Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #88 - Goldberg vs. Gunther, King & Queen Of The Ring Picks, Best Match of 2025 So Far

Episode Date: June 20, 2025

https://cvvtix.com - Get your tickets for INSIGHT LIVE in NYC with VIP Meet & Greet! Welcome to AskCVV #88! On this episode, Chris answers questions about Goldberg's match at SNME against Gunther and why it's for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, who will win both King and Queen Of The Ring and get title shots at SummerSlam, why WWE doesn't seem to give rematches anymore, the best match of 2025 so far, why the number of Championships seems to determine GOAT status in WWE, favorite wrestling TV show theme song and much more!   Quote I'm thinking about: “Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.” - Suzy Kassem   Please support our sponsors!   PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibcloux  SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup!  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   ROCKET MONEY: Download the Rocket Money app and enter “Insight With Chris Van Vliet” in the survey   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. Ah, yes, welcome back, my friends, to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV. Chris Van Fleet, happy Friday. We made it. Thank you for being a real one and for hitting play on an AskCV episode and for spending your Friday with me. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet.

slap a Texas clover leaf on that follow button on Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening right now because we've got some huge interviews coming up in the next month or so month-ish four to six weeks and I want to make sure that you don't miss out on any of those so slap a Texas Gloverleaf on that follow button so you don't miss out on anything. Congrats to Rob Van Dam and his wife Katie Forbes who announced last week that they're expecting a baby in 2026. So congrats to them on BVD, baby Van Dam. I'm just so excited for them. I am in New York City. As you're listening to this right now, I'm here for Fanatics Fest. On top of a long list of WWE superstars who are appearing in Fanatics Fest, I mean, we're talking about Cody Rhodes, Undertaker, Trish Trattis, Ria Ripley.

The list goes on and on and on and on. They also have LeBron James, Tom Brady. Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, like, packed, packed with stars. So if you're going to be a fanatics fest and you see me, I would love to chat some wrestling. So give me a high five. Let's chat a little wrestling there. And speaking of New York City, speaking of wrestling, that's where the next Insight Live is happening. August 1st, the day before SummerSlam, we're doing this in New York City. Grab your tickets at CVVTX.com.

CVVTIX.com. And I've talked about how fun that Ethan Page episode was. That's actually the next one that's dropping. That one's dropping on Tuesday on both the podcast and the YouTube channel. You're going to watch that episode and go, man, I don't want to miss that live show. I live in New Jersey or I live in New York or I'm going to SummerSlam. I'm flying in for it. If you have some time, that Friday evening, pencil it in your calendar. Better yet, put it in your calendar with Sharpie. You don't want to make it. miss it Friday, August 1st in New York City. Welcome, my friends, to Ask CVV number 88, the Eric Lindross, Michael Irving, Marvin Harrison, Tony Gonzalez, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. edition. It makes me sad. We've

only got 11 more additions to go. And we hit 99 and then, yeah, there's lots of things we could try to do as we get into triple digits, but there's nothing more fun to me than looking at a number immediately thinking of a jersey number and going, ah, yes, 88, Eric Lindross. Remember watching him play for the Oshawa generals before he got drafted in the NHL? Man, amazing. But thank you for being with us on Ask CVV number 88. If you have a question for next week, if you have a jersey number that pops into mine, a jersey name that pops into in mine for number 89, let me know. Leave a comment on Spotify. Send it in on social media using that hashtag, Ask CVV, or shoot me an email CVV at chris vanbleet.com. Speaking of Spotify,

thank you to everyone who commented peanut butter. It just makes me realize how many people do listen all the way until the end. How many real, real ones there actually are. Mitchie Edwards 21 on Spotify commented, mm, peanut butter. My wife saw this joke. this weekend. And you know, I love a good dad joke. So I had to read this out. Are jellyfish sad that there isn't any peanut butterfish? It's good. Good one, Mishy Edwards 21. If you're listening on Spotify, just comment, yeah. Just comment, yeah. And it'll be like the peanut butter of last week. But let's kick off Ask CVV number 88 with this one from Placconator on Spotify, who says, what are your thoughts on Gunther facing Goldberg at Saturday night's main event?

I just feel like this had been teased for a little while. Like it had been teased when the seeds were planted when, I'm going to call him Gunther. I do this every time. Gunther and Gunther and I call him Gunther moving forward. I know the seeds were planted when Gunther and Goldberg exchanged words last time WWE was in Atlanta. But I just feel like the booking on this came out of nowhere. The most important thing in wrestling is the story. And I think that if there was a story attached to Gunther v. Goldberg,

and we built this thing up, we could get invested into it. But Goldberg just showing up and demanding a match out of nowhere, just make us care. Like, give us a few weeks where we're invested in this. Like, maybe Goldberg costs Gunther a match or two, non-title, of course. maybe there's something there like Goldberg's music hits in the middle of a match and it's just like he's getting in Gunther's head. Like give us something to make us invested in this.

Because at the end of the day, what wrestling is really all about is the story. My favorite match of all time, Rock versus Hogan, they're not the two greatest wrestlers ever. They're certainly not technical wizards in there. But the story is what hooked us. And the story is what made us care about that one. I know that at the end of the day, what this match comes down to was Goldberg was promised one last match

that he never got. And it's nice to see that Triple H is making good on that promise that was made by Vince. You can listen to the full interview I did with Goldberg from last year. It's episode number 634 from last July. And you can hear like everything

that went into all of the matches that Goldberg had up to that point. And I don't think we really had a healthy Goldberg in a lot of those remaining matches that he had, certainly not in the match of the Feen, definitely not in the match with Goldberg, like he, sorry, the match with Roman Raines, when Goldberg took on Roman Raines. And he talked about how like that match at Elimination Chamber 22, like, he had COVID a few weeks before, gets a call from Vince and is like, hey, will you do this match?

And Goldberg's like, well, yeah, sure, I'll do this. but like in exchange for me doing that match, can you do me the favor of giving me my one final retirement match? And Vince said, sure, can you make it to Saudi Arabia in three weeks? All right, boom. Then you've got your retirement match after that. That retirement match never happened until now. I'm actually a little surprised that this isn't against Braun Breaker,

considering that there's friendship there, like real life friendship and there's a little bit of history there, a lot of comparisons between. Bronbreaker and Goldberg, but we've got Gunther versus Goldberg, and it's for the World Heavyweight Championship, which I just don't know why the title has to be on the line. This match would serve the exact same purpose

if it was just a non-title match, just a grudge match. I don't know why the title is being put on the line. And I know that this is not being officially advertised as a retirement match, but from what I know, from what I've been told, this is 99.99% his last and final match. A true retirement match like Batista's at WrestleMania 35.

And you know what? He deserves it. Like he, Goldberg deserves to have a retirement match outside of this promise that came from Vince. And the fact that he gets to do this in his hometown in Atlanta, I think is great personally. for Goldberg. Just make me care about this match. Just give us some reason to be invested in this. And I know that Goldberg gets a lot of hate online. I know that for a lot of people, they can't think of Goldberg without thinking of Brett Hart's constant comments about him.

But when Goldberg's music hit on Raw the other day, he got a huge pop. I don't know why that's being ignored. Yeah, maybe it's a nostalgic pop, but if you take the bias away, Goldberg was a massive attraction in the late 90s in WCW from his debut until the street getting broken and even some stuff after that. But like he would show up, tear through an opponent, and leave. And yeah, we all know he wasn't the most technical wrestler, but he was a big reason that people tuned into Nitro that time. And I know there's an entire generation that didn't watch the Monday Night Wars live, didn't

watch Nitro live on Monday when it was happening. And I understand that. And you're just like looking at this through a completely different lens. I get that. But Goldberg on Nitro just showing up either squashing someone or like you're tuning in to see him squash someone or you're tuning in to see if the streak would finally come to an end. Like that was a big part of WCW's rise at that point in time. And I just think that that seems to be forgotten by a lot of people who only are familiar with

his work in WWE. There also seems to be this narrative that all Goldberg does is show up and win. And I think that that stems from the, it's bad booking, that match with the fiend. Like, it just didn't make sense. Super Showdown, 2020. The fiend is supposed to be invincible and Goldberg beats him. And I get it. And again, go listen to the interview that I did with Goldberg. He was dealing with a lot of injuries of that time and still did the match. But I want to take you back here. I want to take you back to 2017 to just talk about this theory, this idea that all Goldberg does is show up and win. WrestleMania 33, Brock Lesnar beats Goldberg. His next match. Super Showdown 2019. Undertaker beats Goldberg. We all know about that match. That's also, we talked about that a lot

in our interview. SummerSlam 2019, Goldberg beat Ziegler. Then we got Super Showdown, 20, Goldberg beats the fiend. Then we go to WrestleMania 36. Bronz Strumon beats Goldberg. Royal Rumble 2021. Drew McIntyre beats Goldberg. SummerSlam 2021. Bobby Lashley beats Goldberg.

Crown Jewel, 2021. Goldberg beats Bobby Lashley. Then we've got up to this point, Goldberg's last match, Roman Reins beating Goldberg. So of all the matches that I just listed there, Goldberg only won three of them. So I don't know where this idea came from

that all he does is, show up and win. Like, I think we're pretty certain going into this that Goldberg is going to have a competitive match, but not win. And I actually think that Goldberg style and Gunther style match up well together. The expectations I get are low, especially with the match with Roman, the match with Undertaker, the match with the fiend. But if we have a healthy Goldberg for the first time in years, I think this match is going

to exceed whatever expectations that you have for this match. And can we not just allow Goldberg to have his final moment in front of his family in his hometown? Like, I'm actually excited to see that. And maybe this is just the nostalgia speaking. And again, I would like a story attached to this more than what we have right now. And also, I don't think this needs to be for any sort of title, let alone the world title. But I love the idea that someone gets to call. their shot and call their match for a final match. I actually talked about this with Christopher Daniels, who's going to be a guest on the show. We did the interview already, but that episode drops next Thursday. Not everybody knows when their last match is. Like, every wrestler has

their last match, but not everybody knows going into it. Could be an injury. You could end up getting let go, whatever it happens to be. The fact, like, there's a very short list of people that get to call their shot and go, all right, I'm going to have my last. match and also that match gets to be in WWE. Like Goldberg could have had his last match anywhere else. I'm sure he was offered large sums of money to do this elsewhere. And he didn't want to do that. He wanted to do it in WWE.

So from just that standpoint, I'm looking forward to Goldberg's career coming to a close in his hometown with his family there. And I'm just very interested to see how this all comes together here. John Wilson emailed this one in. Hey, CVV. First, I'm John, a real, real one from San Diego, hoping to be a real, real, real one in November. Second, and we are planning to do a show in November.

We're planning to do that show in November around Survivor Series trying to figure out all the details about where that's going to be. Second, I agree with no full draft, although I'd like to see a tag team draft to even out and mix up the teams. my only real problem with the draft is that they just never keep to it. Like if it's going to be a true draft and these people are on Smackdown and these people are on Raw, it needs to stay that way. Like model it after sports.

If this player gets drafted to my team, the Cleveland Browns, they don't play four weeks for the Cleveland Browns and then on week five just randomly start playing for the bills. And then week seven, they're back on the Browns. And if that does happen, there's a trade that happens. So all I'm saying is if we're going to keep the draft and keep the rules of the draft, if someone's going to go from Raw to Smackdown, there needs to be some sort of an exchange there or a trade.

That's all I'm saying. Otherwise, the draft is pretty meaningless. Third, finally, my question. Sorry, John. Just went off on a little tangent there. What's your updated feeling about King of the Ring? I don't know why Cody was in it since he should get a rematch from WrestleMania, but we get dream matches that we wouldn't normally see.

I'm going to go off the chain with predictions and say that Jay versus Sammy in Saudi Arabia. What do you say? Thanks for all you do. Your insight episodes make me a fan of the people that I knew very little about as well as some old favorites. Thanks, John in San Diego. So last year, King and Queen of the Ring morphed a lot from what it traditionally was. Like it used to be like a mid-ish card storyline that guaranteed you lots of TV time. and like you were on TV every week and it was like a fun part of your character,

now it's become like on the same level of like winning elimination chamber. Because if you become king or queen of the ring, you get a guaranteed title shot at SummerSlam. So I like that there's something on the line here. But long gone now are the days of King Corbin or Xavier Woods or even King Booker, wearing the crown for months running with it. it becomes like a whole new gimmick for them. Now it's like just a nice addition of the resume, then right into SummerSlam,

and then the thing that's kind of strange about it is King and Queen of the Rings, like never mentioned again. I mean, at least that's what we saw last year. Gunther, Naya Jacks, they were King and Queen of the Ring, respectively. After SummerSlan, there was no mention of King or Queen of the Ring. And I just think that that's, it's a fun stipulation now that you get the match at SummerSlam.

But I always enjoyed that like, This was something that could help level up a character from midcard to like something a little bit more meaningful. But now, like with the idea that a title shot is on the line at SummerSlam, it just makes it so different. And I agree with you. Cody Rhodes should not have to win King of the Ring to get a title shot. He was champ for over a year. John Cena cheated to beat him. Then Cody pinned him at money in the bank, yet somehow Cody has never got a rematch.

also you know who else never got a rematch and this doesn't get talked about enough Roman rains still hasn't got a rematch since losing the title in Philadelphia at WrestleMania 40 interesting right you hold the title for 1,316 days you lose it and it's like well all right on to the next thing what I just don't understand that part just just from pure logic that doesn't make sense but I digress Cody Rhodes hasn't got his rematch. Roman Raines hasn't got his rematch, but we've got the King of the Ring and Queen of the Ring semifinals. So what we've got is Oscar versus Alexa Bliss on Smackdown tonight. It was so great to see Oscar return on Raw for the first time after more than a year away sideline with that knee

injury that required surgery. Looks like she hasn't lost a step. I love it. We've also got Randy Orton versus Sammy Zane tonight on Smackdown. And then on Raw, we get Jade Cargo versus Roxanne Perez. and we get Cody Rhodes versus Jay Uso. I think there's a lot of different ways that this can go, but I see the men's final being Sammy Zane and Cody Rhodes, with Cody Rhodes eventually winning that. So then we get John Sina versus Cody Rhodes. It's SummerSlam.

That is a big marquee match for the first ever tonight WrestleMania. For the first ever, two-night SummerSlam, I could see them wanting to really knock it. out of the park with like two big names. And then Sammy Zane goes on from that to, I think, continuing this feud with Carrying Cross. And can we just pause and talk for a second about the massive pop that Carrying Cross got when he just showed up on Raw, like just showed up for a little 30 second backstage segment and like this massive pop. Like, clearly the crowd is clamoring to see more from Carrying Cross. And I just, I hope that W.

listens to that. For the queen of the ring, I just feel like, like any four of these would be amazing title contenders, and I think we'd get a great match. I think it's Oscar beating Alexa Bliss, and I think it's Roxanne Perez beating Jade Cargill.

So then we get Roxanne versus Oscar. And, oh, man. And this could go either way. You could even have, like, and you know it's going to be a great match. Oscar versus Roxanne is going to be just, phenomenal if this is indeed where it does go. So then it's like, do you have the up-and-comer, Roxanne Perez, getting the title shot and maybe even becoming champion? Or do you have

Oscar who's going to go out there, put on an amazing match with anybody who she's in the ring with and go on to maybe become the champion again? I'm really torn, like really torn on this one. I'm going to go with Oscar because I think Roxanne Perez will. be world champion one day, but maybe not yet. And I don't, I don't know if Oscar's going to go on to win the championship, but that one, that one I could be completely wrong. And so next week, we'll check back in and see what we're feeling about this one. But I, I just think that there's that that wrinkle in there. The fact that winning King or Queen of the Ring allows you to go on to possibly, I was going to say headline, SummerSlam, I would think that if

If it's Cody Sina, that probably does headline night two. And that, boy, things get real interesting there. And then I think we go right back to the drawing board with who John Sina's final opponent's going to be. Are we going to get three matches with John Sina and Cody Rhodes this year? I don't know. Like my gut still says that it's John Sina versus Cody Rose in his final match. But I don't know.

It's only June right now. And every other opponent that John Sina's had, or at least two of them, Randy Orton and C. Munk, they keep. keep saying one last time. So I don't know. We'll have full predictions for Night of Champions on next week's episode. This episode is brought to you by Cash App. Making money moves should be easy.

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Tim Way emailed this one in. Hey, CVV, big fan of the podcast. Always love you. hearing your take on things and how you balance wrestling analysis with just having a good time on it. Quick one for you. I feel like WWE missed an awesome story by not putting Chad Gable and El Grande Americano on the same side of the King of the Ring bracket. Imagine the build if they had a looming face-off in the tournament. It would have been the perfect chance to create a memorable moment. My question is twofold. What do you think the payoff is with that storyline? Obviously,

it's omas under the mask, but in this case it might be Chad. So first of all, I agree with you. I don't even think they should have been on the same side of the bracket. I think they should have been on opposite sides of the bracket. Chad Gable on one side, El Grande Americano and the other,

even if neither of them won their matches, it would just be this fun thing that was talked about online for that week of like, oh man, could this happen? Or if Chad Gable won like the quarterfinal match, it would just be a fun thing to talk about. And I agree. That would have just been a cool moment.

to throw out there and just let that kind of simmer online. I don't know what the payoff is, but I am so invested in the storyline. And I love that Chad Gable is doing the absolute best work of his career. And we will follow the storyline here. We will follow your crazy theory here that maybe, hypothetically, Chad Gable could maybe be El Gronde-Americano. If that is the case, Chad Gable slash El Grande Americano is doing just amazing work. Like every time that you see his name on a match graphic, it's like, you know, this is going to be so good. And we saw that at Worlds Collide.

We saw the amazing moments in the Money in the Bank ladder match. I love it. I don't know what the payoff is here. I would imagine it's somebody unmasking him. But I feel like we need like something more to like really sink our teeth into here. but this could go on for a while. Your second part of the question, do you think Chad Gable is world title material? Curious to hear what you think.

Appreciate all the great content, man. Cheers, Tim. Absolutely. And before Chad Gable becomes world title material, like, let's give Chad Gable a title. I'm again, shocked that he didn't win the Intercontinental Championship last year. Like, I feel like he was right there and it would have made so much sense. but it didn't happen. But yes,

Chad Gable, for sure, I think should have a world title run at some point in time. Like, when Chad Gable retires, there's no reason

why he shouldn't be a Grand Slam champion. It's already been a tag team champion. How fitting would it be if he's a U.S. champion? Like, that one just, it's a no-brainer.

Give him the Intercontinental Championship and let him just, let him do like an open challenge every week. Or you couldn't have him do that with the U.S. title, too. but like have Chad Gable just go out there and show how good Chad Gable is. He could wrestle anyone in the card and it'll be an amazing match. He could wrestle like your local star and that'll be a great match and it'll be a great

moment for the opponent. And then Chad Gable at some point in time wins the world title. Yes, for sure. He has all of the tools. And he also, like I know that he gets a lot of comparisons to Kurt Engel. But I think one of the best parts of that comparison is just how Chad Gable is not afraid to be the butt of the joke. Like he's not afraid to make himself look a little bit silly in the name of comedy. And I just appreciate that so much because that's what made Kurt Angle like so special.

It was just another layer to Kurt Angle. Because of course he could go out there and like legitimately beat up pretty much. anyone in WWE. But the fact that he seemed real, like the fact that he wasn't afraid to, like, make a joke at his own expense is what made him so relatable. And Chad Gable has that

quality, and I love it. Charlie Glendon on Facebook. Hey, CVV, what did you think of that glimpse of the doctor of thuganomics that we saw on Smackdown? So I've seen this from a few different accounts on social media. When John Cena turned his hat

backwards and was yelling at Nick Aldous, people were like, oh, the doctor of thuganomics, he's back. And I don't think that's the case at all. What I think was happening there for anybody who's ever watched baseball, he was just, he was doing what a manager does when they're yelling at an umpire. You're getting up in their face, but you're wearing a hat that's facing forward. You turn the hat backwards so you can get even closer to that person's face. Even the way that like he ducked his head around and was yelling from like the right side

of Nick Aldous's face, that's like a total baseball manager slash umpire argument. I think that's all it was. I think that was John Cena just like being a baseball fan and bringing a little bit of that element into it. That's it. I know we have six months left in the John Cena retirement tour, but I don't think we get any thuggonomics in the rest of this run. I think John Cena, at least right now, is so committed to continue. to build on top of this heel character that he's created. And I'm sure he is aware of the noise online of like, man, an amazing heel turn. But what's the payoff been?

Like, where is it going? Like, we still haven't had an explanation with the Rock and Travis Scott. And we don't need to get into all that again. But I feel like what John Cena's been doing over the last few weeks has finally been like him finding his stride in his, in his heel run. But I do not think that was the doctor of Thungonomics. I'm sure that if we called up John Cena right now, and no, I'm not going to do that.

But if we did, I'm sure he would say, oh, yeah, I was just being a baseball manager. I think that's it. And I think that John Sina, and I don't want to speak for him, but it seems to me like he has just been relishing in this creating a new character and building upon it.

and giving us a little bit, a little bit every week to just continue to give us something, like more elements of this character. I don't think he's going to be dipping back into the well of like the, like, I don't think he's playing his greatest hits. That was my original idea for this retirement tour, but I don't think that's it. So I don't think Charlie that that was the doctor of Thuggonomics. That just happened to be an angry heel John Sina who turned his hat backwards. That was it.

If he started dropping bars and making fun of people in a rhyming fashion, I would maybe agree with you, but that's not what happened there. Johnny P. Good on X. Why do you think that the number of title reigns is the benchmark and not the total number of days as champion? With you going through the short length of John Sina's title reigns last week, 17 seems a lot less impressive. So just to be clear, I'm not saying that John Sina is the good. goat because he has won 17 championships. But I feel like WWE has done this on purpose to create a conversation because long before John Cena turned heel, long before he won number 17,

WWE started intentionally calling him the greatest of all time. And I think the thing about the goat conversation is it's always up for debate, right? Like think of any sport, it's always up for debate of who the great is, who the greatest is because it doesn't just come down to stats. It comes down to like. a feeling and it comes down to like, well, did they, did they do this? I mean, you say that this person's the goat, but they don't have this stat. Whatever it happens to be, I think that WWE is trying to say, John Sina is the greatest because he has won the most championships. And then I think it opens it up to people going, no, he can't be the greatest because this

person is the greatest or that person is the greatest. And I think that that's intentionally done to like keep this conversation going forward. Whether you think John Sina is the goat or not, you're putting him in that conversation, even if it's to say there is no way that John Sina will ever be my goat. But when you look at John Sina's title reigns, it is interesting because we have been in the era of pretty long world championship reigns over the last five-ish years. Of course, Cody Rhodes held it for over a year. year. We had Roman rains break the record, 1,316 days, which we just previously talked about. But let's go through John Cena's title reigns here. He starts off hot.

2005, he wins the championship of WrestleMania 21. Holds it for 282 days. His next title reign. 63 days. Then he holds it for the longest time he's ever held it. 380 days. He won at WrestleMania 22, and he had to vacate it because of injury. So he could have held it much longer. Then we get into a stretch of some pretty short ones here. 28 days, 21 days, 49 days, 63 days.

Then he has 119 days. Then he has 84 days. Then he has like five minutes. Then he has 160 days. 14 days. Less than one day. 84 days, 49 days, 114 days. So like we're talking like a lot of these were short.

And I think the stat was that the title reign he is on right now is longer than nine of his previous title reigns. I just think that when it comes down to who is the greatest of all time for you, it's like when someone asks, what's your Mount Rushmore? It's a personal feeling. It's like, what are the stats that are most important to you? Is it the ability to go in the ring and have a great match with anybody? Okay. Well, then your Mount Rushmore or your greatest of all time might look a lot different from someone who goes, you know, what's most important to me?

The most memorable person. The one who had the best WrestleMania matches or the one who had the best promos or someone who was just able to talk me into the arena and get me to care about the matches. And I just think it's so incredibly subjective. So I don't personally think it's about the number of championships, but I did put this clip out. I said that if the Rock hadn't left for Hollywood because the Rock was hungry to do more, the Rock would have for sure won way more championships than John Cena.

And I was shocked by the amount of people that pushed back on that. And like, all you have to do is just look at the stats to see like Rock won his last championship before leaving for Hollywood in 2002. So Rock had won nine world titles before John Cena had even debuted. Rock goes on, wins one more in 2011, but he had won nine before leaving for Hollywood. So, and that was in the one title era for the most part.

Like, it was in the one title area. Like, you were the champ or nothing, whereas now, like, two current champions. So, like, the opportunity now is a lot greater to win more championships because there's the world title and there's the WWE title. If Rock had stuck around for 20 more years, I don't see how the pace might have slowed down,

but in 20 more years, it just seems like it'd be a lot more possible for him to win more titles. He won nine championships in 43 months. So give him 20 more active-ish years. Yeah, I think he would have won more. Does that make him the greatest of all time? I don't know, but I'm just saying

that if you look at those numbers, numbers. And Rock had stayed in wrestling. If he had had a career like The Undertaker or Randy Orton where he stayed in one place for one company and didn't go out looking for other things, yeah, real chance there. But I think what it really comes down to is who is the greatest in your opinion by the data and metrics that you judge that by? And I just think that WWE calling Sina the greatest is purposely done to make you think, oh, yeah, man. wow, he has been around for 20 plus years and he's won a lot of championships. They're not telling you how long some of these rains are.

They're not telling you that some of them lasted a few minutes or a few weeks. That doesn't really matter. I think what they're also getting at is when you think about wrestling over the last 20-ish years, John Cena is one of the names that pops into your head. If you were to walk down the street right now and you were to ask 10 random people name a wrestler. There's a chance. Pretty good chance they're naming the Rock.

They're naming Stone Cold. They're naming John Cena. Maybe they're naming Hulk Hogan or The Undertaker. But like, even if someone doesn't watch wrestling, John Cena is someone that they are familiar with. But who's the go to you? It's a personal decision. Game Smith on Spotify says,

Yo, CVV, how excited are you for Dirty Dom versus A.J. Stiles? Simon Miller shared this hilarious tweet this week. He said, Dominic Mysterio has only defended the Intercontinental Championship against Shapes. Think about it. First, it was Pentagon, then it was Octagon. And he's like, what's next? Square? It's incredible.

Incredible. What's next is one of the greatest of all time, depending again, of course, who you ask, AJ Stiles. And I think that this has the potential to be dirty. Dom's best match. And I just, like, AJ Stiles is one of those people who has the ability to have an amazing match

with anybody. He pulls out the best in his opponents. But I think there's actually a real chance here that A.J. Stiles could win the title. I'm not saying that the title's going to change hands here, but just storyline perspective. A.J. Stiles is always a threat because he's A.J. Stiles.

But he hasn't been the I.C. champs since 2020. He also hasn't been the world champs since 2018, I believe. And I think he hasn't won any sort of gold since he was the tag team champion with Omas. And that's going back three years, I think, over three years. That's just something that came in the back in your mind. Like, AJ's done it all.

He's won every championship Grand Slam champion, future Hall of Famer in both TNA and WWE. Like, there's no question about all that. But I think that, like, this could actually be. a reality here. And I'm just excited to see what happens in this match. And also excited to see how much this elevates Dirty Dom, because they're going to both go out there and just show out. But that leads us to this other one here from Adam Mindick on Facebook. Why hasn't Braun Breaker challenged Dom for his intercontinental championship? He didn't even get pinned and he lost it. I love that he's in this group with

Seth, but the fact that he hasn't even tried to get his belt back, especially with how he lost it, seems odd to me. I'm so glad you pointed that out because that is so odd. Yes. Why has Braun Breaker not been like, hey, man, you didn't even pin me and you're walking around with my championship, like give me a rematch? Yeah, I'd love to see that. I think, and maybe it's no time soon here, but I think if slash a lot of,

when Seth Rollins cashes in to become either WWE champion or world champion, I think we start to see some dissension in their group. I think Braun Breaker, maybe Bronson Reed too, but Bronbreaker especially, I think starts to go, huh, well, that looks real nice. I wouldn't mind holding that championship. And I think we get a wonderful feud down the line. Maybe it's a year from now. Maybe it's more. But I think we're going to get just an unbelievable generational feud with brawn breaker and set ralins but an excellent question adam why are these rematches not even like being talked about we we already went through cody roads no rematch roman reins holds the title for 1,316 days no rematch brawn breaker doesn't even get pinned no rematch

not even a mention about it very strange and maybe that's something they're kind of holding in their back pocket but i don't know maybe they just have bigger plans for brawn breaker and maybe it's not the intercontinental championship. DJ underscore Gleash on Instagram says, what has been your favorite match of 2025? Love all your content. Keep up the great work. Well, we're almost at the halfway mark of 2025.

So I think it's a good time to look back on the year that we've had already in 2025. My favorite match of this year is, Eoskeye versus Ria Ripley versus Bianca Bel Air. Like, what a match. The best match at WrestleMania 41, hands down. Such a great match. What a way to kick off night two. Love that.

Runner up for me is Street Profits versus DIY versus Motor City Machine Guns, that TLC match on Smackdown. Like, I don't know how that match was not on WrestleMania, but it being on Smackdown a week later was I think all of those tag teams way of kind of saying F you. You didn't put this on WrestleMania? Well, we're going to show you what you missed out on here. Those are my two favorite matches of the year. And I'm curious, when we look back on this in December, are those two matches still going to be in consideration?

Are we going to, like, is the next half of the year going to just blow those matches out of the water? very, very curious where that ends up going. Richard.harvey 86 on Instagram says, what is your favorite wrestling TV show theme song? Well, my friend, I think there is only one correct answer to that. And it's this one. It's just so good. Like just, oh, man, it just embodies everything about pro wrestling in that era.

and that's 2002 to 2006 across the nation. My only gripe with that is that's not my favorite era of wrestling. Like there was some good stuff during that era, but a lot of the fallout from WCW getting purchased and a super like a stacked roster, but a bloated roster at that time. And WWE not booking a lot of incredibly talented WCW guys. And at that time kind of made that all. fall apart. But that song, whenever I hear it, I am taken immediately back to a time and a place.

And I love it. But I cannot do this without, I can't talk about the greatest TV show theme songs without mentioning this one. Oh, you know it. Raw is War. Like this is the attitude. Raw is War theme song. And, like, like, Like, that to me was the absolute peak time of Monday Night Raw and, like, just the fast-paced cutting and edits of that intro. I love it so much. It wasn't until this very day that I actually learned what the lyrics are to that song. Like, and I'm sure you don't know what the lyrics are.

My entire life, I've just been like, for the boss of the verse, the born to be, to the born to be. It's my life in the box in front of me, taking junk in my arms that's the soul of me. You walk by, eyes can see me laying face down. Why am I the thorn in your eye? That's what he says. Why am I the thorn in your eye? You know what I'm talking about here? I always, it just sounded like, you got to talk to far.

Listen to this. Crazy. Why am I the thorn in your eye? That is going to go down for me. Like the one-two is this on at the start of Triple H's My Time Entrance theme. One-two? Is this one? Didn't know that was one-two for the longest time. So there you go.

Across the nation, number one. But for just putting that nostalgia straight into your veins and nostalgia is a hell of a drug. For me, it's got to be the Ross War One is mentioned in there. Eric Whedon on Instagram says, how does your preparation change when you're interviewing someone for the second or third time? That's a really interesting question, Eric,

because it changes a lot based on a lot of different factors. So, for example, is that person still active? If they're still active, we've got a lot more things to talk about. Like if it's been two years since they were on the show, we've got at least two years to catch up on.

Oh my gosh, since the last time I saw you, this happened, this happened, this happened. one of the really big indicators is the comments that I see either on Spotify or the comments I see on YouTube. It's a lot of times when I'll have someone on the show and someone will put in the comments like, oh man, my favorite match of all time with this person was this. Or whenever I see this segment with that person, I always laugh. And there's a lot of, I take from that. And I have said this many times before. But I have a note section in my iPhone of anybody that I am planning to interview or someone that I might hope to interview one day and I'll just keep it like an ongoing, just like thoughts.

I just type them in there. If I ever end up doing an interview with that, someone with that person one day, I'll have these notes that I can go back to and go, oh yeah, I have always wanted to know the answer to this. But I'll give you a really good example of this. So Santino Morella was on the show for the third time. So originally he was on the show 2019. Then I had him back on the show, I think, 2023 and then on the show again, 2025. So he's still active.

He's doing his thing as the authoritative figure in TNA. So there's definitely some more current stuff to talk to him about. But you'll notice in this most recent interview, I didn't ask him about the elimination chamber match and like how close he got to becoming the champion there. and like having that moment with Daniel Bryan because we'd already talked about it in our last interview. And I'm not saying that all of the content in a repeat interview has to be 100% completely

fresh, completely new, especially if it's been like five years since I talked to that person. Like I think there's sometimes like if I do an interview with someone over Zoom and it was years ago, there's a part of me. It's like, man, they told a really great story. I wanted to ask another question to dig even deeper into the story. And it's in person. So we get an even better looking version of this because Zoom, you can never rely on it looking great or sounding great. And sometimes a lot of people are doing it on their phone or whatever the case may be. So if we have the ability to actually set up cameras and hear an even deeper layer to that story in person, like sometimes I'll bring something up like

that, but I think that if you have an hour with someone and they've had an incredible career that's lasted for 10 or 15 or 20 years, you're not going to be able to cover everything in an hour. Like, think about the interview I did with Ray Mysterio. Like, he's been doing this forever. And we did an interview for about an hour. And then I hit a lot of the things I definitely wanted to talk to him about. But then it ended, I was like, oh, man, I should have asked about this or I should have

about that. And it's like, all right, it goes in the note section for next time. But I've done multiple interviews with Dolph Ziegler. I mean, a lot of those interviews early on were five minutes or something like that, 10 minutes. But I've done like 17 interviews with him. So it's like, how did we cover new stuff every time? Just kind of pick it back up from where you left off. And also, speaking of that, Nick Nemeth has not been on the show in quite a while. I think the last time he was on the show was WrestleMania 39 weekend. When WrestleMania was in L.A.

He came by the studio. So my goodness, it's been over two years since he was on the show. So I got quite a few more things to talk to him about. But I think the biggest thing is what are the points that we missed the first time around?

What are the points or the stories that we could have dug even deeper on? That's kind of where the conversation, conversation begins. And also with people like Carrying Cross, for example, who is a great friend of mine, you just kind of want to catch up too. Like we do some of that off camera, but like also just like, how you been? Like, what's going on? What's new? And just kind of see where the conversation takes you. Alex Peckham on Facebook says, what is the worst booked match in your opinion? All right. So let's be clear. This is the worst booked match. This has nothing to do with talent. We're just talking about

straight up, terrible booking. It is Seth Rollins versus the fiend, hell in a cell, 2019. There are so many issues with the booking of this match. And this is, of course, no disrespect to Seth Rollins, who is an incredible wrestler, like one of the best of this generation, someone who's able to go in there and get an incredible, amazing match out of whoever his opponent is. And The Fien, who's one of the most, just one of the best characters we've seen in the last several decades. And someone who just makes it feel so real when he was in there. So absolutely no disrespect intended to Seth Rollins or to Bray Wyatt slash the Fiend. but the way this match was booked.

Oh man. I think we start with the fact that this was the first time they had wrestled each other and they're putting in hell in a cell. What? That doesn't even make sense? Like shouldn't hell and a cell be saved for the end of a feud? Like you've already gone through all these other things. And now we need to finally like put a stake in this and make this thing end right now.

Let's go to hell in a cell. That's where we begin with this. And then we go to the fact that those dumb red. lights stayed on for the entire match. What? Like it just, it was so hard to watch then. And this is like such a hard match to rewatch too. So the red lights are on.

There's just so many things in this match that don't make sense. Like the fiend goes and grabs this mallet and they're like trying to put over how the devastating and dangerous this mallet is. And it kind of just looks like it's made of paper mache. then there's the fact that Seth Rollins delivers 11. Yes, not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven, not eight, not nine, not 10.

11 curb stomps and a chair shot. And the fiend kicks out at one. All right, okay. So the fiend is like the supernatural being that's like you can't beat him. I get it. And we're really building that up in this match with red lights on again.

Then Seth hits the fiend with a sledgehammer, and out of nowhere, the ref calls for the bell. Pardon me? What? So we get a disqualification in a match that is intended to have no disqualifications. It just mind-boggling. Like, absolutely mind-boggling. when you look at what happened to McFoley and that match with The Undertaker, when you look at really any other Hell in a Cell match,

why does bringing out a sledgehammer all of a sudden cross the line? What? It's just a horrible, horribly booked match with two incredibly talented people inside that match. Awful. Do not go back and rewatch that. Matt, it may make you as upset as I'm getting right now just talking about it. Simon underscore Stevens on Instagram, would you rather never tap out or your finisher

never be kicked out of? I would definitely rather my finisher never be kicked out of because I feel like that is such a rare, rare thing, especially in modern day wrestling. I don't even know if we like think that often about people who have never tapped out, Because even if you've never tapped out, you've taken a lot of pinfalls. And I think that at the end of the day, people just remember, like, you lost the match, whether it was you got pinned or you tapped out. You lost the match.

So I just don't think that carries as much weight as the fact that when you hit your finisher, it lights out. It's over. And there's like a few people whose finishers were like so super well protected. Like Baron Corbyn, only one person ever kicked out of end of days. and that was Drew McIntyre, Russellmania 38, and like it meant something.

Like when it, when happy, he was happy Corbyn at the time, when happy Corbyn hit end of days, it was like, boom, wow, out of nowhere. This match is done.

And it was not. And it was like, you could see the reaction on Corbyn's face and it was like, oh, wow. And he told a great story. If you go back to the first interview

I did with Baron Corbin, he said it was actually Undertaker that said like, the best piece of advice was protect your finish. And there's another one. Tombstone was like super protected except for like when Sean Michaels kicked out of it or Brock Lesnar kicked out of it, but like very, very protected.

And that's actually what made the WrestleMania matches between Undertaker and Sean Michaels mean so much was usually when the Tombstone got hit. That was it. And at like 2.99, Sean Michael somehow kicks out. Kenny Omega's one winged Angel, the F5 for a long time. When Brock Lezzer hit the F5, up until like 2018-ish, that's it. Match was over. The Cobra?

Like you listened to the interview I do with Santino two weeks ago, and it's such a fun, like a little piece of trivia. Only two people ever kicked out of the Cobra. Seamus kicked out without the sleeve. and Daniel Bryan kicked out with the sleeve on. But like that's pretty impressive stats. So in your Would You Rather game here, and I always love a good, would you rather, I would take my finisher never being kicked out of.

Like when Chris Sharp hits that, boom, it's over. J.S.K. and Jack on Instagram says, what color is your toothbrush? This is the stuff that everyone wants to know. And I put, what a question. I have my broadcast channel on Instagram. So if you go to my profile, you'll see the CVV feed. And there's like 18,000 members there. So there's a lot of different ways you can ask questions for these Ask CVV episodes.

But what's cool about that is I put the prompt in there. What's your question for Ask CVV number 88? And then people will go in there and upvote these questions. This one got three upvotes. So not just the person asking, J-S-K-N-Jack underscore, but three other people really want to know what color my toothbrush is. It's green. It's a quip toothbrush.

They're not a sponsor, but it's a great electric toothbrush. And it's small enough that you can like, it just takes one. Man, this is turning into an ad and I'm not sponsored by them. But you just put one AAA battery in there and it lasts for like six months. And it's small enough that you can travel with it. and I'm on the road quite a bit, like right now when I'm in New York City. But my toothbrush is green. My wife also has a quip toothbrush.

It is pink. So it's very clear that mine is the green one or is the pink one. That is our last question. On this, Ask CVV, number 88, the Eric Lindross, Michael Irving, Marvin Harrison, Tony Gonzalez, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. edition. Thank you so much. for being with us, for being a real, real one, and for listening all the way until the end here. If you've got a question for next week for Ask CVV number 89, the Alexander McGilney edition,

leave a comment on Spotify, send it in on social media using that hashtag AskCTVV or shoot me an email, CVV at chrisfanfleet.com. If you are listening on Spotify, just drop a yeah in the comments so that I know that you listened all the way until the end. That's how I will know who the real, real, real ones are. And I'll see all the real, real, real ones, August 1st, New York City, CVV ticks.com. And I will see a lot of you guys tonight or tomorrow in New York City Fanatics Fest is the lineup is just crazy. I'll leave you with this quote from Susie Kassum to take you into the weekend here. Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.

Be great. Be grateful, my friends. Have an amazing weekend. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. We've got that live episode with Ethan Page dropping on Tuesday. Then we've got the fallen angel himself. The legendary Christopher Daniels on Thursday. Have an amazing weekend.

We'll see you right back here on Tuesday with Ethan Page. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s, Flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock. But there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock?

I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of then? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley.

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