Insight with Chris Van Vliet - AskCVV #98 - Clash In Paris Predictions, Dream Interviews In 2025, Will John Cena Add More Dates To His Farewell Tour?

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

Get your tickets for Insight LIVE in San Diego on Friday, November 28! https://cvvtix.com Welcome to AskCVV #98! On this episode Chris gives his bold predictions for WWE Clash In Paris and answers questions about the remainder of John Cena's Farewell Tour, whether Rhea Ripley will win the WWE Women's World Championship at Crown Jewel, brand loyalty in pro wrestling, dream interviews for 2025, whether Karrion Kross is actually gone from WWE, what kayfabe means in modern wrestling and much more!Quote I'm thinking about: "Some beautiful paths can't be discovered without getting lost." - Erol OzanPlease 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/CVV2025 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 20% 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. Oh, how are you, my friends? Happy Friday. And welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV. Chris Van Fleet. Thank you for being a real one and for listening to an AskCV episode. And thank you for helping to make Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet.

Hit a shooting star press on that follow button wherever you. you're listening right now. If it's Spotify, we are so close to 15,000 ratings on Spotify. Could you take a few seconds to leave a rating on there? So you click on the show's page, then click the three little dots, dot, dot, dot, dot. Then you'll see rate show. When you click that, you'll see the stars pop up. So thank you so much for taking the time to do that, or even for considering doing that. I loved all the feedback on the Mike Keota episode yesterday. what a voice he has. Like he sounds like a mob boss,

like the nicest, friendliest, funniest, funniest mob boss you've ever met. But he has so many amazing stories, and I think we have to have him on the show much more often. I agree with all the comments that I saw. Referees should be in the Hall of Fame. Definitely people like Mike Keota,

Earl Hebner, and also Charles Robinson whenever he decides to retire, which, have you seen that guy lately? he is showing no signs of slowing down. I don't think Charles Robinson will be retiring anytime soon. You might have seen on his social media.

He broke his ankle setting up the ring and has still been on tour with WWE and still been doing all of the other duties outside of refereeing. Like he's part of the ring crew. So he's still there with a walking boot on and all. And he's still setting up the ring. Legend. Love that guy. Did you see that the next instant?

site live has been officially announced. Friday, November 28th, the day before Survivor Series in San Diego. Tickets are on sale right now at CVVTicks.com. There's also the option to buy VIP tickets, which include an Ask CVV Q&A before the show and a meet and greet after the show. So I can't wait to see all the real, real, real ones there in San Diego for that. CVV. TVV. t-I-X-com. Welcome, my friends, to Ask CVV number 98, the Connor Burdard and the Goose, Tony Saragusa edition. So many questions this week. I love it. If you've got a question for next week, leave a comment on Spotify. Also, let me know. It's a lot of 99s. I'm going to try to include as many of the 99s that you're thinking of for Ask CVV number 99, the very last of the jersey editions, I guess I'll call them.

But let me know who 99 is for you. As a Canadian, the first one that pops into my head, of course, is the great one, Wang Gretzky, but there are so many other legends that wore 99. So leave a comment on Spotify. Shoot me an email with your question or your jersey recommendation. CVV at chrisfanfleet.com or leave it on social media. using that hashtag ask CVV. We'll kick this off with an email from Matthew O'Brien who says,

Hey, Chris, what are your predictions for Clash in Paris? It will be my first PLE that I'm going to as a Dubliner, and I can't wait to see two people from my city wrestle on the card. That's right. Seamus and Becky Lynch. I love that. I'll be listening to the podcast on my way to Paris, and hopefully I'll hear this question being asked.

Well, you are hearing this question being asked. right now, Matthew, thank you for sending this in. I'm jealous that you're going to Clash in Paris. I wish I could be there. I've been to a ton of PLs this year. Wish I could be there. But let's go down this entire card here. Let's also take a look at the odds at my bookie.g when you sign up, of course, at my

bookie. Use my code. I'm sure you know what it is, but it's CVV. You'll get a lovely 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit on there. They've got the NFL odds. they've got college football, they've got everything on there. They have, yes, they have clash in Paris, but they also have Taylor Swift wedding odds on there. And you can figure out the odds there on what year they're going to be married and some other stuff as well.

So let's start off with tribal chief versus tribal thief. Roman Raines versus Big Bronson Reed. Roman Raines, the favorite here. and I think that makes sense. The only way that I could see Bronson Reed winning here is if there's some shenanigans from Brom Breaker or, I mean, that's probably the one that makes the most sense. Ron Breaker, Seth Rawlins, Paul Heyman.

I just think that with that faction, you've just kind of always, you have to have that in the back of your head that something may happen. You've always got to keep your head on a swivel there. But I'm going with Roman Raines on this one. And I think the point of this map, is to eventually give us Roman Reins versus Bronbreaker.

So I wouldn't be surprised if Bronbreaker makes his way into this match in some way, shape, or form. I don't, it could be after the match. It could be a run-in when the referee gets knocked out. But I feel like the point of this is for Roman Reigns versus Bronbreaker to eventually happen. Maybe that's happening, man, I don't know. maybe it happens at Survivor Series, but at the same time, I also feel like when you think about war games and you think about the match that they put on five versus five for war games, it's usually revolving revolving around a faction. Bloodline has made a lot of sense in years prior. I could see

something here where you've got Seth Rollins, Brombreaker, Bronson Reed, plus two other heels taking on the likes of like Roman reigns and CM Punk and maybe like an LA night or a Jay Usor or something like that. Like it's August right now as we're hanging out. But like as we look ahead to Survivor Series and it's early, but it feels like that could be something that they're teeing up for here, which then would continue to tell stories as we get into Royal Rumble and then WrestleMania season. Oh my goodness.

That feels like it's like right around the corner. We just had WrestleMania 41, and now we're already talking about WrestleMania 42. Wild. Becky Lynch, putting that WWE Women's Intercontinental Championship on the line against Nikki Bella. I can't see Becky Lynch dropping the championship just yet,

and I can't see her dropping it to Nikki Bella right now. Becky Lynch, the favorite here, I'm going to go with Becky Lynch. I love the name of this, man. We've got ourselves a good old-fashioned Donnybrook match. Rusev taken on Seamus. And I think everybody wins with this one because it's going to be an absolute banger of a match.

And I don't think that there's stories done here. Like this feels to me like what Seamus had with Cesaro, where you just put two guys in there that just like, it just work. Two guys in there that just click. And that's what we've been seeing with Seamus and Roussef. this, I could, I would love to see this continue on. I'd love to see them actually attach like a best of seven to this. Like, if they're going to have a series of matches, like, let's, let's put some stakes on this. Like, not, I'd love to see them continue to work with each other, week in, week out,

month in, month out, whatever it happens to be. But like, I would love to see just a callback to what Seamus and Cesaro did with the best of seven series here and do that with Rusev. Like, this match is going to be fantastic, hard hitting. I can't wait. Rusev, the favorite. I like that. I'm going with Rusev here. The W.W.E. World Heavyweight Championship will be on the line as Seth Rollins defends it in a fatal four-way match against CM Punk, J. Uso, and L.A. Knight. Thank you for saying, yeah. Yeah. I love that. Seth Rollins is the favorite. And I think if we're talking about like where things go from here. I think Seth Rollins wins this match. But I think that this just sets up the another one-on-one match with Seth Rollins and CM Punk. Like I, I love that these

four guys are in this match together. But when you really look at it from the outset and you really like zoom out a little bit, could LA Knight win this? Yeah, I'd love to see that happen. And he is so incredibly deserving of winning a world championship in WWE's been world champion in TNA, but it hasn't happened yet in WWE. I would love to see it happen. It just doesn't feel like it's lined up to happen now. Could Jay Uso become a two-time WWE World Heavyweight champion? Sure, but it also doesn't feel like that's what's going to happen just yet.

I think CM Punk gets his win back at some point in time. He was the champion for five minutes at SummerSlam before the ruse of the century. And Seth Rollins worked us all. I think Punk gets his win back. And I think that this match becomes part of that story. I think Rollins wins this. But I think that this just sets us up for Seth Rollins versus CM Punk whenever that happens in the next few months here. And then we've got John Sina take a.

on Logan Paul. I'm actually very curious where that's going to fall on the card. I mean, that feels like it should be the main event, but I don't know, is the World Heavyweight Championship going to be the main event? His Roman Rain is going to be in the main event. I don't feel like, hmm, I think John Cena versus Logan Paul should be the main event. Makes a lot of sense for it to be the main event. But fun little fact here, the Clash in Paris poster is the first poster that John Sina has not been featured on in all of 2025. Roman Raines is the main photo for Clash in Paris. John Sina has been on every single other one up to this point this year.

And I don't think that's a hint of saying like, oh, yeah, Roman Rains is in the main event here because there's like, there's no stakes in that match. There's no championship on the line, nothing like that. but it's just a fun little fact to point out there. John Sina is the favorite here, and I'm actually really curious where they go with this because there's no stakes in this match either.

John Sina is no longer the WWE champion. He could afford to lose this match. And there's been a lot of talk throughout the John Sina farewell tour of maybe he'll use some of these matches that he has to put over younger talent. and say what you want about Logan Paul. I know that people feel very strongly about him. But if you're going to talk about John Cena

putting over a younger talent, maybe this is one of those opportunities. And I know what you're thinking. No, no, CVV, I was thinking he should put over Dominic Mysterio. CVV, he should put over Braun Breaker. I get it. I'm with you.

I would love to see those matches. I don't even care who wins those matches. I would just love to see. John Cena those matches and it doesn't feel like we're going to get those. I could see a scenario where Logan Paul wins this by some sort of dirty means. Logan Paul wins this with the brass knucks. Logan Paul wins this with a low blow, whatever the case may be. I could definitely see that happening.

I don't think John Cena is going to have a lot of losses on this retirement tour. And if I'm going to make a predict, here. I don't think this is one of them. I think John Cena gets the win here. He's the favorite. But I just, I feel pretty confident about my other ones. Like, I feel like I'm four for four on the other ones. And I guess we'll, we'll see. You know, after this weekend, we'll find out exactly how this all shakes out. But this is the one where I'm like, I don't know. I could, this could really go either way. Men, the only thing worse than losing your hair is waiting forever for it to grow back. That's why you need Hymns. You can start seeing your

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Very interesting question. So I pulled that. the entire list of all of John Cena's appearances that he's had and all of the confirmed appearances that he will still have for the rest of the year. So no, not at all. Indy is not the only city to get him twice. Vegas got him three times. Las Vegas got him the Smackdown before WrestleMania, then WrestleMania 41, then the Raw after Mania. Obviously, Smackdown and and Raw were at Tim Mobile Arena and then Mania was at Allegiance Stadium, but three in one weekend. St. Louis got him twice. Smackdown before backlash, and then backlash itself, the match with Randy Orden.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, got him twice. The Smackdown before Night of Champions, then Night of Champions itself. New Jersey almost got him twice in the same city. Very close. He was at Smackdown in Newark. Then he was at SummerSlam in East Rutherford. The cities are very close, 10.1 miles away from each other, driving. according to Google Maps, but not technically the same city, obviously. However, those all kind of

feel like exceptions because they were centered around the same weekend. They were centered around the same PLE. Indy is getting him twice, two different times of the year, two different PLEs. They had the Royal Rumble in February and now Russell Palozo, which was just announced as happening September 20th. So the answer here is like technically, I guess, yes, because no other city got two PLEs in the same year. However, Los Angeles got John Sina for two different dates in two different months. They weren't PLEs, but they were both big events. One of them was a PLA. Los Angeles got the first raw Netflix, January 6th, and then Money in the Bank.

in June, both of them in the Intuit Dome. So I think that's probably the closest. Like if you missed John Sina at the raw Netflix in L.A., then you got a lovely little surprise that he was going to be back a handful of months later for Money in the Bank, although he didn't wrestle at both of them. There's another fun fact. Indianapolis would be the only city on the farewell tour

where John Sina wrestled more than one match. He was part of the Royal Rumble, and they haven't announced he yet, but I'm pretty certain that he will be wrestling at Russell Paloza, and it feels like it's going to be that match with Brock Lesnar. But again, this hasn't been confirmed yet, although that is, like, that's right around the corner. They announced Russell Palozo with, like, I think just a month. Like, I think it was just only a month billed to this. And as we sit here right now, Russell Palozo is now 21 days away. like nothing's been announced for it. So here's what's left for John Cena's retirement tour,

just so we're all looking at the same schedule together here. Tonight, as you listen to this, August 29th, he has Smackdown in Leone, France. Clash in Paris on Sunday, August 31st. Then there's Raw. He does Smackdown September 5th in Chicago. September 15th, there's Raw in Springfield, Massachusetts. September 20th,

Russell Paloza and Indy, like we just talked about. October 11th, crown jewel in Perth, Australia, November 29th, Survivor Series, San Diego, and then December 13th. The date has been confirmed. The location has not. That's going to be his retirement match. So he has 10 dates left. Eight have been officially announced.

That was eight of them. There's going to be two more that are announced at some point in time here. I mean, as it stands right now, his last four dates, have no build to them. So there's got to be some other dates peppered in there. I don't, I don't know how they can piece this together with just with just two more dates. But again, as it stands right now, his last four confirmed appearances are PLA, PLE, PLE, and then the retirement match. So Russell Paloza, Crown Jewel, Survivor Series, then the retirement match with no other confirmed dates in between any of those. So I don't, I don't know how you do it. Like, wouldn't

you need at least one raw or one smackdown to set up, I guess that's all you would have, right? Because he has clash in Paris, then a smackdown and a raw. So those smackdown, that smackdown and that raw will then set up Russell Paloza, I'm guessing. But then you've got nothing from Russell Paloza on September 20th. It jumps right to October 11th Crown Jewel. I'm sure there's a Raw or Smackdown that's going to be announced for that. Then you jump right from that. Crown Jewel in October to the end of November Survivor Series. There's got to be at least one more there.

And then the retirement match, you're going to build a retirement match with like one raw appearance? I don't get it. I think we would all benefit from a nice surprise John Cena appearance. Like what a lovely surprise that would be. Like you've bought tickets for, I'm just looking at the schedule here, pick out a random date, random city. Let's say you bought tickets for Smackdown in Cincinnati, Ohio on October 3rd. And the show starts off no warning, no advertisement.

It starts off with John Cena. Oh my gosh. How amazing would that be? Or you're sitting there in San Jose, California on October 17th. for Smackdown. And they haven't announced what the main event's going to be. There's just a build all night. And boom.

John Cena's music hits. How about it? That has to be what this is. And what a lovely way of giving back to the audience, too. Because I think there's going to be two main criticisms that come out of John Cena's retirement tour. Number one's going to be, oh, man, he didn't come to insert name of city here. And I get it. And I just listed off a handful of places that he had repeat visits to or he had like multiple dates in. I get it. Like how lucky are you if you happen to go to Las Vegas for WrestleMania? You had the opportunity to see John Cena three times, Smackdown Mania and Raw. Or how lucky are you if you live in or around Indianapolis? Two PLEs, two John Cena matches.

on the farewell tour. Love it. So I think that's going to be one of the main complaints. He didn't come to my city or he didn't come near my city. He didn't even come to my state. He didn't come to my country. And if you look at the entire list here, like there were a lot of locations that were like very, very spread out.

This wasn't one of those things where it was like, of the 36 states, 30 of them were in the U.S. and like the other six they figured out. Like he was in the U.S., obviously, was in Canada a few times, was in Belgium, Scotland, the UK.

I'm just going through the list here. Saudi Arabia, Ireland, France, Australia, like a lot of different locations. Like, it really feels like there was a lot of thought

that went into this. So I think that, the number one criticism will be he didn't come. to my city. The number two criticism, which I think will be an ongoing thing, is he didn't wrestle in certain name here. And it seems to me, as we're looking ahead, so we know that Russell Palousa's likely going to be Brock Lesnar. Then we got Crown Jewel. What's going to happen there? I don't know. Survivor series, I would love to see a one-on-one match. Like, sure, if they're going to make John Cena be part of war games, just make it make sense. Just make it make sense. But I would much

rather see that will likely be his second last match, as it stands right now, at least. I would much rather see that be a one-on-one match with one of the people that we've all been going. He needs a match with so-and-so. And for me, the top of that list is AJ Stiles. It's a match I so badly want to see. and it just doesn't feel like it's going to line up right now. But I think that those are going to be the two main criticisms is he didn't come to my city and he didn't wrestle so-and-so. And I'm just really curious, 10 dates left,

how this all shakes out. I would love to see some surprise appearances. Just saying. Nate Vonicky on Spotify says, Hey, Chris, real, real one from Sydney, Australia here. My question is, with Ria always being so close to the belt and always falling short. Do you think WWE are waiting for crown jewel in Perth

to give her the belt? I feel like all of this buildup will be the best pop that she will get for finally reclaiming the belt in her home country in front of an Australian audience. What are your thoughts? Thanks, Nate. I'm with you, Nate.

I am so with you. And it's funny, as we look at the card here for Clash in Paris, I can't believe they didn't replace the Naomi match. Like we talked last week on Ask CVV of like what happens to the championship now that Naomi has vacated it. It's like I can't believe that that championship is not up for grabs at Clash in Paris, whether it's a four-way match or a ladder match or whatever it happens to be. That was one of the first matches announced for Clash in Paris. And now that championship's not even being defended there.

So that kind of confuses me that there's no resolution there, at least not right now. But yes, I think that they're waiting maybe for this championship. Maybe not. But it just, it feels like Ria Ribley's going to have a huge moment in Perth. I would be shocked if Ria Rippley's not in the main event for Crown Jewel. Or at least the co-main event. I could definitely see a scenario where John Cena's in the main event with whoever his opponent happens to be again. I hope that's a one-on-one match. And again, I would love to see some sort of

scenario where it's AJ Styles. And as I say that, I know there's so many other opponents that John Cena has not yet worked with on the farewell tour. And who knows if you will get a chance to work with them. But like, are we going to get a match with Roman Raines? Are we going to get a match with Drew McIntyre. Are we going to get a match with The Rock? I don't know. But yeah, I think that Ria Ripley either walks into this as the WWE women's world champion and also walks out as it, or walks into this as a contender for that championship and then walks out with a huge moment in Perth. But WWE, traditionally speaking, has done a really great job of like, it's this person's hometown, let's make them look like a star, or this person's home country, let's make them look

like a star. And I don't see any scenario where they wouldn't do that, especially with a star of the level of Ria Ripley. Like someone who's already in that main event status, it's not difficult to put her into a slot like that and give her that moment. So that's what we're expecting here, but at the same time, this is wrestling. And sometimes the things that you expect are not what you get because they're going, yeah, yeah, you think that that person's going to win. Well, watch what we do here. But I'd be very surprised if Rear Ripley doesn't get her moment there.

And I feel like I still want to go. And we got time here. It's like a month and a bit away. I've been thinking about this so much. I want to go to Crown Jewel. I haven't been Australia in years. and here's a chance with a big PLE like this to go, I don't know. I've done it again, guys.

I've said too much. Maybe I'll just, maybe I'll just show up and be like, hey, I'm here. I'm going to figure out some tickets day of on Seekkeek. Here's an email from Javier Bouchio. I hope that's the way I should be saying it, B-U-C-I-O. Hey, Chris, do you think brand loyalty and wrestling matters? Or should fans branch out and enjoy the full alphabet soup of promotions? Thanks for all the five-star episodes every week.

A big fan of your work, Javier B. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to send in an email. I'm a huge fan of wrestling. And I think that we all are. Whatever brand that you like to watch the most at the core You are a pro wrestling fan. And I love the phrase. You've heard me say it so many different times,

but I love the phrase, don't yuck other people's yums. If you're into WW, cool. If you're into AEW, cool. If you're into TNA, cool.

If you're into New Japan, cool. If you're into MLW, cool. If you're into indie wrestling, yeah, that's right. Cool.

I think it's all great. And I think it's actually, like, figure out what you like, and that's awesome. But like, we're all talking about the same thing here. If I like rom-coms and you like horror movies, we like movies. Like, that's something we can connect on. Like, it's kind of like when you go to like a music festival and like there's a little bit of something for everyone. Maybe a band you likes playing on this stage and a band I likes playing on that other stage.

But guess what? We're still at the same festival. festival. I've used this, the buffet reference many a times, but wrestling is a buffet. And if you don't like the prime rib that's on the buffet, it doesn't ruin the entire buffet. You just don't eat it. You just don't get the prime rib if you don't like prime rib. But if you like chicken wings, grab the chicken wings. If you like the mashed potatoes, grab the mashed potatoes. If you like the hot dogs, grab the hot dogs. You like the ice cream. Grab the ice cream. If you're at, if you're, if you like the chocolate wonderful at Golden Corral, go dip something in the chocolate

wonderful. It's pretty kind of gross, actually. But I do it every time I go to Golden Corral. I think that brand loyalty doesn't matter at all. And I think that we all like this beautiful thing called pro wrestling. And I think that there needs to be a reminder for everybody, especially. some people who just perpetually live online that like it's okay to like more than one wrestling company. It's okay to watch both dynamite and raw in the same week. That's okay. So I don't

think brand loyalty matters at all. Like this year, I have been to WWE events. I've been to A.W events. I've been to TNA events. I've been to plenty of indie events. I've been part of some indie events as well. I love it all. I love it all. And I think that you are short changing yourself if you only watch one thing. Or here's another example. If you, I think you're short changing yourself. If you only watch one because you didn't like another company and what they did two years. ago or six years ago or whatever the case may be. Like, and I say this so often, like, I love TNA. And if you haven't watched TNA in a long time, watch some TNA, I think you'll be blown away. Like, I understand that there were kind of like the glory years for TNA. And depending on who you ask,

it's like, it's late 2000s-ish until like the Hogan Bischoff stuff happened. And then, you know, Things started getting a little squirrely there, a little weird for a little while. But if that's the last time you watched TNA, oh my goodness, you are missing out. So I love it all. And I wave the flag of pro wrestling. And I love that we have the opportunity. It is an embarrassment of riches. We have the opportunity now to watch wrestling literally every single day of the week.

And it's an amazing thing. And if, yeah, I just, I love it. I love it. I love it. Love it so much. Sam Ward on Instagram says it's Sam dot, sam dot underscore dot ward underscore. Whoa.

Who is the one person you would like to interview before the end of 2025? Randy Orden. That's the one. I mean, there's quite a few people that I'd like to interview, but Randy Orton's at the top of that list. It's one that I need to make happen. We've got four months left. All of September, all of October, all of November,

and all of December as well. I don't know why I started cutting a promo there. But I think Randy Orton needs to realize that the three most important letters in all of wrestling are not WWE, they're not AEW. They're not MJF. They sure as hell are not RKO. They're CV.

I don't know what this turned into, but Randy Orton is someone I have such a tremendous amount of respect for. I have been a fan of Randy Orton ever since he debuted in WWE, so Randy Orton's the one I would love to make happen. Also a long interview with The Miz. I just love how the Miz is finally getting his flowers now. And I think there's a handful of us who have seen how great the Miz has been over the the last almost 20 years, but it's like, there's so much to dig into. Like, I feel like an interview with the Ms. would require a few hours. So fingers crossed on that one.

Ms. says he'll make this happen. So it's just a matter of like lining up schedules and location and all that. And I was supposed to do one with Sean Michaels right around this time last year, actually. And things just fell through and schedules changed. and didn't happen. So that's one, I feel like it was supposed to happen, didn't happen. So that's a dream interview. So there's three.

But Randy Orton, the top of that list. Clem on Spotify says, real, real one here. Love the show and look forward to every episode. Somehow I started listening to your show before I got back into wrestling, and you're the reason I watch it now. That's wild. You were listening to a wrestling podcast. I'm not even watching wrestling.

That's crazy. Well, thank you. All that being said, I feel like this move to ESPN is going to price me right out of being a fan. It feels like a huge money grab at the expense of the casual viewers. How do you feel about this big move? And do you think it's worth watching the weekly shows if you can't watch the PLEs? I think it's going to change some things. I really do.

And I talked at great length about the E. ESPN deal on Ask CVV number 96, so I won't reiterate too much there. But if this truly is going to be 29, 99 a month for people who don't have this as part of the cable package, yeah, I could see this pricing some people out from it jumping from 1099 a month on Peacock to 2999 a month. And of course, again, it's worth mentioning. This is only within the United States. I could see this going back to like how this was at one point in time where like, I think back to like late 90s. You didn't watch every pay per view because like you weren't, you didn't want to pay 40 bucks

for the show. So you know, I remember you would like, you'd order Royal Rumble or one of your buddies would order a Royal Rumble and then it'd become like a viewing party. You'd go to someone's house and like it would be a whole thing. but then you'd be like, all right, I saw the rumble. Are we going to buy St. Valentine's Day Massacre? I don't know. Maybe.

Are you going to buy WrestleMania? Yeah, yeah, I'll get WrestleMania. Let's go over to Greg's house. We're all going to watch WrestleMania. We'll chip in a few bucks and get it. But then are you going to watch backlash? And that was the thing. Like, not everybody listening to this may be old enough to remember that.

But with the pay-per-view model, that was how it was for a long time. you like you you were able to pick and choose which ones were important to you and you know for the die hard fans was like of course I'm ordering every single one you know that adds up pretty quickly but I could see this getting to a point where it's like well obviously I don't want to miss WrestleMania man the car looks too good for SummerSlam so I'm not going to miss SummerSlam but then you're like well maybe I'll maybe I'll cancel my subscription between WrestleMania and SummerSlam like that could be a thing here. And one of the other really big parts of this deal that hasn't been covered that much at all is the ESPN deal does not include the back library, does not include

the traditional WWE network, if you will, and all of the old matches and shows and everything that's associated with that. So you'll be watching the PLEs on ESPN, but they're may end up being another service, we're going to have to watch all the stuff that would have been part of the WWE library. They haven't announced yet where that's going to go to. As it stands right now, that is still on Peacock, but that deal, I believe, is also up in March. So that's a whole other negotiating point. So that's an additional cost that's part of this. So I understand where you're coming from, Clem, and it is such a unique thing that's only happening in the U.S. in virtually every other part of the world,

it's like if you have a Netflix subscription, you're good to go. So I'm really curious where it goes from here. And I mean, I talked about it last week on Ask CVV number 97, but the UFC deal actually feels like they're better off. Like UFC fans seem better off on this. UFC fans were paying and are paying,

7999 for every single pay-per-view, every numbered UFC event. With that going to Paramount Plus, they're now going to pay $7.99 a month flat, that's it. Like, the greatest deal ever for them. Whereas WWE fans are going from $10.99 on Peacock in the U.S. to now $2,99 for the same thing, actually even less. So I'm curious to see where this all goes. If you're a huge sports fan, there's value in this.

You're probably already watching a lot of stuff on ESPN. You love the fact that this is where you're going to watch Monday night football. It's on ESPN. Cool. I get that. College game day. It's on ESPN. Like if you're a huge sports fan, you're not even really thinking twice about this.

If you're one of those people who only had Peacock because of the WWEPLE, and now you're going to cancel Peacock and you're going to either get a cable package or you're going to subscribe now to ESPN for this. Yeah, it's different. Peter Williams on Facebook says, what are your thoughts on when people say that KFAB is dead? I just say, like, if there's anything that you question right now,

is that real, is that not real? Is that person actually gone? Is that person actually injured? Then my friend, K-Fab is not dead. Like, I think that the definition of K-Fabe has changed quite a bit over the last 20, 30, 40 years. Like, I think it originally started as like, K-Fabe was like, don't let anybody know that, like, I don't actually hate you even though we're wrestling in the ring, like, that were buddies behind the scenes.

Like, that was a thing for many years. If you were feuding with somebody, you didn't travel with. you weren't seen even close to them in the airport. If there's like stories about this where like they'd be in the line to get a rental car. And like there's the guy I'm feuding with. He's in line. Well, man, I'm tired and our flight was delayed. We just landed.

But I really want to go get my rental car. But now I can't because that person that I'm feuding with would be standing two people in front of me in line. Like that was a real thing for a long time. So that version of K-Fabe has changed. shifted. We are all aware now in 2025 that the matches are predetermined. Okay, so like, let's get that out of the way. But when it comes down to like the, the details of what are going on in the storylines, I don't think it's dead. And like, there are still things like people still question, is MJF like really that way in real life? If you are even asking that question,

then you've answered this question about K-Fab. Then no, K-Fabe is not dead. I think that it has just changed and evolved quite a bit. Like all of the questions leading into SummerSlam about is Seth Rallin actually injured, could you imagine if his music played at the end of the match? Well, that's what happened. He worked us all. And like, sure, there was like a shadow of doubt of like,

oh, maybe he's not actually injured. I don't know. But the fact that you are questioning that is exactly what we're talking about here. And that actually leads into this next question so perfectly. An email from Jason Cole, number 98, the Max Crosby edition. Man, that's a good one. The Max Crosby edition. CVV, I am not at all sold that Caring Cross is gone.

And I think that either A or B happens. He ends up being a mystery member to a Wargains team or my favorite option here, John Cena comes out for his last match and says, let's do an open challenge for my final opponent, and Carrying Cross comes out, and now begins the massive push being the man who sent Sina out of his misery. So this is a perfect example of what we were just talking about.

If you don't know if Carrying Cross is actually gone from WWE, even though he is saying, yeah, I'm not working you here. I am being truthful. This is Kevin talking, not Carian, like I'm referencing the Ariel Hawani interview, the Carrying Cross did. He's like, no, this is, I'm Kevin right now.

I'm not in character. Everything I'm saying right now is me as a person, not as a character. Even though he's saying all of that, there's still people going, oh, I don't think he's actually gone. So like, if you can't even take a wrestler at his word, that right there is the very definition of modern day,

K-fame. So I think you have to believe everything that Caring Cross is saying, everything that Killer Cross is saying, everything that Kevin is saying. And again, his book is fantastic. Life is Fighting. If you haven't checked it out yet, I encourage you to order it wherever you get your books. It's fantastic. He also said, last time I saw him, that he would be happy to sign your book for free.

He's not going to ever charge anybody to sign his books. So if you buy his book and you run into him, he'd be happy. to sign it for free. The fact that he's telling you that he's gone and that this, that this is real and people don't believe it, I just find that to be, it's a beautiful thing. It's an amazing thing. I think when you look at the dates that Carrying Cross has right now on the independence, it's pretty clear that this is not a work. Carrying Cross is no longer with WWE. Cross and Scarlett just appeared in GCW, a surprise appearance there. He also has a match now lined up with Matt Cardone at House of Glory on October 10th,

and he's being billed as Killer Cross. Like, I don't know what else is going to take for people to realize that this is the real deal. I don't think he's just on this fun indie run to ruse the audience and make them think that he's still with WWE. like, I think there's, it's going to come to a certain point where people are going to have to take him in his word and go, oh, wow, he's actually gone. And just allow me to say this again. Instead of just saying online, oh, man, that sucks. I would love to see him back in WWE or I can't believe they didn't figure out this deal.

Like, if you truly care about Killer Cross or any other wrestler who gets, released or their contract doesn't get renewed. If you truly care about them, support them. Buy Caring Cross's book. Go see him at House of Glory on October 10th. Go support him when he's doing a book signing or a meet and greet. Like, don't just from the comfort of your home and the comfort of your keyboard go, oh yeah, man, that sucks. This is me typing on the keyboard. But like, actually support them. And that means so much. to the men and women who are not signed to a major company. I just think that that can't be talked about enough.

Like it's one thing that, yeah, yeah, we want cross, we want cross. Cool. Yeah, it's great that you're chanting that it shows, and it's great that you're writing that hashtag on X. But, like, truly put your money where your mouth is. If you actually want to support these people, go and support them. If they're if they're doing an appearance near where you live, go out. Buy a ticket.

Say hello. Say, you know, your work really meant a lot to me. Everybody, no matter where you live, you have the ability to order Cross's book. So like, I think that that's such an important thing that doesn't get talked about enough. Like, just because they don't work for the television show that you like watching the most doesn't mean that they like don't exist anymore. And I think that that just needs to be. be, needs to be mentioned so much more. And as fun as it would be to, we'll just run with your idea here of John Cena having a mystery opponent for his final match. As fun as that idea is in just

in terms of fantasy booking, I think that going into that last match, there's got to be a story. And the story is, of course, John Cena's final match. But I think that there needs to be a story with whoever that opponent happens to be. I don't think we're going to get a John Cena mystery opponent at any point on the farewell tour and certainly not for the last match. But the big question remains of like who will be his final opponent and what's that story going to be and very interested to see how that all ends up playing out. Jake Moody on Spotify says, for Ask CVV number 98, I'd just like to ask how you make your interviews come across so seamless.

It's very nice. Thank you, Jake. Is it a case of memorizing a handful of questions that you want to ask and then mentioning anything in between wherever each answer may take you? Thank you for your work. It inspired me to interview my dad about his soccer career in the 90s from Jake in England. Well, first of all, that's really cool that you interviewed your dad. I've thought about this so often about like interviewing my parents or maybe even doing it like,

I thought about it just as like a project for myself, like setting. up the cameras and just like interviewing my parents. And I've also thought about like doing it as like a bonus podcast episode. But I just feel like selfishly. I just kind of want that for me. But I don't know. Like that's one of the nicest compliments, Jake, that you think my interviews come across seamless or like when people say that it just sounds like a conversation. Like that means a lot to me. And I think it just comes down to like I do a bunch of research going into the end. interviews. So, like, there's some main points that I know I want to cover or like some big events in that person's career that I want to hear the story behind. But generally speaking, like,

when you're, people think about interviews like as these big scary things because we don't do interviews that often in real life. Like, if someone's saying, I'm going for an interview today, you're like, oh, my gosh, good luck with your job interview. Or, man, I hope everything goes okay with the police when you're being interviewed by them. Like, we don't have interviews that often in our day-to-day life. So I understand the concept of like calling it an interview with a capital I. Like, seems a little bit scary. But what you do have a lot of in your everyday life are conversations, whether that's

conversations with your husband, wife, brother, sister, boyfriend, girlfriend, boss, co-worker, whatever it happens to be, there's lots of those. And I think that when you start to think of them as conversations, and not just like question answer, question answer, it changes things a lot. So like if you ran into that person at the grocery store and you were just catching up with them, you would think about it in a completely different way. Or if you were catching up with a friend over dinner that you hadn't seen in a while, you wouldn't be like, okay, well, I got to ask him about this. And then when they're done answering that, then I'm going to ask them about this. You would just be present and you'd be in the

moment and you'd be thinking about like, oh, wow, did they just, did they mention that they just came back from Niagara Falls? Wow, I grew up less than two hours from Niagara Falls. Where exactly were you in Niagara Falls? Were you on the Canadian side or the American side? Oh, no way. You're on the Canadian side? Did you stay on Clifton Hill? Oh, that's crazy. And then like, you start to follow the conversation instead of being like, well, I wrote down 10 questions, let's get to them in order here. So I like to think of like, I like to think of it as a conversation.

And maybe I have 10, 12, 15, like, main topics that I hope we cover during the conversation. And wherever I've written it on the page, maybe the 15th topic ends up coming up second. But I just kind of think about it in those terms. And the interviewers and the hosts that I looked up to the most, that wasn't even supposed to rhyme. the ones who I looked up to when I was growing up and when I was in communication, in school for communication studies, they were the ones who just made it feel so effortless.

They were the ones who made it feel like you were just a fly on the wall in a conversation. And like this is repodcasting too. Like if you listen to a Howard Stern interview, it's just like, he's just like picking their brain. He's just like chatting with them. And I've always thought that that's such a. a fascinating skill to try to master. And I, the thing I love about the podcast that I listen to in a regular basis is that

you're just like a fly on the wall in the conversation. You're listening to this person, talk to this other person. And it's just like you're sitting in that room and you just get to like be privy to that conversation. And I love that idea of it. And I've tried my best over the years to get somewhere close. to that. I look back at some old interviews and go, that could be a lot better. But I think that if you're not looking back at your old stuff with whatever it is that you do, whether we're talking about

playing golf or acting or whatever your occupation happens to be, if you're not looking back at some of your older work, painting, singing, whatever it is, if you're not looking back at some of your old stuff and like kind of like cringing a little bit, then I don't think you're heading in the right direction. Like, you should be learning and growing all the time. Email from Tom Priddle. Hey, Chris, long time listener, second time questioner. Well, welcome back, Tom. It really looks like it's heading towards Roman Reins versus Bronner in the not so distant future. My question is, who goes over in that match? Do they give it to Braun as he's the new up-and-comer? He's the future? Doing that could really hurt Roman Raines if he lost. But if Roman goes over,

does that derail bronze momentum? Love the show. As always, and Ask CVV episodes are my favorite. Cheers from Tom, from Cambridge in the UK. I think you're right that we are heading towards Roman Reins versus Bronbreaker. It'll be really interesting to see how that match is booked because there's no question that Bronbreaker is the future.

There's no question that at some point in the not so distant future, he will be either the WWE champion or the WWE World Heavyweight champion. I think we can all agree on that. A win over Roman Raines, I feel like, takes him to another level, especially if it's a clean win against Roman Raines. The fact that there's the Bron the Braun faction, Braun Breaker, Braun, Sun Reed, CM Punk, Paul Heyman, the Marionette, pulling all the

strings, that's an interesting factor when you think about all of this. So there's a potential there for this to not be a clean win because of outside interference. But, like, Roman Raines, I think would be back in the title picture soon. And he doesn't need to be in it. Like, Roman Raines has already at this point in his career, it's a Hall of Fame career. He doesn't need to do much more. That's not to say he's never going to win the championship again or he's just going to put people over from now until the time that he retires. But what I'm saying is I don't think a loss hurts Roman Raines that badly at this stage of his career, especially a loss to someone like Bronbreaker, who we know is going to be around as long as he stays healthy. He's going to be

around for the next decade plus. And I could see that being, not like an official passing of the torch moment, but like a big win, like a moment, like a big opportunity for him to pick up that win and continue with that momentum forward. Roman Raines doesn't lose often.

And Roman Raines does not get pinned very frequently either. If Bronbreaker were to beat Roman Raines and beat him clean, that'd be huge. And when you look back, like, Roman Raines, I think, has lost, and we're talking about all kinds of matches here. So, like, bloodline versus new bloodline and, like, tag matches, triple threat match. I think he's only lost, like, nine times since 2020.

Like, since becoming the tribal chief. So there was WrestleMania this year. He lost in the triple threat match. and then there was crown jewel last year bloodline versus new bloodline WrestleMania 40 lost to Cody Rhodes money in the bank 2023 Roman and solo versus the Uso's like you go back you go back here like there was the

the disqualification loss to Xavier Woods so Xavier Woods like has a win over Roman rains although DQ like he doesn't lose a lot So for Roman Reins to be in the position that he's in right now, I think there could be an opportunity here to put over brawn breaker whenever that ends up happening. And I really wonder when that match is going to happen. Like, are we going to wait until, is that a WrestleMania match? Because, I mean, again, it's only August.

WrestleMania is in April. It just feels to me like there's a story there with Roman Raines and Seth Rollins. And that's probably, at least right now, the match that we're probably going to see, I can't say probably. It just feels like the match that at this point in time is what they'd be headed towards. But if I were to just make a guess here, whenever we see Roman versus Bronbreaker, I see Bronbreaker getting the win. And Bronbreaker just keeps getting better every single week.

Like he has all of the elements to be a huge star. Like he has the look. He can cut promos. He's intense. He's all so funny. He's a hell of a worker. He ticks all of the boxes. So I just, he's so early in his career.

I can't wait to see what's next for him. That, my friends, is the final question for this. Ask CVV number 98. Thank you for being a real, real one. and for listening all the way until the end. If you're still with us and you're listening on Spotify, drop the word hello in the comments. Just drop the word, hello.

Hello. We'll say hello. Back to you right now. Hello. But if you've got a question for next week, send it in. You can leave it on Spotify as a comment, or you can email it in CVV at chrisfanfleet.com

or send it on social media using the hashtag, Ask CVV. I can't wait. For Clash in Paris, I got a good feeling about my picks. If you think I'm way off base on one of these or all of them, also let me know that in the comments or shoot me an email about that. But I feel like barring some major surprises or perhaps some returns, I feel like I feel pretty good about these ones.

We'll wrap this up with a quote from Aerole Ozone. Some beautiful paths can't be discovered. without getting lost. Be great. Be grateful, my friends. Have an amazing weekend. We will see you on the next one for some more insight.

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