Vic Joseph details his journey to WWE.
The NXT play-by-play man spoke with Chris Van Vilet during WrestleMania weekend about his decision to pursue WWE, one that involved him walking away from a secure job at CBS Sports. Joseph begins by talking about the ultimatum he gave to himself and how he would revaluate his options if he didn’t get signed within 12 months.
Dude, it’s really weird to look back. Because when we were in the car driving over here, we talked about it’s been nine years since I’ve seen you. And 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 the stuff in Cleveland that we talked about. And I really said I’m going to give myself I told myself, I’m going to give it 12 months. And if it doesn’t happen, well we’ll see where we go.
Joseph then discuses the phone call he received from Tom Hannifan (Phillips) who brought him in for a WWE audition in 2017. He says that he would be signed a few months later and has been happily working for The Fed ever since.
I got a phone call. I was at a Guns and Roses show in Chicago at Soldier Field. And 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 categorise as that this is what I want to do. This is what I love. This is what I am passionate about. And I don’t think if I would 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, that I never would have gotten signed.
Elsewhere in the interview, Joseph revealed that his main goal in WWE is to call the main event of WrestleMania. You can read his comments on that here. Check out his interview below.
(Special thanks to Chris Van Vilet for sending us quotes.)