Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #96 - Karrion Kross WWE Exit, John Cena vs. Logan Paul, Brock Lesnar, ESPN/WWE Deal, UFC On Paramount+

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

Welcome to AskCVV #96! On this episode, Chris answers questions about Karrion Kross leaving WWE and whether or not it is a work, why John Cena's next opponent is Logan Paul and not Brock Lesnar, who Roman Reigns will face at WWE Clash in Paris, how the UFC deal with Paramount compares to the WWE deal with ESPN, the wrestling theme to set as your alarm clock sound and much more!   Quote I'm thinking about: “Life without passion is simply existence.” - Cameron Hanes   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   SUPERPOWER: Go to https://Superpower.com and use code CVV to get $50 Off your annual Superpower subscription. Live up to your 100-Year potential. #superpowerpod   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: Join Rocket Money today and reach your financial goals faster: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv MIRACLE 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   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. All that downstate song just gets me so fired up. Welcome back, my friends, to another one here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. Happy Friday. Thank you for being a real one and for spending some of your Friday with me on an AskCV episode. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the entire planet. lay your phone down on the ground right now and hit a swan ton bomb on that follow button

wherever you're listening so you don't miss out on any new episodes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I'm in Providence, Rhode Island right now as you listen to this. I'm here doing an interview with someone who you'll be very excited to hear from, someone who very, very rarely does interviews. I'm not going to tell you who it is. You'll be seeing this. I actually think it's going to be Tuesday's episode.

We're going to turn this around real quick because I'm that excited about it. But I've been making a mistake of saying, an episode with this person is coming up soon or we're going to do one with this person and then whatever, you know, for whatever reason, it falls apart, it doesn't happen. Flights get delayed. Plans change. So I'm just going to say, hopefully this all pans out and you'll be pumped to see this interview if it goes live on Tuesday, which it should.

I don't see why it wouldn't, but who knows? Have you seen the microbrrawlers? The microbrallers are out. They look awesome. We have shipped a ton of them this past week. They're available for sale at pro wrestling teas.com. But if you want an autographed one, send me an email. CVV at chrisfanfleet.com.

$30 for a regular one, $60 for a limited edition chase variant. happy to sign either of them. There's only a few chase variants left, though. I think there's, I don't know, like maybe five or eight left. So if you want to chase version, send me an email, I'll sign it for you, $30 regular, $60 for the limited edition. And it doesn't include shipping. I think I made a mistake last week. Someone sent me a message. You're like, does that include shipping? I'm like, yeah, sure, no big deal. And I would just assume they live somewhere close-ish. and they didn't. And shipping was more than the actual figure itself. But I wasn't going to be like, oh, by the way, I know I told you free shipping, but actually the shipping was $39.14. So shipping will not

be included. I just feel like I need to put that out there. That's my mistake. I get it. I was trying to be like, yeah, whatever, can't be that much. Sure. Also, I didn't check where you live. But all right. But I love the way that these micro-brawlers turned out. I think that maybe this might be the start of. Maybe we do another one at some point down the line. I don't know, but I just think that they look, I'm just really happy with how they turned out. They look really, really cool.

Welcome, my friends, to Ask CVV number 96, the Pavel Burray, Cortez Kennedy, and Charlie Conway edition. Yeah, Mighty Ducks reference in here. I love that. If you got a question for next week, ask CVV number 97. If there's a certain name that pops into your head

when you think of the jersey number 97, let me know. Leave a comment on Spotify. Send me an email CVV at chrisfanfley.com or leave it on social media with that hashtag ask CVV. And if you're listening on Spotify, just leave the word banger in the comment section. We just had Seamus on the show yesterday.

I loved that live episode in New York City. If you were there, thank you for joining us. What a night that was. Just leave the word, banger. Because with Seamus, and, you know, some may argue that with the guests we've had on this podcast, it's been banger. After banger. After banger. After banger.

You get the point. Seamus said like 14 more during our live episode. I haven't quite confirmed it yet, but we're getting close to announcing. the next live show. If all goes to plan, it's going to be the Friday before Survivor Series in San Diego. So that's Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. If you're going to be in town for Survivor Series or if you live in Southern California, I would love to see you there. Keep an eye out for that announcement. The next hopefully, I don't even know. I was literally, I'm just literally going to make up a number. I don't know. It might get confirmed tomorrow. It might get confirmed in three weeks. It might get confirmed in October. I'm not sure, but keep an eye out for that announcement at some point soon.

I need to stop. These episodes are literally just me hitting record and then me talking for an hour and then me hitting stop if you couldn't tell. That's how this works. But I think sometimes I get caught up in the idea of, oh, yeah, we're going to announce that. I've already said too much. I can't take back the words I've just said.

So we'll announce that at some point in time. but I would love to see you for that would be the seventh insight live. We've done six insight lives. Crazy. Been an absolute blast making that a thing that we've done this year to be able to just spend some time with you, hang out, and then hear some great stories, some great conversations right there in front of us on the stage. I love it.

Let's get in to Ask CVV number 96. We'll kick it off with an email from Aaron Fisher. He says, hey Chris. Aaron here. Real, real one from Nova Scotia Canada. Love it, my fellow Canadian. Me, my wife and two daughters, seven and four, drove 12 hours straight from Nova Scotia to Montreal to see our first WWE live event. Smackdown was great. It was amazing getting to see Sina and Cody was in a match. I didn't expect to see that happening. My question is now, with one unfolded on Smackdown, it seems that Logan Paul is John Sina's next opponent. Are we still getting Brock Lesnar? Or do you think that that's more of a long-term story to get

to their match? With not many dates left, it seems like there might not be a lot of time to build that up. I'd hate to see them fumble the ball on Sina versus Lesnar. Thank you for the constant entertainment. I love the show. Aaron, you were at a great smackdown. John Cena being there with that incredible reception that he got there, the look in that kid's face. You know the one I'm talking about. I'm getting goosebumps as I was saying. like just tears in his eyes that he got to see John Sina one last time in his city. That was all of us. Like that whatever age you are, that was all of us.

Maybe John Sina's not your guy, but we can all relate to that. Like that is all of us when we think about just like the feelings that can be evoked from pro wrestling. So what a show for you to be at. And I am eating my words now because last Friday on Ask CVV, I'm like, all right, well, yeah, Brock Lesnar came out at SummerSlam. So obviously, the next match is going to be Brock Lesnar versus John Cena. That seems to be what they do, where there's no reason for John Cena to be taken out by somebody

if they're not leading up to for a match. So that's going to be his next opponent. So, yeah, I think they are leading up to a match. I think that we will get Brock Lesnar versus John Cena, but clearly that's not happening yet. Logan Paul versus John Cena in Paris, in Paris, class. in Paris is John Sina's next match. And it's so funny, I've heard so many people say, like, John Sina's retirement tour has been predictable.

Like, predictable? Like, if you were looking at this at the start of the year and you were trying to pick his opponents, I think there's a lot of them already that would surprise you. Our truth made a lot of sense, but, you know, with the few amount of matches that John Sina's been having, I think a lot of us thought, man,

our truth's not going to get a match. Well, he got two. would you think Logan Paul would be on that list? I didn't think he'd be on that list. I certainly didn't think Brock Lesnar would be one of John Cena's last opponents. I quite frankly, didn't think we'd ever see Brock Lesnar back in WWE. So I think there's been a lot of curveballs, a lot of surprises in the John Cena retirement tour. And again, the fact that John Cena doesn't have the WWE championship anymore means all bets are off.

Like, there can be matches that are just made for the sake of making them. We haven't seen that a lot on the John Cena retirement tour. There has been a story leading up to all of these matches. But the fact that it doesn't have to be a title match in addition to being one of these harrowed matches on John Cena's retirement tour, you're going to be now at this point in the game, like one of John Cena's last four or five opponents. Like, that is, it's an honor to be one of those people. I'm curious what the thought process was behind the scenes with Logan Paul being his next opponent.

And look, say what you want about Logan Paul. We've had this conversation so many times. If you don't like Logan Paul, the individual, great. You are completely entitled to that opinion. But if you don't like Logan Paul for the athletic ability in the ring, I think you need to give it another look. like there is no question that Logan Paul is a natural. There's no question that he has taken to this faster than quite possibly anybody. Like the fact that he has, what, 20 matches? I think it's like, I think it's 20 matches, not including like Royal Rumbles. 20 matches and he's doing what he's doing

and like doesn't look like he's green. Has the facial expressions of a veteran, it's impressive. And I think with John Sina being in the business as long as he's been in the business, knowing the WWE audience, the way that he so intimately does, he's going to pull out the best in Logan Paul. And I think that Logan Paul is going to pull out all the stops here to make sure that this is a memorable match. Pretty crazy that Logan Paul has now had a match with Roman Raines and is now going to have also boxed Floyd Mayweather. I don't think we can not mention that. but a match with Roman reigns boxed Floyd Mayweather and is now having a match with John Sina as one of John Sina's final opponents.

I think the build to this is going to be really interesting because there are a few people in WWE that are hated more than Logan Paul, whether that is hating Logan Paul the individual or that is hating Logan Paul the character. Logan Paul gets massive heel heat whenever he's in the ring. And then you've got on the other end of the spectrum, John Sina who is getting the best, biggest baby face reactions, not just of his career, but some of the biggest baby face reactions

in WWE history. I think that there's obviously some big ones like the stone cold pop and the attitude era is, I think can't top that. I think some of rocks pops at that point in time, also huge. But the reaction that John Cena's getting now and just also the respect that he's getting, the thank you seen a chance. You can see how much this means. to John Cena. You can see how much he's taking in every single moment. Like at SummerSlam, he, like, put his hands up to his face and, like, mimicked like he was taking a photo, like he was taking a mental image of this. I love that. I'm interested to see what John Cena versus Logan Paul looks like. And if we're to believe the rumors online, we're going to be getting

Brock Lesder versus John Sina at a PLE that's going to be announced on September 20th. The rumors are there's going to be a PLE announced soon, September 20th in Indianapolis, which would go head to head with AEW and All Out. Very interesting move. And I guess that if they're trying to stack the deck, if WWE is trying to get as many people to watch their show, why not put Brock Lesder's first match back? in over two years against John Sina on his retirement tour, one of his last matches. I guess if you're looking to stack the deck, then that's what you would do.

But I don't know, when did the move change? And maybe this is just something that happened with the building being available. But traditionally, WWE was on Saturdays, and traditionally AEW has been on Sundays. For AWW and all out in Toronto to be on a Saturday, I would love to hear what the decision was behind that one. But that's what the rumors are online. But I don't think that we're skipping over John Sina versus Brock Lesnar. And if the rumors are not true, I could see this playing out for a little while that gets us to John Sina versus Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series. Like, there's a good chance here that we get some, like, dumb finish, some, some funny business at the end of this Logan Paul John

Sina match with Brock Leser just running in F5. F5, ring the bell, disqualification. John Sina gets taken out and then it continues to build the momentum for when they do have their match. Like I wouldn't be surprised at all if we get some sort of a funny business finish with this Logan Paul John Sina match that would continue to tell the story, push the ball forward for whatever is next. Adam McLandris on Spotify says, hey, CVV question for Ask CVV number.

number 96, the Miko Rontinin edition, I'm blown away by how everything with Caring Cross is playing out. I'd like to speculate wildly that it is a work, but I'm fearful that this is truly the end for him and Scarlett in WWE. The SummerSlam after show reinforce how much the crowd is behind him. We want cross. We want cross. My question is this.

What is your take on this situation? Where do you think Kevin slash Carian will go from here? Thank you for all you do, Adam. It's a funny thing. It's a funny thing that people don't know if this is real or a storyline. And it proves once again that KFabe isn't dead. There was so much talk leading up to the release of WWE Unreal on Netflix that,

oh, man, KFab's dead. Way to kill KFabe. We know everything. But between Seth Rollins working everybody with his knee injury, then cashing in at SummerSlam, that was all of work. And now carrying cross in this situation, it seems really clear that if you don't know if it's real or not, clearly KFabe is still a lot. Unfortunately, unfortunately with this situation, I don't think that Karyan or Kevin, that's his real name, I don't think he's hiding anything.

With the documentary he released on his YouTube channel earlier this week, go give him a subscribe, go watch the documentary if you haven't. It is not just brilliant storytelling. And Kevin slash Karyan just like, like speaking his truth and telling the situation, but like it's really good filmmaking as well. And Kevin is, I keep calling him Kevin. I mean, I've known him for years. Let's see. He's at now. It's just killer cross if you go to his page.

He is now at 85,000 subscribers. When he put that video out on the weekend, he was at like 40,000. So he's already gained 40 something thousand, maybe 45,000 in the last five days. go subscribe to his channel. He's going to be at 100,000 by this time next week for sure. That documentary we're talking about already has 773,000 views. It is such a good watch. But between that documentary and the interview that he did with Ariel Hawani,

I feel like he's been completely upfront and just telling the facts as he knows them and as he understands them, this is not a work. At least the way that I interpret this and the way that I understand. with the few messages that I've shared with him. And I actually, I did a live interview with him. I hosted an event for on location. They do the ticket packages for WWE. So I hosted a pre-hospitality show at MetLife Stadium last Saturday on Sunday,

both night one and night two. I interviewed Carrying Cross and Scarlett on Saturday. I interviewed them on Saturday. Yes. I interviewed them on Saturday. I interviewed Naomi on Sunday. And from the brief conversation that I had with him off camera, like, this is legit.

And it's too bad. And I think that it just comes down to, if you don't play the game they want you to play, in the way that they want you to play it, if you're not following the kind of unwritten rules and you're kind of going out in your own and doing your own thing, I don't know if they like that. Like there's this idea and there was for a long time.

Vince would always talk about grabbing the brass ring and like going after it. And it just seems like go for the brass ring and try to grab the brass ring, but only do it if you're following our rules and going through our channels to make it happen. And I think that Carion stopped asking for permission. And you can see that basically WrestleMania on. He stopped asking for permission and just kind of started doing things his own way. I think there's little things like putting his hands behind his back when AJ did the phenomenal forum.

That was kind of like an early sign of like, well, that's something we haven't seen from him. That's interesting. And all of these little things added up for carrying cross to get over in a big way. Like this has shades of not to the same magnitude, but it has shades of like the yes movement. and Daniel Bryan and the crowd getting behind him leading up to WrestleMania 30. Again, not to the same magnitude, but the same idea that, like, we can see that you're authentic. The crowd can see that you believe this, and because you believe this, we believe this.

And you heard the chant. What went off there? What went on after the post show? The crowd was very clearly saying, we want cross. It's a chant that they have been saying for weeks. months. How could they pretend that that was we want Brock? It was very clearly, we want cross. And the crowd wants cross. This also feels a little bit like what happened with Our Truth. And people thought that was a work. From what I understand, our truth was let go. The power of the fans and the

response that he got is what brought back Our Truth slash Ron Killen. I think that if the crowd continues to show their support for carrying cross, maybe we'll see a situation at some point in time, weeks from now, maybe months from now, maybe at the Royal Rumble, who knows, where he comes back as a result of the crowd just not giving up on him, not forgetting about him. But if you truly do want to support Caring Cross, and I say this every time somebody gets released. Sure, send a tweet and sure, chant at the shows. But like, if you truly want to support him by his book, it's called Life is Fighting.

It is fantastic. It's one of the best wrestling biographies you will ever read. It is deep. There's a lot of life lessons in there. And there's a lot of like really good lessons about just like overcoming hardship and how you get through that. but like instead of just oh man that sucks i really miss that guy well if you really truly do and i'm not just talking about carrion and scarlet if you truly do miss whoever it happens to be support them go see them at the the local convention when they're signing autographs go see them at a local indie show

whatever it happens to be but in carrying cross his case grab his book grab it on amazon on, like, support him and find out more about his story too, but like, that's a great way to support him. And everything he was saying on Ariel Hawani just, it just feels, this is a little crazy. He got offered a contract. Scarlett didn't. I just feel like that's what makes this work, them together as a unit. But I'm really curious to see what happens from here.

Does he continue wrestling? He also has a book or a movie that is making its way around the festival circuit right now. It's called Blue Evening. So if it happens to be at a festival near you, I would definitely encourage you to go see this. You know, I'm curious to see what his focus is. Is it to continue to make more films? Is it continue to, is he going to continue to promote the film he has right now? And maybe that leads to other things.

Like he didn't just, he didn't just act in this. he also produced the film. Yeah, he produced it and also starred in it. It's very good. So I'm curious to see what's next. There's some history in TNA. Could see him in TNA. Could see him in AEW. There's a lot of history with him and a lot of people in AEW. But he's a star. And he's always been so good to me. I've been friends with him for years. And I just want what's best for him. And I honestly, like, there was the talk of like his contracts up. And it was, so his contract was up August 10th. And I remember the lead up to that, like, oh, his contracts up in a month. His contracts up in a few weeks. His contracts up on Sunday.

And now his contracts up. And I'm just, I'm really surprised that we're, we're at the stage right now where his contract is in fact up. And all signs, including the words out of. of his mouth all point to this is 100% completely legit. This is not part of a storyline at all. Like he has been let go. And I'm really curious what the next move is from here.

I'll be watching. 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 mitopure for months now. Because I want to be the healthiest version of my 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. Mitochondria is our cells power generators. They're a key influence in how

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This episode is brought to you by Rocket Money, with prices going up on just about everything lately. Dealing with money can be stressful. Trying to manage subscriptions, track spending, and cut costs can feel overwhelming. Luckily, Rocket Money can relieve some of that stress and help you feel confident in the financial decisions that you make. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Rocket Money will even try to negotiate lower bills for you. The app automatically scans your bills to find opportunities to save, and then they go to work to get you better deals. They're the ones who talk to customer service, so you don't have to.

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So we have all of the numbers in front of us. We're all talking about the same thing here. In the U.S. and in the U.S. only. That is a very important thing to point out here. The rest of the world has this all figured out. You just put it on Netflix and that is your source for all things, WWE.

So definitely a little convoluted in the U.S. In the U.S., W.W.E signed a five-year, $1.6 billion deal for W.W.E's PLEs to move from Peacock, where they are now, to ESPN. This move happens next March. So the first PLE that you will be watching in this new model, in the ESPN model, will be WrestleMania 42. Everything up to that point will just continue to be the way that it is right now. And this is just PLEs. This is not the W.W.E. Library. That is a completely separate deal that will also be figured out at some point between now and WrestleMania 42. If you have a cable subscription, if you subscribe to DirecTV,

YouTube TV, something like that, then this is all included. You're not going to pay anything extra. You'll just get the ESPN app. You will log in using your credentials from Direct TV, YouTube TV, whatever your cable provider is, and it's included. For everybody else, and that's the majority, you will now be paying $30 a month for the new ESPN app to watch WWE PLEs. The wrestling observer reported

that NBC Universal did try to keep the PLE streaming rights on Peacock. Their bid was $275 million per year, which is $1.38 billion. ESPN offered more, 1.6 billion. And as you know, they ended up going with

ESPN. So the UFC deal is similar, but different. UFC is going to move all of their PLEs. They're not even PLEs. I am so conditioned now that paper views are PLEs. UFC actually has paper views. You have to pay to view it. So UFC's going to move all of their paper views, all of their events, to Paramount Plus. It is a $7.7 billion deal over seven years. And here's the thing that's really funny about this. Paramount Plus is $7.99 a month or $79.99 annually. You know what else costs $7999. One UFC pay-per-view.

One. So for the cost of one UFC pay-per-view, you will now get the entire year. You can watch all of the numbered UFC events and all of the UFC fight nights. And what this makes me think of is we just get so used to standards in our life. Standards. So when the WWE network was introduced, our new standard was $9.99 a month. And you got everything. You got PLEs. You got the library. You got it all. So we went from right before the WWE network was introduced. We went from paying 50 bucks a month for a pay-per-view to now $9.99, which not just included the paper views, but now included the back library. Like, incredible, right?

$50, used to be $50 for one event, $50 for a four-hour show. Now we're paying $9.99 a month, and we get everything? Oh, my gosh. Wow. Incredible, right? Now, we don't know the inner workings of this deal with ESPN and WWE and UFC and Paramount, but it just feels backwards. UFC was already on ESPN. So if you had ESPN Plus, if you had that subscription, you got to watch the fight nights. They were included in the ESPN Plus subscription, but on top of that, you still had to pay for pay-per-views. Like I said, $80 per event. moving WWE from Peacock to Paramount Plus would have made a lot more sense. WWE being on Paramount Plus instead of UFC going to Paramount Plus would have made a lot more sense.

And I'll tell you why. It's a lateral move with the price point. Again, standards. We were used to $9.99 a month on the WWE network. Then when WWE went to Peacock, we went, oh, $7.99 a month. This is great. Now I'm saving money? The WWE Network was probably better.

Like there were some things about Peacock that weren't as good as WWE Network. But like the price point was great. It went from $9.99 and now $7.99. Cool. Well, if we went from Peacock right now is $10.99 a month. That's the like the package, the cheapest package that includes ads. You go from 1099 a month on Peacock. If that had moved over to Paramount Plus, it would have gone from 1099.

to $7.99. It would have just been, like, it would have been great. And by the way, Peacock was $7.99. It moved up to $10.99. But it would have been, like, price-wise, a lateral move. Instead, it's, WWE stuff moves over to ESPN if you're not a cable subscriber.

It now costs three times as much. Like, I don't think people care what app the WWE stuff or UFC stuff moving forward streams on. I don't think they care at all. What they care about is price. If the ESPN app was $9.99, no one would have battered an eye. They would have gone, all right, I don't really watch anything else on Peacock other than WWE stuff.

So I'll just cancel my Peacock subscription. And I will just take that amount of money, $10.99. And I will move that over here to ESPN and pay the exact same amount of money, or maybe it's slightly less. And I'll just watch my stuff here. and I don't think that people would have cared which streaming service it was. But the fact that like, again, standards,

if you were a UFC fan and you were paying for the PLEs, I did it again. If you were a UFC fan and you were paying for the pay-per-views, you were paying $80 an event, you think this is the greatest win ever. Man, I was paying $80 for a pay-per-view. Now I'm going to pay $7.7.000.

99 a month and I get everything. This is great. Whereas like, so this is why I'm saying it's backwards. The UFC fans are now going to pay $60, $70 less. They're going to pay $70 less and get all the same stuff and get more. Whereas WWE fans are going to pay three times as much and get less because the library is not included. It just doesn't add up. And again, we don't know the inner workings to this, but I would love to hear that one explained as well. And it's important to point out, this isn't just happening with WWE or UFC. This has kind of become the norm in the US for streaming. Like, remember when cutting the cord like a decade or so ago meant you saved money? Because like you have a cable package and you have 80 channels and you only watch like four of them.

All right, well, I'll just subscribe to the streaming services for those and you save the money. Oh, how the tables have turned. Like, for example, if you want to watch the NFL this year and you're like a fan of just watching all the games, like you're deep into it. You want to be keeping tabs and all your fantasy players, then you need to subscribe to this new ESPN app, like we said, $30 a month. You need to subscribe to Amazon Prime for the Thursday night games. That's $14.99 a month. You need to subscribe to Peacock for Sunday night football. That's $11.99 or $10.

99, you need to subscribe to Paramount Plus because that's where the CBS games are. You need to subscribe to Fox 1 because that's where the Fox games are. And then for the Christmas Day games, you need to subscribe to Netflix. So like, this is not just a WWE thing. This is not just a UFC thing. This is an NFL thing. This is also a baseball thing. This is just kind of how things are right now in the world of streaming. I feel like the pendulum has to swing back, at least a little bit. point in time, but with all of that said, can you believe there used to be people at some point in time that complained about the WWE network? I'm not so funny?

Like, what we wouldn't give right now to go back to a simpler time with the WWE network, Greg Calder on Spotify, why is Roman Raines on the Clash in Paris poster if he's not on the show? Well, Greg, I think it's just a matter of time before he's on the show. I see what you mean, though. Like, John Sina has been on the poster for every single event leading up to this one. This is actually the first PLE in 2025 where John Sina has not been featured on the poster. Interesting that Roman Rains is featured before they announce his match. He's clearly going to have a match.

It's just a matter of time. Like, maybe that gets announced tonight. Maybe it gets announced on Monday. But really feels like we're building up. to Roman Reins versus Bronbreaker. And man, that is going to be good. And I guess there's the possibility of Roman Reins versus Bronson Reed.

And I think that if Roman Reins was working more matches, I think if Roman Reins was working a schedule where like the Cody Road schedule where he's wrestling 100 plus matches a year, yeah, that would make sense. He'd have a match with Bronson Reed now. That would then set up for a match with Bronz Bronner down the line.

But it just seems to me, like we're going to get, I mean, what a bang of a match that's going to be. But it feels to me like we're going to get Bronbreaker versus Roman Reins. And I can't wait. And that's going to be a match that's like, it's going to level up Bronbreaker. Like, Bronbreaker is already just absolutely crushing it. I think that for the most part, everybody can agree. We know he's a star, but we know that like that's a guy who's a future world champion.

And I think that a match with Roman Raines is going to be one of those matches that five years, 10 years from now, we're going to look back and go, man, Bronbreaker was great. But when he had that match with Roman Raines, we really got to see him put it into another gear. So that's where I think we're going with the Roman Raines storyline here. And dare I say, after Roman Raines being. the champion for 1,300, and 16 days. It's actually kind of nice that Roman Raines has taken half a step back away from the main event picture and allowed other people to have that spotlight. Reminds me a little bit of when John Sina was doing the same thing 10-ish years ago, eight 10-ish years

ago. Like John Sina had stepped away from the main event picture and was doing a lot of stuff with the United States title. I was doing a lot of stuff with the, like upper mid card. And it didn't diminish what John Cena was doing at all. Like nobody looked at John Cena as the U.S. champion and went, oh, he's a bum now. It was like, oh, cool. Like John Cena's paying it forward. John Cena's working with new people. John Ceda's giving, breathing new life into the United States championship. And I kind of feel like that's what we're getting with Roman Raines because a match between Roman Raines and Bronner wasn't really possible one or two years ago. It is now. And it makes a lot of sense now.

especially with everything that's going on with the Paul Heyman faction. Like there's a lot of intricate details there. You've got Seth Rollins as the world champion. Maybe that lines up something for Roman Raines and Seth Rollins at some point in time. There's clearly a bunch of history there. There's a lot of story that could be told there. There's something happening with Bronson Reed. I like that.

But I feel like the match that we're lining up for in Paris. is brawn breaker. Gios 3200 on Instagram. Not sure what's going on with Naomi, but it looks like she'll be out for a while. Do you think that she should hold the belt or should they have her lose it? I don't know what's going on with Naomi,

but whatever is keeping her out of the ring right now is legit. So I don't know if this is an injury. There's also been rumors that maybe her and Jimmy are expecting a baby. I'm not sure. which rumors are true, which ones to believe, but whatever's going on there, I wish her the best, hope everything's okay. As it stands right now, as we sit here right now, and I'm recording this,

she is still being advertised to be defending the WWE Women's World Championship at Clash in Paris against Stephanie Vicarre. So as it stands right now, nothing has changed there, but this is wrestling. It's very fluid. Something could change, but hope everything's okay. And if she's back in action on Monday or back in action on Friday and everything seems good, then we're good. This all started when she was supposed to have a match on Raw this past week. It was supposed to be her and EO Sky. WWE announced that she wasn't medically cleared to compete. The match was off. So again, this goes back to what we were talking about the very beginning with carrying cross stuff. Is she, is this a storyline?

Is it not? I thought K-Fabe was dead. I guess if we're questioning stuff like that, then I think you need to question whether K-Fave is actually dead or not, but wishing Naomi the best. And again, yes, that was somebody that I chatted with at the live event. It was, there's some clips of this online, but it was on location, had a pre-show hospitality party at MetLife Stadium before the doors open. And I did an interview with Naomi. She's the best. And afterwards, I'm like, I got to have you on the show for real.

She's like, yeah, just anytime. Let me know. So I don't want to say too much. That seems to be a theme here. But keep an eye out for the possibility of that. I'll just float that out into the world. And if you could send some good juju for that to be floated out in the world as well, that'd be great. Unstoppable Shield 1992 on Spotify. Hey Chris, I want to say thank you for helping me get through my 10-hour ships on the road.

I've been a fan a long time. My question is if AJ Styles wins the Intercontinental Championship, do you think John Cena's final match will be against Stiles and will he go out as a Grand Slam champion? So two questions in there. First of all, thank you for being a real one

and for listening on Friday. Thank you for bringing me along on your 10-hour shifts on the road, that's wild. Glad I can keep you company there. I think that AJ Styles will be intercontinental champion at some point again soon. I think that that is a possibility here. And I think that there is a chance that AJ Stiles could be one of John Cena's final opponents. I still don't think that John Cena's going to win the intercontinental championship. And I don't think he needs to. Like, John Sina's legacy is very well cemented.

I don't think anybody at any point in time is going to go, yeah, great career, except he didn't win the I see belts. And I think that even if you were to ask John Sina, like I don't think that John Sina cares about the fact that he never won it. I also think that if you think about mid-card titles, and we just talked about it, the U.S. title is pretty synonymous with John Sina and everything he did with the U. U.S. title open challenge. I love that. I am still so curious as to who John Cena's final three-ish, four-ish opponents are. We obviously know that there's going to be a match with Logan

Paul. That's been announced. Sure seems like there's going to be a match with Brock Lesnar. That's happening at some point here. Then we've got Perth. There's a possibility there. And then we've got his final match. Those are the only other two like PLEs or big events where he's been announced, but we don't know who the opponent is. Like, yes, there's going to be this, there's going to be this event in, well, rumored to have this event in Indianapolis, September 20th. That could be Brock Lesnar or could be Brock Lesnar at Survivor series, or could be Brock Lesnar at Survivor series, or could be Brock Lesnar somewhere in between. Maybe it's in Perth. I don't know. But Cina only has like, in total five-ish opponents left, give or take.

We know who, we guaranteed know who one of them is. We pretty much know that Brock Lezzar's and other ones. So like, that leaves us with three-ish opponents. I would love for it to be AJ Styles. And I don't think that anything needs to be on the line for this. I think that there's a lot of components to your question here, whether it's going to be for the Intercontinental Championship, whether he leaves as a Grand Slam champion.

I don't think John Sina is winning his final match. And a lot of things right now are unpredictable, just in wrestling in general, not just WWE, but in wrestling in general. And I know that everybody's expecting John Sina to lose his final match, and that's the way that things go typically in wrestling. You go out on your back,

looking at the lights, putting over the guy who beat you. But maybe, maybe WWE throws a curb ball. maybe they go, you know what, you're expecting him to lose, so he's not going to lose. I don't know. But I still have no idea. I have no idea who his last opponent's going to be, but AJ Stiles deserves to be one of those last few opponents. And I think when you talk about, like, I think there's the category of wants, like I want to see a match with John Cena and so and so. And then I think there's the category of like the people who deserve to have a final match.

And I think that some of the people on that list, he's already crossed off. I think that people that deserve a last match on John Cena's retirement tour are people like Randy Orden, are people like CM Punk, are, is someone like Cody Rhodes. Like, so those ones have been crossed off. I think that there's like someone like an AJ style, man, he deserves to. I think there's a lot of meat on the bone for a third match with the rock. and it seems like if you connect the dots well enough kind of behind the scenes, maybe we're lining up for that.

Like, feels like that could happen and it could make sense. But I don't think John Sina, maybe he wrestles for the I.C. title, I don't, actually, I don't even think so. I just think we get four or five great matches, but the massive nostalgia pop that John Sina's getting. And then when this all does come down to that final match, rumors say it's going to be mid-December in Boston, it's going to be special. Like, there's going to be a lot of teary eyes in the audience. I'm sure I'll be one of them. And I think there'll be a lot of tears of joy. I think there'll be a lot of tears of sadness of like you're saying goodbye to

something that meant so much to you for 20 plus years. But it's going to be a special event. And I think that all of those things put together means it's going to be a special opponent, special story. And I can't wait to see what happens. Along the same lines here, this is from B underscore honcho four on Instagram. Hey, Chris, do you think Randy Orton will have a retirement tour like John Cena is having? Or will it be a one-off match like Goldberg or Kurt Engel? I don't think they'll ever do a John Sina style retirement tour ever again. I think that this is something that is so special because John Sina is such a special performer. And I'm sure that this was something that they put a lot of time and thought and effort into over the course of many months.

John Sina announced this over a year ago. Isn't that crazy? He announced this last June at Money in the Bank in Toronto. And then we had like six months to like talk about it, think about it. All right. It's going to start. We're on Netflix, June, January 6th in Los Angeles. But I think that there was probably months of thought that went into this.

And I don't know if we'll ever see anything like this ever again. I hope that Randy Orton's able to keep doing this for many years to come. I hope we're not talking about Randy Orton's last match for a while. I think that when you talk about last matches like Goldberg's last match and Kurt Angle's last match, there are two very different types of last matches. Kurt Angle, he got WrestleMania. So Kurt Engel got WrestleMania. That's great.

Kurt Angle didn't get the match he wanted, the opponent he wanted, and that's not a slight against Baron Corbyn, and Baron Corbyn wouldn't take it as such. Vince McMahon basically said, if you want your retirement match with John Sina, you can do it next year. You can do it at WrestleMania 36. But right now, the story that you're in right now is with Baron Corbyn and it needs to end with Baron Corbin. And Kurt's like, well, I won't be able to wrestle next year. I can't give you another year. And Vince said, okay, well, then your last match is this match at WrestleMania 35 then. And that was that. I do appreciate, though, that with Kurt Angle and

Goldberg had like the fanfare of like this is his final match for a world title his family's there the whole thing like they both got a send off not in the same way that like John Cena's getting the send off but I appreciate those ones so much more than I think about Triple H's last match he didn't know it was his last match the audience didn't know was his last match and I'm sure it's not the way he wanted to go out. What was his last match? Who was his last opponent? Well, I will tell you.

His last match was on June 29th, 2019. It was at a WWE house show in Tokyo, Japan. It was Shinska Nakamura and Triple H teamed up to defeat Robert Rood and Samojo. And after that, Triple H's body said, we can't do this anymore. And Triple H's heart said, yeah, we can't do this anymore. So I appreciate when you do have the opportunity to have a sendoff, whether it's announced like Goldbergs or Kurt Angles or what John Cena is doing right now or it's not. Like I actually, I really like how Dave Batista did it.

Coincidentally, it was at the same event as Kurt Angle was WrestleMania 35. Batista went out there, had his match with Triple H's greatest rival. and then afterward came to the back and told everybody, oh yeah, that was my last match, by the way. He's like, I didn't want the buildup. I didn't want the fanfare. I didn't want the pressure of this being my last match. So he just went out and did it and then came back and told everybody,

yeah, that was it. I'm done. I'm retired for real. Don't try to talk me back into this. And if you want to hear him tell the whole story, he was on the show last year and told a great story about that. But I think everybody has a last match in wrestling. and Christopher Daniels talked about this when he was on the show recently.

Every wrestler has a last match. Not every wrestler knows going into it if it's their last match or not. Their career could end because of injury. Their career could end because of medical things. A lot of different factors. But when you're able to go in and say, I'm the one who's calling it a career, I'm the one who's saying, this is it. I appreciate that.

But I don't think we're going to see another retirement tour. And that's why I think they're going all out on John Cena's retirement tour. I think that when Randy Orton does decide to hang him up whenever that happens to be, he will have one hell of a farewell match. I would have to guess it'll be a WrestleMania match at some point in time. Hopefully it's many, many years from now. But I don't think we get another tour. Matthew O'Brien emailed this one in.

Hey, Chris, a little bit of a fun question for you. If you had to set one WWWE theme song to be your alarm every morning for the rest of your life, which one are you picking? For me, it's called a personality while screaming, it's clobbering time as I get out of bed. Love the podcast and can't wait to see Sina in Dublin and Paris. Thanks for everything you do, Matthew. The fact that you would be waking up out of bed and screaming,

it's clobbering time, I can get on board with that. I love the excitement of getting out of bed. Like, I'm not a, I'm not a snooze person. Like when my alarm goes off, that's it. I hit stop, put the feet on the floor, boom, let's get out of bed. Let's get going. And I guess when you hear a song that excites you, it's way better than hearing like some random iPhone ringtone.

There's nothing. There are a few things worse than waking up to like, do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do. I had a roommate. Shout out Adam Booth. I love you, buddy. He was my roommate for a few years in Toronto. He's a friend of mine from Pickering.

Then we went to Wilford-Lurier University together. And then after we graduated, we were roommates in Toronto. Like, we had separate rooms, but we shared a wall. So, like, he had trouble getting out of bed. He would be like, he's one of those people that would snooze two, three, four, five times. And when he really had to wake up for something important, he would change his iPhone ringtone, his alarm clock ringtone, to the alert one, which would not only wake him up, but would also wake me up because I would hear it through the wall. I would pick, I would pick Triple H the game. That's such a good entrance theme.

Plus, to wake up to like, time to play the game. like rocks you out of bed. I would love that. Also, sleeper pick, maybe I would, you know, every once in a while. Like if I'm waking up to the game every day for the rest of my life, but like once a month, I could change it to something else. I would probably change it once a month to Billy Guns, the one theme. Billy Gunn has had some fantastic themes, of course.

I mean, you know Asman, how good that theme was. And of course, DX, right? but the one theme, I've got it all. I've got it all. Dant D'n. Billy and Chuck, that was a great theme too. But I, there is something about that Billy Gun, the one, the one Billy Gun theme that is just, I don't know. That would get me out of bed smiling and laughing.

And then I would be thinking to myself of all the videos on YouTube where people have realized that that theme song of Billy Guns sounds like a 1990s. sitcom entrance, like show opening, and people have edited it in to like the Family Matters intro or the full house intro. And I love that. I actually showed Billy Gunn that. It's like, man, that's really cool. So I'm going to go with the game. And then every once in a while, every so often we'd hear the saxophone. Oh, my. Man, that song is so good. Oh, I could listen to this for the rest of the show. It's so good.

Anthony Abramoff says, good morning. I was wondering if you had any more micro ballers available for purchase. And if possible, could I get one of the chase figures? Yes, you can. I have emailed you back, Anthony. I believe the micro brawler is on the way to you. Also, if this is a place to ask a question, it is. I'd love to hear you talk about a non-wrestling sports moment that you were able to see live

that you hold dearly. Thank you for all you do. It's a great question. And as you know, if you follow me on social media or if you've been listening to the show for a while, my dad and I have this tradition that we started when I was 17 years old. We go to a different Major League Baseball Stadium every single year. And this last Monday, we crossed off stadium number 26 on our list. We went to Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. We saw the Rangers play. what a blast and what a time. And I love that it forces my dad and I to spend quality time together. Like not that we don't spend quality time together, but like, yeah, I FaceTime my parents, but they live, they live far away. And when I FaceTime my parents, like I chat almost always, I chat with my mom and dad at

the same time. That's great. My parents have been married for 51 years. And I love that like when I FaceTime. I'll face time my mom's iPad or my dad's iPad. And my mom will be like, oh yeah, let me, let me get dad. Hey, honey, Christopher's FaceTiming us. So I get to talk to both of them at the same time. And it's great. And I also love the fact that like anything that I can tell to my mom, I can tell to my dad. I love it. But once a year, I get to go on a baseball trip with my dad and like spend time. And it makes me feel like, makes me feel like a kid again. And it brings back memories of like how much baseball meant to us growing up and like how much fishing meant us growing up.

We would go on a fishing trip quite often when I was like 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. And my mom and I would have completely different traditions. But this is one that I just love and I hold so dearly. So that's always been a really big thing. Like it doesn't matter so much like what the moment is on the field. It doesn't really matter who's playing this past Monday. The Diamondbacks were playing the Rangers and the game won an extra innings and the Rangers won a walkoff.

Like, that was awesome. But that doesn't really matter. Like what means the most is just the time spent with my dad and just the random conversation. And I appreciate that so much. So one of the sports moments that means so much to me, was in 2017 when I was living in Miami and I was working for the TV station there was on a show called Deco Drive.

I went to the All-Star game. The All-Star game was being hosted in Miami. I went to the All-Star game with my dad. And there was just something about being there and experiencing that with him. I have a video where we're both singing, take me out to the ball game during the seventh inning stretch. And I don't know.

The All-Star game has a completely different vibe to it. because I think that you're not really rooting for anybody. You're just there for the experience of the game. Like, you don't really care if the National League or the American League wins. You're just there for, like, the love of the game. I don't know. There was a real sense of fun in the air. So that's one of my favorite memories.

And it's not tied to a specific play. It's not tied to a specific team. It's just tied to a moment in time of spending time with my hero, my dad. and I know that that's probably not the answer you were looking for. I wish I could say I was there when the Blue Jays won the World Series in 1992. I wish I could say I was there in Atlanta when that happened. I wish I could say I was there in Toronto in 1993 when Joe Carter hit that home run. Touch them all, Joe, you'll never hit a bigger home run in your life.

But I wasn't. I was actually asleep for the first one. I might have been asleep for both of them. It was like, it was nine and ten years old. those happened. But that I think is, as it for me, is just like sharing those moments. And my dad and I were also like incredibly fortunate to be able to, we won the World Series ticket lottery in 2007. There weren't enough season ticket holders for the Colorado Rocky. So they just opened it up to like a lottery. And I entered the lottery and happened to get in and had the opportunity to buy

World Series tickets for face value, just crazy. Face value in 2007 was a heck of a lot cheaper than face value in 2025. So randomly bought Game 4 tickets thinking at least there'll be like something going on in the series by the time we get to Game 4. Little did we know that we were there when the Red Sox swept the Rockies in Colorado. Like we got to see a World Series victory in person. That was pretty cool. And it's funny. I don't even really watch that much baseball anymore, but baseball will always have

such a special place in my heart because of, I played it for 20 years growing up. I started playing it at five, played it into my 20s, played it at a pretty high level, played rep baseball for the Pickering Red Sox. I played select baseball for the Pickering Pirates. Those were some amazing years in those formidable years of my life. And I say this, all of this, as a lot of this, as I just put on my brand new glove. Shout out to Ignite Gloves for making me this beautiful custom black, white, and blue CVV glove. It has my logo on it. I just shared it on Instagram if you want to go check it out, but at Ignite Gloves. Shout out to them. I say all of this and all these great baseball moments that have impacted my life. I say all that as I have this glove on my hand.

I love that. And that's the final question on this. Ask CVV number 96, the Pavel Burr-Burray edition, Cortez Kennedy edition, and the Charlie Conway edition, which makes me want to go watch Mighty Ducks again this weekend. Quack. Quack. Quack. Thank you for all the great questions this week.

If you got a question for next week for AskCTVV, number 97, send it in. You know how to do it. send it in on Spotify. You're already leaving the comment banger because you're a real, real one. You've listened all the way until the end of an Ask CVV episode. Send it in as an email CVV at chris fanavily.com or put it on social media with that hashtag Ask CVV.

You will see the interview that I am here in Rhode Island for on Tuesday, if all goes to plan. And who do we have on Thursday? Roxanne Perez will be joining us on. the show on Thursday. And we'll wrap this up with a quote from Cameron Haynes. And I feel like, man, this is very applicable to that last answer I just gave you. Life without passion is simply existence.

Be great. And be great, my friends. Have an amazing weekend. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire.

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.