Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #93 - Hulk Hogan's Death, The Rock Returning?, Cody vs. Cena, Fav SummerSlam Match Of All Time

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

https://cvvtix.com - Get your tickets for INSIGHT LIVE in NYC with VIP Meet & Greet! Welcome to AskCVV #93! On this episode, Chris Van Vliet talks about the passing of Hulk Hogan at 71 years old and the legacy he left. He also answers questions about why John Cena vs. Cody Rhodes is a street fight now, the possibility of a double turn with Cody turning heel and Cena becoming a face, what the rest of John Cena's retirement tour might look like, what the best SummerSlam match of all time is, whether they should bring back the Cruiserweight Championship, AJ Styles returning to TNA with his "Get Ready To Fly" theme song and much more!   Quote I'm thinking about: "If you're worried about the cost of going for it, you should see the price of staying exactly where you are."   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. Oh, how are you, my friends? Happy 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 hit and play on this episode. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet.

Hit a leg drop on that follow button. wherever you're listening. If it's Spotify, could I ask for a favor? Could you click a few buttons? Could you leave a rating on there? So you go to the show's main page, you click the three little dots, dot, dot, dot, dot.

Rate show will pop up. When you click that, you'll see the stars. It'll take like six seconds, if we're being honest, if we're being realistic here. If you're listening on Apple, could you just leave a few words or a few emojis as a review on there?

Both of those would help the show so so much. I can't wait to see all the real, real, real ones at the next Insight Live. It's one week from today in New York City, and it's going to be a banger. Oh, yes. Shamis is our live guest for Insight Live on Friday, August 1st. I'm pumped for this. Like, Seamus is just, he's incredible. He's a future Hall of Famer, and I can't wait for this conversation live with all of you. Grab your tickets now while you still can because this is going to sell out. Grab them at CVVVTX.com. That's CVVTX.com. I've had a lot of people asking and the answer is yes. You will be able to make it to both my show and Smackdown with plenty of time to spare.

My show wraps up around 530. Smackdown goes live at 8 o'clock. So there's lots of time to do both. If you want to go to the special Ask CVV Q&A that happens before the show and you want to join the meet and greet after the show, you got to get a VIP ticket for that. And right before I hit record, I checked and there's like 10 left. So grab them while you can. CVVTicks.com. And I can't wait to see you next Friday in New York City for Insight Live with Seamus. Yesterday, the wrestling world lost a legend. The legend. Hulk Hogan passed away at the age of 71, and it's a complicated legacy. But in the ring, Hulkomania changed wrestling forever.

Hulk Hogan made wrestling mainstream in the 1980s and brought it into pop culture. For me and for a lot of people around my age, he was our childhood. Moments like beating me. the Iron Sheik in 1984, slamming Andre the Giant at WrestleMania 3. The greatest heel turn of all time in 1996 when he formed the NWO with Scott Holland, Kevin Nash, at Bash of the Beach. My favorite match of all time, WrestleMania 18 in 2002, The Rock versus Hollywood Hogan. I can't believe that I have the honor of saying that I was there live at Skydome for that. It'll always be Skydome to me.

And if you do it a Mount Rushmore of wrestling, Hulk Hogan has to be on there. Like for all of the contributions that he made to wrestling, he's got to be on there. It was a guest on the show about a year and a half ago. So if you're looking for something to listen to this weekend, go check it out. It's episode number 519, episode number 519.

Welcome, my friends, to Ask CVV number 9. 93, the John Randall, Dougie Gilmore, Dwight Freeney, and Ron Arteast on the Sacramento Kings edition. If you've got a question for the next one, for Ask CVV number 94, if there's a jersey that pops into your head when you think of 94, let me know. Leave a comment on Spotify. send it in on social media using that hashtag AskCTVV or shoot me an email CVV at ChrisFamfleet.com. Thank you for all of the people who commented car last week as I was recording that episode in my car. I was in Orlando and someone asked me, they said, did you leave the car on the entire time that you were recording that? And the answer is 1,000% yes, I had to.

If you've never been to Orlando before, it's not just, it's not that it's that hot. Like, I think it was probably, it was high 80s. Like maybe it was like 87, 88 degrees. So it's definitely warm, but it's so humid. Like just the walk from my hotel to where my car was parked in the parking lot to record that episode, which is like a 30 second walk outside, I was sweating buckets. So yes, I had the car on the entire time and I had the air conditioner blow or else I wouldn't have made it through.

I would not have been able to finish that episode. So thank you for hanging out with me in the car. And that was just a fun one. That was a really fun one. If you're listening now on Spotify, drop Hulk or Hulkster in the comments so that I know that you're listening to this. Let's dive into this with a question from Spotify.

This is from Ashton Smith, who says, Hey, it's Ashton from Sydney, Australia. after watching Smackdown. And with his recent tweet, it has me thinking that the Cody turn is close upon us. After Cody took the contract at the start of Smackdown, I think that he added the street fight stipulation of the match so that he can be more vicious against John.

He was wearing the watch that John hit him with back at Elimination Chamber, and it got me excited to see what happens at SummerSlam. CVV, what are your thoughts? I've got a lot of thoughts. about this one. And I'm very interested to see how things play out at SummerSlam between John Sina and Cody Rhodes. They haven't announced it yet, but I feel like this is the main event on night two. Like, I'd be absolutely shocked if this is anywhere else on the card, but closing out night two on that Sunday. I think they personally made this a street fight. So number one,

it will stand out and be a completely different match from Cody Rhodes versus John Cena 1, which happened at WrestleMania 41. I think when they make this a street fight, it stands out completely. If this was just a straight up wrestling match, I think there'd be a lot of comparisons. There was already going to be comparisons to that WrestleMania match. But I think that if they make this a street fight, it'll make it stand out immediately and just already just be a completely different style of match. But number two, it's a street fight. and in a street fight, anything goes. And of course, that means weapons,

and I think there's the possibility of maybe some blood. But I also think that this opens the door for run-ins to happen. I don't know who that's going to be. I don't know what that's going to look like. But whenever a stipulation like that is thrown into it, let's make this a no-discualification match. immediately my spidey senses start tingling. Wait a second.

Let's make this a street fight. What does that mean? Who's going to come out here? What's going to happen from here? But there's definitely been a lot of heel tendencies from Cody Rhodes over the last few weeks. It's also been a lot of baby-faced tendencies from John Cena over his last handful of appearances.

I've seen a lot of. lot of the speculation online that we could see a double turn. And it just feels like right now, you know, we're nine days away from this match happening at SummerSlam. All signs really do seem to point to that. Like I think that John Cena is not ending his career. He's not wrapping up the retirement tour as a heel. I just, I don't see any situation or scenario where that happens. no, I don't think he's going to keep wrestling past December. I've seen a lot of people say, well, what if he's a true heel and he ruins wrestling and he just, he's not, he doesn't hold to his word and he just keeps wrestling past December.

That's not happening. That is definitely not happening. So I think that if John Sina becomes a baby face here, then he would have 13, no, we'd have 12 appearances after SummerSlam to wrap. up the retirement tour. It'd be very interesting to see what happens. And Cody as a heel, he kind of talked about this in an interview recently. It sounds like a heel turn is coming from Cody Rhodes. Like he's already planted that seed, that this is something that he's interested in doing

and he feels like he can't take the baby face character much further. He's done everything that he can with it. So I could see a double turn happening. I could also see because it's a street fight, because anything goes, I could see the rock finding his way into this match. And we'll chat about that in a little bit, but I think that that could be a very real possibility. I posted this on social media this week, and it's an interesting look at John Cena's retirement tour.

So if John Cena does, in fact, turn face. on night two of SummerSlam. That means he will have spent a total of 156 days this year as a heel. March 1st is when he turned, Elimination Chamber in Toronto, March 1st until August 3rd. And if the retirement tour is January 6th, which was the first date of his retirement tour, the raw debut on Netflix, to the rumored date right now, December 13th of his retirement match, If you do the math, that's almost exactly half of the two are spent as a baby face, half of the two are spent as a heel.

He would have spent 45.6% as a heel. So he spent those first two months as a baby face, the next five in a bit as a heel, and then he would wrap up the year as a baby face. And I just feel like, how poetic would that be of like, I feel like we've had, we all had this idea after John Cena turned heel of like, like, it can't last all year. Does he have enough time to do it? I guess we'll find out.

And we've seen what he's done with it. And I think it's been really interesting, all the layers he keeps putting on this every single week. But I just feel like it's almost poetic that it'd be like, all right, in my final year, played the greatest hits for about half the year. And I tried something new for about half the year. Like I said, he has 12 dates. left after SummerSlam.

And I'll go through the dates here. I think a lot of people have just been questioning of like, will I see John Sina in or around where I live? So here's the dates that have been announced for John Sina's retirement tour. August 1st, he's going to be on Smackdown next Friday in Newark, New Jersey. Then SummerSlam and East Rutherford, New Jersey. He's going to be on Smackdown the following Friday in Montreal, August 8th. August 22nd, he'll be on Smackdown in Dublin, Ireland.

The following week after that, August 29th, Smackdown in Leone, France, August 31st, Clash in Paris, September 5th, Smackdown in Chicago, September 15th, Raw and Lowell, Massachusetts, October 11th, Crown Jewel, Perth, November 29th, Survivor Series in San Diego, then the retirement match, which is, rumor to happen in mid-December, rumor to happen in Boston, but has not been announced yet.

So there's 14 dates left as we chat here right now. 11 of those have been announced, so there's still three of like, all right, is he coming to my town? Or what's the setup going to be for the retirement match? I guess we'll find out. But I think a lot of, like a lot of questions are going to be answered about like, where do we go from here? with this story. Who are the other opponents going to be? A lot of that's going to get answered after next weekend with SummerSlam. Michael Schenck on Facebook says,

Greetings from the realist of real ones. What do you think the chances are of the Rock showing up at SummerSlam to either help turn John Cena face or pull off a double turn for Cody and John? Seems like a great opportunity to get the final boss back on TV, get Sina back to baby face and set Cody up as the heel champion going into next year's WrestleMania. Keep up the great content. Well look, I think now would be a great time for The Rock to show up. We still have no explanation as to what the Rock's role even is in all of this thing. And we saw The Rock at Elimination Chamber. He chatted with the press of the press conference afterwards, but we haven't seen him in an official WWE capacity since.

And I know I keep harping on this, but not even a one sentence explanation as to what his role was in this whole thing. And same with Travis Scott, which I guess will just be, that'll end up being a storyline like GTV. And that is a deep cut for any of my fellow attitude era viewers. Remember GTV? The storyline just disappeared. It was never, ever an explanation as to who was behind GTV. But I would love for The Rock to come back. And John Sina was asked recently on a panel if he wanted to see a,

wanted to have a match between him and The Rock one more time. And he sounded very warm to that idea, very open to that idea. And I think that if we talk about after this match with Cody Rhodes, John Cena has four-ish, five-ish matches left. I think there's a real possibility that one of them could be with the rock. There's an obvious story there to be told. And it would be they're one-in-one in the, if it is a trilogy, it'd be one-in-one, all right, let's settle this once in for all.

Let's see where things go from here. I just don't know if Cody Rhodes needs the rock to turn heel. Unless there is a plan to have the rock stick around for quite some time, but I just don't, I don't see like a need for Cody Rhodes to involve the rock in a heel turn. I think that Cody Rhodes is very capable with the depth of his character to make this happen on his own. I will say, though, with The Rock's new movie coming out, the smashing machine, which

looks incredible from Benny Safdi. I can't wait to see this. Same director who brought us uncut gems and in my opinion, the best performance from Adam Sandler. Rock just announced that that is going to be the 82nd Venice International Film Festival. It seems to me that when you're launching a film like that at Venice, you're making a play for the Oscars. It's obviously way too to be discussing what categories they're aiming to try to get nominated for or what could even be possible for them to get a nomination or maybe even possibly a win. But when you debut something at Venice, you're making a real statement with that. The Venice Film Festival is August 27th to September 9th. And the reason that I bring this up is because if they're really going to make a push for smashing

machine being an award season film and rock possibly obviously we haven't seen this yet but if rock is possibly going to be in the conversation for an award around the corner he's going to be all in on promoting that film so i'm talking about this because if the rock does by chance come back at summer slam i just can't see it being like a full-time schedule if he's going all in on playing the award game and shaking all the hands, doing all the interviews, and trying to earn that nomination. So that's just something to keep in the back of your mind here as we head into SummerSlam and as we kind of go on from there into the next few PLEs after that. Just keep that in mind that Smashy Machine has the possibility of being really great and also

has the possibility of taking a whole lot of the Rock's time in terms of promotion for that film. You guys know that when it comes to health and well-being, I'm always looking for an edge. And that's why I've been taking Mitropure for months now. Because I want to be the healthiest version of myself for as long as possible. Like, I want to be in my 90s and still going on hikes or like still playing with the grandkids. Or I guess at that point in time, it might be great grandkids. Here's how this works. Mito-competal. is our cells power generators. They're a key influence in how we age.

But as the years past, mitochondrial efficiency starts to decline. And it starts to represent this big gap between the quality of life we expect when we're older and the one we actually experience. One way to think about mitopure is like, they're the little Pac-Men in your cells chomping up the damage mitochondria

that make you feel old and tired, and we're cycling it into new healthy ones. me taking mitopure is really help with recovering after a workout. I'd start to feel myself getting stronger with more energy and experiencing less inflammation. I think it's worth you checking out as well. Timeline is offering 10% off your first order of mitopure. Just go to timeline.com slash insight. That's timeline.com slash insight. Jerome Russ on Instagram says, Hey, CVV, keep up the great content. What is your favorite? favorite Sina spot of all time. Mine is Backlash 09. Backlash 09. Fantastic choice. I like that.

For me, Royal Rumble 2008 is a moment. Like nobody expected John Sina to come out at number 30. It's such a like wonderful surprise. We were told he was going to be out for like nine months. and he rehabbed himself like a machine, rehabbed himself like a superhero and came back in three months. And his music hitting and him standing at the entrance way with his arms crossed where he's like grabbing onto his wrist, looking down and then he kind of looks up with his smile like, yeah, yeah, I'm here.

That's right. And he goes on to win the Royal Rumble, the look on Triple H's face said it all. Like it's just such a, it's such a beautiful sequence from his mute, from the countdown to his music hitting all the way to him winning the Rumble. I love it. It's either that for me or it's Money in the Bank, 2011 versus CM Punk.

Like I think that just bell to bell, that's John Sina's best wrestling match. I think the story that was told leading up to it had us so invested in that. And I think that everything they did from the match ending with CM Punk winning that and blowing the kiss

and running off into the crowd, it was just, it was cinema. It was cinema. So those are my two choices, but when you've got a career like John Cena's 20 plus years, all of the different things that he's done, it's hard to narrow down to just one. And I really don't know if you can have a wrong answer with this.

Email from Emily Naylor who says, Hey, CV, I'm a real, real one here all the way from the land of Wade Barrett or Cody's football team, Preston. Hoping to become a real, real, real one if you ever get a live show in the UK or Europe. I'm going to be a clash in Paris from my first major PPV. And I'm beyond excited. I like that you refer to it as a pay-per-view. Yeah, I like that.

You even spelled out PPV instead of PLE. It's great. Your question is, do you agree with the new behind-the-scenes documentary given that K-FAB is so different and jaded these days and how it's been for 10-plus years with the Internet and social media? Part of me hates the idea of revealing secrets. We have all bypassed and continuing to enjoy the product as adults. However, the other part of me loves the idea due to showing how much play

and hard work goes into it. I'm curious how much, I'm curious what your thoughts are on this. Lots of love, Emily Naylor. I'm really excited to see how WWE Unreal plays out. We're not going to really know the level of K-Fabe that is going to be broken or the level of storylines that are going to be adhered to until this debuts. And it's this Tuesday, this Tuesday, July 29th. I just think it's important to like point out that before we all make any assumptions as to like, well, this is ruining wrestling or this is killing K-Fave. Like we don't even know what the content is.

We've seen a two-minute trailer. And that's it. Like up to this point, that's it. So I would say just like, let's hit the pause button for a second. Okay. And on Tuesday we'll have a much clearer answer as to, all right, how much. of the curtain has been pulled back. Because if you look back over time, this is not the first time that we're getting a behind-the-scenes look of what happens in the WWE. Wrestling with shadows

in 1998. I remember watching that when I was 15 and my mind was blown. Like I couldn't believe all the things they were showing us in that documentary. Beyond the mat in 1999 pushed it even further. There was so much that was being shown there. Like there was a, a there's almost a there's a shot in that and beyond the mat and if you haven't seen it do yourself a favor this weekend and watch beyond the mat it is it's just such a fantastic documentary but like in that i quit match with the rock and mankind and rock hits mankind over the head however many times it was and they cut to a shot of mcfolley's family and they're they're they're like losing and they're crying and eventually gets to a point where McFolley's wife just like takes

the kids and leaves like, can't watch this anymore. And then you see McFoley backstage afterwards being like, oh no, daddy's okay. Daddy's okay. Like we've seen the curtain get pulled back a lot. I mean, every time we watch it, WWE 24 documentary, even to a certain extent what we'd see in on total divas or total bellas. So it'll be interesting. Like how much more can they pull back the curtain? Like if you enjoyed watching the WWE 24 documentaries, I think you'll probably enjoy this too. Like it seems like it's along the same lines. But again, this is just speculation because we haven't seen the show yet. But I think that if there is anything revealed, it's getting revealed months later. like the production value that goes into the show is so high that like they're not turning this

around within a matter of like days. It seems to me that they're months behind in the same way that like total divas would reveal something. And you're like, oh yeah, that's that's that thing that happened like four months ago or six months ago or however long their lag time was. So I'm really curious. And I think it comes down to this. If you want just what exists on the show, if you want just what exists on Monday night or on Friday night, that's cool. You can just watch Raw and when the show's done, the show's done. You can tune in to Smackdown. And when the show's done, you turn it off and that's what exists for you. It doesn't sound like WWE Unreal would be a show that you'd be interested in watching. In the same way that like there's a lot of people that

love watching Hard Knocks, which is a in-depth behind-the-scenes look at an NFL team. And some people don't want to see it. Just not for them. They don't want to dive in deep to find out what goes on and during the practices and who the characters are and all the different personalities. That's fine. But I just think that, like, if it's not for you, it's not for you. But again, we won't know on Tuesday until the show airs, like, what the show is. even really about. Like, what are we going to see here? Guess we'll find out.

And I think from what I understand, at least, they're filming everything. So it'll be really interesting to see what makes it into the show. Because from my understanding, everything. Nothing is off limits in terms of what they're filming right now. But that's not to say. that because they're filming everything, that everything will be in the show.

All right? So let me say that one more time. Just because they're filming everything doesn't mean that everything will be in this show. I think there will be a lot of selective edits. And I think it'll be, I'm very curious to see how this all plays out

and also curious to see what the reaction is online. Because it's, I'm making a prediction here. It's going to be one of two things. It's either going to be like, oh my gosh, I can't. believe they're telling us so much, or it's going to be like, oh, my gosh, they're showing us the things we already knew or telling us the things we already knew. Kind of like when they did the Vince McMahon documentary on Netflix. There was so much hype for months and months and months and

months. And then the day it debuted, everyone just went, well, yeah, we knew all that stuff, which isn't necessarily true. I did a real deep dive into like actually there was quite a few things that were revealed in there. Like maybe they weren't massive stories or maybe they weren't massive headlines, but there were a lot of things in the Vince McMahon documentary that were revealed for the very first time. But I'm just curious to see how it all plays out. Alex underscore Barker 15 on Instagram.

Do you think AJ Styles will come back for the X Division Championship? What a moment at TNA Slammiversary. And it brought me back to the interview that I did with AJ Stiles earlier this year, where I said, if you ever go back to TNA, you know we got to hear get ready to fly. And I'm paraphrasing here, but he basically said I never want to hear that song again. I hate that song. I'm so sick of hearing it, probably because I heard it so many times in TNA. I'm like, come on, you know, if you go back to TNA, that's got to be the song.

And I'm not saying that I planted a seed. saying that I'm responsible for this at all. But whoever it was at TNA who convinced AJ Stiles to come out to that song, thank you. Whoever you are, I would like to shake your hand and say thank you. I always say nostalgia is a hell of a drug. And that moment was just a massive dose of nostalgia. AJ Stiles, get ready to fly, playing in the impact zone, playing at TNA Slammiversary was amazing. And what a call by Tom Hannafin, AJ Stiles's home. It was a moment that I don't think we ever thought would happen. Like there was a zero percent chance of this happening before the W.W. TNA merger. There was a slight chance of this happening when

merger have, not the merger, but the partnership that they have. There was a slight chance of it happening with this partnership between TNA and W.E, but it just seemed like most of the crossover was happening with NXT talent and TNA and then vice versa TNA talent to NXT. It was so cool to see. And I loved him putting over Leon Slater, who's just, man, what a bright future Leon Slater has. And if you're not familiar with Leon Slater, pause this episode right now. Open up YouTube and look up the swan ton 450. I can't even believe that move is real.

Like it seriously looks like a video game move. It's incredible. Like the first time I saw it, I wanted to throw my phone across the room and disbelieve. I was like, what the heck is that? Sorcery. But no, I don't. don't think AJ Stiles is coming after the X Division Championship. I know that anything is possible

in pro wrestling, but I just feel like that was a one-off thing. I feel like that was a one-off thing to get AJ Stiles to come out to, I mean, how many more tickets did they sell off the announcement that AJ Stiles was going to be back in TNA? Like it was such a cool thing to see. I don't think he's going after the X Division Championship. I don't think he's even going to have a match. in TNA. But just that moment itself was, ah, it's, it's incredible because it speaks to where we're at with pro wrestling right now. And the fact that truly anything is possible. And it was also a nice, just like, it paid homage to like people like me and people like you, I'm sure, who were hardcore TNA fans

even at a time when maybe it was difficult to be a TNA fan. And it was just awesome for them to go, yeah, we know that this is the house that A.J. Stiles built. TNA is the house that AJ Styles built. And here he is. Ben Vinard on Facebook says, what's the best SummerSlam match of all time? This is obviously something that is up for debate. and I love these questions because your personal preference is going to be different from my personal preference.

But when I think of SummerSlam, the match that I think of is Brock Lesnar versus the Rock at SummerSlam 2002. And I think that just in terms of pure wrestling, like technical wrestling, I think that's the Rock's best match. Like my favorite match is obviously the Rock versus Hulk Hogan, but I think when you're just talking about like just technical prowess, I think that's the Rock's best match. And it was also like the Rock putting over Brock Lesnar and ushering in like this new era. So that's the match for me. And when you look at this entire card, like SummerSlam 2002 might be the best SummerSlam of all time.

it certainly has the best opening match of all time. I don't think there's any debate on that one. Kurt Angle versus Ray Mysterio to start the show. What? Just listen to this card. Not every single match on here's a banger, but most of them are. So Kurt Angle, Ray Mysterio.

Rick Flair versus Chris Jericho. Edge versus Eddie Guerrero. The Un-Americans, that's Christian and Lance Storm versus Booker T and Gold Dust. Rob Van Damme versus Chris Benoit. The Undertaker versus Test. Sean Michaels versus Triple H in that street fight. What a match that was.

And then, of course, the main event, Brock Lezzer defeating the Rock. Come on. What a card. What a card. If you can think of a better. SummerSlam card, top to bottom, I'd love to hear, but I do not think that one exists. Justin Taylor on Spotify, what do you think of the Canadian strap on the North American Championship? Thank you for everything that you do.

Well, thank you, Justin, for sending in a question and for listening right now. That promo that Ethan Page cut on Tuesday is the best promo that Ethan Page has ever cut in his entire career. everything about that. He, like he, I think you could make a really strong argument that Ethan Page is one of the best heels in wrestling right now. He just, everything he says, you believe. And he spoke every single word of that promo with just so much confidence and so much just, just like, he was just so smug. Like you just want to hate him, but you're like, how can I hate him

when he's delivering this promo with, oh, it's such perfection. But I love that, I love this whole angle he's been running with, this idea that the North American championship is better than the United States championship because North America, and these are Ethan Page's words. I'm indirectly quoting him here. North America represents three countries. So he is the champion of three countries. Nxte is just the champion of the performance center because that's where NXT is based. When you're the United States champion, you're just the champion of one country. I love it. And the line that just made me smile so much, probably because I'm Canadian, was I was born in Canada, but made in America. then he takes the North American championship

and just throws it onto the ground like it's a piece of trash and then he unveils the new one with the Canadian strap and then starts singing, oh Canada. This is brilliant, brilliant heel work. I love it. And I love how it also pays tribute

to what Lance Storm did in WCW when he was the United States champion and then he put the Canadian flag on it. It was just so, so good. And I think it's a nice, like tip of the cap to people who are watching WCW at that time. But I think it's amazing. And I think that Ethan Page has done a lot of great things in his career, stuff he did on the Indies, creating his own company, Alpha One, TNA is the longest reigning impact tag team champions

with Josh Alexander. And this is another quote from Ethan Page who's so good at putting himself over. He's like, that's a record that'll never be broken because it's the impact tag team championships. that doesn't even exist anymore. So he's right. That championship run will never be topped. He will be a record holder forever. But the work he did in TNA, the work he did in AEW,

this is going to be part of his legacy. Like when you have a custom belt, this is something that people will always remember in the same way that here we are 25 years later talking about Lance Storm with his custom championship and being the Canadian champion. I love it.

I love it. I love everything that Ethan Page is doing right now. And just as a personal friend, like I've known Ethan for 15 years, maybe a little bit longer, he's just, he's going to kill me for saying this. He's such a good guy. Like, give Ethan Page all of the flowers. Give Ethan Page every single flower. I'm just so, I couldn't be happier for him.

living his dream and doing what he's doing. And somehow, every week, he just seems to keep getting better and better. I love it. Cindy Kirby emailed this one in. Hi, Chris, I've been waiting six weeks to send this email. Number 93, the Dwight Freeney edition, my favorite football player. Question, how do you feel about the announcement at Slammiversary about one more match one more divan get the tables hardies versus team 3d you're right nostalgia is one hell of a drug thanks

Cindy Kay I feel like I should make a t-shirt that says nostalgia is a hell of a drug although I don't know if people would understand that I'm referencing wrestling with that but no you know what it's not just a wrestling phrase nostalgia is a hell of a drug just in general think about your favorite movie from 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 years ago. Think of your favorite song from again, 10, 20, 30, whatever, however many years ago. All of those things. Think of your, think of just the experience

of walking into a blockbuster. It is nostalgia just slapping you in the face when you think about that idea. I love that we're getting Team 3D versus the Hardee's one more time. And I have a lot of people who are always like, your timing with these interviews seems a little suspicious, CVV. I had no idea there were any plans for the Dudley Boys to wrestle together again

when I did that interview with Devon last week. I had no idea about this. Here's the full story because I always love being honest with you guys. Devon called me up a few weeks ago. And that's a pretty cool thing when your phone rings and Devon Dudley is the name on the caller ID and I hello hey Chris what's going on Devon man he's such a nice guy as you know divon has a very popular YouTube channel and divan said hey I would love to come back on your show the last interview we did was via Zoom I'd love to do an interview with you in person we can talk a little bit about my YouTube channel I said 100% done let me look at some flights to Orlando and we'll make this thing happen. And that's what we did.

And when I was chatting with him about like, how many more matches do you think you have left in you? And he told me one. And I said, what do you think it's going to be? And he said, it has to be with the Hardee's. They're the only ones that I trust. That's funny. I don't know why my phone is talking to me here. Last week, my last week the phone was ringing during the episode. This time my phone is just talking to me here. I should probably just throw that down on the ground. he said it has to be with Matt and Jeff. They're the only ones that I trust. And then a few days later, that Sunday at Slammiversary, bully rays in the ring. And he says, one more time, Dudley's.

Well, he didn't say Dudley's. He said, Team 3D versus the Hardee's. Boom, we got it. I'm very excited to see what happens with this one. Because the Hardy boys, I feel like the Hardee's could just keep doing this. Like for a few more years, they looked great in that match at Slamovircery. So I'm excited for this one. And again, maybe it's the nostalgia. Maybe it's just the idea of like you've got these guys that if you put them, I mean, their wrestling experience as tag teams together

is like 50 or 60 years. They just know how to tell a story. And the thing that's great about both the Hardys and both the Dudleys is you know you're going to leave satisfied. Like, whether you're in the arena or you're watching it at home, you just, you know that they're going to deliver for you. Both of them wrestle 100% with the fan in mind of like, what is best in this match for the fans. So I'm just excited thinking about the fact, like, yeah, like, we get it. We get it one more time here. Sean McDonald on Facebook says, does there need to be a cruiserweight division again?

Yes, I would love to see a cruiserweight division again. I think that there needs to be just another belt in there. Because I think with two shows, four belts, you've got the Intercontinental Championship, United States Championship, World Championship, and WWE title, there's just not a lot left for everyone. one else. Like unless you're one of the two people that are vying for that title any given month, there's just not a lot left for everybody else. They had the cruiser way title in NXT up until

three years ago when they got rid of it in 2022. But the WWE Cruiserway title, like on the main roster hasn't been around since 2007. Like it's something that I would just love to see. It gave an opportunity to so many people to allow them to like just show what they're capable of. Like people who maybe weren't at that level yet to be in the Intercontinental title picture or the U.S. title picture or certainly not a world title picture. But it's something that I would just, I would love to see. And I, it was great for WWE to bring that over because that was a WCW title. And I mean, think of the names that held that title just in.

WCW. Like you're talking about Land Storm and Chris Jericho, Billy Kidman, Ray Mysterio, psychosis, Houtouin Tou Guerrera, like Dean Melancho, Eddie Guerrero. Like this is the title that allowed people like Eddie, like Jericho, like Ray, to like be able to get up to that next level. And then to be seen as like, all right, this is this is someone. who we can totally see wearing a championship. And then when you look at in WWE,

I'm going to list off a handful of names here where it's like, oh, yeah, like, that's the perfect person to be holding that type of title. We're talking Chavo Guerrero, Tijiri, Kunaki, Paul London, Kid Cash, Gregory Helms. I love that version of him, Gregory Helms. You know who the final Cruiser

weight champion was. I'm sure you'd know this, but if you don't, he was a recent guest on the show, Hornswoggle. Hornswago is the last ever WWE Cruiserweight champion. I'd love to see the Cruiserweight championship, championship come back. I'd also love some version of if it's a 24-7 title or if it's bring back the hardcore title, like that title that Travis Scott walks around with, maybe he should be defending that. All right, if he's holding a WWE hardcore championship, maybe the hardcore championship rules should be applying to that.

Work that back in. There'd be a great way to work Travis Scott into this storyline and somehow make some of that make sense. Someone just out of nowhere. Travis Scott's like a backstage shot. He's walking to the ring or like an arrival shot. And just out of nowhere, someone just like rolls him up. One, two, three, and there's a ref there.

and boom, we got ourselves a hardcore championship now. That's what I would love to see. I just think that there's an opportunity here for people that just aren't quite at that level yet. Like people who are in the mid card, but just not quite at that level yet. Yeah, that's something I would definitely love to see. A lion Leon. Or is that Ali on Leon? I don't know, but it's on Instagram.

Hey, CVV, the number one wrestling podcast on planet Earth. Would you rather never watch wrestling again? Where is this going? Or never eat pizza again? Oh my. What kind of question is this? My goodness. Never watch wrestling again or never eat pizza again?

Oh, that is quite a tough ultimatum, but I guess I'd have to give up pizza. I suppose over the course of a week, I mean, maybe I eat pizza 0.5 times a week, right? Like maybe I have pizza every other week. If my wife was in here, if Rachel was in here, she'd be like, I think you mean every week. I'm like, it's not every week. Like, I haven't had pizza this week yet. But as you know, Friday's, for me, it's pizza day.

So I eat pizza like, so if it's 0.5 times a month, okay, it's 0.5 times a week. That would average out to twice a month. Maybe that's not entirely true. I probably eat pizza three times a month. I watch wrestling far more often than that. So giving up wrestling would be giving up a lot more. I've probably been eating pizza longer with much more consistency.

But wrestling, it's like if I stopped watching wrestling, every podcast interview would be like, so how about that local sports team? Weather's been really hot lately. Yeah, do you like hot weather? Huh, cool. And that would be the podcast episodes moving forward if I stopped watching wrestling. So in this completely hypothetical situation here, I suppose I would never eat pizza again.

Oh, I can't believe I said that as a sentence out loud. But again, completely hypothetical. Certainly not a situation. This is a false dichotomy. That's what we call this. This is a false dichotomy because you're only giving me two options when there are multiple other options.

But thank you for expanding my brain with this and making me really think about it. And that, my friends, is the final question on this. Ask CVV number 93. the John Randall, Dougie Gilmore, Dwight Freeney, and Ron Artecest on the Sacramento Kings edition.

If you've got a question for next week, for Ask CVV number 94, you know what to do. Leave a comment on Spotify. Also, leave that comment, The Hulkster, the Hulkster, brother. So we know that you're paying attention and you're a real, real one for listening

all the way until the end. Or send me a question on social media using that hashtag AskCTVV or shoot me an email, CBV at chrisfamfleet.com. I just wrapped up some interviews that you'll be seeing next week. I'll even tell you the order of these next week. On Tuesday, we have Bianca Bel Air. On Thursday, we've got a fascinating conversation with Montez Ford. You won't want to miss either of those ones.

I'll leave you with a quote that I saw from Lewis House on Instagram this week. And man, this one hit me. If you're worried about the cost of going for it, you should see the price of staying exactly where you are. Be great and be grateful, my friends. Have an amazing weekend. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. See you Tuesday with Bianca Bellair.

Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack.

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