Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #82 - Backlash Bold Predictions, Early MITB Picks, Recent Releases, What's Next For Roman Reigns?

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

Welcome to AskCVV #82! On this episode, Chris gives his predictions for WWE Backlash and answers questions about who will win this year's Money In The Bank ladder match, who the most surprising release was, whether Bron Breakker or Dominik Mysterio will become World Champion first, what's next for Roman Reigns, El Grande Americano winning the WWE Speed Championship, the problem with current WWE entrance themes and much more!Quote I'm thinking about: "If it feels too hard to do it, it just means the first step isn't small enough." - Ms. EdsonPlease support our sponsors!   PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibcloux  SEAT GEEK: Get 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount   TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insightto get 10% off your order of Mitopure!  STASH: Go to https://get.stash.com/INSIGHTto see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures   MAGIC SPOON: Get $5 off your next order at https://magicspoon.com/cvv   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 with the code CVV 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 TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Fleet. The Friday and welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. Hope it's been a great week for you. Thank you for being with us on this one. And as always, thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. Hit a sidewalk slam on that follow button. Wherever you're listening right now, don't be one of those gibroni.

who just listens to the show but doesn't follow the show. I appreciate you for listening, but please just take a second to click follow. And if you have an extra few seconds this weekend, a rating on Spotify would be so helpful or a review on Apple Podcast. So I will thank you in advance for that because as the show keeps getting bigger, the guests can keep getting bigger as well. We're at episode number 756 right now with this one. That is a huge number.

to say out loud, 756 of these since we started in June of 2019. So many of you have been with us since then. A lot of you have just started listening over the last few weeks, a few months, maybe the last year or so. You're awesome just for being on this journey with me. So thank you. We've got some big guests on the way next week. You know that I don't like to say who they are unless we have actually recorded it.

We have the files in our hand and they're not going anywhere. So if you follow me on Instagram, you probably already know this. But let's just say on Tuesday, I said his name and he appeared. Oh, yeah, it's a good one. Because if you think of everything that has happened since the last time Joe Hendrew was on the show, and I looked it up, it was June 17th of last year. The very next day is when he debuted on NXT. and a ton has happened since then.

Obviously, the NXT debut. He won the TNA World Championship. He was in the Royal Rumble, had a match with Randy Orton at WrestleMania. So much has happened, and there's so much to catch up on with Joe Hendry. So that's Tuesday's episode. And then I've really,

if I'm being completely honest with you, and I always am, I've recorded four other ones. I don't know which one I'm going to put in that Thursday slot just yet. I'm sure this weekend I will figure that out and get the schedule all set. But as of right now, I don't know. Maybe you guys should decide.

Maybe I should put a poll up and ask you guys. But no, I'll figure that out. And on Sunday, you'll see like the lineup for the week. But I am in St. Louis right now as I record this. Backlash is this weekend. And is it just me or do these two PLEs feel like really close together? WrestleMania and Backlash, like just a few weeks of. part and I get it. WrestleMania this year was the latest that it's ever been. Traditionally speaking,

it's that first weekend of April. I don't know the exact reasoning behind this, but I would guess that the reason it was a little bit later this year is because there's a lot of stuff that goes on in Las Vegas between conventions and different things going on at the stadium. I think that that's probably the only reason that, one, it was this late in the year, this late in the the month of April. And two, it was on Easter weekend. I don't know if they've ever done it where it's like on a major holiday weekend like that. Of course, Survivor Series traditionally is held on Thanksgiving and they do big numbers with that one. But the fact that WrestleMania 41 was that late in the month and now we're getting backlash just a few weeks later, some of these

stories feel like we didn't have enough time to marinate with them. We didn't have enough time to like figure them out and like really get into the nitty gritty of the storylines here. But when you look at the card, we got five great matches here. And just by the way, yeah, I said that this is the latest that it's ever been. The earliest that WrestleMania has ever been was March 17th. St. Patrick. Day and I'm looking at the poster on my wall right now, WrestleMania 18, 3702 Skydome, Toronto, Canada. I've got my little ticket stub in the corner that.

I'm actually going to walk over here. I don't want to misquote the price. I feel like I've done that in the past. The ticket was with service. So the ticket was $126. Service fee $9.50. So 135.50. I sat in the 16th row.

floor section B 10. Sour Skittles presents. WrestleMania 18. Doors open at 5.30 p.m. Skydome. No video slash laser pens. That's how you know it's a classic one. No laser pens.

But we've got backlash this weekend. We're going to run through the predictions. I will see you in St. Louis if you're going to backlash. I assumed when I booked this ticket, I assume that Smackdown would be there tonight. It's not. Smackdown is in Dayton, Ohio, then a quick turnaround to get from Dayton, Ohio,

to St. Louis, Missouri in time for call time for everybody, for backlash, and then obviously for the show. But I guess, you know, the card only has five matches, so not as many performers there. but we will run through the entire card here. If you're in St. Louis, I would love to see you either before the show during the show or after the show. I'll be around. But welcome, my friends, to Ask CVV number 82, the Jason Witten and Ozzie Newsom edition.

If you've got a question for Ask CVV number 83, my birth year, 1983, if you've got a question for Ask CVV 83, send it in on social media using the hashtag AskCVV. Leave a comment on Spotify or shoot me an email CVV at chris van Vleet.com. We'll kick it off with this one from Scott Riggs on Facebook. Hey, CVV, you rock. No, sir, you rock. Let's hear your predictions for backlash. Keep up the great work and thank you for keeping us all entertained. So let's dive into backlash here.

We will start things off with the Intercontinental Championship match. Dominic Mysterio putting his IC title on the line against Pence, the odds at MyBooky say that Dominic Mysterio is the favorite here. Of course, when you sign up at MyBooky and you use the promo code CVV, you'll get a very generous 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit, but that's only if you use the code CVV when you sign up. It's MyBooky.orgie.org. I agree with the odds here. I think Dominic Mysterio will continue to hold the championship here. But what we're going to get from this match is easily, in my opinion, this is going to be match of the night. And I think like Penta has proven since he got to WWE and he's proven everywhere else that he's worked in the world that Penta can go with anybody.

And Penta brings the best out of anybody. And that's what we're going to see here. I think people sleep on Dominic Mysterio's ability in the ring just because he's such a big character. And I think he's known for like his personality and his charisma and how much we love to boo him. But Dominic Mysterio can go. and what we're going to see here is a fantastic match. And Penta will one day be the intercontinental champion. I have no doubt about that.

I'm sure one day he'll be a world champion as well. I just don't think it happens this weekend at Backlash. So going with Dirty Dom on this one, the United States Championship Fatal four-way match. We've got Jacob Fattu defending against Drew McIntyre, L.A. Knight. Of course you said, yeah. Yeah. And Damien Priest, this is a really interesting one to me because Jacob Fatu is the odds on

heavy favorite here, very heavy favorite. And I agree. I think Jacob Fatu wins this match. What's interesting here is who takes the pin? Because I think that it's, that's really telling here because I don't think it's Drew McIntyre. I don't think Drew McIntyre takes the pin. I think that he has too much momentum here. I think that that would make him look, week. So that leaves it now to Damian Priest or L.A. Knight. Yeah. I think Jacob Fawtu will continue to hold on to the championship at least for another few weeks or maybe even a few months. And man, he is so deserving of this. He's worked his tail off ever since he debuted years ago. I just mean debuting as a wrestler. He's worked his tail off. He is wildly athletic, especially for someone at

his size and I am so happy to see him getting his flowers and being given the spotlight and something like this. He was also one of the MVPs of the bloodline. Like just so entertaining every time the camera was even near him. Even if he wasn't like part of the segment, even he was just in the background, I mean, like he wasn't the focus of the segment. He was stealing the show. So Jacob Hutu wins this one. But is it L.A. Knight or is it Damien Priest? that take the pin. I, that's the bigger question here. It's not about who wins.

It's like who takes the pin and then where do things go from there? I think Jacob Fattu pins Damian Priest. That is, that is my prediction here. So I've taken it one step further. It's almost like, and I feel like I'm going to slip into Chris Sharp mode here and get all like cocky and arrogant. But like, I've been, I've been pretty great on these predictions. Ever since I started doing predictions, I've been like, I don't know what my percentages, but it's got to be like 95%.

So I feel like I'm going to be either four for five or five or five here, which I know that if you do the math, that's either 80% or 100%. Got him for 100%. But I feel like I just wanted to add an extra layer here. I think Jacob wins, but who takes the pin? That to me is the more interesting story. Becky Lynch and Lyra Valchiria, Lyra putting that women's intercontinental championship on the line.

According to the odds at my bookie, this is the one championship title change that we will see on Saturday. They've got Becky Lynch at a minus 500 here. And I'm going to go with Becky Lynch on this one, but I think that this could go a few different ways. So they're very clearly setting up Becky Lynch versus Bailey. And you saw my interview or you heard my interview with Bailey. She's just underappreciated for every.

everything she's done in her career. It just feels like she hasn't been given that, like the spotlight of some of her counterparts. And maybe this is the opportunity to make that happen. So I could see Becky Lynch beating Lyra Valcquaria, but I also feel like Lyra's run has been so short. Like it's been such a short run as the IC champion. and I just think that there's,

it's just more they could be doing with her. It's not that it's short, obviously. She won it in January, January 13th to be specific. I just feel like there's more meat on the bone here. Like you take the Intercontinental Champion and you give her a tag team match at WrestleMania and not just any tag team match. You give her a tag team match where her partner changes at the last minute.

And I just think that the focus here should have been on the singles title that she holds. So I think that Becky Lynch wins this match. I think it sets something up very nicely for Becky and Bailey, which puts Bailey over as a huge baby face. Because Bailey, Becky's been doing everything that she can to be a mega heel here. But I also see another scenario here where Bailey comes in, maybe costs Becky the win, and then that sets up a feud with Becky and Bailey that doesn't have the IC title as part of it.

I think that's like kind of a caveat here. That's like another possibility. But I've got Becky Lynch winning this one, setting up something. Maybe it's for SummerSlam with Becky and Bailey. That's the way that I see this one going down. Gunther versus Pat McAfee. And someone sent me a message and they were like, CVV, Gunther versus Pat McAfee. Are you serious? Like, is that, Is that a real match? Yes, my friend. That is a real match. And Pat McAfee has proven in the past that he can go, especially when you think back to the work that he did in NXT.

His match with Adam Cole, like, that wasn't just a throwaway match with, you know, two or three moves. That was Pat McAfee, like, really giving it as all. It was a match. Actually, I just looked it up here. That match was 16 minutes and 11 seconds long. Then he was in the war games match. undisputed era versus Danny Birch, Pat McAfee, Pete Dunn, and Oni Lorkin, like 45-minute match. Like Pat McAfee can go.

He also had the WrestleMania match with Austin Theory. Yes, this is going to be a real match. This is going to be a competitive match. Gunther the favorite here. And I agree with that. I think Gunther wins this match. But what this is going to do, if I'm fantasy booking this, I think what this does is it sets something up very nicely for Goldberg to interject into this match and then set up what I will think,

I would think is going to be Goldberg's final match, final opponent. It's going to be Goldberg versus Gunther sometime in the summer. We know that Goldberg is going to have his final match this year. We don't know when. We don't know where. We don't know who it's going to be against. But I feel like we're going to have some more answers after Saturday night. I feel like Goldberg getting into this match and Goldberg starting to settle his beef because there's real beef there, real beef with Gunther. I feel like that's what happens in this one. And what Pat McAfee's going to do in this match, like Pat McAfee is, he's about as over as a baby as a baby face as you can be. I think he's going to continue to build that heel heat for Gunther and make people hate Gunther even more.

I'm so proud of myself for continuing to call him Gunther. Almost every other time when I talk about a Gunther match, I switch between Gunther and Gunther. And I asked him and he said, yeah, you can call me either one. It doesn't matter to me. And when you look at the celebrities, and I'll put that in quotations, when you look at the quote unquote celebrities who have had matches in WWE, Pat McAfee is right near the top of that list.

Like I think that when you go through, you go way back and you kind of figure this out, people like Pat McAfee, well, I think like David Arquette crawled so that people like Pat McAfee or Stephen Amel could walk so that someone like Bad Bunny could run. And that is no disrespect to Stephen O'Mell or to like Paul Walter Houser who are like real competitors in there. But when you look at the like Mount Rushmore of celebrity wrestlers, Pat McAfee's on there.

He has to be. This is like long gone of the days that we had during the attitude era where someone would come out like take one move very poorly or give one move very poorly. I'm not going to point fingers here, but you know exactly. of the people that I'm talking about, and then go away. They would just take one move very poorly or give one move very poorly and go away. Like long gone are those days. Like now they're training for months and months and months, not just so the moves look well executed, but so the story is told and the story is told with good pacing.

I think there's something that you often see with rookie wrestlers or first-time wrestlers. This isn't just in WWE, but this is anyway. where there's like it's just move, move, move, move, move. And there's no like pausing. There's no facial expressions. They're just so caught up on getting to the next move, getting to the next spot that they're not allowing the moments to breathe. And what you're seeing, at least in recent years,

with people like Pat McAfee, with people like Stephen Amel, with people like Bad Bunny, what you're seeing is like well-rounded matches where they're athletic, they're competitive, they're believable. And you're looking at them going, I can't believe that's this person's first match or their fourth match or whatever it happens to be, like, well-trained is what it is. So I think that this one is going to be surprisingly good.

It's going to be a beat down. I get the feeling, I get the sense that with the buildup that we've had for this, that it's going to be a bit of a like a brutal match, especially with the way that Gunther choked out Pat McAfee. That was intense. And also, I think you've got to give your props to Pat McAfee and how good he's been on the mic. And if you watch any of Pat McAfee's stuff outside of wrestling, you already know this.

Anytime he's on college game day, he almost like cuts a promo at the start of the show, setting up like, well, this is what this team has to offer. But on the other side of the ball, this is what this team has to offer. He like builds up both teams, talks about their strengths and their weaknesses. It's the exact formula you would have for a wrestling promo. And he's been so good at just being a great communicator. That's why he's so successful as a broadcaster because he's a great communicator. And that comes through with the intensity that he has, the believability that he has and these wrestling promos. So hats off to him. Hats off to him for making these promos actually feel authentic and not just feel like he's

memorized his script and he's saying some words. All of that brings us to the main event. John Sina versus Randy Orton, they're saying it's one last time. And if we are going to hold them to that, if it truly is one last time, there goes my theory of Randy Orton being John Sina's final opponent. That's fine. I mean, I predicted this. I think I predicted it last summer when John Cena came out of money in the bank and said that he was going to have a retirement tour. At that point in time, I was like, well, it's got to be Randy Orton. So here we are almost a year later.

I suppose I need to make a new pick. I talked about it a little bit last week on Ask CVV number 81. But if this is it, if this is their final match, one last time, I hope we can believe them. Because I remember when there was a match between John Cena and the Rock that was going to happen just once in a lifetime. And then about 365 days later, it happened again. So once in a lifetime was not actually the thing. But I do believe them here. I think that John Sina has other opponents that he will move on to and face in the latter

part of this year. So we've got John Sina versus Randy Orton. John Sina is about as big a favorite as it can be on my bookie. But this is tricky. This is tricky because we know that John Sina is a huge. heel. So there is a chance here where Randy Orton could win this match by disqualification. There is a possibility that Randy Orton could win this match by countout, but John Cena would still retain the championship. So I think we're kind of asking and answering two questions here.

Who wins the match and who's the champion after this match? So this is sneaky, right? Because John Cena is a huge, huge favorite. And if you look at the odds, Randy Orton, big underdog here, like in terms of just winning the match, there is a world that exists where Randy Orton could win this match, but not be the champion when it's over. Like, this could be a throwback. This could be a throwback to no way out. 2008, when Randy Orton slapped the referee, slapped Mike Keota. Next time Mike Kyoto's on the show, I feel like I've got to ask him about that.

But he slapped Mike Keota, intentionally gets himself eliminated but retains the championship. What a heel thing to do. If John Cena did that here, that's a possibility. It's also a possibility that maybe John Cena just realizes he can't beat Randy Orton. Ah, just kind of like waves his arm, starts walking on the back, gets counted out. this is a real possibility. It's also very much in line with the idea of ruining wrestling. I don't know if it's going to go that way, but it's certainly something to think about. When we look at the odds here and we're making a prediction, I do think that John Cena's going to win. He's going to win by

some sort of dastardly method. He's going to win some sort of heel fashion. I think that John seen as rain continues for a few more months, at least until SummerSlam, at least until SummerSlam. And I guess that that wraps things up with this feud, this career-long feud with Randy Orton. I'm really curious where it goes from here. Quite a few different ways that it could go from here. There's quite a few different opponents. I would have to think that CM Punk finds his way into this conversation somewhere. Like I mentioned last week, I feel like there might be another match for Cody Rhodes in there. Maybe that's the final match.

But I think that there's with, I guess after this weekend, there'll be 26 dates left on the John Cena retirement tour. I still think that puts us at like six to eight-ish matches max. Max. and that's including the PLEs that we already know are happening. That's money in the bank. That's Crown Jewel. That's Survivor Series. That's SummerSlam.

There's some Saturday night's main events thrown in there. And then there's whatever this event's going to be in December for John Cena's final match. We've seen a lot of rumors about this. I think a lot of these rumors have a lot of truth to them. I would be shocked, shocked if it's not in Boston. and I've also heard the rumors that it's just going to be called John Cena's last match. So just a card with other matches on it, but then John Cena's last match will be on it. And the entire show would be called John Cena's last match.

So if you think about that, that's it. Like that's what we get for the year. I don't know if we're going to get matches on Raw or Smackdown. I'm not saying we're not going to get any of them. But it feels to me like there's maybe going to be. be one or two. So like, we're looking at six to eight matches here. And there's a lot of things that need to be figured out before the end of the year. A lot of like loose ends. I need to be tied up. Who does John Cena lose the championship to? Does John Cena hold the championship all the way

until the end of the year? I've seen some rumors from people. I've seen some fantasy booking from people, I should say. They're like, well, what if John Cena hold the championship until the end of the year and he retires at the champion. What a way to really ruin wrestling. I don't see that being the case. I don't see that being the case at all. But I do see a scenario. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but I do see a scenario where John Cena could go all the way until the end of the year into that final match as the champion. And then he loses to whoever his final opponent is, be it CM Punk or Cody Rhodes or someone else. There's quite a few other worthy opponents in there. People that you could definitely build a story around, but I'm curious. I am buckled in and I'm very interested to see how

this goes out, see how this plays out, and to see how they continue to flesh out this story of John Sina being a heel. Because ever since John Sina turned heel, his issues have not been with his opponent. Sure, he said some mean things about Cody Rhodes and he said some mean things about Randy Orton, but John Cena's main issue has been with the crowd. It's John Cena in this broken relationship, this abusive relationship with the crowd. That's been the main issue. Can they continue that on without fleshing it out some more? That's the thing that I'm curious about here.

So very interested to see how things play out of backlash and then very curious to see where things go from there. The next thing that we have after that is money in the bank, Saturday, June 7th in Los Angeles. So we've got less than a month. It's less than a month to that one too. And still for everybody asking, I'm still working on the details for Ask Insight Live that Friday, June 6th in L.A. I'm trying to, apparently, we're doing this on very short notice in a big city like L.A. I didn't realize that we needed to have this all in place months ago.

So most of the venues are booked up. But we have found a spot Friday, June 6th. I'm trying to put the details together here to make sure that we can make this work. So as soon as I figure this out, you'll get you guys will be the first one to know. But it's going to be, man, if that's our next PLE, and it is. There's some big storyline changes that. are possible with money in the bank and who ends up winning the briefcase on the men's side, who ends up winning the briefcase on the women's side. And if you think back to last year,

Drew McIntyre won it, held it for what, an hour and then cashed in unsuccessfully. And like, that was it. And I, I understand why. Like, it really continued to build the momentum in the storyline with Drew McIntyre and CM Punk. But I, I, I understand why. Like, it really continued to build the momentum in the storyline with Drew McIntyre and CM Punk, but I just, I love the idea of someone winning the briefcase and holding on to it and it always being this looming threat. Like every PLE comes along and you're like, well, could that person cash in? Hmm. Could they? Should they? Would they? And then you think about it like if someone champing gets really beat down on Raw or Smackdown, is this going to be the time? Is your music going to hit? And I think that we might have a more,

call it traditional storyline with Money in the Bank. I mean, it's what we got with Tiffany Stratton. That was fun. They really built that up, like, really built that up with Nia Jackson and like, is she going to cash in on her friend, Nia Jacks? Like, is that where this thing's going? It's Tiffany Stratton like full on turned baby face? Oh, she did.

Okay, cool. I always love that. That's the way that I love to see Money in the Bank go. So we shall see. And if you're going to be in Los Angeles for Money in the Bank, I will see you there. Marcus Powelling emailed this one in. Hey, Chris, loving the show as always.

I've got to tell you this. Your jingle, it's Insight with Chris Van Fleet. Regularly gets in my head and I sing it often around the house. My wife and kids who are used to such behavior do not bat an eyelid. However, I forgot myself at work the other day and thinking I was alone, I belted it out. And I mean belted it out in the gents bathroom. I soon discovered I was not alone, but my work colleague, to his credit, looked around, nodded, and carried on with his day.

Moral of the story, don't be afraid to spread the word of CVV. Thanks as always for being my go-to podcast on my morning runs, Marcus in the UK. Thank you for sharing that. That is a fantastic story, Marcus. And I hope that you just continue to sing, it's inside with Chris Van Fleet, wherever you are. It gets stuck in my head all the time. And in fact, if sometimes my wife will play it when we're in the car. And my daughter, Logan, I'll be like, Daddy's song?

Daddy's song? So it's a big hit in our house as well. Thank you for sending that. And what a great story. Big underscore Mike F on Instagram says, which WWE superstar release was the most shocking to you? The releases in general just both. me out every time I see those headlines because to me I realize how much work has gone in

for those people over their entire life like fighting for a spot like this and they're just released sometimes without warnings in some situations like if you listen to the Indy Hartwell situation or sorry interview yesterday indie had a match that was recorded she got released and then on the day that she's released the match airs that night so like technically she's released and wrestling that night. And it's like in those situations, you don't see the writing on the wall. You're like, oh, everything must be going fine. I just had a match a few days ago. Oh, here's a phone call I'm getting from Connecticut. Hello. Oh, my goodness. I'm getting released. Like those are the ones that, well, all of them in general

shock me and I think it's upsetting. And like, I hope that everyone's doing okay. And there able to process the news and they're able to take this and build on it and move forward from here. The one that shocked me the most was Braun Strowman. You talk about a guy who's a former WWE Universal Champion. He beat Goldberg for that title, by the way. He also had like main event match with Brock Lesnar at No Mercy in 2017. Braun Strowman's one of those guys that passes what they call the airport test. Like, Vince McMahon talks all the time about the airport test.

It's the idea that like, if someone's walking by you in the airport, do you turn your head and go, oh, who's that person? What do they do? They're like a larger than life character. And I've known Braun, Adam for years. When you meet him, he is massive. Like I come up to like his chest. level when I'm standing next to him. He's huge. He's larger than life in every sense of the word.

And I just think that they really dropped the ball with him since bringing him back. He's one of those people that they should have done something there to allow him to shine. And I know that wherever he goes and whatever he ends up doing, he's going to succeed at it. But that was the one that surprised me. Not to say, that the other ones didn't surprise me, but I think that that was the biggest name where it was like, really? You're going to let him go? It just feels like there was so much untapped potential there. What we did get from Braun Strowman was, man, he made Jacob Fawtou look so great in the buildup to Jacob becoming the United States champion. It's like that last man standing match on Smackdown in Chicago

about a month ago, I was there for that. And it was just like, man, it was a brutal match. It was a highly entertaining match. And I feel like putting Jacob in there with Braun really helped to elevate Jacob. Also, did the same thing for Bronson Reed. And I don't know if Bronn has given enough credit for making those two guys specifically. If we're just talking about the last handful of months here, I don't know if he's given enough credit specifically for making those two guys look great. Like leveling them up to become

monsters themselves. So I'm excited to see what's next for Braun and I'm excited to see what's next for everyone else. And I just hope. I just hope this is the last wave of releases for 2025. Like if there's people on the roster that haven't been given an opportunity, give them something. Like allow them to prove themselves. allow them to maximize their minutes. That's a phrase that you hear so often in wrestling. Even if it's just a short match, even if it's just a quick promo,

even if it's a WWE social media promo, like allow them the chance to shine. Instead of just letting them like sit in obscurity, like let them put their talents on display. That's what I would love to see. So fingers crossed here that these are the last wave of releases. And I just, it's news that I hate to see. that just just hate to see.

Raven on Spotify says, Hey, Chris, I absolutely love your podcast. I know it's really of the subject, but do you think since Ria isn't the champ, maybe she'll win money in the bank and cash in at Crown Jewel since it's in Perth. Can't wait for the next one. Have a good day.

Raven, thank you for taking the time to write in here. I can't think of a better scenario than this. Ria Ripley is not the champion right now. If Ria Ripley is announced for Money in the Bank, I think that that's a real heavy favorite there, in my opinion. And then I love the way that you have planned this out. Ria Ripley cashes in in her home country of Australia. The roof would blow off of that place. I can't think of a better scenario. I don't know who would be more deserving, at least right now, with the way that things are going. going, then Ria Ripley to be miss money in the bank and then to cash in a perfect place like

that, Crown Jewel and Perth. So I love this. I think you've, no notes, no notes on that one. The other way I could see this going is now that Chelsea Green is not the women's United States champion, Chelsea Green holding the money in the bank briefcase would be such great television. So that's another option here. We're still a month away. A ton of stuff is going to happen between now and then. So these are like super early predictions. And I know you didn't ask, but let's look at the men's side as well.

I know you may not like him. And every time that I say anything nice about Logan Paul, I'm accused of glazing or I'm accused of like supporting him, you can't argue with the fact that he is like supremely athletic and so talented in the ring. You don't have to like Logan Paul as a competitor or as a person to like just see that. Like anybody with eyeballs can see that Logan Paul is a talented pro wrestler. Logan Paul holding the money in the bank briefcase could make for some really great segments. So I think that that's a possibility. Again, we don't know who's even in the match. But another one is CM Punk.

and that would allow us to have just the exactly what I was just talking about, this underlying threat, like CM Punk's holding the briefcase, he's gunning for John Cena's waiting for that moment. If that was kind of just the underlying threat that was always there, it's always in the back of John Cena's mind. Oh man, maybe I won this match. But at any moment, CM Punk's music could hit. Again, we'll find out. out in the next month or so, who all's in this match. But man, I think we've got a lot of great possibilities.

Jesse Prueger emailed this one in. Hello, this is Jesse from Vancouver, Canada. I used to live in Vancouver. I lived in Yale Town. I lived there for about a year when I was hosting that show on MTV2, Canada. Hope your day's going well, and the baby is sleeping more. And he is. He is sleeping more.

It's been amazing, which means I think we got like our first full night of sleep last night for the first time since the baby was born. So thank you. My question is about Roman Raines. During his speech, the day of Paul Heyman's induction of the Hall of Fame, he stated that the day we see him without the wise man is the day that we won't see the tribal chief anymore. Should we be expecting any character changes in the near future? Love the show. Grateful for my parents. I sing your song every episode. I think this is a recurring theme here. It's inside with Chris Van Bleet. Shout out to Downstate.

Man, they make some great songs. So good. I think we're already starting to see a different side of Roman Reigns. Roman Raines is, for all intents and purposes, a baby face. I know that he himself hasn't turned baby face, but everyone around him has turned on him. And it hasn't been addressed yet, at least in WWE programming, but I've seen a lot of chatter online about how everyone has turned on Roman Reigns, but Roman Reigns has never turned on anyone. And now we're starting to hear the chance, Roman, Roman reigns. Like, Roman's a baby face.

And again, I know he hasn't done anything to like officially turn himself baby face, but Roman's a baby face. And I don't know how much longer he can continue the tribal chief character if he's a tribal chief without no tribe. Like he doesn't have a tribe. So what does this turn into? Does he keep wearing the red Ula Fala? And we just kind of go, oh yeah, of course. I remember when he was the tribal chief. But what does this morph into? And I think it morphs into something else here. This will be the first time that we've seen Roman Raines doing his own thing, like just Roman reigns in, I guess it'd be five years. because it was Roman Reins with Paul Heyman ever since Roman Reins turned heel, then Roman Reins with any of the members of the bloodline for also the good part of this decade.

And now that the bloodline storyline is officially over, what does this mean for Roman Reins and what does this mean for the future of Roman Reins? Because he said in interviews, I don't know if I have one or two or maybe. three years left in the ring. And I want to then continue to entertain people, but in a way that isn't so rough on my body. So could this be like the last chapter here for Roman Raines? I don't mean right now, but are we heading into that? Are we heading into like the last phase of Roman rains if he just has a few years left? Roman turns 40 in just a few weeks, May 25th.

is his birthday. And here's a direct quote from the interview that he did with Vanity Fair. He says that his current deal expires after WrestleMania of next year. And then the quote is, after I finished that contract that I'm in, we've probably got another year or two max. Then it's time to take on a less physical form of entertainment. Maybe he's joining his cousin, The Rock, and doing some more movies. Do you remember when you saw him in the wrong Missy? It was a, A lovely surprise. I just put that movie on on Netflix when it came out. And I was like, wait a second.

Is that Roman Raines? That is Roman Raines playing like a tough guy at the bar, like looking for a fight. Is it more movies? Of course, he did Fast and Furious with The Rock. Is that what we end up seeing from him? But all of this is to say, we're in the last chapter or chapters of Roman Rain's career. He's already been working a, uh, uh, uh, a lot less matches. He's been working a schedule with just a handful. I think it was like,

let me look at the actual numbers here. Six matches in 2024. He's already had three matches in 2025, 11 matches in 2023. He's really aware of the bump card, the proverbial bump card that wrestlers talk about. There's only so many bumps that your body can take before it can't take anymore. So he's already been working this part-time schedule. And I think that from the sounds of it, he's only got a handful of years left. So I think that we will see Roman continue to transition into another phase of this Roman reigns character. But again, I just come back to this idea. You can't be a tribal chief if you don't have a tribe. So I think that this ends up morphing into something else here. Curtis Mills on Facebook says who will be the world champion first.

Dirty Dom or Braunbreaker? I think there's no question that both of them are going to be world champions at some point in time. But if I'm trying to guess here, and that's all it is, just an educated guess, looking at the landscape of pro wrestling. If I'm guessing between the two, Dirty Dom or Bronbreaker, I would guess that Braunbreaker is the world champion first of those two, mainly because he's aligned now with Paul Heyman and he's aligned with Seth Rollins. And Paul Heyman is pretty great at making champions. And I think that if we're being realistic about this, I think the brawain breaker could be

world champion within two years, maybe sooner, but I'm trying to be realistic with this timeline. And I think that there's some other people, at least right now when you look at it, that are vying for that spot, especially if we're looking at the World Heavyweight Championship, which I would think is the first championship that he holds. There's some other people that are going to get there or that are going to hold that championship before him. But I would go Braun Breaker within the next two years. And then Dirty Dom, probably not long after that, but both of those guys are going to be

the future of this company. I mean, they already are the future of this company. but if we're talking about WWE 10 years from now, like those are going to be two of the major players, especially, I mean, piggybacking off of what we were just talking about, Roman Raines only has a handful of years left. John Cena only has half of this year left.

Randy Orton, he'll be retiring within the next few years. AJ Stiles told me during our interview, he doesn't want to wrestle past 50, so that gives him another year and a bit. Like a lot of the big names, a lot of the legends, the current legends, are going to be retired in the next three to five years. And then if we look beyond that, if we're looking at like 10 years from now, if we're looking at 30 to 2035, Cody Rhodes will likely be retired by then. He'll be approaching 50. So you've got a whole new crop of people.

we're seeing a lot of them right now. And I think there's going to be some names in there in the next five or 10 years that may surprise us, people who maybe they just haven't been given the right opportunity yet, or maybe they're not working within the right gimmick right now. But the thing I love about pro wrestling is things can change in an instant. Give someone the right manager, give someone the right promo, give someone the right master, give someone the right master, give someone the right match on the right platform and things could change so quickly. I'm very interested to see who the real leaders are, who the faces of the company are when we look ahead into the 2030s. Isn't that crazy? We're already halfway through this decade. Time's flying. Joe Osborne on Facebook says,

I have a question for the Antoine Randall, Antoine Randall, Antoine Randall, Edition of Ask CVV. What's your favorite Mick Foley memory or match? And when are you getting the micker on the show? My favorite Mick Foley match is also my favorite Triple H match. Royal Rumble 2000, their street fight. It's a brutal match. It's an emotional match. And it's this like story of, you can't do it as mankind.

So Mick Foley's like, well, you know, it's Cactus Jack. Cactus Jack is going to come out here and give you all he has. And that match elevated Triple H to a whole new level. That was like right at the beginning of him starting to become the game and like everything that came along with that character. So that's it. A very close second. Like if you ask me tomorrow, maybe my answer will change.

But I loved the match between Cactus Jack and Randy Orton, Backlash, 2004. How fitting with Backslash. clash being this weekend. Just like what we were talking about with Triple H being elevated to a whole new level because of that match in the Royal Rumble 2000. Randy Orton got taken to a whole new level and just a different perception of who he was and what he was capable of because of this one. Like, I think that up until that point, and you'll remember this if you're around my age,

Randy Orton was kind of looked at as like this pretty boy. And people were like, there's no way he's going to like, yeah, he'll have. have this hardcore match with Mick Foley, but like, it's not going to take any like real damage, right? Oh no. Oh, no. Randy Orton took some real damage in that match. And I think that both of those matches really showcase that Mick Foley is so amazing at making his opponents look great and also bringing out the best in his opponents. So those are those are my two favorites for sure. I saw Mick last weekend at Squirt Circle Expo in Indianapolis, shared a very brief conversation with him. He's definitely on the list.

He's someone I would love to have on the show. And I floated it out there to him. I don't know if he's been a guest on a podcast in a while, but I floated this out to him. And I guess we shall see. But I've interviewed Mick many times, never like a full, long form hour plus interview on the show. And I think the last interview I did with Mick Foley was like 2012-ish. Like, don't quote me on him, but somewhere around that, like definitely over 10 years ago. So we are long, long overdue to have him back on the show.

And man, an hour's not going to be enough time. We'll do the best that we can with an hour, of course. But there is so much in his career to cover. And I know that it's also, I mean, it's just hard to narrow down to, I narrowed it down to two, but it's so hard to narrow down to just two of my favorite matches with Mick Foley. But Mick Foley, the human being, legend, like just a legendary human. Top Roped 7654 on Twitter. Are you as outraged as I am that El Grande Americano won a singles championship before Chad Gable?

Yes, I am. Justice for Chad Gable. El Grande Americano, if you missed it, is the current speed champion right now. And I get it. El Grande Americano has won championships all over the world. I think for a lot of people, they're just seeing him now in WWE over the last month or so and seeing what El Grande Americano is capable of. But this is someone who just has a wealth of knowledge in the ring,

someone who has held championships in other organizations, no surprise that El Grande Americano is a champion in WWE, but Chad Gable keeps getting these opportunities taken away. How did we have WrestleMania without Chad Gable on the card? And when will we find out the identity of El Grande Americano? This is one of the storylines, no joke here. the stuff I said before might have been a joke, but what I'm about to say right now is not. This is one of the storylines I'm so invested in because this could spin off and go in so many different directions. They could keep this going for as long as they want. But I'm curious where

this goes. I'm curious what the moment is when Al Grande Americano gets unmasked and we all realize who's under that mask. I've heard a lot of rumors as to who it might be. Heard a crazy rumor. someone said it's Chad Gable under there. Okay. But I'm just curious where this ends up going. And you've got to, like, I have so much respect for Chad Gable and the shape that he has got himself in. Like, there is no better conditioned wrestler in WWE right now. Like just go on his Instagram and just like,

look at any of his workout photos or workout videos. Like he is in like Olympic shape right now. Like it's scary the kind of shape that he's in right now. Also, a little sidebar here, Tomaso Champa, the exact same. Like the shape that Tomaso's in right now, mind blowing. And he just celebrated his 40th birthday.

So happy 40th birthday to Tomaso. But Chad Gable is doing everything right now. to be in the absolute best shape of his life, of his life. And my hat's off to him and the incredible work ethic that he has. But yes, I am as outraged as you are that El Grande-A Americano keeps getting these opportunities. And Chad Gable is not. This is from K2 Dajig on Instagram. First, I listen to your interviews and the Ask CVs.

I guess that makes me a real, real one. That would make you a real, real one, especially if you listen all the way until the end of these episodes. Hopefully I can get to a live show and become a real, real, real one. I'm just curious. Have you ever met the Houston Rockets

Fred Van Fleet? I'm sure someone has asked you that before, but I couldn't find it. I can't say that I have. We spell our names slightly differently. He's VL-E-E-T. He also doesn't have a space. He's capital.

Van, Capital Vleet, but there's no space in between. So I've never met him. He played for the Raptors for many seasons. And especially when the Raptors were in their playoff run, I would get a lot of tweets or I'd get a lot of just messages from friends talking about Fred Van Fleet. I'm joking that we were like cousins or something like that. So no, I don't know Fred Van Fleet. I would love to meet him. That would make for a fun photo. I also get asked about Greta Van Fleet. Greta Van Fleet is not actually a person, but a band. I think there's a misconception that Greta Van Fleet is the performer's name. Greta Van Fleet is a band, and none of the people in the band have the last name Van Fleet. So there is very clearly no relationship to Greta Van Fleet.

and then I get a message probably once a week or so if I was related at all to Captain Beefheart, Don Van Fleet, who does spell his name the same as me. A legendary musician, late 60s into the 70s, as far as I know, no relation. My father's grandfather, so my grandpa on my dad's side, Lauren Van Fleet, who that's actually my middle name, Christopher Lorne Van Fleet. My middle name is in honor of him. He was like a family historian. He had written out like our entire family tree. And I would always send him messages because it's not just about like Fred Van Fleet or Captain Beef Hardin Van Fleet. I get messages from people who'd share the same last name and I would send it to my grandfather when he was still

with us. He passed at 97 two years ago. What a life, right? To get. get almost to 100, incredible. But I would always pass them the message along. And he'd be like, oh, as far as I know, there's no relation here. But who knows, if we show the same last name, maybe like somewhere along the line, there's, you know, we're related somehow. And I guess, like Van Fleet's a Dutch last name. And I guess in Holland, it's not, like, not incredibly rare. Like, it's pretty rare here in North America. But I guess there it's not as rare. It's, like a little bit more common, but as far as I know, no relation to Don Van Fleet. And it's just, it's funny when I get asked these questions. It reminds me of that Simpsons episode where

Monty Burns, Mr. Burns thinks that Homer Simpson's last name is Nixon. It's the episode where Homer becomes a great golfer. And then Mr. Burns is talking about like, oh, the way that he golfs reminds me of that time that I beat Richard Nixon. He's like, oh, man, do you think that this, this Homer Nixon would be any match for me? It's so funny. See, I wonder if this Homer Nixon has any relation. Unlike me, sir, they spell and pronounce their name differently. They spell and pronounce their names differently.

I wonder if I think about that. I think about a lot of substance references all the time, but that one, I always think about like this name's Homer Simpson. I wonder if there's Homer Nixon is any relation. I don't think so, sir. I spell and pronounce their names differently. So no relation as far as I know. But I would think, though, that Fred Van Vleet, even though he spells it differently, somewhere along the line many, many, many, many generations ago, hundreds of years ago, I'm sure our names were spelled the same. Ray Spriggs emailed this one in, hey, yo, CVV. I just wanted to take a quick moment to express my immense gratitude to you. Yes, you. On May 9th, last year, I lost a good friend of mine,

and a couple days later, I decided it was time to finally get my act cleaned up. In this past year, I've made it a routine to listen to your podcast episodes while working, and your consistent message of positivity and gratitude have helped to fix and improve my own mindset and outlook on life. Thus, on May 11th, I will be one year clean and sober from my former vice. And that's not a prediction. that's a spoiler. So legit. Thank you. I'm also wondering what wrestling move you are most excited to hit on your

shoulders. My youngest daughter seems to enjoy a white noise while her older sister liked a simple wasteland. I don't know how to end my emails. So keep on shining, my friend. Much appreciated Ray from Kansas. P.S. Chris Sharp is black licorice. I'm just saying what I heard.

You're right. Chris Sharp is black licorish. because who likes black licorish. Look, there's people who like black licorice and there's people who like certain heels. I'm just saying to me, Chris Sharp is black licorish. Thank you so much for your email, Ray, and congratulations on being one year clean and sober. That's amazing. The move I'm most excited to hit on my children, I've been like giving some very, very light moves to Logan, who turns two on May 29th.

I've been giving her some very light power. bombs, very light. I'm actually probably more like razor's edges. That's probably the move I'm most excited for. Like for her and for Cooper, when they get a little bit older, I think that's the move. Although I keep seeing these videos on Instagram. My wife keeps sending me this where it's like the way the dad like power bombs the sun like really rough, like, and then grabs the daughter and like gently puts the daughter down with a power bomb or a side slam or whatever it happens to be and then picks the sun back up and it's like a choke slam or whatever the move happens to be and then grabs the daughter and it's like very yeah I'm grabbing you but I'm putting you down

very soft I kind of feel like that's going to be where I'm at too I don't know but I'm excited I think powerball would be the first like real move that I hit on on the kids Mike Kamura on Spotify says, what do you think of the entrance music for some of the superstars in WWE? It seems Def Rebel isn't doing all that great anymore. Big fan of yours. What I think's missing from entrance themes right now

is that initial hit, that initial right out of the gate, that initial sound that makes you go, oh, that person's here. Oh my gosh, I can't believe they're here. Like, think about it through the years. there's the real obvious ones, the glass shattering, boom, it's Stone Cold City, Austin. Like, you can't even hear a glass shattering in a video or in like real life without thinking of

the gong. It's the undertaker. The car crash, Mick Foley. Are you ready? That wasn't very on key, but you know what I mean? DX. That from Brett Hart's theme song, the guitar. Like so many of those that within the first half,

half second, boom, you know exactly who it is. And there are many examples of that right now as well. The static of the TV. Oh, my gosh, it's CM Punk. Do do. Wrestling has more than, oh, it's Cody Rhodes. He's coming out here. But there are way more examples now than there ever was during the attitude era of the music hits, who is this? And you're waiting for their name to pop up on the Titan Tron. Oh, Oh, that's who it is. And we've seen way too many examples of this, especially during the Royal Rumble, where someone's music hits and you're like,

like there's a delayed reaction. I've been to the last few Royal Rumbles. And like the music hits, and then the reaction doesn't come until we see the name. That needs to change. I'm not saying everybody is going to have an incredible entrance theme. Not everybody is going to have a 10 out of 10 absolute banger that you want to be like bumping in the car

or playing when you're at the gym. But they need to have some sort of signature sound that right out of the gate, you know exactly who it is. And that is missing right now. And I think you could even have a mediocre entrance theme, but you need that signature sting right off the top. And if you go back and listen to the interview that I did with Jim Johnston, that was one of the major things that he talked about. And I think it's also one of the things that really made, you know, WWF standout from WCW during the Monday Night Wars was that the theme songs in WWF were just that much better and that much more recognizable. And I think that that was a really big contributing factor to what made WWF a better product as the Monday Night Wars continue to go on.

And WWF, it's so weird calling it, WWF. This is like the Gunther-Gunthor thing I was talking about earlier. But that was what allowed WWF to, one of the factors. that allowed WWF to just continue to build, like, build the brand stronger because you knew who was coming out based on that song. So like, it's not that the songs are that week. It's just a lot of them right now are missing that signature sting right out of the top, that signature sound of like, oh, that's who it is. And I don't know if that changes, but certainly needs to. Ryan Jeff Speller on Spotify says, hey, see, oh, this is on Facebook.

I'm sorry. Ryan Jeff Speller says, I'll be seeing you in Oshkosh in 10 days. I can't wait to see you in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Next weekend, it's going to be a blast. This is ACW. Is the company that Hornswoggle owns and runs.

This is Water City Wrestling Con at the Oshkosh Convention Center. The card is just stacked. Demolition, Hornswoggle, Heath Slater, JBL, Jindermal, Kelly, Kelly, Shelton, Benjamin, Santino Morella, Colt Cabana, Brian Myers, and yes, myself. So if you live in and around Oshkosh, if you live in Wisconsin or it's driving distance for you, I would love to see you there. Grab your tickets at ACW Wisconsin.com. And there's also meet and greet opportunities with everybody that I just listed off there. there. Ryan Clump on Spotify says, hey, Chris, real, real one over here. I never miss an episode. I'm dying to know more about your wrestling persona, Chris Sharp. How would you describe that character? Were you a

baby face or a heel? What was your move set? What was your finisher? Love the pod. Keep up the great work. I know, if you've heard me talk at all about Chris Sharp, I think it's obvious that he is a heel. he was like a this was 2000 and 2001 that I was really starting to develop this character. That was when I was a backyard wrestler, two-time HCW champion. And then I was like starting to continue to like build out what this character would look like as I was training to be a pro wrestler and going to wrestling school and then figuring out many months from that if I was going to follow this path and continue on what, I would look like if I was an independent wrestler.

That didn't end up happening, as you know. So Chris Sharp was a heel. I was very much inspired by what Triple H was doing with his new character, which was the game character at that point in time. I even, if you look at these old photos, I was taping my right hand and wrist and just taping my left wrist, just like how Triple H did. So like very inspired by Triple H. I think some of those promos were a little Triple H.

E, a little triple H-E, made it an adjective there. My move set was like, I was like pretty athletic. I was also really inspired by the way that Kid Cash wrestled in ECW. I love that he could hit a Hurricane Rana from any angle. So I would, a lot of Hurricane Ranas, tornado DDTs. I was also really inspired by the Hardy Boys. So you'd see a twist of fate in every match. You would see the Swanton Bomb was my finisher.

And I don't want to pat myself on the back too much here, but I could still do a pretty great swan tom bomb. Like I would rotate at the absolute last second on these swan tom bombs. The only swan tom bombs I'm doing now are either on trampolines or into pools. But yeah, big influence from all of those people. And also, I would hit the, That's Incredible, which was the twisting tombstone, which when I think back about this now, I can't believe my friends at that time were willing to allow me to drop. Like, I was not just, I was not softly doing it. I was like, I would jump up and spin and I'd plant them down. And I'm happy to say I never injured anybody. But when I watch that back now, especially as a father now, I know my parents were so scared. And like they didn't want me doing backyard wrestling.

I would have to, so I feel so bad saying that I would have to lie to them. I would tell my parents, I'm just going to the gym, just going to head over to the gym. And I would pack my gym bag, but with all my backyard wrestling stuff and like knee pads and like the wrist tape and all that stuff. And then I would go to my friend Great Kuzak's house. And we would backyard wrestle and film it in the backyard. I remember one time my mom like, I think was like doing laundry and went through my my gym bag and she's like, you weren't at the gym, were you? And I was like caught red-handed because she saw the knee pads and she saw the, all the other wrestling stuff in my gym bag. And I'm like,

nope, nope, I was wrestling. And it was a very awkward conversation and I got in trouble. But that was that was the main influences there. The clips are online. Maybe I should post another few clips of those backyard wrestling days. Maybe I should like do a video where I'm going through a match because there's a we had a an event called back in hell. This is so funny. This brings me way back. This is in 2001. Man, 24 years ago, it was April of 2001. We had an event called Back in Hell and there were like 80 people in our friends' backyard for this event. And it was like a pretty, like a match I'm really proud of with my buddy Greg Cusack. He went by the wrestling name Rage.

He was like really inspired by like Raven. If you watch that, you'd be like, oh, you know, this guy's like clearly trying to be Raven. But it was a really good match. And then towards the end, my rival Danny Courageous, who was coming back from a broken leg, he's all healed up and he comes out. He interferes in the match and costs me the HCW championship. It's a, yeah, I should probably do a watchthrough of this match at some point in time. I still have the VHS tapes of it.

But there you go. That's Chris Sharp in a nutshell. And I don't know. He was, I talk about Chris Sharp like he's another person. I guess he is. But Chris Sharp was a heel the entire time from, start to finish. And I don't know what a baby face run of Chris Sharp would look like. That, my friends, that's it. That's the final question here for Ask CVV number 82, the Jason

Witten and Ozzie Newsom edition. If you've got a question for next week, leave a comment on Spotify. Of course, after you've followed the show on Spotify, leave a comment on Spotify or leave it on social media with a hashtag AskCV or shoot me an email. CVV at Chris Vanfleet.com. I have appreciate you for being a real, real one. You tuned in to an Ask CBV episode. So that makes you a real one. You listened all the way until the very end. That, my friend, makes you a real, real one. And there is no show without you. So I appreciate you for being along on this journey with me. I saw this amazing quote on Instagram. And it was someone talking about this advice that they got from their second grade teacher, Ms. Edson. if it feels too hard to do it, it just means the first step isn't small enough.

And I love that so much because so often we get like, we look at the road in front of us and we go, oh man, that's going to be too hard. And you don't realize that like every journey begins with just one step. So like whether that's just like opening up a book and reading one page or like you've got this entire mess to clean up, just pick up one side. You want to write a book. Just write one sentence. You want to start a podcast. Just hit record. Like it's this concept that I talk about all the time of like, you just have to start. And I think that when you shrink down a massive task into just the smallest first step, it makes it feel so much more doable.

So I love that idea. If it feels too hard to do it, it just means the first step isn't small enough. I will see you guys in St. Louis for backlash on Saturday. Have an amazing weekend. Be great and be grateful. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight with Joe Hendry on Tuesday. 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.

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