Insight with Chris Van Vliet - BONUS: CVV Interviewed About Having A Match, Chris Sharp, Fav Interviews, Content Creation & More!

Episode Date: March 7, 2026

Welcome to a special bonus episode! Chris Van Vliet sits down with BD to be this week's Main Character on "The Brandon Davis Show"! Chris is the mastermind and host behind the Insight podcast, the number one wrestling podcast in the entire world, as well as a 4-time Emmy Award winning TV host. In this episode, CVV and BD talk about their shared love of professional wrestling while also talking about the journey to making Insight the massive podcast which it is today. With a shared history in the movie junket world, CVV and BD have plenty of globetrotting stories and experiences with celebrities, interviews, and podcasting to share in this fun, insight-ful conversation! Plus. will Chris ever have a wrestling match with a history as backyard star Chris Sharp?? Subscribe to The Brandon Davis Show on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/@BrandonDavisBD Follow The Brandon Davis Show here: https://thebrandondavisshow.com/ Please support our sponsors: HELIX SLEEP: Flash sale! Go to https://helixsleep.com/cvv for 27% off sitewide! COZY EARTH: Go to https://cozyearth.com/CVV for up to 20% off! BEAM: Go to https://shopbeam.com/INSIGHT and use code INSIGHT for up to 40% off Beam’s Dream Powder DELETEME: Use the code INSIGHT to get 20% off your DeleteMe plan at https://joindeleteme.com/INSIGHT FACTOR: Get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year with the code INSIGHT50OFF at https://factormeals.com/INSIGHT50OFF 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/cvv 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 NORDVPN: Exclusive deal! https://nordvpn.com/cvv Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! PRIZEPICKS: Download the PrizePicks app today and use code INSIGHT to get $50 bonus credit in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://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

Chris the welcome back to another one here on InSight I'm CBV Chris Van Fleet thank you for being

one of the realest of real ones and for hit and play on this bonus episode I'm honored that you would spend some of your weekend hanging out with me on this

and thank you as always for helping to make insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet a few weeks ago I was a guest on my good friend Brandon Davis's podcast called The Brandon Davis Show.

I've known Brandon, B.D., as we call him, known him for about 10 years. We met when we were doing movie junkets and interviewing celebrities. It's one of those things. I'm sure you can relate, where you find out that someone's a wrestling fan, and boom, instantly you become friends.

Not only is Brandon a wrestling fan. He's also a wrestler now. Like so many of us, he dreamed of being a wrestler, and then in his 30s, he went for it. Now he was. wrestles regularly in Ohio Valley Wrestling, the famous OVW where John Sina, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, Shelton, Benjamin, Dave Batista, and so many others cut their teeth.

Al Snow runs OVW. So not only are you wrestling at the place where legends wrestled, but you're learning from a legend as well. So Brandon is the man for chasing after that dream and finding the time to do it in between all of the other stuff he's doing, the celebrity interviews, the movie premieres, having his own podcasts, all of that.

It's always so great to catch up with him, and I was honored when he asked me to be a guest on his show. So it would mean a ton to me. If you followed his show on Apple or Spotify or wherever you're listening, also subscribe to the Brandon Davis show on YouTube. And while you're doing all that,

while you're following the show, wherever you're listening, while you're subscribing on Apple. Also make sure to check to see if you're following insight as well. All right, let's get into this. Please enjoy this chat on the Brandon Davis show.

Chris VanVilleet. I can't believe I'm on your show. You're the main character on the show today. I'm the main character. This is the main character with Brandon Davis, and you are him. Thank you for allowing me to sit on the same side that I normally sit on.

This is... You're always on that side. You know what's funny is... I will post clips of interviews with anybody. It could be Frank Grillo, Jen Holland, Nick Darnell, doesn't people comment when it goes viral. And they go, is that the CVV studio? I love it. Well, this is West Coast Creative Studio, actually. I rent it by the hour with my very good friend, Zeus. Zeus is a legend. Zeus is the best. But it has, to a large portion of the internet, become known as the CVV studio.

I'll take it. And now because of you, I use it too. It's beautiful. I know of this place. I know of Zeus, our friend Zeus, are my clips. Chris, you are the blueprint. Yeah, you use the same studio as me. Same studio. You have the same shorts editor, Troy. Troy is a legend. I would not be doing this right now if it wasn't for Troy. What do you mean?

Troy's clips are so good. The way he edits is so good. And he makes my life so easy when he does those edits that I wouldn't have the views and success in the reach, if not for Troy. I say this with zero hyperbole. Troy is the greatest shorts editor on the planet. Completely agree. Absolutely. And I think people really undersell the value of short.

30, 40, 50 seconds of someone, just grabbing someone's attention. They've never seen one of your interviews before. They've never seen your face before. Grab their attention. Oh, my goodness, that's a great story with that guest who I recognize. You have the same trailer editor. The intro for this episode that we just saw, the very talented RJ and his team. RJ's great.

So great. Phenomenal. You don't have these things on the bottom of your microphone. Look, that doesn't say inside. People are seeing you and they're like, wait a second. That doesn't see. Inside us. The Brandon Davis show.

Your show started as Chris Van Vleet, right? It started as the Chris Van Fleet Show. Then I realized that the show really wasn't about me. It was about shining the spotlight on my guest. So it's insight with me. That's why these, the Monday shows that I release, right now, it's every Monday. It's an interview. I call it, like the show itself, the podcast feed is the Brandon Davis show.

But then it's the main character with Brandon Davis. And I thought about calling the whole podcast the main character. But I also do ask BD, like you do ask CVV. And I was like, I'm going to. I might change the name. Yeah, dude, you are, I'm not shy about this. When my friends come up to me, I'm like, look, when I left comic book, there was probably about three people who I called to get advice from.

I would say, you were number one, Paul from Heavy Spoilers, who runs a YouTube channel, he's awesome. I talked to Eric Voss a bit. I talked to a few other people who I look at him, like, they're doing what I want to do. They do it really well. And I kind of started being like, which way do I want to go? And I'm never going to be as good at trailer breakdowns and stuff as new rock stars and that stuff.

but I love doing interviews. That's been what I've been doing for 11 years now. So I feel more in line with what you do. And you were so, we sat, it had to be like three hours on the phone one of those times. Yeah. I had a notepad out and you let me ask you every question I could think of for how to do this. And that was in like August of 24, I think, maybe September of 24. And every step of the way along the way, if I have a question, you make time to answer it.

Well, look, man, you're doing it now. Thank you. Sure, I gave you answers to the best of my ability, but you're doing it. You actually hit record on these episodes, and you hit publish, and you made it happen. A lot of people don't take that step. You're right. And that's that it's, it could be discouraging when you first start. I had an advantage.

I had 10 years in media and a following, and you probably would relate. We're going to talk about your background, but you, you know, starting from zero would be hard. I didn't start from zero, and I know that. You started from zero at one point. Exactly. And everybody starts to zero. Yeah. And then, but when you're at, when you get that start, whether it's doing your own thing on YouTube or working in media,

I feel like you can just, you learn along the way and build your own stuff along the way. And that's what you take with you. And that's what I did. I was like, well, I have this. I have this base of people who know me, relationships with publicists and things like that, relationships with people like you, who can show me how it's done, teach me the ways. And then you go from there. The biggest thing that I told you on that call, and it's the biggest piece of advice I'll give to anybody.

It's you have to be consistent. You can't just put out an episode here and then one in three weeks and then hope for something to happen. You need to be consistent. So with my show, with my podcast and my YouTube channel, it's an interview every Tuesday. It's an interview every Thursday. It's Ask CVV on audio every Friday. No matter where I am in the world, no matter what's going on in my life, those episodes always go out. Because if I'm going to show up, eventually after time, as you start to build an audience, they'll start to show up too.

Dude, two interviews every week is a lot. It's a lot. And they're all in person, too. Oh, yeah, I turn down. Because it's hard to get people to watch Zoom interviews, to watch virtual interviews. now. People don't really watch them as much. And I would do a Zoom interview if I had to under

extenuating circumstances, if there was no other way to make ourselves be in the same place at the same time. But I honestly feel like Zoom interviews kind of remind people of like the time we were on the place we were in the world five years ago. And nobody wants to go back there. Right. Nobody wants to go back there. Also, there's

nothing better than sitting with someone, looking them in the eye, shaking their hand, giving them a hug, feeling their energy. And also, not having the awkward. No, no, no, you, sorry. Sorry, you go ahead. No, you go ahead. Okay, so. Okay, so I'll, yeah. Dude, it's the worst. It's the worst. Yeah. Okay, well, you, you started, you're from Canada. Yeah. You live, and then you think you worked. Was it, MTV was first? Very first show. I was on a news station called Checks TV in Peterborough, Ontario.

Peter. Yeah, where Bobby Root is from. What do you think the audience was on that? The size of the audience on that. Well, it's a small town. So, like, I think a lot of people actually are focused on the local news. Okay. And when I say local news in a small town, like, we're talking local news. Yeah. Like, I had a story one time about a new stop sign. Wow.

I got pitched a story one time that I didn't end up doing because we ran out of time, but one of the other reporters did about, like, a cat that lived in a retirement home. Oh, wow. And the cat provided wonderful companionship for the people in this retirement home. So we're talking local news. Very local news. But at the same time, I also reported on, like, fatal car crashes. And so what year was this?

2005 and 2006. And the way that I got this job, I was a senior in college. I was graduating in 2005. I was looking for, like, something to bridge the gap to try to get some sort of experience in the real world. And I had nothing in that final semester of my senior year. And, dude, I had an epiphany in my senior year where, like, I was having a blast at college. I lived with four of my best friends. and we just, we had a great time all the time.

And then I went to classes, you know, most of the time. But like, I was really just focused on like, I had a really good time with my friends. I majored in communication studies. I graduated with an honors degree in communication studies, Bachelor of Arts. But I woke up one day my senior year and it just hit me. Man, at the end of this year, we graduate. And we have to go to the real world. And like, there's no more is a 10 a.m. class too early.

am I going to sleep in? It's like, you got to work. Nine to five, five days a week for the next 40, 50 years. And that idea just hit me like a ton of bricks. Right. And I was just like, I want to do whatever I can in my power right now to set myself up so that when I graduate, I can at the very least, not hate my job. My goal was just not hate my job. It wasn't even love my job or enjoy my job. I don't want to hate my job.

Good step. I don't want to be one of those people who can't stand Sunday because my job. Monday's the next day and you got to wake up and go to this job that you just dread going to. Reach down to every radio station, every TV station in my college town and just said, hey, I'm a communications major. Can I just come in and volunteer and see how it's done in the real world? One radio station said, sure, come be part of our street team. There was a community run television station. I got to be behind the scenes running cameras, VTR, floor directing. And then this one radio station said, we don't take on volunteers. But how would you like a job as a board operator?

and that was kind of how I got my feet wet. When that year came to an end, I was also looking for an internship, like, how do I now do something in the summer? Reached out to all these different TV stations, radio stations, no one gave me an opportunity. And then I, like, kind of lied, I definitely lied my way into this one.

Dude, fake it so you make a business. Absolutely. You have to appear like you're doing the thing. And also, this business is just about getting to yes. It's just about how can I get to yes. And if I can make it as easy as possible for you to say yes, whether that's sitting down here to do an interview, whether that's me flying to wherever, to sit down with somebody, whether it's trying to get an internship. And that's what happened here.

I reached out to this TV station, Chex TV, C-H-E-X, and I scoured the internet to find the general manager's email. And I said, you know, here's a little bit about me, communications major, blah, blah, blah, here's my resume. I'm going to be in Peterborough next week during spring break. Could I just stop by and chat with you about a possible internship. And he's like, ah, we don't really do this. It needs to be like affiliated and you get credits for it,

but come on in. And I talked him into giving me an internship that ended up turning into a job. And I was driving 60 miles each way, 100 kilometers, each way. In LA, that'd take three days. You'd still be driving. Maybe a little longer.

And to pay for the gas for my internship, I got my old high school job back at the, in the fish department of a pet store in the mall, PJ's Pet Center. Shout out PJs. Some days I was scooping goldfish, some of them dead. And other days, I was driving to, like, report the news. And at a small station, you're doing everything, writing, reporting, editing, doing it all. Dude.

So that was the first job that I had, 17, oh, yeah, almost a year and a half there. Wow. Yeah. Our stories are so weirdly similar. Yeah? Yeah, I just told a local news station, I'm making a TV show. can I come do movie reviews? And I was like making a TV show.

Like I had a friend who was like, you could pitch a show to AMC. I'm connected there. So I gathered all the student equipment you could use to film the pilot. And I just so happened to work at a bar where an actor came in and I oversold him on it. Hey, I'm pitching this thing to AMC.

Will you come film with us tomorrow? And he did. Local news found out while I was there. I said, I watch every movie that comes out. Can I do movie reviews for you? So I went in every Friday morning at 5.30 in the morning while also working at the village idiot. And like I think I worked,

Longhorn Steakhouse as well. And that was eight months of unpaid work there, an unofficial internship that led to me getting the job at the site. And I oversawed that. I was like, hey, I work at the Fox Station over here, Good Day, Columbia. Man. Man, that's funny. But that's what you have to do.

You got to like make yourselves, you know, but also, I would say don't oversell yourself if you can't deliver when you get the opportunity. Because if you crash and burn, well, then it's, you're not getting back in. Sure. If people see that, you don't want to be known for being, oops. Yeah.

when I did see the audition for the next job, which was MTV to Canada, my demo reel really wasn't like selling the fact that I was an entertainment reporter or TV host. Like, I was doing so many, like, local news things. So I was going in on my off days and we had access to the cameras because I was also a videographer there, because wearing all these hats. I would go out to like a random field and like just like do these standups where I was talking about like a music festival or a movie review, like complete fake on camera stuff that I would. was padding my resume and demo tape with so that when I sent it in, they'd go, oh, yeah, this guy knows entertainment stuff.

Yeah, there it is. And that was what ended up getting me at least a look from them. You just, you took the opportunity. You were like, I see an opportunity to make myself look good. It's a real skill, though, whether you're introing it for your own channel or you're introing it for the national media. Sure. A real is a real.

Does it really matter? Look, I can talk on camera. So then you went to Cleveland, Miami, L.A.? So it was Peterborough to Vancouver. Vancouver, that was the MTV two show where I was interviewing celebrities and musicians and I interviewed my first wrestler there. That show got canceled after a year. Back to Toronto to host a show.

Right. Then Cleveland. Then Miami. And you decided not to live off of the royalty checks from the love guru. So you thought you thought I need a little bit more. Well, when you're a little greedy, did you? When you're an extra, you do not get royalty checks. You get paid your whatever was $10 or $12 an hour, and that's it.

And you're getting, but you get royalty checks from what is the thing? There's a few movies where I've had like a line or two. I've played a reporter in like three films. When you like on a TV screen? Yes. Yeah. In a movie with John Travolta. And those are the royalty checks that still come in today.

That's one of them. So I'm in a movie called Criminal Activities with John Travolta. And like, I'm that pivotal scene where like, what do you mean? Someone's on the phone. What? What? What channel? And they, like, turn it on the TV.

And then that's me, like, giving the plot of the movie. Yeah. That was one of them. They used your demo reel that never made it to the... I actually filmed that in our TV station, in our TV studio in Cleveland in, like, 10 minutes. That's funny. They sent me the script. Did they know you were using the studio for a movie?

Oh, yeah, of course. They were all in on it. They were rolling the teleprompter for me. Hell yeah. Wow. And, like, we... The only... The only guidance I got because I chatted with the director for, like, an hour.

And he was basically just kept coming back to, we want this to feel authentic. We want this to feel real. We want to feel like we've turned on the TV. Then it was a reporter in a movie called The Bronze with Sebastian Stan. And then I was also one in, I had two scenes in a movie called Love Finds You in Sugar Creek. I mean, but doesn't it? Sure.

Have you ever found yourself in Sugar Creek? One of the caveats. One of the caveats on that one. That's the one I probably get the most royalty checks for, like 12 cents here, 64 cents here. One of the caveat. I spent... Big, invest that. Absolutely.

My wife's like, why are you cashing that? I'm like, because it's 64 cents. If I handed you two quarters, a diamond four pennies, even though they don't exist anymore, you wouldn't just throw it in the trash? Well, well... In the trash? Not in the trash, but I don't carry change.

I have a green tea. I used to drink those huge green tea, the Lipton green tea, full of change, full of change, and a couple of dollar bills in there. And it's been sitting in the corner of my room for like 30. 13 years. How much of your thing's in there?

Man, I should do a guess one day. You should. That should be an episode of the show. If you get it the closest, but I'm not going to count it. I'll take it to CoinStar. Does CoinStar still exist? Yeah, and turning into a Bass Pro Shop gift card. Yeah, yeah, there you go. So, it sounds like you wanted to start, though. Oh, I didn't tell you what the caveat was, real quick. The caveat was, I had to bring one of the news vehicles with me for that. You needed to borrow the Cleveland News vehicle, and they needed the prop. Yes. And all the... Look at them being savvy, though.

Look at the production being savvy. And all we had was, like, I couldn't drive like a satellite truck. Yeah. Like a news truck. So my boss was like, you can use the storm chaser. I'm like, all right. They probably loves that, too. It's super newsy.

But it said storm chasers. So, like, I'm in the scene, the car rolls up to the house and it says Channel 19 or 19 action news storm chaser. I'm like, well, good enough. It was like a Ford SUV. Listen, they were not, they didn't have budget for it. They got what they could get, okay, and it worked, and you made it happen. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clemenberg.

And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Times ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really stake their claim, and they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are.

The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henco, follow and listen on your favorite platform. It sounds like you started out interested in acting. Not really. My goal was really, I wanted to be the host. Like, I, dating back to when I was like four years old, I fell in love with broadcasting. Really? I have a Fisher Price tape recorder, like with actual cassette tapes. And I remember pretending to be the radio DJs that I heard on the radio.

I just loved the idea of, like, being. in front of one of these, being in front of a microphone and, like, the words that you say go out to the people. So I'm not shy that you've been a huge inspiration and blueprint for how I'm operating this podcast, everything I'm doing online. Who was it for you that you looked up to in broadcast journalism that made you want to get started and be like them? So really early on, it was the Toronto Blue Jays play-by-play. Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth, who were just absolute legends. If you're from Toronto, you know exactly who I'm talking about. Growing up, it was like, I really loved, like, the, like think about like late 90s, early 2000s, like the hosts that were on TV.

Like, Dean Cain was hosting Ripley's, believe it or not. Roger Lodge was hosting Blind Date. Joe Rogan was hosting Fear Factor. Fear Factor back in the day. I remember recording on VHS, this terrible show called The Ultimate Revenge. Because I thought that the host was so charismatic and I just loved the way that he, like, drew viewers in. And that host's name was Ryan Sechrest. I never heard of the show.

About a year later, he ended up getting American Idol, and it changed his life. But I would watch the ultimate revenge because I'm like, that guy is so good. And I wanted a little bit of that. Also some Canadian folks like George Strombolopoulos, who was so good at making interviews just feel authentic. He was a much music VJ,

then I ended up hosting a show in Canada called The Hour. And he could sit down with anyone, from a rock star to a politician, to an athlete, And it just felt like two friends hanging out. And I always aspired to have that. The ability to just sit down with someone and it just feels like you've picked up mid-conversation, like you're sitting across from them at a restaurant. And you're just like, oh, that sounds interesting.

I want to listen to that. Yeah. So you, the first big wrestling interview you saw success with was one with the miss. Yes. That took off literally overnight for you. Yeah. The very first wrestling interview I did was Bobby Lashley. Yeah.

But this interview. Didn't you challenge him to a little bit of a miss. a match in that clip? I was like a year and a half, two years into my broadcasting career. Yes, I, it's funny because like, you know how hard it is to like get an interview to sound like a conversation? Oh, yeah. That flows. I watched the raw version of that one back and it's just like, question answer. Question answer. Completely new topic, question answer. And out of nowhere, I was like, Oh, I have this extensive background and amateur wrestling And also was a very accomplished backyard wrestler as well

I'm wondering if right now You'd be willing to step up, be a man And put that title on the line And he's like, I'd be willing to put this title in line Any place in time, any point in time What about right here, right now? On the roof of City TV? Oh, sure.

So silly. But the Miz interview He's ready to throw you off the roof. going to the miss interview was big because it was 2011 he was throwing out the first pitch for at the time the cleveland indians and by the way the miss can throw a great first pitch like this was like mid 80s like like right there and i had the chance to talk for he talked to him for like three four minutes quick interview before he threw the first pitch and he like revealed like two newsworthy things in that interview one was cm punk had just done the pipe bomb. And he said that this is one of the most exciting things since the attitude era.

And then he also said, just kind of off the cuff, he said he got concussed at WrestleMania 27 and doesn't really remember it. And I put that interview out on my YouTube channel, which was basically just a catch-all. My YouTube channel at that point was like, I'm just going to take these interviews and put them online as like a digital library for me. Because the way that the traditional broadcasting model works is I was in Cleveland. So unless someone was watching channel 19 on that Wednesday at 4.16 p.m., they would never see this interview. So I just threw this interview up. Other wrestling fans might like this. Someone ended up watching this and realized those were two newsworthy pieces. And they turned into headlines. So I don't know where this got shared, some sort of wrestling website.

So I woke up the next day and had 6,000 views. And that was massive at the time. I was used to getting like a few hundred maybe. And like my mom might have been a handful of those. The day after that, it had 36,000 views. And I'm like, what the heck happened? And you're able to go in on the back end of YouTube and see where the traffic's coming from. And I was seeing all these news websites. And I was like, oh, I think we're onto something here. And that was kind of what got the wheels moving for me of like, I have access to, especially pro wrestlers at the time.

And I'm interested in pro wrestling. I get it more than the average local news reporter. If I can ask a few questions that, like, I've always wanted. to know the answer to, maybe this can turn into something. And that's where I really started thinking, all right, when WWE's in town promoting Raw or Smackdown, there's one interview. When TNA's in town, promoting impact, there's another interview. Maybe I can do one at a local indie show when they're bringing in a legend. I was doing like, I don't know, five a year. But all of those running up were getting good numbers online. And I just kind of started thinking, all right, what if I continue to go

out of my way to get more and more and more of these? And that just kind of kept building. So what year is it that you noticed, the wrestling stuff? is doing well online? It's like early on, it's like 2012, 2013. All right, there's a, they're bringing Buff Bagwell into this local wrestling company. Maybe I could do an interview with that

person or at that company. They're bringing Christopher Daniels into this one. Could I reach out to that wrestling company and ask them? Hey, could we put this on the news? And also on my tiny little YouTube channel at the time. When I really started going all in was like 2018. And then you cut to now

2026. You just signed a new deal to get insight. What does that mean to sign a new deal for a podcast? What it really means is they're in charge of the ads. So they're just selling the ads in the show. I still... And it keeps the show going. Yeah, I get to do whatever I want with the show, but they're the ad buyers behind it. So why does a deal like that come up? Because I think they see that the show is getting watched and listen to, and they're going, oh, we could sell ads on that. I think that's really what... What I'm trying to get it is you have found so much success in the wrestling interview space that they're coming to you saying, hey, we want to pay you to promote stuff.

It's crazy. You're killing it, dude. I was with another podcast network before that for years with Blue Wire. It's the same idea. It's just like they're the ones reaching out to the ad companies and going, all right, we've got this amount of commercials per episode. Would you like to have one of those spots? And then, yeah, dude, I mean, you've earned it.

Dude, it's crazy. But you'd think, you would think that if you go to your YouTube channel, and see what the most viewed video is, it would be a wrestler. No. It's Ed Hathaway. That video just keeps coming up. That was 15 years ago. Oh, I know.

That was talking about The Dark Night Rises, which came out in 2012. She was doing a junket for a movie called One Day. Which I haven't seen. It's a lovely movie. Okay. Yeah. Question about that experience? Have you had a moment or a lesson or any moment where you're like, other than that,

where you're like, I wish I were to that differently. I still really enjoy that moment. It's a good moment. It's funny. She was a champ, too. Like, she doesn't seem like she was annoyed at you or anything like that. Oh, she has total fun with it. Yeah, of course.

Yeah. I've only seen her be great in interviews, too. Like, I think her and Jake Hamilton have the best campus jam. Oh, my goodness. Her good friend Jake. He proposed to her. I remember. Yeah.

She just seems like she can have fun with anyone. She seems awesome. Oh, she's great. And I've interviewed her one. her twice since then, too. So, like, she's always been wonderful. Does she bring it up in a later interview? I don't think she...

She has not brought it up in a later interview. And I don't know if she is even aware that I'm that person. Although we don't look that much different, even though it was 15 years ago. Here's what happened there. I was interviewing her for this movie one day. Yeah.

And again, this is early on in my YouTube channel. This is early on, really in YouTube days. I knew that if I could get her to talk about something to do with the dark night rises, it would make news, and it would end up becoming a clip on YouTube. So I remember I just wrote down in my notes, Dark Night Rises and like Catwoman, but it didn't like formulate a question around like, how am I going to get there with this? As you know, I'm very into fitness, diet, nutrition.

You are as well. I think that comes along with being a pro wrestling fan. I've asked lots of questions of Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth. Lots of people named Chris about working out, gaining, losing weight for roles. I'm fascinated by that. Ben Affleck gave me a great breakdown for Batman about how he, like, put on that much size. So I just looked at it in the same vein of like that. I could have worded that question better.

But the way that she played with it is what made it so fun. Yeah, right? Like I'm like, I'm sorry if I offended you. She's like, oh, no, I was just messing around. Like, I was just messing with you. And it's such a fun moment. So at the time, I assume you have a lot of friends in the junket space. When you walk out of the room, do you go tell the people around, like,

I wonder if this was a weird moment. And did you start talking to your friends about it? That was a junket that, for whatever reason, my closest friends weren't on it. Oh, that's the worst. But I tweeted out. I missed the junkets where we'd all be there. Me too. And this was just, this was a rare one because Kevin and Jake, or Kevin and Jake,

were on every junk, especially back then. For whatever reason, they weren't. I remember tweeting out, like, I left there. It's like, that was an interesting moment. It's a fun moment. And the comments are always very divided on that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Comments are always like either what a terrible question he offended her or man, that was, how did he not realize she was flirting with him? I don't think either of those are actually true. Yeah. I think that she did 40, 50, 60 interviews that day and was just having fun with this one moment. Yeah, I think so too. But I tweeted out, I think I just offended in Hathaway. Oh, boy. Oh, boy.

When I had like, I don't know, 1,500 Twitter followers or something. Oh, boy. I'm sure if you looked back at this tweet, it has like six likes or something. But Kevin McCarthy called me immediately. And he's like, I just saw your tweet. Like, what happened? And I'm like, oh, yeah, I explained the whole situation. He goes, oh, that sounds like a fun, man.

Like, that sounds like a fun moment. I'm like, really? He goes, yeah, that's really cool. Like, send me the clip. And I send it to him. And he's like, yeah, that's a fun moment. And it is a fun moment. And it's just funny that to this day,

there's not a week that goes by where that doesn't go viral or I don't get tagged in something with what a forward young man. Because what a reaction, right? We're like the same. We are, I think we are exactly the same age. She might be four months older than me. What a forward young man. That's funny.

Oh, dude. Yeah, those junket days when everybody would be there were special. Like pre-COVID, we spent a lot of time. We've been around the world together. I mean, we've hung out in New Zealand, London, L.A., New York. Yeah. Probably the list goes on. What's the wildest junket you think you've been on?

Oh, man. I think the, probably the one we did in New Zealand for Alita. Yeah, the Weta stuff, getting to do motion capture was really, really special. And then that dinner at Boomrock on that cliff, that was, we had a heart to heart that night. We were talking about love and life and all kinds of shit. We were in a different place in our lives in 2018. Yeah. And that was wild, too, because, like, we were at that dinner and, like, the oceans right there and the cliffs.

and then Christoph Waltz, like, dingin on his cup, and, like, he gives a toast, and we're like, where are we right now? What is going on? How did I stumble into this spot? I keep stumbling upwards. Yeah, that was a... Christoph Waltz was a tough interview. Was he tough for you there?

Yes, yes. And I remember Tara Hitchcock walked out, and she was like, he was not super friendly. He was tough. And then the next person walked out, he was not super friendly. He was tough. And, like, four people came up to me. And, like, Christoph seems to be in a mood today. And I went in, and I was like, he was kind of...

man offish a little bit. He was wonderful to me there. Interesting. I was just like, did that guy hate me? He was one of my toughest interviews for when he was the Bond villain for Specter. Oh. It was a junkin in Mexico City. Actually, I interviewed Dave Batista that same day. When he had no lines. I remember he had no lines in that movie. He was so good. I was so mad. He was so good. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's a great actor. I would argue Dave Batista is the best

wrestling. I think Dave Batista is the most talented wrestler-turned actor in terms of the range he has shown on screen. He's showcased so much range from like being able to show some comedic jobs in something like Stuber to knock at the cabin

where he's like a menacing villain, very stoic, really all of his emotions are very small right here in the face. Yeah, tons of range. Man, I'm excited to see where he goes. I think he might be in like trophy chase phase because he wants that Academy Award acknowledgement.

I don't know, I hope, but I think he can get it. I think he can do it. But what Seena's doing is great, what Dwayne is doing is great. They've all found their lane. Yeah. I love DJ. The Rock being funny is my favorite version of Rock. And I love, I think such an underrated performance from the Rock is Central Intelligence.

Yeah. Oh, I completely agree. Yes. That's when he finally embraced, I think, it's okay to have fun with myself. And he did such a good job. And Kim and Kevin Hart bring out the best of each other, too. It's fair to say that the Rock is funnier than Kevin Hart in that movie. Kevin Hart's just throwing him Alley Oops, just throwing up these layups to him.

Dude, and he was, Ross and Thurber made them both great. But he just got to be the, yeah, I love that movie. 2016, God, it's so long ago. And I love that as we sit here right now, Rock nominated for a Golden Globe. Didn't win. But, like, that performance in the Smasher Machine was just, it was beautiful. He was really good. He disappeared into that role.

That sounded like him, walked like him. That scene where he stops Emily Blunt from killing herself in the bathroom. Just knowing his own story with things he's gone through with his family, and he's talked about this all very publicly with his mom and stuff, I was just like, man, that had to be hard for you. And I think that might be what fueled his performance. Yeah. I think, yeah, I'm a big fan of DJ until the end of the line.

Same. Yeah. But, man, I wanted to... We've just talked about Junkett's a little bit. I don't remember the Junkett we met at. I don't either. Because I met Kevin McCarthy at Chappie. That was the first Junkett I ever did.

That was February 2015. Okay. So it had to be sometime from then on, I would say, between 15 and 17. Kevin introduced me to you, so we'd have to look at what Junkets... And I was doing almost every junk at 2015, 2016. It was probably like a Marvel movie, I would say.

Did you do like Amherst? Ant-Man or Captain America Civil War? No, I didn't do a lot of Marvel Junkets. Why not? You know the Disney invite list is very small. Oh, yeah. Well, I was Comicbook.com at the time, so we were... And the show that I was on just didn't get a lot of Disney invites, period.

That list is just small. Yeah, yeah. And everybody wants it, too. I don't know. I'm curious because... But it had to be... So, 2015, 2016, it had to be right around that. A decade.

Because then it became, like, I would hang out... Basically, if I showed up to... a junket, I would look for like, is Kevin McCarthy here, is Jake Hamilton here, is Chris Van Vlead here. Those are the guys that I feel like hanging with. Those are the guys I know I'm going to have a good time with. And then, you know, we have a lot of friends on those junket circuits, though. Maude Garrett, Tara Hitchcock, so many awesome people that it used to be with walking room and always be the same people. You're not there anymore, dude. What the hell? Yeah, I know. Son of my bitch. Come back. I have to like figure out when we met. I really dove,

because I didn't do a lot of junkets in the beginning. We had a slow grow because comic book was very small when I saw. There was only four of us, but we were hitting, it had to be 18 million impressions a month before I shot up to like 25 by the time I got there because they were just a Facebook algorithm, monster at the time. So we started getting invites in 15,

but I don't remember what it, because it was mostly Marvel stuff I did, DC stuff, Batman for Superman, maybe, I don't know. I did that one? That might have been work, because that... London? Yeah, yes, I think that might have been the first time we really, because that was 2016.

Yes. That we might have met at Batman versus Superman. Wow. Did you like that movie? I liked a lot of it. There were a lot of parts of it I didn't love. Martha! Are there movies you get excited for now?

If I'm being completely honest. So the short answer is, the short answer is yes. I don't get to watch a lot of movies right now. I am in a magical stage of life right now with two young kids. And they dictate most of the entertainment that is on the TV. Yeah, I could imagine. And after they got a lot of bluey going, huh? Oh, yeah, we love to.

Is it Bluie? Yeah. We love Flewie. Louis, Danny Go, Miss Rachel. There you go. We've seen Toy Story about 700 times. Toy Story 5 right around the corner. Can't wait.

Disney, let's get Chris Van Fleet back in the Junkets. Disney is doing Junkets with some of these Pixar movies where they're having people bring their kids, and they're doing events like that. My daughter might be a bit young. She's two and a half. And my son's 13 months. Yeah.

It's never too young to get started on the Junkett circuit. I think her question would be like, is Woody here? Viral moment. Yeah. Oh, she loves Woody. She has Woody pajamas that she loves to wear. So I then bought a Woody t-shirt, and she'll be like, Daddy's Woody.

And then I can't call her Logan. I have to call her Woody. Yeah. Because she's dressed as Woody all day. Speaking of Woody's. Hold on to pause. That's how I meant. There is a transition here.

I swear, hold on. Speaking of Woody's, one of your other. most watched viral moments. This is a moment that comes up for you often. Woody Harrelson, Woody Harrelson, and Liam Hemsworth, the moment where Woody Harrelson realizes that Liam has a brother who is Thor is when you're sitting in the chair doing an intro to a junket interview. I can't believe that I was there for the exact moment that Woody Harrelson realizes that Liam Hemsworth and Chris Hemsworth are brothers. And I walk into the room and you know, they'd say, like, say your name and outlet.

So it's like, oh, Chris Van Fleet, CBS Cleveland. And Liam goes, I've got a brother called Chris. I'm like, oh, yeah, got a thunder. And he's like, yeah, big movie out this weekend. And you can see the exact moment when the light bulb goes off in Woody's head. Oh, I never put it together that you guys are brothers. They look identical. They do look the same.

They have the same last name. And they're both very famous and known to be brothers. I couldn't. And this is the junket after they filmed together for how many months, and then how many months of doing press together, and, like, still doesn't realize it? I love it. It's funny.

I love Woody Harrelson. Did you have a favorite junket? Of all time? Yeah, like, just movie junket. I would say that back to what we were talking about earlier, it was just, like, the craziest, wildest junket was murder on the Orient Express. I was before, I was when I was in, but I wasn't in with Fox well enough yet. to get that invite. Oh, I looked good.

Like flew to Venice, then boarded the actual Orient Express, which has been restored to look like how it looked 100 years ago. The Venice Simpland Orient Express. We're on this for 26 hours, eating on there, sleeping on there, doing interviews on there. It goes from Venice to Paris. A trip from Venice to Paris already is wild. But the fact that we're doing this as part of a junket on a train was crazy. There's a thing called the bar car. So, like, you're on there and they serve drinks. After dinner that one night, we went moseyed on over to the bar car.

We're going to grab ourselves in old fashion. It's me and Jake Hamilton and Gavin McCarthy. They're just junket legends. So we go to grab our old fashion, and there's a piano in the bar car. Who else is in the bar car? Who else is one of the stars of Murder on the Orient Express? Josh Gad. What does Josh Gadd love? Show tunes. He's a Broadway star, right? It's Olaf, baby. Book a Mormon. So good. So we were in the bar car having drinks,

singing along as Josh Gad is singing show tunes with the piano player. Do you know how many people would spend ridiculous amounts of money just to get that experience one time? They'd enter contests to try to win that experience. It was just surreal. And it's one of those moments. And I've been so focused on being more and more present. Yeah. Like I am so aware that the greatest currency in life is time. Right. You can spend a bit. You can never get it back. And I'm so aware of like being right here in this moment. And having kids has just advanced that like 10x. But that was one of those moments where I like looked around like, all right, what can I see? okay what can i hear

let's take that in what can i smell what can i taste oh okay let's taste this drink you know what can i touch like i was taking in all the senses to try to make this feel like a sensory experience because i want to that's one of those moments that i want to just go in the rolodex and just go back to yeah and i think about that all the time i wish i journaled during this whole experience i wish i wrote down more about my days and i still i've thought this for a few years actually but we get we're

so lucky with some of the experiences we had from work. Like, it's not lost on me, how privileged and fortunate we've been with some of the travel, the people we've met, the moments we've seen, things we've experienced, things we've tasted and smelt and all of that. I wish I would have written more of it down because I think going back to that or having it to share with a kid one day or something like that would have been really cool. I genuinely wish I did more of that. And I think that I was so caught up in the idea of like, well, I'm taking photos and I've

got the video and I've got like literal boxes in my garage of like Est-T. cards with all of these junkets on them. It's not the same. There's a quote I heard years ago that really hit me. It's I don't know what I think until I write it down. And it's that idea of like, until you can verbalize it, pen to paper, and like you are making the motions of the letters with your hand, it's something clicks in your brain that, like, makes you retain that that much more.

I journaled almost every day for a long time. and I wish I journaled more, especially during this magical time that I'm in right now with the kids. But man, I just feel like... Yeah, that's something I recommend to myself. Time is thin, and I just wish that's one I... Speaking of time, we started a few minutes late, I want to make sure you don't have to... Oh, I got all day for you. Okay, let's talk forever.

Dude, we got some fun stuff to talk about, but I want to make sure that we don't hold you up if you're... I don't know. The Rock could be waiting outside to be your next interview. Could you imagine? I could actually, because this seat I'm sitting in. John Cena sat here not very long ago. Yeah. And then I believe it was the day before that, you were sitting with Stone Cold Steve Austin.

I will never have a better 24-hour period professionally than that. That's pretty damn good. Flew to Reno, Nevada, rented a car, drove out into the middle of absolutely nowhere to go to Stone Cold Steve Austin's ranch to do that interview. And was connecting with his publicist to set this up and the time and everything. And I got an email. I was like, give me your phone number. here's steves he'll give you a call the night before just to go over like the details and like

how to get in and everything like that and we were at the hotel like doing some last minute research and like getting the gear together and my phone rings stone cold steve austin oh yeah i mean hello hello hey chris steve no big deal yeah and then he he pulled him he pulled a prank on me yeah he's like It was like 545 at the time. And he's like, yeah, come by the house about 6 o'clock. I'm like, don't do this to me, Steve. I know it's tomorrow. He's like, so like 6 o'clock, you're going to come on by out of the house?

I'm like, no, I know it's tomorrow. I know it's tomorrow. And I can't wait. He's like, so I'll see it a little bit. I'm like, it's tomorrow. Do not do this to me. And then he's changed the subject. It's like, all, man, I'm looking forward to this.

I've seen your stuff on Instagram. Yeah, it'll be a good time tomorrow. When you come on in, here's the gate code. And when you put, pull up, you'll see me there in the driveway, and then we'll find a spot to do it. And that's exactly what happened the next day. We're old up to the driveway. He has 40 acres. He has the cats, the solid-ass cats. Pancho and macho, baby. He has chickens and horses. It was just so cool. Like, he is just enjoying retirement. And then literally the next day you're sitting

right here where you're sitting now, except you're looking at John Cena. Right. And there was one of John Cena's final interviews before his last match. Yeah, that was a pretty crazy 24-hour period to fly back from Reno, do that interview. John Cena sitting right there. You've never had The Rock on the podcast. I've done 10 interviews with The Rock. Not that I'm counting or anything. Ten time.

Ten time. I'm the Rock interview champion. But the longest interview with The Rock was like seven minutes. Sure. So, no, The Rock has never been on the show. That night that we saw him at the after party for the Smashing Machine, I was like, well, what better time to pitch the rock than right now in front of him? And he was like, oh, you don't want to do an interview with me.

We've known each other for too long. I'm like, that's exactly why I want to do an interview with you. I want to like break down your wrestling career and like deep dive into some of these moments. And he's like, oh, I'm not even wrestling anymore. I'm like, that's exactly why I want to talk to you about wrestling. And we can talk about anything else you want and promote anything you want. But there's like little moments in his career I just want to talk about. Man.

I can't wait. That's the one. Brock for a full interview and Sting, I think, of the two. And Randy Orton, I've never done an interview with. Triple H, never done an interview with. But, like, those are the ones I want to make happen. Oh, man, you and Randy would be entertaining. I can't wait.

I would love to see you talk to Logan Paul. Yeah? I think he's, say what you will about Logan Paul, and I know a lot of people do. I think he is phenomenal in WWA. It's like he was born to be a professional wrestler. He found his thing. He did. It's wild how good he is.

So he's already so naturally athletic and so naturally gifted in the ring. But I think the thing that people don't focus on enough is he's committed to this. This isn't just something he's doing as a part-time thing where he shows up and has a match. He just signed a full-time WWE contract. And he is all in on this idea. Yeah. Yeah, he's say what you want about him as a person in the ring, objectively. bell to bell in his entrance.

Phenomenal. You've had a lot of guests on that you get some real conversations with. I think the clips that we see are a lot of, we'll see a lot of clips that go viral where somebody talks about an iconic moment. They shed some light on. We get insight on an iconic moment. But you also, you bring out a human side of a lot of wrestlers who I don't think really get a place to share the deeper,

more personal stories often, but you get them to do that. Yeah, there's been some really emotional moments. Like, we've had Mark Henry broke down in tears, the world's strongest man. Gene Snitsky, super emotional to the point where, like, there were these long pauses because he couldn't say the next sentence. Mickey James got emotional sharing her story. Shana Bazler sat right there, got emotional telling a story. Mr. Kennedy.

Kit Wilson recently was on the show, was getting really emotional talking about Alton Prince, his tag team partner, who at 28, had his neck fused. And I think it comes down to like the key in interviewing is not in like how great your questions are. The real superpower isn't listening. It's in asking a question and then closing your mouth and actually listening to the answer. And for whatever reason, that seems to be something that a lot of people don't do, which is wild to me that you would ask a question that you're genuinely interested in,

or at least I hope you would be, to not listen to that answer. And I think that comes down to just like, the ability to just like open up. I'm not judging. I'm not judging your story or where you've come from or the decisions you've made. I'm genuinely just interested in your story and how can I learn from that. And there's been some really beautiful moments. where I am grateful that those people feel like they've been able to open up and been able to just, like, show their true emotions in that moment. And it's been really cool to see. I've also sat in on a couple of your interviews as you've record them,

and I've seen you go from something emotional, something as emotional as Zelina Vega talking about losing her dad at 9-11, and then pivoting the conversation, it feels totally natural and appropriate into just another wrestling question. that's an impressive skill. I think that that's how conversations actually go. Yeah. You know, like if someone's telling you something super sad,

you don't want to just, like, continue to talk about that the whole entire time. I think that, like, changing the subject, whether it's in real life or whether it's in an interview, can be as simple as like, dude, did you see the game last night? Oh, man. Like, and that's a genuine thing that happens when you're talking to someone in person or you're talking to someone on the phone. I've actually noticed that your interviews have been so different. The way that you formulate your questions now is so different in this setting versus a junket. Well, junket suck.

That's compared to this. These are real conversations. Yeah, like a junket is, I will never take a junket for granted. I shouldn't say junket suck because people will be like, well, you're taking it for granted. That's not what I mean. I have Wonder Man this Thursday, and it's only seven minutes. I'm very excited to do that. But when I think about this conversation we're having, I have Yaya Abdulman,

the second and Sir Ben Kingsley paired together sitting across me for seven minutes. I have to get in that seat. I'm really going to have about six minutes and 30 seconds probably. Knock out as many questions as I can because the only way to reach people is by asking as many questions as you can. So it's that I hate to admit this, but like when there have been younger people in the industry, it's interesting to be on this side of it too, who have come to me for advice. Because I remember I used to, I still come to you, but I remember when I first started,

I would look at people like Umberto Gonzalez or Naomi Kyle and people who were the of a different thing or doing their own thing. And I was like, I want to talk to them and get their... And now people are coming to me for that, which is interesting. That's cool. Look at this. It's a little gray up here. So I am on that side, I guess.

But, no, I feel like junkets are way more transactional. Yeah. You go in with a plan. Seven minutes, I'm going to sit there and I'm going to say, all right, I have 10 questions for these guys. Realistically, I'm not asking all 10 of these questions in seven minutes. I want to break the ice. Which one will break the ice, but still be of value online? I want to get this question, which is the one I think will create the moment people will watch,

but it's also something I'm genuinely interested in. And it's like going to an ATM machine. You have to push the right buttons to get the right things out. And that's how transactional a junk it is, but you want it to be personal. But how do you make it personal in such a short time? Yeah. I hate that pressure. The biggest thing with any interview, whether it's a junkin interview, a red carpet interview,

or a podcast interview is how can you build rapport? And how can you build rapport as quickly as possible? so that you're like speaking the same language as someone. Right. So that like you don't feel like it's too strangers trying to get to know each other. And it's not even trying to get to know each other. It's the person asking the questions knows a lot about the other person and the other person knows nothing about you.

So you're like trying to level the playing field. It's an interesting dance. All right. Do you have a junket interviewer Mount Rushmore? Of the people who do them? Of the people in the junket circuit. Maybe at a... Wow.

I love a good Mount Rushmore question. I got to put my friends, Kevin McCarthy. He's number one. Jake Hamilton on there. I think Kevin is the best of us. I remember meeting Jake at an interview. My very first interview after moving to the U.S. in 2010, I did a junket for dinner for schmucks. Remember that movie?

Yeah. And I was still coming off of like, I was still very much like an MTV VJ. Like I was wearing like jeans and a T-shirt. And sometimes I'd put like a jacket over top of that, like a blazer over top of that. And I remember seeing Jake at that interview and he was wearing like a suit and tie. And he was like, I was 26 at the time, 26 or 27. So Jake was like 21, 22.

And I'm like, who's this young guy who's dressed so well? Like, he already stands out. And I remember meeting him. And I remember writing it in my note section to my phone like Jake Hamilton, Houston. And then I looked him up later. And like I went to his YouTube channel and he was creating these amazing moments.

Early Jake Hamilton was about, about, like, creating these viral moments, before viral moments even really existed. Like, he, he's like, he did an interview with Paul Rudd, and he's like, we've known each other for so long. I was wondering if, like, we could share some food together. And they're, like, eating these, like, super melted chocolate bars because it was in Jake's pocket the whole time.

He asked Morgan Freeman, because Morgan Freeman had such a great deep voice, right? And he's known for his legendary voice. He asked Morgan Freeman if he could read his eulogy. So this is this great moment of like, Jake Hamilton, what a cool ass dude. He asked Angelina Jolie if she would dance with him. So he had all these moments that would basically like, he's just going for it.

And his bit would always be like, I'd like to be able to tell my grandkids one day that I at least asked. Of course, they're always going to say yes. So I would go into interviews going, can I have a Jake Hamilton moment? That was a thing. I would tell this to my producers in Cleveland.

Can I have a Jake Hamilton moment? So I was always trying to like find that. I could never do what he did. Kevin McCarthy's so good because he knows the ins and outs of how films are made. And like his love for cinema is palpable. And the way that he looks at the way I've seen his shot or the way a film is shot and the score, all of that. And I love the way that he, you can tell he's excited when he's asking questions. You can tell there's excitement with him.

And he's just, you know, genuinely one of my best friends. And I'm so happy that he lives here now. and he's doing his thing with his podcast on film with Kevin McCarthy. I got to put two more on there. Oh, man. There's some really talented people. I go to people like Perry Nemeroff. Sure.

I think Tara Hitchcock's really good, Ash Crosson. Oh, they're so good. You know who I just love personally and professionally, Mark S. Allen. He's been doing this for like probably 30 years, a junket OG. He's really good at like, he's done like, he'll, He'll interview someone, and it's, like, quite literally, like, the 40th time he's interviewed them. And there's, like, a real rapport there. Also, Mark S. Allen, like, he's all about the, like, the viral big moments.

I don't know if you know this, no. He swam from San Francisco to Alcatraz. Why? To make a moment for live TV. Hey. Shark infested waters. Live the gimmick. Yeah.

He lived on a billboard for however many days, slept on a billboard. Got to put Mark up there for. just like going for it. And he's just a good friend too. He's doing all kinds of great stuff, producing movies. I don't know. It's always, when you do the Mount Rushmore, you only have one spot left.

I know. Then who do you give it to? It's tough. Mod's great. Well, yeah. Mod is, you know, it's got to be Maude. She's got great moments. A lot of great moments.

A lot of great moments. A lot of funny moments. And I think some of the best things in Mod is like a perfect example of this of like, sometimes the moments are just organic. Oh, I know. They don't come from. a great question. It just comes from like an exchange. Yeah. She can make a

four-minute thing personal. I feel like people who knew each other. Yeah, yeah. There you go. There's four. And you'll be the honorable mention. Hey, I'll take honorable mention, baby. Let's go. Am I talking to Chris Van Vlider? Am I talking to Chris Sharp? Oh, you don't want to talk to Chris Sharp. Oh. Yeah. I feel like Bobby Lashley talked to Chris Sharp.

What a great... I'm really proud of that wrestling name. You have one of the best backyard wrestling highlight reels that I think I've seen. Thank you. Tombstones, swanthons, RKO's, super kicks. You had everybody's finisher. Yeah, we did a lot of suplexes. I was trying to do like some lucha stuff, tornado DDTs.

Yep, saw that. Yeah. Most of these moves done very incorrectly, or at least mostly incorrectly. Everybody walked out safely. Uh, most except my friend Will. What happened to Will? There was this moment we were doing our backyard wrestling in a park. The HCW was the name of our backyard wrestling federation.

What did HCW stand for? Hardcore championship wrestling. Originally it was hardcore Canadian wrestling. And I said to my friends, I said, no, we want this to be a worldwide product. Right, we don't want to limit it. We don't want to just be Canada. So Chris Sharp was having a match with my good friend, Will White. His wrestling name was Danny Courage.

And we fought over to where there was this bridge going over this little creek right by where I grew up. And we're like, just punching each other on this bridge. We had zero plan for what we were going to do. And he goes, throw me off the bridge. And it was probably like 10, 12 feet up. It's like, okay. So just grab them by the head and like threw him over, like you'd throw someone over the top rope. And he went for it.

He went all the way over. And I remember the commentary. And this actually was a viral clip in like 2001 on like lime wire or something. They're fighting on the bridge near HCW. That's got to be 10 feet down. And then you hear, and that's his leg breaking. And you can see he's laying there and his leg is off to the side. I'm standing there like on the bridge like, what do I do?

Do I jump onto him? And he's like, no, no. And he rolls off out of the way. And that was the end of the match. Threw up the X. Oh, my God. Well, at least it wasn't you, technically. It was not me.

You didn't make him take a bad bump. He took his own bump and it. was bad. Chris Sharp, my backyard wrestling character, was heavily inspired by the game, Triple H, that character that he had. I taped my right wrist and my right hand, taped just my left wrist.

I would, for whatever reason, chew gum when I was cutting prom. I was like, I was a heel, and I wanted you to boo me. But at the same time, I think I had, like, the athleticism of, like, maybe, like, a kid cash or someone that, like, could do those type of moves.

I wanted to be a pro wrestling. And at that time, I was 16, 17 years old doing this with some of my best friends in my hometown, Pickering, Ontario, Canada. Years later, I ended up training in Toronto for a few months at the squared circle. I was in there, actually, with, like, Angelina Love was there at the time. I was in the beginner ring. She was in the more advanced ring with some, like, Ontario, like, indie legends. But I wanted to do it. And the only reason I didn't is because I was doing that in the summer before my junior year of college.

And like, when it was time to go back to school, I was like, I wanted to focus on one thing. And I was like, do I focus on wrestling school and going all the way I can with that? Or do I focus on school school? Because I'm a big believer in the man who chases two rabbits, catches none. So I'm like, school, school, let's get that degree. Wrestling will always be there. And man, how lucky am I that I still get to dip my toe into wrestling every once in a while. You're guest ring announcer here, do a, you know, throw a rock bottom every now and then.

But it's cool. But Chris Sharp was... quite the heel. There's no experience like pro wrestling. Yeah, you're doing it. Like, you're actually doing it. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. But there's nothing like it.

You probably got the same thrill when you were backyard wrestling. It's athletics, it's performance, it's a challenge, it's fun, dude. We were doing this like in front of crowds of like 60, 70, 80 people. Like, I've just friends in the backyard, which is crazy to think we had friends just coming to watch us wrestle on our blue gym mats. Dude, that's a pretty good draw. 60, 70, 80 people for the blue gym mat show. Pretty crazy.

How do we get Chris Van Vleet to bring Chris Sharp out one time for a bell to bell? Nobody wants to see that. I'm ready. I don't think so. Come on, dude. That rock bottom went viral. Yeah. I'm pretty proud of that rock bottom.

Man, I think, has a promotion ever approached you for a match? Yeah. I don't know if I've said this publicly. I've been offered a few wrestling matches, and I've also been offered to have matches with wrestlers who you would know if I said their name, and I'm not going to say their name, but people who would absolutely carry me through a match, like where I wouldn't probably have to do much work. But I'm at a point in my life right now being a father where every second counts, every moment that I can be with my kids, I want to be with them.

Like my son is only going to be 13 months for literally this month, and that's it. Wow. And I'll look at old pictures on my phone. And by old, I mean one from like two months ago and be like, what the heck? He was so small. She was so small. And I just don't want to take away from that. My focus is on being a father and trying to make insight the best wrestling podcast

that can possibly be and have the most in-depth conversations. I don't have the time right now to put into training that I would need to put into it. because I would want to absolutely commit to it. And I also know that if I did have that match, I would be so hypercritical of that match. I'd be looking at it and going, oh, well, this needs to be perfect, and this needs to be perfect.

And what the heck was I thinking here? And I get that perfect is the enemy of good. But at the same time, I don't think that 42, about to be 43 in May, I don't think that this is the point of my life where I'm going to be having a match. Never say never. but I'm saying it seems highly unlikely.

Man, come on down to OVW sometime. Yeah, I might pull Chris Sharp out. There's a, there's a, I remember, and I'll out him. I went into OVW, and I, there's a wrestler at OVW who found out me and you are friends, but I don't think he realized we're actually pretty good friends. And he's like, Chris has been trying to get me on a show. He said it like dead ass to me in the locker. He's serious as a heart attack says Chris Van Vleet wants me on the show.

This kid, Icon Lee. And I was like, oh, Chris wants you on a show. He was like, yeah, we were trying to find a time. And I was like, okay, Icon Lee. I believe you, sure. That was about eight months ago, so Icon Lee must be really, really busy.

We're still trying to find a time. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'll watch that. I'll tune in. I'll probably be the only person who does. Actually, people will watch the show for you. People will watch Chris Van Fleet interview anyone, I think. But Icon Lee...

Phil, you turned into Chris Sharp here. The main character came out. I wrestled I Conley. I know. You guys, there's some bad blood there. Yeah, he's some bad blood. If you want, here's the thing, you wrestle Iconly, you meet Iconly, you get tagged by Iconly every fucking day. And so we had that match.

And who won? Well, I'm just saying. Here's the thing. I don't think I want to go back to, I don't like Chris Sharp. Nobody likes Chris Sharp. And I don't want to go back to a time where I'm having to remind you, yeah, I have three billion views on YouTube. million subscribers across all platforms. I don't want to have to have to tell you

why I'm so much better than you. Like, you know that. I don't have to, like, say that to people. People think that I'm humble. People think that, oh, I'm not going to talk about myself. Well, Chris Schard does. Do you think that you're a humble guy? Me?

Yeah, do you think you're a humble guy? I'm absolutely. It doesn't matter if you think you're a humble guy. Wow. That's good. All right, I have these last two things here for your. First one. Is this the last question?

Well, it doesn't matter if it's the last question. just threw it right back and me that quickly. And that is not the bottom line because we have a couple real quick. Our friend Kevin did that. Our friend Kevin cut the Rock's promo on the Rock. Yes. You were there. I was like teaching Kev how to like do this.

We were, we spent like all day the day before. This was a Moana junket. I spent, we spent the whole day like watching different moments and like, see how the cadence is. It's it doesn't matter. Like, yeah, you got to hit him with it. Oh, yeah. That was a great video.

That's one of your most watched videos too, is Kevin doing that to The Rock on your channel. Yeah, that's right. It's like your number three most watch. It's short form before shorts existed. Right. Yeah. You think we'll ever see The Rock wrestle again?

I do. I think The Rock has at least one more match in him. And I just feel like they were building up to Rock versus Roman Rains for so long, right? We were real close to getting it at a WrestleMania 39. Rock has been on the record about this that something fell apart of the last minute. We don't know what that is, but sounds like we were supposed to be. to get at WrestleMania 39, which would have made sense here in Los Angeles. They were going to give it to us at WrestleMania 40, but fans, and I'm with them, didn't like

how the setup was here. Cody won the Rumble. Why would he give up that spot to have the match with Roman Raines? WWE ended up writing that ship and doing the right thing, giving us the match that made the most sense, right? It was Cody versus Roman, finished the story. But there were some strange, those few months there that were pretty strong. strange. But that's what made that road to

WrestleMania so good. Absolutely. Best road to WrestleMania, I think, of our lifetime. Yeah. Probably. Fun to watch. Yeah. They blurred the line. They did. That was really good. I think that we were hoping we'd see it at 41. Didn't end up happening.

It doesn't seem like rocks back this year. They're going to go all out for WrestleMania 43. Yeah. It's way too early to be making any sort of predictions about what's going to happen at WrestleMania 43 when we don't even know what's going to happen at WrestleMania 42. But I think that Rock has another match and then gets inducted into the Hall of Fame whenever that ends up happening.

But Rock Roman Reigns was a dream match for so many years. I would still love to see it happen. Will it happen? I don't know. Rock doesn't seem to like look like the Rock that we saw before. He looks like a much leaner, healthier version than Rock. I think he was like, I think at WrestleMania 40, he said he weighed 286. And he was like a jack, 286.

And now he's got to be down way. Yeah, maybe he's like 250. You should ask him how much weight he lost to fit into the smashing machine suit. I'd go over real well. All right, this is the question I end my show on. You're the main character today. What would you say is one of the most important main character moments in your life where you bet on yourself, you made a choice to get yourself on this path that if that one thing didn't happen, you didn't make that choice. you wouldn't be where you are.

Man, what a great question. And thank you for having me on the show, by the way. Thank you for everything through the years. Thank you. Thank you for your friendship. Hey, back at you. You're so Canadian. I'll thank you, though.

Oh, I'm sorry about that. We can go about this for a while. I don't know what the while was. That was like, I turned Irish into Canadian. See, I'll leave the Canadian to you and Jackie Redmond. I told you the story of how I got my very first job in TV. How I got the next job is probably the moment that's me on the path that I'm on right now. So to go from local news reporter reporting on the new stop sign

to like, I just knew I wanted something more. I knew I wanted something that would showcase a little bit more personality. And I saw there was an open casting call for much more music. So they were like the kind of like older demographic for playing like music videos. I called into work sick. And I never did that. I still never to this day. Like I will power. through and I will make it happen. I called in to work sick so I could drive into downtown Toronto to go this open casting call. And I'm sitting in the open casting call filling out like my little sheet, like information sheet and security walked right up to me. And the guy goes, come with me. And I was like, oh my gosh, what did I do? And he's like, it's okay. Don't worry. Like they want to

see the people they're interested in first and then get to everybody else. And I'm like, oh my gosh. I was like 150th in line. And now I'm like right there. I went in. I did this audition. they're like, we think you have a good look. We're interested in like, we wanted to see the people we were most interested in first. Here's my card. You just got yourself a callback. And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm going to be a VJ. This is crazy.

That shifted my whole mentality of like that shifted the way that I saw myself. And then I, from there, I was like, I got to start to like interject a little bit more personality if I can into these interviews. Didn't end up getting that job. But like six-ish months later, their sister station, razor team. which ended up becoming MTV to Canada, had an open casting call or had an audition. I sent my stuff in.

The fake stuff that I was telling you about, the fake demo reel, didn't hear back from them. And this, I think, was the moment that changed my career. I knew the name of the person who was doing the hiring because it was on the application. And I called the TV station and asked for her by name. They were like, hello, City TV. And I said, hi, is Catherine Peterson there?

And they said, one moment, please. And I'm like, oh my gosh. going to work. And I didn't get, she didn't answer, but I got her voicemail and I left a voicemail. She ended up emailing me back like a day or two later and was like, hey, we got your materials. Like, we'll be in touch when we make the decision. In the signature of her email was her direct phone number. I said, okay, well, I'm going to call you in a day or two. And I did. I called her at her desk. She ended up answering. And I said, hey, it just, it turns out that I'm going to be in Vancouver next Thursday, which is a complete and total lie. It's a full line. It's a

five-hour flight from Toronto to Vancouver. And she goes, oh, you're going to be here. I said, yeah, I'd just love to be able to talk to you about the position. She goes, oh, if you're going to be here, come on in and let's chat. Wow. And I talked myself into this audition, lied my way into this. I remember hanging up the phone. My dad worked for an airline.

He's now retired. He worked for Luftanzah. And I hung up the phone. I said, Dad, how can I get a flight to Vancouver next Thursday? And he's like, let's figure it out. and my dad ended up setting up a meeting, so it was a business trip for him, and I tagged along on standby.

You know all about standby. I do know a little bit about standby. And I went out there, and I got the job because of it. And it's the idea of like, just make yourself available. Try to get to yes. And that was such a lesson learned of like,

that's why I want to do all my interviews in person too. Oh, you live in Dallas? Great. I'll be there next week. Oh, you live in London? Cool. How does next Saturday? day work. Oh, that doesn't work? How about the Friday after that? Oh, that doesn't work? Give me four

dates in March that we can make work. That's the whole thing. And I think it taught me this idea of like persistence. Not annoyance. Don't be annoying, but be persistent. And always offer value. That's the biggest thing. Try to always offer value of like how if I show up here, how can that help you? Because it's obvious to me in an interview what I'm getting out of it. I'm getting your time. What's in it for you. Right. So that's, I think, the moment that changed it for me. I never heard that story from you. That's pretty dumb, man. Good work.

Change my life. Well, you like to show gratitude at the end of your show. I'm going to show you gratitude. I got a little something for you. Chris Van Fleet is now one of one. What? Chris Van Fleet, black T-Lat. Black T-shirt?

Black pants? Oh, my gosh. What trophy am I holding here? Trophy says number one dad. If you look at it from the inside. It didn't make me cry. There he is. Wow.

Oh, my gosh. Dude, that is so cool. You're so cool, dude. Thank you so much for coming today. Thanks for hanging. And everybody for watching. If you're a wrestling fan, I'm sure you're already listening to Insight.

If you're, for some reason, not. If you're not, you just ignored this whole interview. Go check out Insight, you know, take a screenshot, send it to Chris and prove to him that you're a real one. And Chris, man, thank you so much. Dude, thank you. I'm sure I'll talk to you probably in five minutes. This is the coolest thing ever.

So thank you. Yeah, dude. The black t-shirt's an icon, dude. I think the black t-shirt is an icon, dude. I think the black t- t-shirt is part of why we can't take five steps at Smackdown together without people asking you for a picture. Is that guy wearing a black t-shirt? Wait a second. I only own one of them. Thank you, man. Thank you. See you soon. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the

80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.