Enter your email address to receive exclusive content from CVV!
WrestleMania 41 Predictions, John Cena's Retirement Tour & Raw On Netflix w/ Sam Roberts
https://cvvtix.com Tickets for the first ever INSIGHT LIVE the day before the Royal Rumble on January 31, 2025 in Indianapolis are on sale now!
Sam Roberts (@notsam) is a professional wrestling broadcaster. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the NotSam Studios in New York City to discuss what he thinks will happen at Crown Jewel, if Cody Rhodes should turn heel, was Roman Reigns' title reign too long, John Cena's retirement tour, early WrestleMania 41 predictions, Raw moving to Netflix, the most underrated wrestler, what was the greatest return in wrestling and more!
Quote I'm thinking about: Let Candy Corn be your reminder that no matter how many people don't like you, there are people out there who will literally love you for exactly the reasons you were rejected by others. You are someone's Candy Corn (derogatory) but you are also someone's Candy Corn (affectionate)
Sponsors:
VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv
MANSCAPED: Get 20% off plus free shipping when you use the code CHRISVAN at https://manscaped.com
ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insight
BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv
MAREK HEALTH: Get a 10% discount on Marek Health's Optimization Package with code CVV: https://marekhealth.com/cvv
BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at https://bluechew.com
ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv
PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank which was designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/
PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at https://plunge.com
“I mean, it’s hard to say. It definitely was not too long. It’s hard to say too short, because sure, he could have beaten Hogan’s record. Ultimately, the Cody moment is coupled with the return of Roman Reigns into who he is. Now, it’s hard to say that there was a misstep. I will say that there was this moment, though, at WrestleMania, where even though it was kind of inevitable, and I would say the title defences leading up to WrestleMania with the LA Knight match and the four-way match like those weren’t the most compelling Roman Reigns title defenses. So there was this feeling of, okay, maybe it’s time to let Cody have his moment, especially with the build there. But when Roman walked out and the music was playing, I and a lot of people around me were like, I don’t know if I’m ready for this. I don’t know if I’m ready to say goodbye like this has been our reality. This has been our life. I don’t think I’m ready for this to be over.”
“It’s also because of how good Cody is. I would say for most performers, that loss, the whole build-up to losing at 39 could have been detrimental. But Cody is so good that the three match series with Brock Lesnar, which I think put Cody on an even higher level, that was the perfect thing to go back to Okay, I didn’t slaughter this beast and win the title, but what did I do next? I slaughtered a beast then doing the stuff with Jey Uso, which I think everybody just loved and had so much fun with. And I think that the reason that a lot of us thought, ooh, Cody could be in trouble, is because the art of the true babyface was dead and I don’t think any of us thought it was coming back. But if you really look at what Cody’s doing, he is the only pure good guy baby face that gets cheered universally. When you go to these shows, men, women and children cheer Cody sing whoa. They want to hear what he wants to talk about that, you know, they’re completely on board. I don’t think that’s been the case since 1989.”
“Not anytime soon. I don’t even think people realize the level of historic babyface run that Cody is on, because like I said, you go through it. After Hogan, and people were waning on Hogan by 1990 so like after that, the next big universal babyface was probably Stone Cold, right? Bret was a top guy. Diesel was a top guy, but everybody wasn’t sold on Diesel. Bret was a top guy, but never had that lengthy run. Shawn was a top guy, but never had that lengthy run, and he got booed. 1996 Survivor Series, he’s getting booed. So you go to Stone Cold, and he was getting universally cheered, but he’s an anti-hero. He’s not a pure babyface. The Rock is getting universally cheered, but he’s an anti-hero. He’s not a pure babyface. So who’s the next top guy after that, Cena? Half the crowd is cheering him. Half the crowd is booing him. We haven’t had a top guy babyface universally cheer like Cody is since 1989 and he’s not doing tricks. He’s not doing like, I’m kind of a heel, I’m like the edgy good guy. He’s like, No, I’m a good guy who does the right thing. And maybe we’re just at a place societally where that’s what we need for an escape. We just want to cheer the good guy again. Just tell me a guy can work hard and do the right thing, and he’s going to get rewarded for it.”
“I think the MVP of 2024 industry-wide is Drew McIntyre. I don’t anybody’s had a year like that guy. This is a guy who was lost last year, who, going into the pandemic, had all the momentum, he was about to be that babyface that I just described, and lost it, and didn’t get it back. When the crowd came back, it wasn’t like, Well, now that the crowd’s back, everything we were going to do, we’re going to do. Now, no sorry, like we’ve moved, and you need to figure out where you fit in. I think there were a lot of questions, because now Roman’s the guy, and Drew McIntyre becoming a more realistic version of himself, who was saying things that weren’t exactly comfortable, but also weren’t false and being that guy who stepped up and started this rivalry with CM Punk, which I think when CM Punk first got to WWE, nobody was like, yeah the first big story will be with Drew, oh yeah. That wasn’t, that wasn’t the conversation. But as of January, it was like, No, we’re all on board with this Drew McIntyre thing. And the fact that Drew as the guy in the ring was able to maintain interest in this story with a guy who couldn’t wrestle from January until August. It helps that CM Punk. He’s like the most one of the most compelling characters ever. But Drew being able to do that. Drew being able to allow us to lose ourselves in that story. Drew coming out of this whole thing better, you know. Drew being able to step toe to toe, microphone to microphone, with one of the most compelling speakers the industry has ever seen, and not only hold his own, but have people going like, No, I like Drew. Also, by the way, have fantastic matches, I don’t think anybody, as of now, in 2024 has grown more or performed at a higher level than Drew McIntyre.”
“I’ve been thinking a lot about this, as I tend to do, because I’m also sitting there going okay, but you’ve also got Royal Rumble, and you’ve got Elimination Chamber. So when you got stars this big, people are like well The Rock’s going to join the Royal Rumble. Rock’s not going to fight the Royal Rumble, Rock’s not jumping in the chamber. That’s not going to happen. I don’t think so. So I go, so how do you get there? I go, Well, what if this time for your night two main event it’s Cody and The Rock, right? The Rock’s already come back. He’s got the People’s Title. Cody’s got the WWE Championship. Rocks like, enough, I’m going to do what I should have done last year. In fact, I’m going to do what I did do last year. I’m going to pin you, but this time I’m going to take you out and I’m going to take it all. Roman Reigns then wins the Royal Rumble and it’s like, oh, Roman and Gunther, and Roman goes, No, I’m taking the match with you. And so now, instead of Cody taking The Rock’s match, Roman’s taking The Rock’s match and it develops into a triple threat. So you got Cody, Roman Rock, with Roman winning the Royal Rumble. Then on the other side of things, you have John Cena. And John Cena has been like I’m going to win the Royal Rumble. Because if it’s going to be my last WrestleMania, I want a main event. But he doesn’t win the Royal Rumble. John Cena who’s got a struggle is a very compelling John Cena with back against the wall, I got one more shot. My last Elimination Chamber, I’m fighting in the Elimination Chamber, and Cena wins the Elimination Chamber. So now your night one main event becomes John Cena versus Gunther, and it’s the whole thing of John Cena is on this dream retirement tour. He said Gunther is obviously the ultimate spoiler. Gunther is the ultimate dose of reality. Gunther is that guy who’s like, whether you’re Sami Zayn or Goldberg or Bret Hart or John Cena, Gunther doesn’t care. So I’ve got Gunther and John Cena after John Cena wins the Chamber, and I’ve got Cody Rock Roman after Roman wins the Rumble.”
“I think Crown Jewel, or near Crown Jewel. I could see Tiffany costing Nia, Liv wins, gets the Crown Jewel Title. Then Tiff jumps in and gets Nia’s title.”
“They do less live events now than they used to, or at least they have this year. I’m assuming that’ll continue on into next year, which would mean the live events will be big, and maybe for the international tour and stuff like that. But, yeah, I mean, I would imagine it’s one of those things where he might go away for a month or two and then come back. It’s like, when he’s there, he’s there and when he’s gone, he might step over here for maybe one Pay Per View cycle, but then he’s back for the next one.”
“My thing is you have the opportunity to not only have these matches, but you can pick the matches, and you can really make them matter by telling these stories instead. Because it’s also like a one-off. It’s like if we’re building to something, if they’re one-off matches that you do early in the year, John kind of has to win most of them. He can’t just be losing. So if the purpose of him coming back for a year is just to go through the whole roster, we don’t really come out on the back end looking better necessarily, as opposed to telling these stories. Because for me, since you’re doing a year, take advantage of the year. I would love to see maybe the first Raw on Netflix. Maybe that’s where John comes back. And you do have a one-off, there’s room for one-offs too. But like, have your one-off and go, like, Okay, we’ve seen a John Cena match. Now let’s start building to the Rumble. I’m going to win the Rumble, I’m going to win the Rumble. I didn’t win the Rumble, right? Okay, well, now I’m going to work towards the Elimination Chamber. Maybe on your way there, have a match here. I have a match there, but the next big one is the Elimination Chamber. Now you get to Wrestlemania. And you’re building a Wrestlemania, and you might have a match here, a match there, but what you’re doing is building to WrestleMania, and then you don’t get the job done at WrestleMania. And so now you got to figure out, well, I’m John Cena in the last year of my career. Has the game passed me by? Am I not going to beat this record? Then maybe towards the summer is when you beat the record, and you have John Cena on a world title run, and maybe when Cena is on a world title run, that’s where you can kind of open it up a little bit for more matches. Maybe he does for the World Heavyweight Championship the same thing he did for the US Championship where he’s like, Nope, I’m going to defend this against everybody. And on Raw you’re going to see me defending it against maybe it’s Bron Breakker, maybe it’s Dominik. And on SmackDown, maybe you’ll see me defending it against this person. And then maybe he can lose it towards the latter part of the autumn. So he maybe wins it around SummerSlam, that’s the beginning of August. Maybe even before that he wins Money in the Bank.”
“His legacy is now, he never turned heel. That’s the legacy, and that’s a good legacy, and people appreciate that now, I think maybe they didn’t at the time, but now it’s like, we love our John Cena the way he is. I think you have you’ll have this great two months where we’re appreciating the year that he’s given us. We’re appreciating his entire career, and that’s when he starts going through some of the greatest hits. Maybe that’s when you see some people return just to be a part of it. Maybe that’s when you see some people that before we run out of time, we can see that match. And then we get to December, whether it’s a PLE, maybe it’s John Cena his own PLE. John Cena gets his own PLE in December, and it’s all about she’s a tribute to him, and that’s where the main event is Cena and Randy and Cena loses.”
“Here’s the thing. It is a family product, and I think there is a lot of value in WWE being a family product. Maybe it’s because I have kids, and my seven-year-old is super into wrestling and there is some stuff that we can enjoy together, and there’s other stuff that I can’t show them, and it kind of bums me out that I can’t show them some of the other stuff. I think that there is a way to tell stories that don’t insult the intelligence of people like us, but make it so it’s not uncomfortable to bring your kids to. I don’t think that the answer is well we’re on Netflix now. Let’s do way more cursing, let’s do nudity, let’s do more blood. I don’t think wrestling was ever missing that edge. I don’t think wrestling was like it needs profanity and blood. No wrestling needs compelling stories, that’s all and if within those compelling stories some profanity slips out, that’s fine. That’s part of the story. If within these compelling stories, we get some blood, we should. We shouldn’t have blocks on anything when it comes to [stories]. We go back to Drew and Punk, to not have blood in that Hell in a Cell match would have been insane. It would have insulted us who are watching this story. But I think what you’ll have on Netflix is maybe a little more leniency in the timing of the way you tell stories and in those specific moments. Not this thing of like, oh we better clear this with this network. There’s no reason for network clearance. This is the same thing people said when Howard Stern and other big radio shows were going over to Sirius XM, it still requires a certain discipline to put on a show, right? It requires a certain discipline to put on a show that a lot of people can watch and enjoy. It isn’t just insanity for the sake of insanity. It’s not like oh well since we can do this now, let’s do this if it is required for and benefits the story to a great degree, awesome. But I’m not sitting there watching Raw or SmackDown right now, I’m not sitting there watching The Bloodline story. I’m not sitting there watching Cody try to finish his story. I’m not sitting there watching any of the storylines that have enthralled us and said, Man, if only there was more profanity and blood. You’re not missing it because you’ve got the stories last year, as we get further and further away from it, it becomes more and more apparent to me that it was probably the best WrestleMania main event of all time.”
“Okay, so this is a tougher one because there are a lot of good ones, right? I think Brock Lesnar returning, the first return after all those years after the UFC was awesome, confronting John Cena after the first Rock match. Shane McMahon’s return, and that Stephanie segment was unbelievable.”
“People are gonna think I’m messing around but I’m not, Doink. End of 92 to end of 93 Matt Born as Doink the Clown is some of the most brilliant character work that you will ever see in professional wrestling, and it was happening at a time when some of the dumbest character work that you will ever see in professional wrestling was the norm. I mean, this gets lumped in because he’s a clown with we’re doing kids cartoon stuff, but I mean, Tim Curry’s portrayal of Pennywise in It is not better than Matt Borne as Doink the Clown.”
“My family, the incredibly fortunate route my professional life has taken and the awareness Dominik Mysterio has brought to chicken tendies.”
