WWE NXT broadcaster Vic Joseph is a guest on Chris Van Vliet’s INSIGHT show. Joseph discussed his dream job, filling Mauro Ranallo’s footsteps, meeting his wife McKenzie Mitchell in WWE, Shawn Michaels, and other topics.
Leaving CBS Radio and the Cleveland Browns Network to pursue a career in WWE:
“When I was at CBS, CBS approached me with a contract renewal, CBS Radio and the Cleveland Browns network. They said, ‘Hey, we want to re-up you for another two years’, and I thought to myself, if I’m going to get to the WWE, I’m going to give myself 12 months to do it. Truthfully, balls to the wall. I don’t know if I can say that without getting edited. I’m going to give it everything I’ve got. Tommy Dreamer and House of Hardcore at the time. I do the loops, the Indy loops. I do stuff in Cleveland. I told myself, ‘I’m going to give it 12 months and if it doesn’t happen, well we’ll see where we go.'”
“I got a phone call. I was at a Guns and Roses show in Chicago at Soldier Field. The day before I left for the show, Tom Phillips called me and said, ‘Michael Cole would like to know if you’d like to come in for an audition.’ That happened in September, and then I got signed in December. They let me finish out that Browns season, which I believe they went 0 and 16 and then I started in January. But I’ve never told anybody that before I came to the WWE, I walked away from CBS Sports and I walked away from the Cleveland Browns, the place I had been that I had covered 4 NBA Finals, a city championship which is near and dear to me still to this day to have done that, a World Series, the drafting of Johnny Manziel, the releasing of Johnny Manziel, the self-destruction of the Cleveland Browns so to speak during that part, but that was, and it’s weird to say now looking back, it was betting on myself, knowing how much I loved the WWE, wrestling, sports entertainment, whatever you want to categorize it as that this is what I want to do. This is what I love. This is what I am passionate about. I don’t think if I wouldn’t have taken that year to say,’I’m going to do this’, that Tom Phillips would have never called me, that I never would have gotten a face to face Michael Cole,and that I never would have gotten signed.”
Regarding his desire to just work with WWE:
“It wasn’t any other company. It wasn’t just to do it. It wasn’t, ‘Oh, I want to call this guy’s match. I want to be in this environment. It was, ‘This is the company I want to go to. This is the company I grew up watching.’ If it wasn’t for this person and this person, am I the person I am today? My goal in life is to call the main event at WrestleMania. I’m throwing it out there because we talk about talent that’s in the ring. There’s only one main event each night of WrestleMania. There’s only so many main events that have happened at WrestleMania. There’s been countless matches, there’s only been one main event or two main events. I want to call a WrestleMania main event. I’ve called matches at WrestleMania, I’ve called championship matches at WrestleMania, but I’ve never called the main event and that to me is still what drives me to let me be different than what you’re hearing. Let me continue to work twice as hard. Give me Beth Phoenix or Wade Barrett and then Booker T or Nigel McGuinness or whoever it is, I’m going to make it work with their help, because everyone I’ve ever worked with has actually elevated me, which has been a beautiful thing in itself, but I want to call the main event of WrestleMania. That is what drives me every Tuesday, or when I was doing Raw, or doing Mix Match Challenge, or 205 Live, or Level Up or now even with NXT, it’s to get to that specific moment.”
You can check out the complete interview below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
