense in itself. But Chad Gable is my answer there. There's a lot of people. And I'm sure there's a lot of names that come to your mind, as you're thinking about, who's the most underrated in WWE? But Chad Gable's the one that immediately pops into my head. And I just don't feel like he has been really given the opportunity to truly shine. And we're starting to see it now. Like, where's this Lucha

angle going with him? Who is American man, by the way? Will we ever find the idea? Will we ever find How about a match between Chad Gable and this masked American made Lucha? Now, maybe this leads to something like so much bigger, but Chad Gable needs to win a championship this year. And it's funny when I interviewed him on the red carpet for the raw Netflix premiere, he said that was his goal. He's like, I want to put it out there. I want to make it public.

And so like then people can like hold me to it. But my goal is to win a singles championship. in 2025. I'm like, hell yeah. You know who else said that? It wasn't 2025, but it was in 2024. I did an interview with L.A. Knight. Thank you for saying, yeah. When I did an interview with him, I was on December 31st, 2023. He said his goal in 24 was to win a singles championship. Well, hell yeah, L.A. Knight. Yeah, you made it happen. And I feel like the same could happen here. Chad Gable, United States Championship, it just makes sense.

It just makes sense. It would just be, you'd have to figure out how to get there with L.A. Knight and the United States Championship being on Smackdown and Chad Gable being on raw. But all of that aside, and of course we can go down the rabbit hole of the draft doesn't make any sense and is so silly. So I guess at any point in time, L.A. night could just show up on. or Chad Gable could show up on Smackdown, but I digress.

Chad Gable is the answer and I think will continue to be my answer to that question until he wins a singles championship. Email here from Nash. I hope I'm saying right. N-A-J. Hey, yo! Or more like, yo. CVV, this is Nage all the way from the Philippines, representing the real, real ones of

Southeast Asia. Just like wrestling in general, insight is definitely taking the world by storm. Well, that is very nice of you. My question is, we all know that you love back to the future. Now, let's ride the Dolorian and go 88 miles an hour and go back to the past. This is excellent. Which wrestling moment would you like to relive like you were watching it live once again? The scene of promo feels like it would transcend through generations

and would likely be a moment that all wrestling fans would often go back upon. Keep up the good work and congratulations on Insight being the number two sports podcast in the world. Special shout out to my wife, Aaron, and my son, Anakin, much gratitude. Naj, Naj. Thank you so much for your message. Excellent back to the future references. When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're going to say, you know the rest. Wait a minute, wait a minute, Dak.

You're telling me that you built a time machine out of a DeLorean? Oh, such a good movie. I also just interviewed Gabriel Iglesias, Fluffy. W.W.E. Megafan did it at his compound in Long Beach, California. And he has like a collection of, I think it's 20 Volkswagen buses, like vintage Volkswagen buses that have all been completely restored and they look brand new. he also has a DeLorean. And I'm like, man, that's the dream car for me. That is the dream car.

I would love to have a DeLorean at some point in time. I don't even think I'd drive it that much. I'd probably drive it like twice a year. But I would just like go out and see it in my driveway or see it in my garage and just be like, that's a Delori. Which moment would I love to go back and see live? I feel very grateful.

that I've been there for some pretty cool ones. I've been there live for some pretty big ones. I was there for Rock Hogan, WrestleMania 18. I was there for the debut of AJ Styles. I was there at WrestleMania 40, night one and night two, but especially night two and that incredible match. But I think that if I could go back

and be there for a live moment, there's two that immediately popped to mine. one how insane would it be to be there in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania king of the ring 1998 for the undertaker and mankind because you're there you're watching hell in a cell like nobody in that arena was expecting that nobody like you're there in the arena and I think to that point there had been I think that was the third Hell in a Cell match. I mean, I feel like kind of like technically the second because there was the first one,

which was Sean Michael's Undertaker, Bad Blood, 97. Then there was one like two weeks before Undertaker Mankind, but it was on Raw and it was Undertaker in Stone Cold versus Mankind and Kane. I don't know. I don't know. It didn't really have the same build up as a hell in a cell. But like Undertaker, Mankind and then out of nowhere, mankind is just, heaved off of it through the announce table, which probably looked so tiny to McFoley as he's flying

off of there, that's one. That is a moment that would be crazy. It would be just absolutely crazy to be there for that live. And not that many people were there live for it. Like, I don't know what the attendance was. I can probably look this up. 17,087 people. So there's only 17,087 people in attendance that could say, yeah, we were there live. That's one. That's one I would love, love to take my DeLorean all the way to 88 miles an hour and go back and see that one. The other one, I'm taking my DeLorean to Daytona Beach, July 7, 1996 for Bash of the Beach. It's Hulk Hogan joining the NWO. It's the heel turn that nobody saw coming. And by the way, I guess it goes without saying I was also there at Elimination Chamber for John Sina kicking Cody Rose in the nuts.

Nobody saw that coming either. But that was just, that one sent shockwaves through the wrestling world. That wasn't watching a ton of wrestling in that point in time, but I understand the importance of it. I understood the importance of it when I did really get into wrestling a few years after that. And I certainly understand the importance of it now 29 years later, 29 years later. Wow. man, that moment turns 30 next year. Crazy. That's the moment I would love to go back. And I'd be one of the people throwing stuff in the ring. That is one of the most iconic shots of mean Gene trying to

interview Hulk Hull Cohn, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash standing right next to him and all that garbage being thrown into the ring. It's just wild, just wild to see just how angry people were. So those are my two moments. Look, there's plenty. There's so many, an endless list of iconic moments. Like how cool would it be to see Edge make his WWE return at the Royal Rumble in 2020? And then like two months later,

the world gets completely shut down. Like what a way for it to go. Like what a, what a high we were on at that point in time. There's a lot of amazing moments. But those are those are the two for me. And I would love to hear what yours are. I would love to hear it.

And if you didn't add in what your favorite Easter candy is and you're listening on Spotify, leave your favorite Easter candy on there while also leaving your questions for the triumphant return of Ask RVV next week. And that, my friends, that's it. That is our final question here on Ask CVV. Number 75, the mean Joe Green, Howie Long, Ryan, Reeves Barry Zito edition. Thank you guys for being with us. And thank you for listening all the way until the end. I appreciate you for being a real, real one. You guys are the absolute best.

I saw this on Instagram this week. I shared it to my story, but this is so powerful, especially with like the way that podcasts work and interviewing and just the idea of like communicating with other people. The biggest communication problem, we have is that we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply. And how true is that, right? So many people, myself included, happens at times when you're just waiting for that person to stop talking so that you can then talk. And that's been a really big lesson I've learned. Another great quote. The late great Larry King said, I never learned anything while I was talking. And that one stays with me all the time, especially when I'm having these kind of conversations for the show.

So, yeah, the biggest communication problem we have is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply. Be great. Be great for my friends. Have an amazing weekend. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. Lillian Garcia joins us on Tuesday, and 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. Take advantage of it.

Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.