Vic Joseph, the new voice of WWE NXT, is the guest this week on Corey Graves’ “After The Bell” podcast.
Joseph and Graves shared road stories, they talked about Joseph’s path to WWE and much more. Here are some highlights:
Vic Joseph talked about his background before coming to WWE: “I was with the Cincinnati Reds and the affiliates with the Reds covering baseball. I’ve done a World Series for the Cleveland Indians. I did the NBA Finals for the Cavaliers. I’ve interviewed Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. I’ve had my own CBS radio talk show in Cleveland. I think the internet community looks at the announcers here and then go on to do other things, almost like WWE is their springboard. For me, that was my springboard to get here. I had a great career outside of WWE, but all that was to get here.”
Vic told us how he got his start in wrestling: “I was doing stuff with an affiliate with the Cincinnati Reds at the time so I was just getting my footing in baseball and I thought that would be my career path. I happened to turn on the TV one day and PWO was on Sports Time Ohio. That was the starting foundation of NXT Superstar Johnny Gargano. I remember sending an email to the promoter at the time, told him what I was and what I currently was doing. The kicker was I told them I will do it for free. It was Johnny Gargano who said we have to bring him in. He said this is someone with real credentials and if he is not good, who cares. At least this small independent on TV is with somebody affiliated with baseball. If Johnny Gargano did not say that to the promoter, I don’t think I would have continued on. This was in December 2009.”
Vic discussed his car accident: “I’ve never talked about this publicly. I went from the back seat through the front seat and had to go to speech therapy and learn how to talk. There is a scar under my face that no one ever sees. My knee from top to bottom was completely out. I was on the side of the road with a white sheet over me. That’s how bad it was. I’m being dead serious. I moved and they screamed, he’s alive. They put me on the gurney, cut my shirt off and I made a joke. I woke up with a neck brace on. I have a scar on my face and there is still a piece of glass in there. I had to go to speech therapy to learn how to talk. I went to an independent show and I met Rhyno. He and I are closer than most people care to know. He is family to me. He said start jumping in the car with me on my off weekends. Every weekend, I was in the car with him. He let me pick his brain for hours in the car. He introduced me to person A and person B. I ended up meeting Tommy Dreamer. He had a promotion he was running. The day his promotion was going to start, he asked me if I wanted to call the show. That is what started me on the path to WWE.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit After The Bell with Corey Graves with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
