Insight with Chris Van Vliet - WrestleMania 42 Predictions, Brock Lesnar Retiring, Danhausen, Chris Jericho In WWE w/ Sam Roberts

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

Sam Roberts (@notsam) is a broadcaster and radio host signed with WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in New York City to discuss the highlights of the John Cena retirement tour, if Gunther will retire Brock Lesnar, Danhausen making his WWE debut in a crate at Elimination Chamber, a possible Chris Jericho WWE return, the worst name for a WWE PLE, who will be become WWE Champion first: Oba Femi, Bron Breakker or Logan Paul, the most underrated theme song, 3 matches you'd show to a non-wrestling fan and much more! Subscribe to NotSam on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotsamWrestling 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

We didn't even plan this out. We're wearing our own merch. We are. I mean, this is technically not, this is one of one. Okay. You know, this is, I mean, it's beautiful. Chain stitching. Okay.

What are we doing here? What are we talking about? Isn't that why people do it into wrestling podcasts, they can hear people talk about how great chain stitching is? I'm wearing the back to the future inspired insight with Chris Van Lee T-shirt. I like it. I like it. Do you have a movie that you for use, like,

the absolute best. Like, Back to the Future for me is perfect. Yeah, I mean, listen, we could do a whole other movie podcast because I get very obsessive. That's why I'm sitting here talking about chain stitching. I get very obsessive over the things that I like. Yeah. And so obviously wrestling is there, but movies are there too. And I do have like a little thing on, on letterbox of, I think I found like eight that are perfect 10 out of 10 movies. And the first scream is 10 out of 10. Oh, love that movie. And I've got to tell you, and this one really throws people for a loop. I haven't found a ton of people that are with me on it.

But if you ever interviewed Megan Moran, and you should, she's great. I once got off a plane. We were going to, it was earlier this year. We were going someplace or whatever, and we were on the same flight, but we were sitting apart. And I got off the plane. And I was so charged up because I had just rewatched for like the millionth time, the count of Monte Cristo. and I was ready to like tackle the world after that.

I figured everything out. I was good to go. So Count of Monte Cristo. I don't know if I could, if there's a great font that I can turn it into Not Sam and go like, like, oh, it's hello, count of Monte Cristo. But Count of Monte Cristo is like, I mean, it's like,

it's like, I watch Count of Monte Cristo like people read like self-help books. Like I'm like, that's it. That's it. That's it. You know? Like that's where it's time to figure some stuff out. Like, let me put on a count of Monte Cristo, and we'll get to the bottom of a lot.

Our friendship may be on the line with this. Is Interstellar on your list? No. All right, that's it. We're not friends anymore. No, 10 out of 10. Wow. No.

How dare you? I love Christopher Nolan. It's not even the best Christopher Nolan movie, so it couldn't be. It's not. Not even close. I mean, I would say, Pardon me. Dark Night's better.

Dark Night Rises is better. Than Interstellar? 100%. The prestige? Prestige is way better. Prestige is probably his best one. Prestige is his best one. Not probably.

Prestige is the best one. And then Inception's better. Inception's so good. Right. So that's four Nolan movies that are better than Interstellar. And probably Oppenheimer's better than Interstellar. So like that's fine. Othonheimer is good.

Interstellar is life changing. So when you came in here and said, is Interstellar a 10 out of 10 movie? And now I've just hit you back with, not even top five Nolan. I mean, this is... We might need to restart this. It's egregious is what's happened.

This is... You couldn't have predicted it. We'd go this poorly. Wow. I remember seeing Memento in a film studies class. Memento is better than Interstellar too. How dare you? How dare you?

And I like it. I'm not even saying it's bad, but Christopher Nolan's really, really good at movies. I get it. I understand. He's really good at it. Yeah, he's fantastic. Yeah.

I mean, Interstellar's good. but like it's not interstellar is it's not top five Nolan it's great it's so good it's really good it's not top five Nolan

oh the scene where Matthew McConaugate comes back from the water planet right right right is the one who's not behind the brood with a bookcase or something what is going on

he's watching the video and now that we're fathers it's like oh man I remember when Michael Cane goes it's a bloody double prestige is so good it's so good prestige is unbelievable

prestige is 10 out of 10 you know, the thing about prestige, and I'm not going to give too much away for people who haven't seen it, but the prestige gives away the ending of the movie in the first few minutes with the birds.

But only, but you don't know until you know. Exactly. By the way, prestige relates to pro wrestling. I mean, that was the way people used to live. That's true. You know what I mean? That's a good point. That was the, like, being a great magician

where you live the act is the same. And to an extent, I mean, I think Gunther is a very prestige way about him where, you know, Gunther is so deep in character that people think that he doesn't have a character. It's true. They go, he's boring. He doesn't even have a character. I go, that's how deep.

Like, Gunther is, I don't think that anybody has been as committed to staying in character as Gunther since Undertaker. Wow. Like, that's the level of in-capacity. character that Gunther is in all the time. I did an interview with him a few years ago, and he was shockingly funny. Yeah. And it threw a lot of people off because they're like, wait a second, that guy who's so

serious, who's an absolute killer in the ring? Yes. It's funny? He's funny. And also, that's the other thing. Like, I don't think, I think there are some fans that expect tropes. And so they treat Gunther as. if he is the trope killer big man,

which he never has been. Like, Gunther matches have always been. Gunther takes a beating. Like, Gunther sells and sells and sells. He gets beat up, but it doesn't put him down. And he keeps getting up, and then he finds a way to crush the other guy. Like, that's the Gunther bitch.

It's not this, like, I'm a giant who smashes people. That's never been Gunther. Even when you look at John Cena's last match, John Cena pulled everything out. Yes. every move from his arsenal and then some. And he still couldn't beat Gunther. And that's it.

That's the Gunther match. It's not this like, I mean, everybody gets off. Dragon League got offense. But at the end, it's inevitable. You know, and I think that that, I think, yeah, I think Gunther is, I mean, I'm a big Gunther fan. But I think he's so much, there's so much more there than I think many give credit to. So Gunther has retired Goldberg.

Yes. Gunther retired John Cena. Yes. Gunther retired AJ Stiles. And I'm glad you're here because there are a lot of things I've been wanting to get off my chest. And maybe it's because I'm mad because you keep putting up that clip of when I say Mr. Perfect was never a world champion. And everybody in the comments goes, you're aWA world champion. I go, ooh.

But I should have made it clearer, W. Or WCWTNA. Or WCW. TNA. Who's watching AWA that's in those comments? People online just love to be right. They do. They love it. They love it.

Especially more right than the guy in the clip. But, but, but I think, uh, oh, wait, well, start your sentence again. Gunther's retired everybody. Yes. Thank you. Because they go, Gunther hasn't retired everybody because they said it was their retirement match. So it was just their last match, but they were going to retire anyway, so Gunther didn't

retire them. And I go, that's not a thing. If you beat the guy in his last match, you've retired him. Right? I couldn't agree more. Okay, good. Yes. Good.

That also had to be said for the public. Does Gunther retire Brock Lesnar? Here's my thing about Gunther. He could. I mean, I think it would be great. I think that the, I think there's, again, I think there's more to Gunther than what's cut and dry. I think he could retire Brock Lesnar.

But I think the idea should be that Gunther has the ability to retire people. But number one, he doesn't retire everybody. And number two, he does more than just retire. people, you know, because I think if you go, okay, everybody's retirement matches against Gunther, it becomes like, okay, we know, we know what happens here, right? We know we're doing the same thing over and over again. I think that like, like for me, it's almost like, if he is the guy to retire Brock Lesnar, which he could be, and it would be great. But I also think that that means you tell me a story that makes me believe he's not going to. That's what I think is essential. And you

can. But I think, like, if he is that guy, make me believe he's not going to do it because that's what made, I mean, save for maybe the Goldberg, I think we assumed he would beat Goldberg, but there were a lot of people, and you could tell, because they were very sad, that had this idea that John Cena might win his last match. And, you know, up until the very last minute, I think a lot of people also thought that AJ wasn't necessarily going to get retired just like that at the Rumble and be gone.

So. I was one of them. Right. I didn't think AJ Stiles was going to lose that match. It was crazy. It was just because there was not a ton of buildup to this being AJ Stiles last match. And he said, it's going to be my last year. And you're like, it's barely February.

You got so much more in this year. And it's like just WrestleMania, just a couple months away. That's right. And I like that. I think that's the magic of Gunther. But that's what you need. You can't just like announce it and go, okay, Gunther's going to beat Brock Lesnar or Gunther's going to face Brock Lezner.

and then it starts to feel almost ceremonial, that this is what you do on your way out, you lose to Gunther because then it loses that thing that makes Gunther a bigger villain and makes that story. Do you think that Brock Lesnar retires at SummerSlam this year? Well, that's what John Cena told you, right?

Yeah, I feel like that kind of just snuck out. Did you feel like in the moment he was like, oh, I don't, or do you think that? I think he just said it like it was something he had said in other conversations. Right. But it was not public news. No, I didn't hear that.

So I went, oh. But then you also don't know, is it just he's like going, okay, I know Brock's not going to be around longer. And I know Minnesota's where Somersland is going to be two and two. Maybe. Could be, right? I mean, I don't, I don't, I don't know. I'm, I'm, I'm anxious to see what Brock looks like at WrestleMania because, I mean, you know,

and also, you know, you really. dirt sheets and every week it's something different. Like one week, it's like, Brock's not going to lose anything until his retirement match. And then I turn on Raw and like he's making Obafemi look like $10 million. Right. You know what I mean? Like even to the point of his facial expressions. So good. Like looking around and it's like that facial, before Obie even hit the ring, he's made. Yeah. Right? Because Brock's looking around scared. Yes. And then, I mean, Brock found his way up to get 30 feet as he took that Obifemi power. bomb.

And it's the first time he'd been power bombed in 10 years. That's nuts. And then there's the moment where Brock Lesnar, you can see, he goes, put your foot on my chest. It's like, oh, as if this moment wasn't already good enough. And it made it. It was like there's so much to it. There was a lot that made that segment so special.

So like, I'm kind of super interested because Brock is such a unique character because I think everybody has this idea of who Brock Lesnar is. as a wrestler. And I don't think a lot of people give credence to how much there is there. Like the fact that he can be this like rookie that is killing everybody for two, three years, and then it's gone. And then comes back and he's like, UFC, Brock. And then he's, I beat the streak and now I beat everybody, Brock. And then he's, I beat, I took Kofi's title and only defend it three times a year, Brock. And we all go, we, I hate Brock. He's never around. He's not coming. And then he comes back as Cowboy, Brock.

and he's like the biggest baby face. And then you go, we love Brock. And then all he has to do is do one thing where he turns heel on Cody and we hate Brock again. And so like, I'm, I'm interested. I think last year was kind of just like, okay, Brock's back in the fold. He beat John Cena.

He was in the War Games match. But it's like, who is 2026 Brock Lesnar? Right? I don't think that that's been defined. And like, who is Brock Lesnar going into WrestleMania? who is Brock Lesnar coming out of WrestleMania, and therefore, like, what is the path to if he's going to retire, if he's not going to retire, like, what does that whole thing look like?

He's not showing any signs of slowing down. No way. Which is why it seems hard to accept that just a few months from now, he might possibly be retiring at SummerSlam. You say the same thing about AJ Stiles, though. I know. And it's, and it's AJ Stiles. You could say the same thing about John Sina.

Yeah. You almost wanted to be like, no, no, no, wait until you're having bad matches. then retire. Like, these are great. Like, you're fine. Like, these are great. But at least we had a year to say goodbye to Brock, or to John Cena. Right. He told you. Yes. And we knew it was 35 to 40 dates. Like, he laid it all

out. And it ended up being 36 dates. I thought it was so perfectly done, too. It was 18 appearances where he wrestled. 18 appearances where he didn't wrestle. And I thought that that was done really well. You're so right, though, about Brock Lesnar and WrestleMania. And at this point, after what we saw with Obafemi and Brock Lesnar on Raw.

Yeah. I can't see Obafemi losing this match. No, I can't either. But also, there's a lot of time. Like, that's the other thing. Like, I think people are going, well, why don't we know the whole card? It's WrestleMania. We're going to WrestleMania.

And it's like, it's still another month. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I want to see, because Brock is on a lot of Raw's before WrestleMania. So it's like, is it going to, is the wind going to blow? in the other direction. Are we going to see a vulnerability? Was that or is it, or is this the rise of Oba?

Because, man, I agree with you that I'm looking at that going like, oh, man, this is it. And I love it. Like the idea that you're like, no, we're putting, we're because and like, we're putting, we're pushing down the gas pedal. We're going all the way with Oba right away. And I feel like the last person they did that with was Brock Lesnar in 2002. When you think about Oba Femmi's first singles match on the main roster, being at WrestleMania against Brock Lesnar.

I mean, doesn't get much bigger than that. No, and then should he win, it's like from that point on, it's like he's in world title contention. He would have to be. What else are you going to do?

Now you're talking about, and that's where we go back to Gunther. And it's like I start to get more interested in, okay, if Obothem you were to beat Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, what would Gunther versus Oba look like? Because now we're looking at two things that we've locked our smart wrestling fan heads onto,

well, Gunther's not going to lose because he beat John Cena, and Oba's not going to lose because he's Oba, and also he just beat Brock Lesnar. So what happens if Gunther's not like, I only retire people, what happens if he's also like, no, and I'm going to put the brakes on you

because you're moving up too fast. I set the rules here. And then, like, you headline a big stadium show with Gunther and Oba. Something's got to give. Yeah. And it's a great way to look at it because Gunther can only retire so many people.

That's right. There's only so many people that are at that stage of their career. So where else can it go? And I think that that's a perfect direction for it to go. Right. That like Gunther becomes this

this measuring stick. And also, you know, John Cena, I'm sure he said it to you a bunch. Like the idea that like, the reason John Cena loses to this guy is so that this guy can take that and move it on to this guy.

so that this guy can take that and move it on to here. And, like, yeah, on one end, you go, Gunther could go all the way with this. And he can keep retiring people until he, and he can beat everybody. And like, if Gunther stepped up to Cody or punk or whoever, Gunther's the world champion, now this is a different Gunther is world champion.

This could be huge. At the same time, he could take all that that he's gotten from not just John, but also A.J. and Goldberg. And now all of a sudden, it's on, Oba, right? And all this gets carried over onto Oba, and that's how you get somebody, like Oba to be a headline act less than a year in his run, you know? I couldn't agree more.

It's a way you could, there's a million things you could do, but that's a thing you could do. What was your favorite match from John Cena's retirement tour? So, my, I always, like the one that made me feel the most. most, you know, because I think AJ versus John is one that's going to stick out. But I think Cody and John at Somerslam was like perfect. I think it was perfect. I think it was like this, this thing that like, there was a, an awareness that like WrestleMania wasn't what we wanted it to be.

And we know that it wasn't what you wanted it to be. I think the idea that John just turned baby face the night before, or two nights before, I guess, And we're all like, that was quick. That was strange. Is that for real? Is that, is it like, are you allowed to do that? And you'd hear people going like, well, you can't just do that. And then you get, and then, but there's one way to test it.

You get to MetLife Stadium and everybody cheers him. And it's like, you can just do that. Like, he literally just told the crowd. Like, my bad. Guess what, everyone. Yeah. I'm a baby face now. Sorry.

Kid from Belgium. That's my bad. Like, I'm, you know, I've changed my mind. Fine. I'm not going to ruin it. They're like, great. You know what I'm? Because it's the thing. That's what we wanted. Yeah.

It's really, okay, great. Perfect. All right. And then so to see that happen and to see that match and to see how good it was. And that was the other thing that when John Cena was working as a villain, his matches weren't that good. But it was by design. You know what I mean? He wasn't doing the things. At first. And I think that he kind of realized, wait a second, if I wrestle like this, like a heel,

people aren't going to boo me because they don't like the match they're just going to boo. They don't want to see this. Yeah, they don't want to see this. Right. So that's why the match with Randy Orton, I thought, was...

Started to get better. And punk was really good. Exactly. Yeah. And it was like, all right, I'll wrestle in an entertaining way, but still be a heel.

And so when it was like, SummerSlam hit, and it's Cody and John, and like, it's everything it was supposed to be. Yeah. And like, and there was not even any sort of like,

wonky, like, aha, but now I'm turning in this. And then it was just like, Nope, here are your guys. And ultimately it's like, that was your past the torch moment. That was John Cena going, nope, Cody, it's all yours. I'm not leaving just yet, but it's yours.

This is, this is you. And so for me, because of everything around it, because of the story, because of the match itself, I love that Sina Cody SummerSlam match. And then Brock coming out at the end, just blowing people's minds was fun too. Such a great match. And like so much better than the story that they told at WrestleMania. Yes. I want to give a huge shout out to Seat Geek for sponsoring this episode.

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All the moves, like, just, it was just, there was so many things in there that just made you go, yes, this is what I love about wrestling. And this is the power of, of, I don't know, branding, I guess. It wasn't dissimilar from what Randy Orton and Edge did at backlash during the pandemic. You mean the greatest match? And I remember going on a whole rant on my thing going, guys, we have to appreciate, we have to get past it, right? And go like, no, the greatest wrestling match ever, I believe was the, it's like, no, you have to take that not literally, but almost as a stipulation, almost as a, like, for me, John Cena versus AJ Stiles was a greatest wrestling match ever match. Because it becomes a love letter to wrestling, because that's what Randy Orton and Edge did, except if you had an average. that, like, if you had announced A.J. Stiles versus John Sina, and it will be the greatest

wrestling match ever, then all of a sudden we'd be like, I mean, it was really good, but... Well, the bar is set impossibly high. Impossiblely high. There's so many matches. And also, it's very subjective. At least A.J. Stiles and John Sina had a crowd to perform in front of them. That was helpful, too. And it was fantastic, dude. It was... And also, you're right. Like, I know you're like, are like a TNA junkie from back in the day. So, like, the idea that, like, AJ was in his TNA gear was do, like,

John was doing those tribute moves to WWE guys, but AJ started doing TNA tributes. It was like, yeah, this is, like, it's wrestling. It's beautiful. And that wonderful intro that John's seen a surprised AJ with. Like, the look on AJ's face was almost like when the best man is toasting the groom. It's like, okay. Yeah, he hits him with something like, ooh, I felt that.

I felt that. I'm getting goosebumps just talking about it. Wow. That's a great comparison because that's what it was. Yeah. It's like, who I didn't know you're going to do that. You're making me feel feelings over here. I loved it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the John Cena farewell tour. I don't think we'll ever see anything like it ever again. I don't either. And I think that it goes back to what you were saying about like build up and this and that. It's like that, I think almost at the end of last year, there were people who started fantasy booking like who's going to be the next person to get a year. and this person gets a year and that person gets a year.

It's like you can't do that. You can't. You know, and I don't, and I think he was the perfect guy to do it. And I think that he did it as well as maybe one could. I think it's very difficult to like plot a year out ahead

and go, here are the directions that we'll go in because, you know, everything changes all the time. Yeah. But the idea that like, and I think as time passes, you just appreciate it more and more.

I mean, the idea that we, got as much good stuff as we got out of that tour. It was incredible. And John's a perfect guy for it. Absolutely. It's hard to get wrestling fans to agree on anything universally. Yeah. But I think wrestling fans can all come together and say, WrestleMania 40, specifically the night two main event of WrestleMania 40 was like peak. And I think it's actually set up the next bunch of WrestleMania is kind of for failure because WrestleMania 40 was so good that everyone's like,

it needs to be as good as that. It's so funny. Like, when I'm doing the show on Sirius, and I'm starting to take the calls and stuff, and we're like, you know, whoa, you can do this, you can do that. And people will call up and go like, okay, here's the main event.

This guy's fighting this guy. And then this guy comes out. And then that guy comes out. And then this guy comes out. And I stop them. And like, I've made a rule on the show now. Don't fantasy book WrestleMania 40. Stop calling me and give me WrestleMania 40 finish.

You keep, and people don't even realize they're doing it, but I go, listen to yourself. It's the WrestleMania 40 finish. Yeah, I guess you're right. I guess that is a Resolution 40 finish. Yeah, yeah, but here's the thing. You could only do that movie once. That's right.

You can't just keep doing Avengers Endgame. And, you know, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I mean, the rebuild stage after that has been massive. Like, in terms of figuring out, like, okay, that was one of the great cinematic achievements ever. What's next? And that's a tough question.

Yeah. You know? And I feel like Raw and Smackdown, especially since 2026 began, they've just turned it up. Like the fact that when you tune in to weekly television, something like the WWE championship can change hands on Smackdown or can change hands again on a Smackdown or the intercontinental title can change hands. There was a point at the beginning of the year when three titles. changed hands in the course of a week.

Yeah. It's like, I don't know for a fact when that happened, but that was, it had to be a long time ago. Maybe attitude error. It's the last time that happened. Yeah. And then it was happening way too much where it wasn't special anymore. Yeah.

You know? Yeah. No, I couldn't agree more. And there are all these things like, it's like, you know, are we going to, and we can, like, really obsess over it and talk about. Are we going to talk about this week's punk and Roman thing or Cody and Randy or like, you know, just like a couple weeks ago when Randy's on the phone and we're like, who's he on the phone with?

And you can sit there and talk for hours about a two-minute Randy Orton's on the phone segment. I think that, yeah, I don't take any of that stuff for granted because it's so, it's so good. There's so much stuff in it. We did the same with the masked man. Like for months. Yeah. Who's the mass man? It looks like it could be Austin Theory.

Okay, that mass man was Austin Theory. There's another mass man. Now there's 30. But I also appreciate that it seemed pretty clear that the masked man was Grayson Waller. And then they did this angle where it's like, oh, well, there's plenty of different masked men. And Seth Rollins has this like group of masked men. It could be anybody. And I like that they kind of paid off that storyline in that way.

Or it's like you just never know. That's right. You never know who it's going to be. Like was Seth in, that was Seth at the Royal Rumble? I don't know. Maybe. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Oh, that was Seth over there. Could have been. Oh, no. You know what I mean? Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. Danhausen has been wildly entertaining. And I love that everybody's able to see the Danhausen

that me and you have known in love for years. Yeah, I mean, and I said it, it's so funny, too, because I think that people are getting Danhausen now. And it's really great that it took, all it took was one, segment where he opened his mouth. All it took was that first Monday Night Raw segment. And everybody's like, oh, okay, this is great. You know what I mean? Like it was, 24 hours of, this is sucks. What is this? And then it was like, oh, oh, that's great. And then everybody comes around on it. I think he should have popped out of the crate with no fanfare,

with no smoke, with no dancers. I think that they should have just opened the crate backstage at Elimination Chamber. And then he, like, puts a curse on somebody. and walks away. I mean, I don't know. It was interesting because I think the idea of the crate was that it's ridiculous to debut out of a crate. Well, it was a throwback to like WCW in the 90s. Of course.

Yeah. But I think it's true that wrestling fans like it when people debut out of boxes. It says having conversations with people. And they were like, you know what? I bet it's the rock in the box. And I go, you think the rock has been sitting in a crate for two weeks. It's the rock, the final boss,

who's on the board of directors decided the best thing he can do to show up at a W.W.E. shows to sit in a crate for two weeks. I mean, but can you imagine? I mean, I get, yeah, sure. Sure, but it's a crate. Like, it's silly. It's crazy. It's whimsical even.

And I think that, like, well, I think the beauty of Danhausen, and I had said this on my podcast, is that, like, he can't do anything incorrectly. Because the idea that Dan housing came out and everybody just kind of goes, what? You know what I mean? And he doesn't get that big response.

All that sets up for is two days later for Danhausen to be like, yeah, they love me. They were thunderous applause. And that's like Danhausen is delusional. That's who the character is. Like he takes himself very seriously. He has these delusions of grandeur. And so the idea that he didn't get abhorrious applause becomes part of the character who Dan has it is. It only took like a week for people to be saying, housing to everything. They're saying housing to everything.

They're finishing. He's out there throwing out t-shirts and they're finishing his catchphrase. He's, I will. You are? Yeah. I will not be surprised when he's the top merch seller for like March, then maybe not April with WrestleMania, but like for many months. Dude, wait till they come out with those masks.

Oh, the masks. I mean, you know, they got to sell. Cape. Do you know how well jars of teeth would do at WWE world? You're so right. I mean, I don't know who I got to talk to. But like, it's. If they just sold, and I don't know, like, make it so they don't come off.

Maybe they're a token hazard. But like, if they just sold jars of teeth at WWE World for like $25, I'm not leaving Vegas without a jar teeth. Make it an exclusive WWE world only thing. Put it in a WrestleMania jar. Ooh, do it at every show. Put a little WrestleMania logo on the jar or on the top of the jar. Now I'm collecting jars of teeth.

You know how WWE does like instead of American nightmare, it's like New York Nightmare, Nashville nightmare. They do that with like Brock, Brock Lesnar's like Suplex City. I remember when they did that, yeah. New York and Miami. I have the Ontario California Suplex City T-shirt. I was there too. Is that right?

That's so fun. Well, they could maybe start doing like New York Housen, Miami Houses, Los Angeles Housen. Or like New York cursed. Ooh. You know what I mean? Just put cursed under every season. So easy. Right? Vegas cursed.

Austin 316. Toronto 316. I mean, like, those sell in every city. Isn't that crazy that Danhausen is that guy? Yeah. Like, there's not many people that you can do that. But if you go to an arena already, you're like, I better get the local to the city Danhausen shirt.

He's got three shirts. Matt Cardona. He's happy for him, but it's also like, come on. He's got, I've got my own t-shirt designs here. He can't believe what's happening. And I think that Danhausen can keep doing this for a while. Yeah. Before even teasing what his first few.

feud is. Yeah, I mean, and I don't know. Like, we both know he can wrestle. Of course. He's a good wrestler. Yes. Great wrestler. Yeah.

He doesn't have to. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, he doesn't, I'm not sitting here. What, like, the idea that the other week, he went to curse Kofi and then Kofi just shoved Grayson Waller in front of him and now Grayson Waller's cursed. That's enough. That's hilarious.

That's great. It's so good. You know? And it, and it, you know. Yeah, he can have a rivalry with somebody or he can have a match with somebody, but also that character can be used to highlight other characters. Like if you wanted to set up that there was tension between Kofi and Grace and Waller, mix it in there with Danhausen.

Even if you, that first segment with Danhausen, and maybe I'm looking too much into it, but I don't think so. The first segment with Danhausen in The Judgment Day when like J.D. McDonough is like, I hate this guy. Yeah. And Dominic Mysterio is like, you know, you better leave before something bad. happens to you. And Finn Baller goes, oh, he's the new guy. Give him a chance. And in that moment, I'm like, Finn Baller's turning baby face. And Danhausen is that first vehicle where you get a hand

of like, oh, Finn Baller's kind of a good guy. You know what I mean? Like you could like little stuff like that that can come out through a character like Danhausen, the whole show is now better for it. It also instantly legitimized Danhausen. He curses Dominic Mysterio. And they did such a good job later in the night he loses the icy title. They did such a good job on commentary of not saying, oh, Dominic was cursed and Penton. That's why Penton won the title. It was like, no, Penton beat him, fair and square. But we are like, oh, yeah, but he got cursed.

We know. We know. There were a lot of rumors that Chris Jericho might have been in the box. I thought he was in the box at first. I was like, that's Jericho and that crate. Do you think Jericho's coming back to WWE at some point? I would love to see it. I think it should happen.

you know, I think, I think, you know, Jericho's just such a unique, well, he's a unique entity in the world of professional wrestling, right? The idea that he bets, he's one of those early guys that bet on himself, comes out of WCW, out of the Cruiserweight Division, and, like, makes a splash in WWE, but then kind of gets pushed, well, actually, we don't know. And has to, you know, prove himself, prove himself,

scratch and claw, and, like, become that guy. Goes away, reinvents himself. Goes away, reinvents himself. If you reinvent himself and that doesn't quite work, oh, let me tweak that. Let me turn into this guy then. And then it does work. And then goes away and goes like,

I can work in New Japan. You're like, come on, you're Chris Jericho, you're WWE guy. And he kills it in New Japan. He's awesome. And then it's like, AEW pops up. And he's like, yeah, I can be that first face of this company. And he does it.

I think, yeah, one last Jericho run in WWE. I think is something that I would love to see. And if you look at recent photos of him, it looks like he's in tremendous shape. You can even see when he's doing his podcast and he's sitting at his desk. His whole face is cut.

Like, meaning like, like, like, they're, like, he's trimmed down. Like, he's so, you could tell how lean he is. Yeah. Just based on this, like, draw structure and everything. I'm like, bro, he's ready to go. Looks like he's in the best shape

he's been in in a long time. Yeah, yeah. No, I, yeah, I think, and I also think it would be, refreshing. I think it's one of those things where like, when Hulk Hogan came back to WWE at, you know, before, like, no way out or whatever, before WrestleMania 18, and he brought the NWO with him, there was like this idea that, well, he got so hot as Hollywood Hogan, let's bring in Hollywood Hogan. But the reality is that once Hulk Hogan was back in

WWE, people were like, they forgot everything. Like, they forgot the whole, they've, 90, to 01 was like, I don't know anything about what happened then. I want red and yellow. I want Hulk Hogan's back in the WWE. I want Hulk Hogan back. And he goes on that. He's like the first guy that went on the nostalgia run effectively. And I think Jericho's a similar way.

I think Jericho pops up back in a WWE ring. And it's almost like, we've totally forgotten. Do you think he comes back to break the walls down? 100%. Wow. 1,000%. I think he's such a marketing genius. and would like getting the royalties of Fawsey playing

and arenas around the world? Don't disagree. That if he does come back to break the walls down, I think he'll be pushing really hard for it to be Judas. Right, because that's his song. Right. Yeah, no, no, I get it. And from a business perspective,

but I just, no, I think I, in my, when I visualize it, it's a thousand percent break the walls down. But even if you never saw any of Chris Jericho's matches outside of WWE, you're familiar with the song, Judas. And what and it became like when he first started doing it, how big it became and the crowd singing along and everything. Sure. But Judas coming do do do do like that would do something.

Maybe it's a into Judas, the countdown into Judas. I don't know. Maybe I'm just too much of a WWE fanboy, but I'm a thousand percent behind break the walls down, start to finish. And like, I get it. God bless Chris. I'm sure. And if I were him, I'd be fighting hard for Judas, too. I would want those royalties. But from a fan perspective, no, break the walls down.

So I just looked it up. Chris Jericho's last match was April 6th, 2025. The Ring of Honor World Title versus Mask. Bandito defeats Chris Jericho. So it's been almost exactly a year. Almost a year. Yeah. Since Chris Jericho wrestled.

Which is nuts. Yeah. You know. But he's taken time off in the past. Sure. This is nothing new. No. Not at all.

And I like the idea that like, we don't know now. I think everybody was like, oh, he's definitely coming back. And then we didn't come back at the Rumble. And then we didn't come out of Danhausen's crate. It was almost like, oh, maybe he's not coming. Like, I love that we're now in that space of, I don't know if he is or isn't. And then, like, everybody's, you know, the rumor mails buzzing about contract status and this and that. And who knows?

But, like, I find, I find. it difficult to believe. I don't want to believe that I won't see Chris Jericho back in the WWE ring. I think it's going to happen. It's just a matter of when is it going to happen? Yeah. And how's it going to happen? I mean, it would be an amazing raw after-Resslemia moment.

Especially if they kept it a tight-lipped secret. Yes, like he flies into like somewhere in California, drives in the back of a car. Drives through the desert. Yeah. In a back of a black SUV. Right. And then break the wall if down comes on. Oh, maybe. Maybe. Maybe. there's been so much talk about Cody Rhodes being homelander. Cody Rhodes turning heel.

Do you think there's any world, any situation where we could actually see Cody Rose turn heel? Sure, could we? Yeah. I think he'd be, I mean, Cody's really good at wrestling. I think he'd be great at being a heel if that's what he wanted to do. I agree. I just think it's so tough because he's the face of the WWE. He's the face of the company.

He's taking that role that John Sina had for. for so long. He's the guy who shows up early, stays late, signs all the autographs, takes the pictures with the kids, does the make-a-wish stuff. I think it's tough to make that guy a bad guy. And I also have what I think is the benefit of watching a lot of WWE with my kids. So I see the way they look at Cody. You know what I mean? I see that it's like, oh, yeah, that's that. I remember when I was a little kid. I remember the little kids that looked at Sina that way, where it's like, you know, they're not on wrestling Twitter. They're just watching watching the show and like they hate Randy Orton right now.

They can't believe what Randy Orton did. They don't, why would, why would Randy Orton do that? It sucks. Randy Orton sucks. Like, it's like, it's that kind of thing. So could Cody do it? Yes. I've never been much of a Cody should turn heel guy.

I'm not an advocate for it. You know, I think that, like, having great baby faces and real baby faces is rarer and more difficult than people realize. And I think, like, Cody is incredible at what he does. And the minute, like, you can meme it all you want. The minute WrestleMania rolls around and Cody gets beaten bloody, you're rooting for, Cody's the baby face, you know? And, and I think he's, was he, your interview, because I started.

how you did like a few interviews there at the nightmare factory recently. Yeah. Was it your interview where he was talking about being polarizing now? Yeah. Okay, that was a great quote. That was a great quote. I've been talking about that. He said something really interesting there where he said that when they do the arrival

shots. Yeah. He said that sometimes Bobby Rood will come up to him and say, that's an away game today. I like when he says it like that. I thought that was so interesting. Like Cody Rhodes pops up on the Titan Tron and the vast majority of the people in the building are booing him. Right.

Okay. That's interesting. and he's aware of it. Yeah, for sure. And that's not a surprise. Like, Cody seems to be aware of everything, which is good. That's what you should be.

Yeah. But I think when Cody was talking about being polarizing and how it was interesting, and I hadn't been there before, and I'm going, huh, I wonder if Cody being such a student of the game is aware that in the modern era, being polarizing is what being the top guy is.

like that's how the Cody was unique because he wasn't polarizing because everybody was cheering him but to be the top top guy and to hold that position whether you're you know OG big dog Roman Rains whether you're John Sina like that position in the modern era has become a position where you're and for many years either you're an anti-hero or if you want to do it long term you're polarizing and I wonder to an extent if Cody looks at this and goes, oh, if I'm polarizing, maybe it means I've leveled up. You know what I mean? Maybe it means that it's like, oh, I'm starting to get that rare air.

And in order to be a good guy in that rare air in the modern age, you're polarizing. I think what Cody is doing right now is so good. Promos to matches to storytelling in promos and matches. I think it's like he has leveled up so much. since returning at WrestleMania 38. Oh my God, yeah. If you just look at the whole thing in the last four years, it's unbelievable.

It's insane. This WrestleMania marks four years since he returned. That's right. Which is crazy because it feels like he never left at this point. 1,000%. He feels like a WWE superstar. Like that whole thing of, you know, launching another company.

Like that was, oh yeah, I guess he did that. You know what I mean? When you go back and watch episodes of TV and he comes out to his music and the audience hasn't started saying, whoa, you're like, who even is this person?

You know? And you can see it too. You can see it in the way he carries himself. You can see that he's a different person now. And even going from 38 to now. But I also think that Cody

does such this tremendous job of like realizing that there are a lot of fans that go in with these ideas and go, oh, he's just going to do the same old stuff or this or that, whatever they're going to say about Cody.

And he has a way of making him them react. He has this way of like, okay, it's time to turn up the emotion right here. And it's like, oh, yeah. Or like, okay, it's time to do this over there. Even that like, that promo that he had with John Cena leading into the WrestleMania match on the Smackdown before WrestleMania last year, where like the way people remember it, it's like, oh, yeah, Cody got booed at Smackdown. And it's like, yeah, Cody got booed. But then when he started talking, he turned them. he got booed when he picked up the microphone

and then once he started cutting his promo he got them to start cheering him and nobody can do that. That's insane. Like that's really high level, skillful work. And I think we got to a point with John Cena where his matches during his prime

were pretty predictable. Like five moves of Doom was a real thing and even John Cena will tell you that. The hits. Playing the hits. With Cody Rhodes, his matches, are always a little different. Like when you look at something like

his Hell on a Cell match with Seth Rollins, that is a vastly different match than his SummerSlam match against John Sina last year. We had both pecks with the John Sina match. But yes, no, no, no. Two working arms. Yeah. Yeah.

No, but yeah, that's 100% right. That's 100% right. And even like the non-stip matches, they don't feel cookie cutter at all. Like there are different stories for different points. Even when he's wrestling a match, like you know when he's advertised for Smackdown,

but he's not on the card? And then he comes out and wrestles a dark match because Cody Rhodes was advertised to be here. Even those matches deliver. Yeah. Yeah. I've been at some of those. I saw, yeah, the holiday tour,

we went to the Bridgeport, Connecticut show. And it was actually the weekend before, like five or six days before the three stages of Hellman. but it was a cage match with Drew. I didn't 100% delivered. It was so great. And I love that he's like the guy advocating to bring back live events, knowing that if they were, he's the guy that would have to be on the live events.

And he's still advocating to bring him back. That's amazing. What are three matches you'd show to someone who is not a wrestling fan to win them over? Huh. See, that's interesting. Because, like, I have, there's a girl who, who works for me now named Danielle, that I've been,

she knew nothing of wrestling. And so on this road to WrestleMania, whenever there's something really good, I just have her watch the segment cold and then come in and ask me questions about the segment. And then there's this whole lesson. Oh, that's so fun. That goes around it.

And it's so fun. And everybody who's like listening loves it and everything because you get to like reflect and see the enthusiasm and everything. But in terms of like matches where it's like, this is what wrestling is, I think, uh,

I think Helen S.L. is important, mankind and Undertaker, because that's, it's not necessarily like, this is what wrestling is or this is what it should be. But it is like, hey, it's not fake. It is certainly the answer to the question, don't you know wrestling's fake? And it's like, actually. Let me show you something. Let me show you something. It's like, did they plan on the Undertaker winning? Yeah.

But like, how do you do this? How do you do that? I'll tell you how you do it, you just do it. You know what I mean? And so I think that that's a great example of that. But then you go, but that's not what it's all like, because they'll go like, I can't. Especially when you tell someone like,

oh, no, they were going to actually stretcher him off. Like, that was the end of the match. Yes. And nobody knew what was going to happen. The cell is raising with Undertaker standing on top. He doesn't know what's going on. And then Mick Foley going, uh-uh. No.

Nope. Nope. I'm going to try to figure this out. And it got so much worse. It got so much worse after that. Have you seen him live? Not for a while, but yes. It's so good.

Yes. And he has a bit where he talks about like where he got thrown off to sell and he's like, and that was the worst thing that would happen to me that night. And then pauses because the audience laughs. Yeah. Five minutes later. So it definitely be, it would definitely be that for that reason. It would be John C.

University of Punk Money in the Bank 2011. Oh, yes. Because there's just so much, I don't even think it, you could really quickly, I mean, you don't even have to tell the story. The commentators will tell you. This could be CM Punk's last night, blah, blah, blah, and all the stuff that happens and the drama behind it and everything. Like, you almost still, what's it? I mean, 15 years later, you watch that match now and you go, I've got to see what happens next.

That's my favorite John Cena match. That's my favorite CM Punk match. Wow. And for some people, for, for, I don't know, I mean, I don't even think it's CM Punk's favorite John Cena and CM Punk match. Because they had the raw match, you know, leading to the WrestleMania where it was John Cena versus the Rock that is a great match too. But you're right. In terms of, it's mine too. But in terms, I don't know if it's my favorite John Cena match.

Definitely my favorite CN Punk match. Might be my favorite John Cena match. So that would be the second one for sure, just because the drama and the story and everything. And then third, probably the bloodline rules, WrestleMania 40 main event. Probably WrestleMania 40 main event because it's, it's, Avengers End game. Avengers Endgame because it's like, it's so fun. The fact that they played the music is so ridiculously fun for everybody coming out. It's a history lesson.

It is, I believe, a changing of the guard, not between Roman and Cody, but between eras, where it's all these legends coming out to kind of go like, okay, this is it. And all these other newer guys coming out. You know, I just, and also, you know, I think the bloodline story might be the greatest story you ever told him professional wrestling. So it's certainly top three, top five. Yeah. So like, so yeah, that's probably for the amount that's there and even Cody's story. You know what I mean? I think, I think those are, those would be my three. Helen to sell Mankind Undertaker, Money in the Bank, 2011, Punk and Sina, and Cody and Roman from WrestleMania 40.

I'll give you my three. Please. It's funny that we have not overlapped at all on these. That's great. Rock Hogan. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a great one. Great one. Because you can show that to someone who's never watched a second of wrestling. And the crowd tells the whole story there. You don't have to say a word. You don't have to explain the context.

You don't, yep, I'm with that. And then when you do explain to someone, well, actually, that guy's supposed to be the bad guy. Right. And that guy's supposed to be the good guy. And then that's another thing about, you know, wrestling is fake where you're like, see where those two are looking at the crowd and figuring out, like, how the, what sound the crowd is making, that's real life. that's those two realizing

this match is going to be completely different than the one we thought we were going to have. There's a moment early in the match when Hogan pushes Rock down and the crowd like hops louder than I've ever heard and I was there. And Hogan looks around with genuine excitement on his face. At this point, he hasn't been cheered in years.

Right. And he's like, oh, that's it. That's for me. Yeah. And it's, yeah, because not only has been cheered for years because he was Hollywood, but he wasn't cheered like that for years before he was Hollywood.

You're right. There's probably 91, 92 when he was cheered like that last. And he's looking around 10 years later, 11 years late, whatever it is, going, let's go. But the look on his face is genuine surprise and excitement and like, oh, baby, like,

buckle up. We're back. We are so back. Number two. HBK versus Undertaker, WrestleMania. I think you can go with either of them, but I'll go with 25.

Okay. I think it's about as close to perfect as you can get for a wrestling match. I like that one. I think 26 has the benefit of the story and Sean retiring and everything, but 25 really is Undertaker and Sean with a chip on their shoulder going,

like, let's make them embarrassed that they didn't headline the show with this. Like, such a good match. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. That's a good one. And then my third one, just because you know I love TNA so much.

You do love TN. You're going to show a TNA match? I'm going to show a TNA match. Just to show people what athleticism can look like in a wrestling ring. How many sides that ring have? It has six sides. As it should, don't you think?

Well, I think if you ask A.J. Stiles. I'm not asking A.J. Stiles. I'm asking Chris Van Bly. I think TNA should have six sides. Yes. Yes. Yes. I think when they rebranded to TNA,

there was a missed opportunity to bring back to bring back the same. six sides. I couldn't agree more. The six-sided ring. Yeah. I understand why they didn't. I understand that that was an era that existed within that era, and they have moved on from that. Bring it back.

But I agree. Running back. I'm taking it to Unbreakable 2005. Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, A.J. Stiles. You're getting people involved in the work rate style. What a match. It's a great match.

There were so many things when I watched that match for the first time where I was like, what did they just do? Oh my goodness. Yeah. And I was familiar with Samoa Joe at that point in time, but he was doing things in that match where I'm like, someone of his size should not be that athletic, but he is. How is it humanly possible?

Oh, my gosh. No, I'm with that. And I just feel like that era of TNA and the X Division specifically leveled everything up across the board. Yes, 100%. And I mean, if you look at, you know, I think there was like NXT in that black and gold era, the very beginning was like, let's scoop up these Ring of Honor guys.

Like what they're doing in Ring of Honor. Let's get Tyler Black. Let's get, you know, Kevin Steen. Let's get El Generico. And then that next generation was, his TNA stuff is unreal. Unreal. Let's get these guys from TNA.

Let's get Joe. Let's get A.J. Let's get. And I know AJ, like I know that, but the TNA guys, TNA guys. You know, and I think that, yeah, that you're right on. I know the TNA or that AJ South spent more of his career in WWE than TNA, which is a crazy fact to think about. But I still think of him as a TNA guy.

When I think of TNA, AJ Styles is the first name that pops into my head. Okay, when you think of TNA, you think of AJ. Stiles, but when you think of A.J. Styles, do you think of TN.A. I personally do. You love TNA. I just love it.

You love TNA so much. And I also think that, like, when you think of that prime era of TNA, like 05 to 09-ish, there were some, pretty weak things going on in WWE. Like, yes. And I think that that's why TNA was able to thrive

and grow. And they were going pretty outside the box too. They weren't for sure really, TNA didn't really start to wawtwant until they like became WVE light. When they were doing their own thing, it was like, oh, this is a, and it's, and it was like, it was the perfect scenario for a great

alternative. It never really competed in a, in a scary way. For three weeks, they went head-to-head on Raw, head-to-head on Monday. Wasn't great. Although they were doing big numbers compared to 20-26 numbers, but that's a whole other conversation

because people don't watch television in the same way at all. Right, right. They're watching clips. As soon as Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff took over and as soon as they got rid of the six sides, there was a drastic downturn in TNA. Yes, I would agree with that.

I would. Let me hit you with a few more here. Who is the biggest what if in wrestling history? Hmm. What it? Meaning that like this could have happened, but it didn't, but if it had,

it would have changed everything. Yes. If this storyline was different or if this person didn't get injured or this thing in their personal life, whatever it happened to be. I think, yeah,

my favorite what if to think about is every now and then it pops up on the internet. So I'm assuming it's true because it was on the internet. So there's like this letter that the ultimate warrior got to come back to the WWE in like 98 or something like that. Or 96 or so.

It was like a five year deal for him to come back that puts the ultimate warrior in the WWE during the attitude era. And I think about that more often than I think anybody probably should. But like, what if the ultimate warrior had been brought back at the same time that we were seeing Austin and Rock and Foley and all these attitude era stars come up because nothing was going to stop them. But is there a world where like, it's a two-pronging thing, but I also feel that way about those photos that popped up not that long ago of like what Papashango could have looked like in the attitude era, had he not been the guy. Godfather, like those gimmicks, but specifically like the ultimate warrior, finding a way to, I don't know if he would be darker, I don't know if he would be more reality-based. I don't know how the warrior would have existed in the attitude era, but it's really fun

to think about it because there are a million ways it could have got. Yeah, because we think of him in that golden era. Cartoon character, come to life. Yes. What would it be like if it was a little bit more reality-based? And you'd have to be. Like, if the ultimate warrior is going to stand face to face with Stone Cold, Steve Austin. Yeah.

Stone Cold's not having conversations with the cartoon characters. And you're going to look like a fool. If you try to be a cartoon character face to face with Stone Cold. You know what I mean? If you're talking about... No, you've Stone Cold. All it would take is one look from Stone Cold. I'm sorry.

What did you just say? You know what I mean? And it would just destroy the whole character. So like... Yeah. So what is? does that look like? And his warrior going to sell a stunner?

Mm. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like, what would that look like? And I feel like... He didn't sell that pedigree. No, he did not. Not even a little bit.

Yeah. Yeah. So we talk about what ifs. I think a lot about Mr. Kennedy. Because he had the rocket strapped on him. He had one money in the bank. Yeah. Then he has this injury that gets misdiagnosed as a torn tricep.

Turns out it's not a torn tricep. they don't find that out till it's too late. Money in the bank briefcase is taken off of him. It's given to Edge. Edge then goes on and becomes world champion. I would have to think all of that happens to Ken Kennedy. And does, but when it happened to Edge, it turned his whole career around,

or not around, but it elevated Edge so much that it became who he was. You associated him with that briefcase. He's the ultimate opportunist. So does. Does Mr. Kennedy have the, I mean, obviously, be very different if it was Mr. Kennedy. Does he have that same thing? Like, would it bring out the same thing in Mr. Kennedy?

Maybe, I mean, I think that people forget for that moment, how big Mr. Kennedy was and how that entrance was everywhere. It was like a thing. Yes. I think that's a great what if. And I just wonder, I know he was, and he's said this to me on the show, he rubbed some people the wrong way and, like, he was a, different person than he is now.

But, like, he was on that path. Yeah. To be a world champion, then maybe a WWE champion, then where does it go from there? Yeah. And I think he, yeah, I think he could have been. And it really is interesting that it just didn't happen.

Here's a fun one. What's the worst name for a WWE PLE ever? Well, I think there's an obvious one. There is an obvious one. You know, I mean, do we state the obvious or move past? I think we both agree. Great Balls. of fire. Great balls of fire. I mean, that's tough. And what really sucks is, it's a really good pay-per-view.

The show, it's really actually pretty good. I agree. And it sucks because nobody will look past the name. No, they won't. No, they won't. I might have done the kickoff show for Great Balls of Fire, which is actually a feather I'll put in my cap, because that means I got to sell Great Balls of Fire. Why was it called Great Balls of Fire? I'm guessing because the Jerry Lee Lewis song. I don't know. Just because they wanted to use that song? I guess. I don't know. There were no, there was no, there was no inferno match. There was no nothing. There were no great balls of fire. No, no. I mean, it wasn't even, the name wasn't even great. You know, I, no, no, great balls of fire is easily the worst. I don't think there's any getting around it. And it didn't, the show was amazing.

Well, it was, the show so, was so much better than the name that I feel like it may have even helped the show, but you're right. Nobody remembers the show. Unfortunately for some ojo. but like but also if we're getting past that it always really bothered me that Vader wasn't even on in your house it's time

that's an excellent point thank you that like in your house it's time I remember even as a kid going like for what what is it it's time for what great question in your house

yeah I know it's time for in your house what do you mean like in your house good friends better enemies was Sean and Diesel because they were good friends but now they're enemies like in your house mind games was Sean and Mankind

because Mankind played mind games and then it was like in your house it's time and it was like Brett and Sid or something like that and I'm like yeah yeah and I'm like

what are we doing guys we could like where's Vader that's another what if if Vader had panned out the way he should have that's a good one you know what I mean

I'm a big Vader fan I love big men so like Vader's awesome tables ladders chairs, and stairs. What have we added stairs? Not a great name? No, that's tough.

Fatal 4-way, when only a hand, like I think only three matches on there were actual fatal 4-way matches. But also, like, a fatal-for-way match is not that much of an attraction. Like, there's fatal-for-way matches all the time. You know what I mean? Like, there might also be one on Smackdown

as well as Fatal 4-Way. Yeah, no, I'm with you. Fatal 4-Way, not great. The Bash. great American bash. Right. And it's got history. Yes.

I feel like the bash, they were like, no, let's make it young and contemporary. You're like, what bash? No. Stomping grounds.

Not so good. No, it wasn't the logo a boot? It was a boot. Because that's what you stop with. Very literal. Oh, you know what?

On that note, you know, what was a great roadblock end of the line? Not the best. I'm not 100% sure. No. Not 100% sure what that means. Also, it's, like, repetitive.

Like, I know it's the end of the line. That's why the road is blocked. Sounds like the roadblock end of the line sounds like the fourth movie in a horror sequel. Right, where you know they're doing it. Like, they say this is the end of the line. This is the last roadblock movie, but you know we're getting the number five.

Yeah, number five's like, roadblock. The road continues. Yeah, roadblock. The next line. You're like, okay. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Roblo get in the line, not great.

What's the most underrated theme song of all time? There's so many. Because when you think of theme songs, you think of the obvious ones, Undertaker, Triple H, Stone Cold, but what's one that you think doesn't get enough love? I'll tell you one that doesn't get nearly enough love, and it was brought to my attention by Not Sam's own hot dog, Billy Kidman's ruthless aggression era.

you can run if you won't, but you can't. Like that, like Billy Kidman's music was so good. And like to this day, you could probably, you know, work out to it and feel like you're going to just like rip down a brick wall. That's a fantastic deep cut that nobody brings up. And even if you played it right now, you're like, I'll tell you one person whose theme that isn't, Billy Kidman's. Like, actually, it is indeed Billy Kidman's theme.

Yeah, probably Kidman. I see your Billy and I raise you a Billy gun. any of Billy Gunn's theme songs. I'm the one. I love that song. Oh my God. I love that song. The one.

Asman is brilliant. Asman is just a great song. Just a great song. Because you go like this. What makes you an ass man? What is it that you like to do with these asses? He loves to do everything with him. And he tells you exactly.

I love to love him. Right. I love to kick him. Okay. I love to kiss him. Yep. Which is like you do? Okay.

You're an ass kisser? I love to love them. Yeah. He's a lover of every kind. He does all of them. The best surprises always sneak up from behind. Why? Wow, I'm an ass man.

Oh, okay. That makes sense when you phrased it that way. When I interviewed Jim Johnston, he said, what if it was I'm an ass, comma, man? And I said, oh, that's a very interesting take, Jim, the guy who wrote the song. That is an interesting take. And it would be, like, only an ass would, like, legitimately sing that song and think I'm a cool dude. And he was like, well, what if you're, I'm an ass man? And I was like, oh, wow, I never thought about it like that.

I don't know. I look at those lit prints and there's no comma in there. I love his, I love his Billy, the one Billy Gun theme song. You love that. Oh, my gosh. So funny. And I love that people are now putting that song on the intro for 90s sitcoms. Although they are.

Right. So it'll be like full house or like Family Matters. That's great. I've got it all. Because just the way it starts with a saxophone, Dern. Right. Like, I feel like some of them are like,

how ridiculous can we make these songs? And it's like, yeah, that's what we're going with. Oh, it's so good. Did you know on the badass Billy Gunn action figures, they had to put Mr. B.A on the back of his trunk? It's at Mr. B. A. And it's like, it's something. That's his first name.

Mr. Badass. Maybe Mr. Gunn. Right. Or Mr. B.G. Maybe. But his first name is badass. Yeah. You know what I mean?

It'd be like if I was Mr. SR and it's like, no. Me and my friends do this thing where we will say names like that, but we'll use synonyms. So I told Billy this and he thought it was so dumb

because it is. Badass Billy Gunn now becomes evil anus William Firearm. That's great. I like the firearm thing. That's fun. And then I did one the other day.

And you told that to Billy Gun. Yeah. And he goes, I wouldn't have done it. That's pretty dumb. Yeah. It is tough. I did one the other day

with the American nightmare, Cody Rhodes. He was the patriotic bad dream, Cody Rhodes. I like that. I like that. I don't think Rakesh's bad man entrance theme gets enough love. Is he a song?

I'm a bad man. Mick a bad man. Oh, so good. Dilo Brown's theme song. You're looking at the real deal now? Oh, man. That actually is a good song. That's a great song.

You're looking at the radio now. Get you saw a ass out on the street. That's right. Bring it on. Yeah, yeah, that's a great song. DeLo's song is great. But Billy Gun, the one Billy Gunn for me. Billy Kidman.

So good. Yeah. They can be a tag team and play one of the music on the way in, one of the music on the way out. All right, I got one more for you. Okay. Who wins a world title first? Okay. Ron Breaker, Obafemi, or Logan Paul.

If it's me, I've been on the record, Logan Paul. I mean, I think Logan Paul going after the world title should have to be. been this year. I think it happens in 2026. I think like that's where you start going immediately after WrestleMania. Like I don't know, man. To me, like,

Logan Paul, the fact that he can sell the pay-per-views that he sold with like Floyd Mayweather, like this is, it's just such a different beast. The idea that a celebrity wrestler has become a full-time wrestler and has like, he's the one guy.

Every celebrity comes in and goes, ah, I think I got bit by the bug. and Logan Paul is the only one that's like, no, no, I'm going to a wrestler now. I'm going to be a wrestlerer. I'm going to be on TV every week. I'm going to be in this faction. I'm going to, you know, fight for a tag team title. He's very clearly not a part-timer.

You know, he's on a show every single week. He's on every pay-per-view. Like, yeah, no, I think that they have something there, and I think that, like, Logan has been, and as much as wrestling, the fact that wrestling fans don't want him to be champion, they so badly do not want him to be world champion. He's one of the main reasons why he should be the world champion.

You know what I mean? Like I just, I just really, like, I don't, I would love him to be terrible. I'd be great. If Logan Paul showed up to our world and was horrible at it. Unfortunately, that's just not reality. He's really good at it. He is objectively a great professional wrestler. Yes.

And you could before go, yeah, because he only has to wrestle a handful of times and he gets special training and this and that. and it's like, well, I mean, excuses are running out. If you don't like him as a person, if you don't like him before wrestling, that's another conversation. I'm talking about within the confines of being a WWE superstar, the promos, the matches, he is objectively amazing at what he does. Yeah, and I think he can, he can promote main event level matches, and I think people will

buy tickets to see him. I'm going to say, just to be different here, I'm going to say, Bronbreaker. I'm interested to see when he comes back. I still feel like he's going to be ready to go for Seth Rollins versus Bronbreaker at WrestleMania. I just have a, just have a feeling in my gut. I would love that. That they're going to make this work. And then where does it go from there? Yeah. Is it Bronbreaker CM Punk? If he's still the world champion, is it Bronbreaker Roman Reins? I think Roman Reins wins that match. I would love that. I love CM Punk, but that's my tribal chief. But that's the other interesting thing, right? is that, is that, yeah, we could say, like, Logan Paul should be champion and Ova Femmy and,

and, and, and, and Bronbreaker. And it's like, what's the top of the card right now? Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Roman Raines, CM Punk. Yeah. You tell me. You tell me who's dropping the title. Yeah. You know what I mean?

You're like, it's a very unique time in the sense that they're, we see what's there next. But, like, the people on top now are showing no, like we were saying earlier, they're just showing no signs of stopping. And those are just the people that are in the Russell, Mania main events. Right. That's your show top four at the moment. Yeah, there's also Drew McIntyre and Gunther.

And Seth Rollins could be in there. Jacob Fatu could be in there. Yeah, you were not, yeah. And I think because Rollins has been out with the injury, we're forgetting that like, Brocklesser at any point in time. Brock's still here. Part of that conversation. 100%.

Gunther. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's loaded. It's loaded. Just like this episode. You think it was a loaded episode?

Loaded. That's great. You think it lived up to expectations? Except for the interstellar bit. But other than that. You've probably cut out the beginning. Skip right to the wrestling stuff. Guy doesn't know movies.

Sam Roberts, what are three things that you're grateful for? Three things that I'm grateful for are professional wrestling, my family's health, and that there are the Nolan movies other than Interstellar, so he doesn't have to just hang his head on that one. My friend did an interview with Matthew McCona. I had a junket for another film. recently.

Same in the best of Matthew McConae movie. Go on. What a performance. But was specifically told, like, no interstellar questions. Really? Yeah. That's so,

people are obsessed with interstellar like that. I don't know what the reasoning is behind it. I'm going to speculate wildly that maybe it's just he's over it. He's answered enough questions about it. Like, he said all he needs to say about it. People love interstellar like that, huh? Oh, yeah. They love that movie.

Yes. I don't like movies in space that much. Well, it's not all in space. It's a lot of space. You know? I was saying this the other day. I don't like movies in space that much. And I really don't like movies in sand. So, you know, take that for what it's worth when you're asking my opinions on these things. But man, thank you for making this happen. Thank you.

No. Congrats on everything. Thank you for inviting me to the Insight Studio. Of course, with the red mics. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how you have the time to do all of the things you're doing, but somehow you've found the time to do them all. One of your hours in these days, right? use them. Three children, five jobs, whatever you have. We got to feed the children.

It's true. You know, that's why I got the five jobs because the three children. One kind, it's a cycle. But people can watch this one on my channel. They can watch the one that we did on your channel. Oh yeah. Hell yeah. You're on Not Sam Wrestling.

Great conversation. I mean, it's just all great conversation. Maybe we do a collaboration. Let's collab them. The YouTube collaboration. Should we put them out on the same day? You want to? I don't know. You know YouTube

Al was better than me. We can put it on it, whatever you think. I don't know. We'll figure it out. I'll take your word for it. But yes, you'll be able to find both. And we will. I'll collab with this and you can collab with mine. I'll do that 100%. Hit a power bomb on that subscribe button if you haven't already. Whichever channel you're watching on. That's right. That's the best part. Both of them. Thanks again. Thank you.

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. they've had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock?

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

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