AskCVV #66 - Penta's Debut, Best 'Big Man' In Wrestling, Is This The Most Star-Studded Royal Rumble Ever?
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January 17, 2025
TLDR: Chris Van Vliet answers questions about WWE, match stipulations, and more on AskCVV #66. Topics include Penta's debut, potential Royal Rumble size, revisiting a past stipulation, Chad Gable resembling Kurt Angle, the best big man of all time, and more.

Welcome to another exciting episode of AskCVV, where wrestling enthusiast Chris Van Vliet dives into the latest in the wrestling world! Episode 66 highlights include Penta's WWE debut, speculation on the upcoming Royal Rumble, a nostalgic look back at wrestling history, and the evolution of wrestling promotion. Here’s a concise breakdown of the key discussions and insights from the episode.
Key Highlights
Penta's WWE Debut
- Strong Performance: Penta's debut on WWE Raw was met with great enthusiasm. Chris praised his entrance as one of the best in recent memory, noting the emotional impact of his promo.
- He described Penta as capturing the essence of wrestling with his intensity and passion.
- Even critics who were unaware of Penta's background were drawn in by his charisma.
- Impressive Match: Facing off against Chad Gable, the match showcased Penta's unique style and wrestling skill, with Gable selling his moves perfectly, particularly the destroyer.
- Future Expectations: Chris anticipates Penta will engage in high-profile feuds in WWE, potentially leading to major dream matches.
The Royal Rumble: A Star-Studded Event
- Historical Significance: Chris proposed this year's Royal Rumble may be the most star-studded since 2017, with big names including John Cena, CM Punk, and Roman Reigns confirmed.
- Potential Surprises: The element of surprise in the Rumble is always thrilling, and the audience is eagerly awaiting possible escalating storylines and unexpected entries.
- Competitive Line-Up: With participants like Randy Orton and AJ Styles hinted to return, Chris highlighted the strength and depth of the current roster.
Favorite Big Men in Wrestling
- Tributes to Wrestling Legends: Chris expressed admiration for legendary big men like Bam Bam Bigelow, Vader, and Mike Awesome for their athleticism and influence on younger generations in wrestling.
- He noted how their unique skills paved the way for larger wrestlers today.
- Current Big Men: Comparisons were drawn to other big names like Chad Gable, who reflects the classic wrestling style reminiscent of Kurt Angle, emphasizing Gable’s potential for future success.
Insights on WWE Content Distribution
- Netflix Discussions: Following the success of Monday Night Raw on Netflix, Chris explored the potential for other WWE shows like SmackDown and NXT to join the platform.
- He highlighted the viability of collaborating with popular streaming services, which could provide wrestling a broader viewing audience.
Behind the Scenes with Chris Van Vliet
- Interview Process: Chris provided listeners a peek behind the curtain of his interview process, detailing how he approaches guest interactions, from pickups to setting up the stage.
- Sharing anecdotes of renowned wrestlers, he emphasized the personal connections built through these encounters and the surprises that come along.
Conclusion
The episode wraps up with valuable insights and reflections on the wrestling industry, encouraging an open-minded approach to varying promotions and styles in wrestling. Chris reiterates the joy of wrestling fandom, urging listeners to embrace the diversity of content and share their passion.
Takeaways
- Penta's impactful WWE debut sets the stage for exciting matchups.
- The Royal Rumble promises to be historically significant with a strong roster.
- Celebrating wrestling legends showcases how past performances shape current talent.
- Embracing streaming platforms opens new avenues for wrestling visibility.
As we gear up for more wrestling events, this episode emphasizes the ever-evolving landscape of professional wrestling and the excitement it brings to fans old and new.
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Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Blee!
How are you my friends? Welcome back to another one here on Inside It's Me. It's me, it's CBV. Hope it's been a great week for you. Thank you for being with us on this one. And thank you for making Inside the number one wrestling podcast on the planet and the number three sports podcast.
on Spotify. Yeah, all sports podcasts. So I appreciate you. Thank you for being a real one and listening to an Ask CVV episode. I'm sure I don't need to ask this. I'm sure you're already following the show, but if not, slap an ankle lock on that follow button on Spotify, Apple or wherever it is that you're listening. We've got some, man, you know that we've got some big episodes coming up. I mean, just look at who we've kicked off 2025 with.
We're on a run right now. So slap an ankle lock on that follow button so you don't miss out on anything that we have coming up. Speaking of stuff that's coming up. Oh man, I'm so excited about this. Tickets are now on sale for the live episode of Insight in Toronto. I'm coming home, baby. It's the day before elimination chamber. That's Friday, February 28th in Toronto. We've now got
tickets on sale for three different live shows in three different cities. Indianapolis, the day before the Royal Rumble, Toronto, the day before elimination chamber, Las Vegas, the Thursday before WrestleMania.
Oh man, we're and we're just getting started here. So I'd love to see you in one of those cities or maybe even all three of those cities. Tickets are on sale now at CVVtix.com, CVVtix.com. There's also the option there for the special VIP tickets, which is it's like one of these. We're going to do a special VIP ask CVV before the show starts. So before the interview with the guest,
All of you guys, all the real, real ones are going to come in that bought the VIP tickets and we're going to do an ask CVV live answering all your questions live. Then we do the episode and then the VIPs also get the special meet and greet with me afterwards. I think those are sold out in Indianapolis. I believe the VIP tickets are sold out in Indies. So if you're looking to be there in Toronto or Las Vegas,
I would jump on those tickets before those also sell out as well, because it seems like they're going to sell out, but CV V T I X dot com. Welcome, my friends, to ask CV V number 66, the super Mario Mario Lemieu edition, the friend Alexander Arnold edition, the assay Alpwig edition,
and the Route 66 edition. And yes, I am well aware. Thank you for all the comments and all the messages. I realized that last week I for some reason said it was asked to be the number 50 50.
I don't know how I conflated 65 with 50, but thank you to everyone who pointed out my error. They happen. They happen more frequently than I'd like to admit, especially when we're recording these all in one take. Like seriously, I just, I hit the record button and then me and you just hang out for an hour. So sometimes there's some slip ups like that one. So thank you to everyone who caught that.
Also, I think maybe even more importantly, thank you to everyone else who caught it and didn't care to say anything. You just brushed right by it. You're like, I know what he meant. I saw it in the title of the episode. It said 65. I don't know why he said 50, but I get it. Kyle Sweats pointed this out on Spotify. CBV, I might have to stop listening. If you don't make an amendment to your greatest Ontario artist list, how did you forget Rush? Shame.
Well, it wasn't a greatest Ontario artist list. When my wife was on, when Rachel was on, and someone asked her, who do you like better? John Bon Jovi or Bruce Springsteen, because she's from New Jersey. They're both from New Jersey. Two legendary iconic artists, who do you like better? And then I just went off on this rant about, not your rant. I just started talking about all the great artists from Ontario, because that's what we do.
That's what people do. If you're from a certain area, you like to go, oh yeah, you know who's from there? Oh yeah, you know who's from that country or that town or that state? So just off the top of my head, I listed off, I don't know, half a dozen artists from Ontario. It was not a greatest list. I've also forgot to mention like Drake. I forgot to mention Brian Adams. I forgot to mention Blue Rodeo. So there's lots of them there. And of course, yes, Rush from Ontario.
I am a proud Ontarian. I'm a proud Canadian. So there's the amendment, Kyle. And now I can't believe you forgot Silverstein, and I can't believe you forgot Billy Talent. And yes, there's a lot of tons of artists from Ontario. These are never exhaustive lists.
unless it's a Mount Rushmore. And then in that case, whenever you do a Mount Rushmore, I always point this out. You list four names and then everyone goes, what about so-and-so? How could you forget so-and-so? Let's my list!
It's by list. And if I want to just include those four people because they are the people who, to me, represent whatever the parameters are of my Mount Rushmore, that's all that matters. What about them? Well, they're great. They just didn't make my top four list. So sorry for not listing. Rush is fantastic. I'll never not think about Rush and think about the movie. I love you, man. When they're talking about Rush and slappin' to BS.
They just don't make movies like that anymore. That, I think, is the best era. Like 2000s, the best era of comedies. It was unhinged. They were doing a lot of stuff in those movies that they could not get away with now.
So, thank you, my friends, for being with us on this episode. Leave a comment on Spotify. We've got a question for next week's Ask CVV number 67. Leave it on social media with the hashtag Ask CVV or shoot me an email. CVV at Chris Van Vliet.
We will dive into this with the first official question here. This is from Matt on Spotify who said, Hey, CBV, I love the podcast. What did you think of Penta's debut? I've never seen him wrestle before and I was amazed by what he did and how he looked. Keep it up and thank you for all of the interviews. Heck of a debut.
Heck of a debut. And I know there was a lot of conversation in the week leading up to it of like, why aren't they keeping this a secret? And then when WWE announced that his merch was already available Monday morning on WWE shop, people went, well, come on, why'd you ruin the surprise? And I think that that was actually part of it. It was kind of like a soft launch, if you will.
Instead of keeping this under wraps, they had people who either knew Penta from his previous work in Lucha Underground or M.L.W. or A.W. going, oh my gosh, I got it, tune in. What's Penta going to look like in WWE? And like I pointed out before, what's his name going to be? He's had so many different names, Pentagon, Jr., Penta, El Zero, Miyato, so many different things.
What is Penta going to be like in WWE? And then you also get people who don't don't know him are not familiar with his work going. Okay. Well, that's a match on the card that I definitely need to tune into. So I appreciate the reference that Michael Cole made to that when he came out and he said, it's the worst kept secret in the business.
but what a match. Also, just what a presentation for him. He had a big time entrance there, like great entrance music and then a big time entrance. They also let him take his time with the entrance. And then I don't think he could have had a more perfect opponent than Chad Gable. Great back and forth match, but the way that Chad Gable sold for him
was amazing. Gable sold like crazy form, especially that destroyer, wild. And then they gave him the time afterwards to cut the promo as well.
And I just think that it was one of the strongest debuts in recent WWE memory. This wasn't just like come out, cut a promo leave. This was come out, great entrance, then great match, then great promo. And the thing that really got me about as promo is even if you don't speak Spanish like myself, it made you feel something.
His promo made you feel something that was just so much passion behind it. And you could also tell at the end of that promo how much this meant to him. So after he's cutting this impassioned promo, he then says to the audience, thank you so much guys. And you could just tell what that moment meant. And it also leaves us wanting more.
So now what is penta, does penta only look good because he wrestled Chad Gable? The answer to that is obviously no, if you've ever seen a pentamatch. But I think that that's what a lot of fans are saying, man, what's he going to, what's he going to be like next week? Who's his first feud going to be with? I think that if you put him in a feud with someone who can go, someone who can wrestle, it's going to bring out the best of both of them.
I have been a fan of Penta since Lucha Underground. And I always get so nostalgic talking about Lucha Underground. Lucha Underground feels to me like the girlfriend that broke up with you before you were ready for the relationship to be over. Like, I love Lucha Underground. I was getting so into it. I was fortunate enough to go to a live taping in LA. There's like season three, I think. Like, oh, man, the atmosphere inside the temple was
bonkers, just wild. Every fan there was screaming at the top of their lungs, myself included. It was so cool to be there in Boyle Heights for that. So I've been a fan of his work since back then. And it's just been amazing to be able to see what he's done in every single company that he's been. And there's really no one that wrestles quite like him.
You saw a little bit of it on display, you saw a little bit of it in the entrance, the creepy way that he walks. Just give it a few weeks for this to really settle in and you can really get used to it.
I'm not afraid to admit what I'm wrong. I said it would take a couple weeks for people to be singing his catchphrase along with him. Yeah, well, it didn't even take one week. All he had to do is say Zetto and then the crowd finished his catchphrase. It was amazing to see that. So the reception there was great heck of a debut. It kind of feels like
Kind of feels like when your favorite band starts getting played on the radio. And you want to just like say to your friends, like, no, no, I know about them for like two years. I'm so happy for them. Like, yeah, they're finally like getting the opportunity. It's kind of how I feel here. We're like everybody now who maybe just watches WWE.
is able to see what he's capable of. And he brings this like real intensity. And I think that it allows us now to open up the opportunities here, they open up the door for like some real dream matches that could happen here, just like stylistically. Like if you put Penta in there with like Gunther, oh man stylistically, that's going to be a hard hitting match. Put Penta in there with just the way that he moves and the way that he like doesn't hold back, put him in there with like Braun Breaker.
That's gonna be to borrow a phrase from the great Jim Ross. It's gonna be a slobber knocker. It's a lot of those really good matches that I think that we're gonna be seeing over the course of this year. Also, we'll talk about the Royal Rumble, the whole bunch during this episode, but Penta's gonna do something in the Royal Rumble. I know he hasn't announced that he's in the Rumble, but I don't see why it wouldn't be. He's gonna do something in that match that's gonna make us go, huh.
Well, where does it go from here? So overall, I think they knocked it out of the park and penta knocked it out of the park and
It was just really, it's always cool when you can see like, when it's, when you can kind of peel back just one layer of the onion and you can see like, oh man, that, that means a lot to that person. And you see that now with like John Cena's entrances, how he kind of slows it down a little bit or when he's in the ring and is about to cut a promo, he like pauses a little bit and looks around and takes it all in because he knows that it's all going to end at some point.
Actually, it's going to end in December of this year. I think that those are some really special moments, and we saw that with Penta on Monday, and can't wait to see what's next for him.
This one is from Jay Mark Lucas 85 on Instagram. Hey, CBV help all as well with the family. Quick question. Given the success of Monday Night Raw on Netflix, do you think WWE would benefit or consider bringing their other content shows such as SmackDown, NXT, main event and PLAs exclusively to Netflix?
Best of luck in 2026. Can't wait to see you at Sin City, mania in April. I also hope to see you at Insight Live in Sin City as well on that Thursday. So in every other country except for America, that is the case. When you go to Netflix in like Canada, for example, because buddy of mine, my buddy of mine, Greg, who is one of my backyard wrestling nemesis's nemesis,
His name was Rage, Raging Chris Sharp. Man, we had a long tenured fuse, feud, but he sent me a photo of his home screen on Netflix, and it was just like everything lined up there. It was raw and SmackDown and NXT and whatever the upcoming PLE is. So that is the case outside of the US. Here in the US,
There are quite a few different deals that are currently in place right now. So we'll go through them by order here. So everybody knows the deal on Netflix with WWE. It's a five year deal. The deal with Peacock that WWE has, so the PLAs in America are on Peacock. That deal ends in March of 2026. And as I understand it,
peacock will be given the first right of refusal. And then they will open it up to other offers. I would imagine that if the numbers continue to be as strong as they have been for Ron Netflix, the Netflix is going to throw their hat in there. And I would think put a big offer in to get the PLEs to also come to Netflix. NXT and SmackDown is a long way down the line. That's not even going to be
conversation till the end of this decade. The NXT deal with the CW was a five year deal signed in 2023. So that doesn't end till I think it's November of 2028. The Smackdown deal with USA was just signed a few months ago. That's a five year deal. That one doesn't end till 2029. So I think the biggest thing that we could be looking at here is a little over a year from now, there's a possibility that
There could be PLAs on Netflix. In fact, I heard someone in WWE that I won't name. I heard them point this out that they were saying, this is the last WrestleMania on paper, at least, that will air on peacock. Of course, anything can change. Of course, they could re-up that deal and
than the next bunch of WrestleMania's could be on on peacock. But as of right now, WrestleMania 40 is the last contractually agreed upon PLE that will air on peacock.
I think there's already a lot more eyes just on wrestling in general, and so many people have Netflix. And I think that's also another big thing that's not talked about. So many people have Netflix, like the number or whatever is 282 million households. How many people are sharing passwords though?
I don't know a single person who doesn't have a Netflix login. Maybe they don't have their own Netflix account, but they're borrowing their Uncle Bruce's login or their sister-in-laws login or whatever the case may be.
I don't know anyone personally that doesn't have Netflix. And it was also interesting when I was talking to my buddy, Greg, who lives in Canada, he was saying, man, it's been so hard to keep up with PLEs because you can't just get peacock in Canada and watch the PLEs. I mean, you can with a VPN, of course you could go to NordVPN.com slash CVV. But he was like, I don't want to pay like the full pay-per-view prices for that. And like it's just so much to keep up with.
Now, man, I just put it on Netflix. And even if I'm not watching it live, I can watch it the next day and I don't have to pay for it. It's just part of the Netflix subscription. I think it's really going to change things. And I think that a lot of other different live content providers, whether that is the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, UFC, BKFC, I think they're going to be looking at the success of what's going on with Ron Netflix and go, huh,
What will our next media deal look like?
Baby Van Vliet. Cooper Van Vliet. My question for you is with John Cena, punk and Roman Reigns lined up so far with the possibility as of Rock, Rollins, McIntyre and Orton 2. Could this be the biggest star studded of announced participants in a Royal Rumble since 2017 when you had Goldberg, Undertaker, Lesnar, Reigns and Jericho?
That is a great observation. And you think about it. You named some of the big ones there. John Cena, CM Punk, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre. You also had the possibility here of a returning Randy Orton.
returning AJ Styles, possibly Goldberg. I know he's going to do one more match, but maybe he does one last Royal Rumble. Maybe he comes into the Royal Rumble to set up the storyline with whoever happens to be his last opponent. You also have the partnership here with TNA, which we've seen over the last few years with the Royal Rumble.
But you could, you know, who signed a TNA? The last two guests on the podcast are signed a TNA. So you have the possibility here of Jeff Hardy or Matt Hardy or both of them together being in the Royal Rumble. So yeah, to answer your question, I think this could be the most star-studded one since 2017. It really could be one of the most star-studded Royal Rumbles ever when you think about it.
So it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. And of course, I only listed like nine people there. This is the great thing about the Royal Rumble is you get so many people that are announced and then you get the surprise entrance and then you get the like kind of like scratch your head. And with all due respect, you get the like, huh.
Why is that person in the Royal Rumble? That's an interesting use of only 30 spots. But there's going to be a ton of big names in this one. And this also could be...
This also could be the last one night Royal Rumble. I think that, yeah, of course it makes sense for WrestleMania to be two nights, but if there was ever a PLE that really lent itself to being two nights, it's the Royal Rumble. You put the men's match on one night, you put the women's match on another night, boom, Saturday and Sunday night one night too. It writes itself.
So this could be the last one night Royal Rumble. And it's also just speaks to how strong the roster is right now. It's just, it's stacked. It really is stacked. Got an email here from Edgar who says, Hey, Chris, I've been a fan of your work since the beginning of 2024. I listen to your podcast while I drive eight hours back and forth from home and school. Eight hours, my friend.
There's a lot of driving. You make the drive less miserable. My question for you is this. Can you walk us through the events that happen leading up to an interview? Does the person you interview drive to your place? Do you pick them up from the airport if that's the case? What's the small talk like that happens before the interview? Or do you save all that talking for them? In other words, can you give us a behind the scenes of insight? Love your work, man. Edgar from Roma, Texas.
Excellent question, Edgar. It is different for every single episode, but I'll talk about what it's like in the home studio when I'm recording at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood. That's the studio you've seen me do interviews with Joe Hendry, Seth Rollins recently, the hilarious one with Will Sasso. We've done what? I think I did 25 of them there last year. Yeah, man, almost a quarter of the interviews were done there.
I'd say that some of them are, I'm picking the person up from the airport. Like for example, Ken Shamrock. I literally picked Ken Shamrock up from Terminal 2 at LAX. And I've known Ken Shamrock for years. So it was just a catching up. It was just like, hey man, how you been?
And you're kind of also getting, it's just small talk. It's just how, how are, how are you? How are the kids in Ken Shamrock case? How are the grandkids? Then you also get to like, all right, what are the main things that you'd like to promote? And Ken Shamrock has his bare knuckle league that he was talking about. So like, yeah, of course we can promote that. Absolutely.
There's also some situations where it's just like, here's the address. And when you get to the studio, we'll see you there. Like that's what happened with Seth Rollins. He goes to the studio, we walked him in and got him sat down and wants some water. No, you don't want any water. You got your coffee. Okay. Great. And then it was just like record, like small talk, like, Hey, how you been like, you know, you feeling good, all that stuff. But it's different all the time. The one I did with the hardies.
That was in Texas. So that was a completely different situation. And it's different when you're on the road because you're usually trying to find a place to set up. And then what does the shot look like on camera? Do we have enough depth of field here so that the person is in focus and hopefully the background's out of focus. So it gives a nice visual here.
So I've done a lot of interviews in hotel rooms, which to be honest, never looked that great. It works in a pinch. It works especially well if it's a busy weekend, like a Royal Rumble weekend or WrestleMania. If there's a convention in town and everybody's staying in the same spot, like I did that last year for a Squared Circle Expo in Indianapolis, and I'm planning to be there again
this year. I'm just waiting to hear back the details about that. That one's perfect because everybody's in the same hotel. So it's just like, oh, yeah. Well, when you're done with this thing, come to my room room for 14 and we'll start recording then. And again, it's usually just like small talk and Mike check and then we start recording with the one with the hardies though.
I flew into Dallas and they were doing media all over Dallas, like different radio stations and TV stations all over Dallas.
and they said, we'll be in Garland, Texas right before. So could you get a spot in Garland, Texas? Sure. So got an Airbnb in Garland, Texas, and it was this really cool, they called a Barn Dominion. It was a barn that was converted into an Airbnb. And I looked at the photos on Airbnb and I'm like, oh, that looks really cool. Like we've got a little bit of the wood in the background and like the bright open windows, because that's an important thing. You want lots of light.
So we got there the night before to the Airbnb, the person who owns the Airbnb isn't listening to this. We moved all of the furniture out of the main space, like moved all of the couches, tables, side tables, plants, moved it all out into the corner, and then just set up two chairs and the mics and everything, and then very carefully moved it back when we were done with the interviews.
So the hearties came. Haven't seen them in a little while. Matt was on the show. I think it was last April. Actually it was at Squared Circle Expo in Indianapolis that we did the interview. So came, chat it with them.
And then moves like art who who wants to go first, Matt or Jeff who wants to go first. All right, we'll go first with Matt recorded with him. And then we hit stop. Jeff came in a little bit more just like, how you doing? What's what's new? What's good? And then hit record with him. That's typically I think how it is.
There are a handful of them, though, where I'm picking them up from the airport or from their hotel by the airport. Then a lot of those cases, I'm also driving them back to the airport. There's a lot of them where the person flies in just to do the interview and I'll pick them up from the airport hotel, drive them in, and it's like, got to love LA traffic. It's like 12 miles and it takes 55 minutes or something like that. So.
chat and catch up. It's good to see a lot of these people are my friends, it's good to just catch up with them. And then a lot of times I'm dropping them off like at the actual airport, not back to the hotel, like they've checked out and right back to the actual airport to fly out. But there's no like no two are the same. So a lot of different situations. I also have to say that in
what I'm saying with all of this, I'm so grateful to be able to have these conversations in person. And I'm so grateful that these wrestlers trust me to be able to have these conversations in person, like that means the world to me. I think it's been a year since the last virtual interview that we did. And it obviously means a lot more work.
It means a lot of time I'm on the road meeting that person where they're at and then finding a space to record these interviews wherever they are. But the conversations that we end up having are just so much better as a result of that. And I know that you guys appreciate that too. There's just something about Zoom interviews that just never feel the same. They feel very impersonal.
You're talking to a quite literally, if you break this down, you're talking to a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional person. You're looking at a two-dimensional version of them on a screen. And there's always the, like,
No, you go. No, sorry. Okay. No, you go. And I just, I've never loved that. I just, I love the seamlessness of a conversation in person and you can look someone in the eye, shake their hand or give them a hug. And you can also read those like cues that naturally happen in an in person conversation. Like someone's like getting ready to say something and you're just, you were able to just stop and pause and let them have their thought, but
There are a lot of different things that go on with these. And I will say it's always great when you get to do like round two with someone like someone that you've interviewed before and you get to see them again. Like they're also so grateful when these interviews can happen at someone's house. Like when I went to Goldberg's house and he lives on 200 acres in Texas, like he meets me at the gate of his house on his little
Oh, that'd be like an ATV. He met me on that. Follow me. And we take this long winding road over to like where his Goldberg's garage is. That's cool. And just to be able to just like chat with someone and there's no pressure of like the cameras are on. So there's a, that's a very long answer, but I hope we walked you through the behind the scenes of a lot of those. Maybe I should document one of these. How would you guys feel about that? If we did a little,
Like it may be a documentary style thing of like...
the day before the setup, the day of the hours leading up to the interview, the minutes leading up, behind the scenes of the actual interview, and then what happens afterwards? You've probably seen in a few of these videos, I've had some people sign some things, and I'm looking at them right now. I have eight by tens in my office of some of the people I've really enjoyed having conversations with, some of the people that I grew up watching.
And they'll write like two Chris and like a nice little note on there. So that's another part of the interview too. Like the hardies today. Yeah, you saw that in the interview with Jeff and did his artograph as he calls it because he has the best looking autograph and all wrestling. So that's, uh, that's another part of it. But all of that is to say, maybe we should do a little behind the scenes documentary. I don't know. If you'd like that, shoot me a message.
Let me know. Maybe we'll do that for an interview with perhaps an invisible man. You wouldn't be able to see him, but maybe the documentary part of it would be interesting. Sean Martell sent this one in on Facebook. Hey, CBV recently started following the show after seeing the clips all over my social. So I'm going to pause for a second. That's amazing. It's working. If you see in the clips, we're doing something right here. Proud to say that I became a real, real one very quickly.
would love my question to appear on the Super Mario edition being from Montreal. What is a match or gimmick that you would want to bring back? I personally miss the one night King of the Ring tournament and a traditional five on five survivor series contest. I feel like there's room for that, even with the current war games format. Congrats on baby number two, all the best to you and your family. Those are two matches. I can't disagree with those. I would love the actual King of the Ring, pay per view, King and Queen of the Ring pay per view to be
Yeah, I did it again. I call it a pay-per-view. That's okay, right? They'll be pay-per-views forever. You can call them whatever you want to call them. But it'd be great for King and Queen of the Ring to be all in one night. I understand how that might be difficult because even if you had the semi-finals and the finals for both the men and the women, that's four matches right there. So then if you back that out where you've got quarter finals, that's two on each side. It's a lot of matches.
that would need to be up to eight matches just with quarterfinals. It's doable, but I just think that in the current format of WWE PLEs having about five matches, I think it'd be difficult to do eight of them. But I agree. I like when King of the Ring was like one show, give it to me. And then you get some people who are competing two or three times.
I love that. Five on five Survivor Series. You've heard my qualms about Survivor Series. Like it needs to make sense. Give me a reason why this Survivor Series match is happening. And we've seen it far too many times over the last few years where it's just like, well, it's that time of year again, it's November. So let's get these five random people and put them against these five random people and call it a Survivor Series match.
I've never liked that. So if you can do something that's going to make us care and they did a really good job of it this year with it being the new bloodline versus the old blind line, that was great. I don't know how you continue that though with the next Survivor Series this November. It just, it needs to make sense. I think one of the match stipulations that I would love to see back.
is a submission match. Some of my favorite matches are submission matches. So if you put two really great technical wrestlers in there who maybe have a submission finisher like Chad Gable or just have submissions in their arsenal like Keri and Cross, give me a submissions match. Like I loved when that was a stipulation back in the Attitude Era, like backlash 2001.
Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, 30 minute, ultimate submission match. Oh, man, with the overtime. If you remember that, they went to, they were three, three tied. And then I wanted to overtime and then Benoit pulled it out. So four, three, give me that injected into my veins, baby. Give me, I'd love another submission match. I love that style of, I love a lot of different styles of wrestling, but
And it's interesting that I bring up Kurt Angle because he's our next guest on the show. So because you're a real one. Now, you know, he said that some of his favorite work is when like you just wrestle and it's hard to like not do a bunch of moves or like go up on the top rope, it just just wrestle. So, and I think that Chad Gable would be incredibly capable of doing that.
And wow, this leads us right into this perfect, perfect segue. I didn't even plan to do this here. Kirby Rachel on Instagram says, Kirby here, the real realist guy in the room. How you doing?
with this 2025 version of Chad Gable, the best version yet, you say. Do you get mid 2005 of Kurt Angle? He has a familiar sounding intro, the ring attire, screams Kurt Angle in America, and there's a bit of balding, maybe. Oh man, that's not very nice, Kirby, come on. Anyway, thank you again for all the great interviews and the time and the work that you put into it. Well, thank you for the kind words about me, Kirby, but man, come on, Chad Gable, man, he looks great, come on.
I think that there's a lot of similarities there to like a mid 2000s right before he went to TNA like mid 2000s wrestling machine Kurt Angle in WWE. And I think it's it's clearly done on purpose. They're leaning into the you sucks. They're there. His ring attire looks very similar to Kurt Angle.
is using the ankle lock. There's a lot of similarities there. They're also both Olympians. And I think that that's something they're leaning into. And I think you're going to see even more of that in 2025.
I know you didn't ask, but I'm going to say it anyway. Chad Gable is going to win a championship of some sort this year. He put it out there publicly that that's one of his goals for 2025. And I think it was so close. It feels like it was a big mistake for him to not get the Intercontinental Championship at some point in one of those matches in 2024.
That wrong can now be righted in 2025. If I had to make a prediction, Chad Gable wins the Intercontinental Championship as his first title, as his first singles title, I should say. But yeah, there's a lot of similarities there. And I think it also makes people appreciate Kurt that much more. Like, I think when you see Chad Gable, it's easy to think of Kurt Angle, and that's a really good thing for both of them.
for Kurt, his legacy is remembered and continues on for Chad. He's compared to one of the greatest of all time. So it's a pretty good relationship. I think both ways with that, but it is no secret. I'm a big fan of Chad Gable and the work rate that he has. And he really hasn't had a bad match. And that's not a statement you can make about a lot of people. You can make that statement about like Kurt Angle. You can make that statement about Shelton Benjamin.
You can make that statement about Chad Gable, but there's not a lot of people where you can say, man, that person's never had a bad match. And then you think about it and you're like, yeah, you know what? Huh. Yeah. You're right. It kind of reminds me of what Seth Rollins was saying during our interview where it brings out the best in his opponents. And it's true. Like Seth Rollins is also one of those people where you put him in the ring with whoever and you know, you're going to get something great.
Good job, Cobb on Instagram says, now that we've had a week to digest, what ride is the final boss taking us on? Do we see him at WrestleMania? I think we absolutely see him at WrestleMania. And we may see him at WrestleMania wrestling for the last time. I don't know if that's actually going to happen.
But I don't know how many more matches the rock has left. So I think what we saw on the first Raw Netflix on January 6th was a one-off. And we talked about this at length on Ask Cvv number 65, where that was kind of a standalone show. What existed on that show kind of existed within a bubble.
And now we're going to start to see Raw returning to its normal weekly episodical shows and the storyline following through. I understand the criticism that the Rock's appearance got on Ron Netflix. People saying, what the heck? There was this heat with Cody Rhodes. And now you're putting him over and making jokes. And then backstage, you're having a drink with him like, what happened to the animosity here?
And I think it should be pointed out that what we saw on that first Ron Netflix was not the final boss. What we saw was Dwayne Johnson, Hollywood guy in Hollywood. We were in Los Angeles for that Ron Netflix. What we saw was Dwayne Johnson going, Hey, everybody, look at how great Ron Netflix looks.
I think when we see the final boss again on Raw, or SmackDown, or what we did see it on NXT, we're seeing a little bit more of like storyline driven final boss. And it just, it still seems to me like this is leading up to Rock versus Roman.
Like even just with the comments that are made, like the Rock made some sort of comment on social media that he's now the high chief. So there's the tribal chief, but the Rock's the high chief. And I don't think what the Rock does is ever by accident. He also made some sort of comment that the Rock is playing 20 steps ahead. So I know that you hear me say this a lot, but it bears repeating.
have some patience. Have some patience. See how this plays out. Give us to at least the Royal Rumble. I wouldn't be surprised if the rock is in the Royal Rumble. I wouldn't be surprised if Roman Reigns is in the Royal Rumble. And it just seems to me like there's an opportunity there to start planting some seeds as we head towards WrestleMania. But I think that, yes, the rock wrestles at WrestleMania.
I don't know against who. I don't know if it's a main event. I don't know what the case is. But around this time last year, don't forget, we were all a little confused with what was going on. What's happening here? Why is the rock coming back? And then a few weeks, if we're going exactly 12 months ago from now,
And Cody wins the rumble and then the rock goes to take his spot and then we want Cody and then the Cody crybabies and all the wonderful promos we got out of that leading up to this great moment that Cody has at WrestleMania 40. Give it some time.
Give it some patience. I truly don't think that much of what you see, if anything, of what you see on screen in WWE is a mistake or an accident or I don't think it's just thrown out just for the sake of throwing it out there. Like there's a purpose behind it. I remember a director when I was doing an interview years ago saying nothing that you see on screen is an accident. And what they mean is like,
If there's a product that's on screen or there's a character that appears on screen, it's not done by accident. And I think that applies to wrestling as well. And to borrow a line from my friend, Sam Roberts, everything counts. It's not just what you see on Raw or SmackDown or NXT or a PLE, everything counts here. Social media videos.
Appearances on podcasts count. When you're a guest on the Pat McAfee show, it counts. So just give it some time here. But yes, I think that they are building this up to be a massive WrestleMania. I don't think they're going to do WrestleMania in Las Vegas without the rock, but I've been very wrong.
talk a lot. So me saying, oh yeah, of course he's going to be there. Feels like he's not going to be there now as a result because I've been wrong so many times about that. Jeremy Chartland on Facebook says, who was your favorite big man in wrestling? Well, this is going to turn into another one of those situations where if I only list like three people, everyone in the comments is going to go, what about someone? So what about this person?
So again, these are just my favorites. But when you talk about big men and wrestling, you can't not talk about Bam Bam Bigelow. Not just a big man, but like insane athleticism. And I think that the way that he wrestled, really opened the door for other big men to be incredibly athletic. Like I don't think you would get the athleticism out of someone like a Bronson Reed now, if it wasn't for being inspired by Bam Bam Bigelow.
And I think you can say the same thing about Vader, especially the matches that Vader had in Japan, like Vader is one of those people who he's such a big guy, such a big guy, and then he does certain moves and you're like, what?
Someone, someone who's that size shouldn't be able to do things like that. And I think when you, when you're talking about people that are that big doing very athletic things, early big show was that when he was a giant in WCW, I think he did a moonsault. He was doing like missile drop kicks. He was like, here's a guy who was seven feet tall and close to 500 pounds coming off the top rope. That must just be terrifying if you're his opponent. But early big show, early giant, early Paul White, whatever you want to call him.
really redefined what it was like to be that big. And they called them the world's largest athlete in WWE. And it wasn't just like a nice catchphrase. Because we've seen, we're not gonna name names here, but we've seen some big men who don't move so well. That's not their fault. Maybe they're a little bit awkward. Maybe, you know, again, I don't want to name names here.
But we've seen big men who kind of look like a baby horse. It was just born, a baby horse is kind of wobbling on its legs and trying to figure out how to walk.
And Big Show was never that. Big Show's a guy who at that size was still able to move like someone who was much smaller. I'm also gonna throw out a name here who doesn't get nearly enough respect and just isn't talked about enough. Mike Awesome, specifically ECW, Mike Awesome.
Here's a guy who's six foot six, 295 pounds and just was so fluid with all the things that he did. And just so, he just moved like someone who's so much smaller. So everything he did was just so clean. I always loved when he was the ECW champion. I always loved Paul Heyman on commentary, pointing out how like
I remember watching live, watching ECW live and him being like, like pointing out like you couldn't see Triple H doing that. And I can't remember who the WCW champion was at the time, but like specifically called out the champions of the other companies, like specifically by name called out the champions of
WCW and WCW and WWF at the time. Actually, it wasn't, no, it wasn't Heyman. I think it was Cyrus. I think it was Cyrus that was uncommentary.
I don't know why I said Paul Heyman was Cyrus who'd point that out. And I was just like, it's so true. The way that Mike awesome moved at that time was far more athletic. It was, it was almost like a luchadors far more athletic than the current champions of the other company. But this is so funny that they, they had the balls that just point that out and like name them by name.
The latter days, the final few months of ECW when they just really stopped caring and they knew that TNN, the new TNN, Spike TV, whatever it was at the time, just like was not gonna renew them and they just didn't care. So they were just saying whatever they wanted. It was almost like inviting them to like, yeah, you don't like what we're saying? Let's kick us off of here. Let's keep saying what we're gonna say.
And then I think if you just talk about just overall big men, Kane and the Undertaker with the way that they wrestled and the longevity that their careers had, you can't have a conversation about big men without talking about them.
Chris Barrett on Spotify says, do you think Michael Cole talking about the new reinforced announced tables is just setting up for a big heavy hitting finisher in the near future? Oh, absolutely. By the way, Chris, great name. Never met a Chris that I don't like. Yes, there was a point there on raw.
like towards the end of last year, where I think almost every week, if not every other week, someone was going through the announce table. And I think almost every PLA, someone should do the actual like math and stats on this. But I think it was almost every PLA, there was some sort of announced table spot. So yes, I don't care how reinforced it is or how reinforced they talk about it being.
Yes, there will be many more announced table spots. I would be shocked if we don't see one by the Royal Rumble. If we don't see one between now and including the Royal Rumble, I would be very surprised. There's something about the announced table spot. It's very safe.
For the most part, very safe, how they're done. Of course, there's there've been accidents. I think of, I think of that triple threat match with the rock and Kurt Angle and Triple H and Triple H going to give the pedigree to Kurt Angle and the table gave out and Kurt Angle falls on his skull. And he told a great story about that, which you'll hear on the podcast on Tuesday. But for the most part,
And now's table spots are pretty safe. The table like collapses and takes the brunt of the fall and kind of like takes the real sting out of it. But yes, of course, we're going to see many more nails table spots. I love it. Now's table spots. I love when shame would do the elbow from the top rope to the outside through the announce table. Logan Paul's frog splashes have been great. And then he adds in like the
just the added element of like, he's holding his phone and he's, we could get the selfie view of that or the one he recently did with the drone shot doing a full 360 around him as he was on the top row, was such, just made for such a cool visual. Unannounced table spots are not going anywhere. In fact, maybe we should talk next week about what your favorite announced table spot of all time is.
Cause I think an easy one is Mick Foley getting thrown off Hell in a Cell by the Undertaker, easy one. But there's so many other great announced table spots. So maybe, maybe that's asked CVV number 67. Maybe we talk about the best announced table spots on that one. Dustin Vaughn wrote this one in on Spotify. If you were to change one thing about the industry as a whole, what would it be and why?
the entire wrestling industry as a whole. The thing that I would change is just this misconception that seems to exist, this tribalism that we have right now, this misconception that you can't like more than one company. I've always watched everything.
But there's this, the tribalism is just, it's so much. It's this tribalism almost like akin to like cheering for one particular sports team. And then when your team plays against the other team, you're like, well, man, I'm a,
I'm a Jets fan and they're playing the Giants. I'm a Packers fan and they're playing the Bears. I'm a Red Sox fan and they're playing the Yankees or whatever the situation is. Of course, there's dozens of examples of this. That's how it's treated.
without understanding that these companies are not like, you're not within one night. It's not like the Monday Night Wars was, and by the way, I watched both Raw and Nitro during the Monday Night Wars was actually so fun to flip channels between the two of them. If you liked the match on Raw, you watched the match on Raw. If you didn't like the segment, you went over to Nitro to see what they had going on there. But it's not like in the era that we're living in right now,
It is so entirely possible to watch everything. And if you don't like certain things, that's okay. But I think the biggest thing I would change is just for people to understand that you can like what you like. And you can also, in that same breath, not like what you don't like. But I don't think that you need to hate on someone or you need to rag on someone or you need to pick on someone because they don't like the thing that you don't like.
And I think that that's the biggest thing I would change. You like WWE? Great. You like AEW? Great. You like New Japan? Great. You like TNA? Great. And instead of taking this approach of like judging it, why not be curious about it? Like instead of, like be curious instead of being judgmental.
Oh, really? Why is TNA the one you're watching the most these days? Oh, really? Oh, tell me more about the rascals. Tell me more about Josh Alexander, which of his matches do you really like? Oh, wow. Maybe I should go check that one out later on today. Instead of being like, oh, man, I don't watch that stuff. Just be curious. Like, instead of just like attacking someone for something you may not even know a lot about,
Why not just be curious about it? That is the biggest thing that I would change. If someone doesn't like something that you don't like, that's okay. That's what makes us who we are.
Don't yuck other people's yums. I love that. I know it's such a preschool quote because it was a quote that a friend of mine told me from their kids preschool. But it is so applicable to what we're talking about here. Don't yuck other people's yums. Somebody likes a certain style of wrestling. Cool. Great. It doesn't affect me in any sort of way that you like that. And I don't.
That's all right. That's why I love the fact that wrestling is a buffet.
And if you went to an actual buffet, you would just pick and choose the food that you would like. You wouldn't like get your plate and then go back to your table and look at somebody else's plate and be like, you got the crab legs? What's wrong with you? Man, there's filet mignon on there. So you're telling me you skipped over the filet mignon to get the crab legs? Are you an idiot? I'm never going to this restaurant with you ever again. You would just go, ah, cool, man. You're having crab legs.
Great, I'm gonna eat the filet and when I'm done, maybe I'll get some more filet. And that's the thing I would change about this, that it is okay to watch more than one wrestling company. That's it. And in fact, we're living in a time right now.
where there are so many options, not just the big companies that happen to be on TV, but there's just so many options with a lot of great independent companies as well. Like what you like. That is the biggest thing that I would change because it's an exciting time right now to be a wrestling fan. And that is on display so much when you meet someone who just started watching wrestling or maybe someone who just got back into wrestling after
or 15 or 20 years, all you want to do is like say to that person like, oh man, like welcome in. Like it's that scene from stepbrothers. Did we just become best friends? Yep. Like that's where I think like the real magic happens is like finding a new wrestling fan. Like there was a there was a Twitter account. Maybe you saw this. There was a Twitter account that popped up. I think it was right after Ron Netflix.
The user name is new to wrestling X on X. And they put out a tweet that says, Hey guys, I'm a new wrestling fan. Ron Netflix was the first wrestling show I ever watched. I think wrestling is interesting. That's why I made this account. I want to explore more wrestling stuff in the wrestling community on X. If you see this, follow me and I'll follow back that one tweet.
got 2.1 million views. And I think that speaks to exactly what we're talking about here. There's this excitement of like, it's like the little kid that wants to show you their brand new toys. Like when the fun uncle comes over, the funny it comes over like, oh my gosh, and like they take you right to like where all their toys are. And they're like showing you like it's like show and tell all the new toys. That's what this is. And it was just so cool to see this like a lot of positivity around that.
of like, let me show you my favorite match or my favorite person or my favorite promo. And that that's the, I think that's the really cool thing about the time that we're in right now. So new to wrestling acts. Shout out. Also, that is the last question for this. Ask CVV number 66.
the Mario Lemieux Trent Alexander Arnold Yassie Alpwig edition. Thank you for being with us on this ride. Thank you for being a real, real one and listening all the way until the end of one of these.
with the Royal Rumble around the corner. If you're listening on Spotify, drop a comment of which year do you think was the best Royal Rumble? Just leave the four numbers of the year. I'm gonna go 1992. I know that's an easy pick, but I would go 1992, that would be my comment on Spotify.
Leave that comment on Spotify so I know you're still listening and you are indeed a real, real one. If you got a question for next week's Ask CVV number 67, shoot me an email, cvvacrisfamily.com. Leave a comment on Spotify if you're listening on Spotify or leave that question on social media using the hashtag Ask CVV. You already know who the guest is for next Tuesday. Oh, it's true.
It's damn true. Your Olympic hero Kurt Angle is joining us. A great conversation that we did in Pittsburgh earlier this week. That was one of those where like
I reached out, he said, yeah, I'll do it. And I said, okay, let, where? And he said, Pittsburgh. And I said, all right, what's a location that is most convenient for you? We're doing the whole like behind the scenes of these. He said, this hotel is like 10 minutes from my house. I said, great. He said one o'clock. I said, I will see you there. And that was it. He met him in the lobby. He came in, went up the elevator to room 305 of that hotel.
And we set it up. And it wasn't a hotel. I know that hotels, like I said, don't look that great. And you'll see, it looks okay. But this is a long, I've diverged into a long story here just to say that Ask CVV is not Ask CVV. Kurt Angle is the next episode on Tuesday. And we will wrap this up with a quote from George Bernard Shaw, which, man, this feels fitting in so many different ways, especially in wrestling.
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it. Whoa, be great, be grateful. Have an amazing weekend. We will see you on the next one for some more insight with Kurt Angle.
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