Usually, if you grow up in Cleveland, you’re either a fan of the NFL’s Browns or the MLB Indians (now the Guardians). It is the right of way divided between father and son.

That sentiment rang true in Vic Joseph’s home growing up. He and his father, David, watched the Browns every Sunday during football season and the Indians from April through September, with an occasional playoff appearance in October.

But there was something that drew young Vic and David together. Professional fights. Specifically, WWE. Joseph, who will provide play-by-play Sunday night with Booker T for WWE NXT Halloween Havoc (7 p.m. ET, Peacock), fondly remembers attending his first WWE show with his father when he was six or seven years old.

“It was a live event at Richfield Coliseum,” Joseph said Take down. “So my dad said to me, ‘Oh, we’re going to an ISDA event,’ which is the Italian Sons and Daughters of America. It’s a real thing. It just wasn’t invented. This is like In the early 90s we walk in and I see all these people walking.

“We walk through the curtain, as you still do at an event. I see the ring, and the ring is getting bigger and bigger. I am amazed and I was there in the first row. “Randy Savage on the back. Mr. Perfect was on the card. Bret Hart was the champion. He actually worked with Mr. Hughes in the main event. Shawn Michaels was on the card. It was so cool.”

While young Vic was instantly hooked on pro wrestling, it wasn’t his first job. He worked at a CBS Radio affiliate in Cleveland, where he covered the Browns. For Joseph, an itch needed to be scratched and he wanted to get into what he loved while growing up with David. But it took a path that you don’t hear about from the announcing side of the equation. He followed the path that fighters usually followed.

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“I was doing affiliate baseball in Northwest Ohio for a couple of different teams,” Joseph explained. I said, “Here are my credentials. I just want to go in and get experience. Don’t pay me’.

“It was the snowball effect, you meet this person, you meet this person, jump in the car, go do it. I was jumping in the car with Rhino and going to all these freelancers and sleeping. You’re talking about somebody. I was working for CBS Sports Cleveland and I was sleeping in the car in front of a Pilot gas station on the freeway just because we had to do the next town on an independent Then I met Tommy Dreamer and I got into House of Hardcore and that But every time we did something , was learning Tommy, Rhino and those guys are teaching me what it’s going to take to get to a level of doing WWE.

After struggling with the independents while still on set, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow came for Joseph in 2017 when he signed with WWE. At first, he did everything. A jack of all trades, you might say.

“When I got here, I hit the ground running because I was already so passionate about it,” Joseph said passionately. “Let me do it. And the first few years I was here, I was a commentator for 205 Live, the Mix Match challenge for NXT. Not only was I doing those shows, which meant flying to Europe four days a month, every month for two years, for NXT UK, I was also an announcer doing live events for Raw, SmackDown and even NXT, and I hosted some of these live events I liked doing it because you got to know about the business.”

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The hard work paid off for Joseph as he was promoted in September 2019 to be the lead voice for Crude. He did so for a few months before leaving the post in January 2020. Due to COVID, Jospeh was laid off for a short time before returning and becoming the lead announcer for NXT in August 2020.

Things couldn’t have gone better for father-of-two and husband Mackenzie Mitchell. He was at his dream job, working for one of his idols in Shawn Michaels and commentating alongside someone he grew close to in Booker T.

But tragedy struck in July 2023 when Joseph learned that David had cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs. As Jospeh said, “It just filled his whole body.” He knew David wouldn’t be around much longer. He wanted to make sure he would be there every step of the way for the man who raised him, though.

Joseph kept things under the radar and only told a select few in WWE. Some companies wouldn’t have cared much more than offering their thoughts and moving on with their lives. This did not happen with WWE as they were in step with Joseph all the way.

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“They really moved church and state to make sure they were there,” Joseph said. “To be perfectly honest, it was Shawn (Michaels), Hunter (Paul Levesque), Michael Cole, Alicia Taylor and Johnny Russo. It was a small group of people who knew. I can’t tell you how many times Shawn Michaels came up to me and said, “Are you sure it’s good to go home?”

“I’m like, ‘I want to stay here.’ Hunter would say the same thing. Michael Cole lost his father and still did Monday Night Raw. So Michael Cole really stepped into the shoes I was walking into. They were there for me when I needed them, that’s how I feel. I never missed a doctor’s appointment. They made sure I got a flight no matter what it was going to be. Shawn, for Nick Khan and the company I was in was home (and) I was going to be with my dad.”

David fought as hard as he could. He passed away on October 10, 2023, at the age of 73. Despite the fact that the person who made him fight lost his battle with cancer, Vic knew only one thing to do.

“He died on a Tuesday morning,” Joseph said. We did the show, when Cody was here and The Undertaker and Cena and everybody. There was no way I was going to miss that show, because I was going to go home that day. That morning when he died, my wife said, “Vic, maybe you want to call your sister.” I called her and told her what happened. And I looked at her (his wife), I said, ‘I want you to text Shawn and Cole and Alicia and tell them what happened. Tell them I’m doing the show. And tell them: Don’t ask me not to do the show because I will.”

“I did the show. And when the show ended, Shawn was there to greet me. I’ll never forget a big hug and how proud he was. And the next day, Hunter called me. For those guys and Hunter in particular to take time out of his day, to take time out of Cole, coach (Matt) Bloom, once they found out they’re taking time out of their day with everything that’s going on with a global company, to stop and say, “The check-in has to really show you that some of the stories that you’ve read, I haven’t walked in those people’s shoes, but for me, the family aspect of WWE it meant so much to me during that time.”

Vic looked back and fondly at David. He understood that David was his biggest cheerleader. David made sure to watch it all not just because he loved WWE, but because he loved Vic and that was their wrestling bond that could never be broken. Vic’s dream was to work for the WWE, and David got to see him fulfill the goal that first started at the Richfield Coliseum, screaming and cheering for his favorite WWE Superstars.

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“He watched every week,” admits Joseph. “He loved Drew McIntyre. He loved Omos. He was looking. Then he would tell you what he didn’t like and tell you what he didn’t get. Record on Monday. Record NXT. Record Smackdown. Fast forward through commercials and then he’d call me and I wouldn’t answer the phone Our thing turned into a thing with my younger brothers and then turned into a thing with my son watching fights with my dad while he was looking at his father.

“Even when he was sick, he would sit back and go turn on NXT. He was sitting in his hospital room watching the show.”

“He had to watch these shows and see me call a match at WrestleMania and get the WrestleMania program. He was always so proud of it all. He kept my change card in my wallet, which I always thought was pretty cool.”