Vic Joseph Comments on Booker T Being Best Broadcast Partner He Has Ever Had
A recent episode of the Cheap Heat with Peter Rosenberg podcast featured WWE NXT commentator Vic Joseph as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Joseph’s thoughts about his stint in WWE’s RAW commentary team being a “failure” for him but feels that he has found his home in NXT.
“And then I got the call to do Monday Night Raw and I will say because a lot of people talk about my time on Raw and it was short. If I didn’t have that experience and Rose, you’ll know this more than a lot of people listening, if I didn’t have that failure, I would not have known how to succeed and so with that, coming back in 2020 with NXT, I’ve been in the seat ever since. I have felt that every year, I’ve gotten better and I do feel that it’s my home. It’s, for a lack of a better phrase, my show. You listen to SmackDown, you think Michael Cole, you think Joe Tessitore (on Raw). I don’t think I’ve ever been, no matter what show I did, thought of in that way. Thought of, oh! That’s Vic’s show. Oh, Michael Cole’s on, Tess is on or Corey Graves is on and I feel that now.
I look at it (Raw commentary stint) as a failure because if it wasn’t a failure, I’d still be doing the show. That’s how I look at it and so, I didn’t do my job and because I didn’t do my job up to the ability of certain individuals, they had to make a decision. I thank Paul Heyman for giving me that opportunity. I just saw Paul recently at Raw and we always go back-and-forth and I always pick his brain but he always tells me, ‘You didn’t fail.’ Every time I see him, he goes, ‘Hey, just remember, you didn’t fail. It just was a bad situation.’ I look at it a little bit differently because I’m always a little bit harder on myself. But man, I can tell you if you go back and listen to 2019 Vic Joseph and you listen to 2024 Vic Joseph, it is night and frickin’ day, because when I was doing Raw, I couldn’t handle doing a graphic and a transition and getting back into the calling the match and I was working with Jerry Lawler, at the time, who’s seen it all and it was moving so fast. You were talking about football. (Jayden) Daniels is the quarterback for the (Washington) Commanders. It’s slowed down already for him. But man, when I got in there, I was like that number one pick and everything was moving so fast and I just wasn’t doing fundamentals. I was out of my comfort zone and to get taken from that show and to do what I’m doing now, I do all the graphics, I do all the transitions, I do all the kicks, I do all the sends and all that and that is by design and that (is) what I’ve taken the most from it is people listening go, ‘Man, that’s smooth. You’ve gotten so much better.’ I had to or I wouldn’t be here and then that’s just the honest to God’s truth about it and so I took a lot from that Raw run that-that had to happen for me to get to where I am now. It had to happen.”
Joseph also gave his thoughts about Booker T being the best broadcast partner he has ever had in his wrestling commentary career.
“Let me throw it to you this way, I had one of the music producers that always brings in a Sexyy Red or a HARDY or a Jelly Roll, he came up to me and he said, ‘Hey man, I gotta tell you, you make our job so much easier because you when you told Book when Sexyy Red came out in June that if he stood up, he was gonna tip over the table, we lost it,’ and I did live on-air and that’s the other part is I have so much freedom with Book. Wade Barrett got my confidence back, right? Wade and Beth (Phoenix) both did. I got my master’s degree. Working with book, I’m getting my doctorate, and he is the perfect broadcast colleague for me to work with right now because at the end of the day, going back to what he (podcast co-host) said about Raw, falls on me and so, I have him ready to go and I trust whatever he’s gonna say, I just have to be able to pick it up and run with it and that’s the beauty of it because when he says something, I don’t know what he’s gonna say. I never know anything Booker T is going to say, hand to God, any week we’re on Tuesdays and what you’re hearing from me is my actual genuine reaction and it is. It’s the best broadcast partner I’ve ever worked with in any sport, in anything now. I can’t say enough good things about Booker, and you (Peter Rosenberg) worked with him on the Countdown shows. You don’t know what he’s gonna say, or how he’s gonna act and that’s part of the fun. Cody Rhodes told me when the switch happened. I was in Italy actually, when all this switching went on and two years ago, I was on my honeymoon and I got a text from Shawn Michaels and it said, ‘Can you work with Booker?’ ‘Yeah, sure. Cool. I’ll see you when I get back’ and it has been off and running ever since with him. I mean, it is so fun to work with him and Cody Rhodes told me, ‘You have to let Book be Book. Do not have him play wrassler/broadcast analyst 101. Just let Booker be Booker.’”
Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com
Bronson Reed Comments on Original Plans was for Fewer Tsunamis to Seth Rollins Before Triple H Decided for More on the Spot
A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured Bronson Reed as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Reed revealing that he was originally planned to hit fewer Tsumanis to Seth Rollins on the September 30th WWE RAW show before WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque decided on the spot for more instead.
“No (I was not originally supposed to give six Tsunamis to Seth Rollins). No. I think it was supposed to be significantly less, and then the way that it turned out with Hunter’s vision is it just was more and more and more and it was one of those things where you’re listening to the audience and you can just feel a change in the audience as I was doing it. Hit the first two, they’re sort of booing. It looks like that’s it and then I go up for the third one and people sort of like, what the hell’s going on here? Then I go up for the fourth one, they can’t comprehend what’s happening and by the fifth one, they’re chanting for more. There’s like blood lust amongst the crowd for someone that they love as well. They love Seth Rollins and I was glad that it actually ended up working where after the sixth one, I left and they still started chanting, singing his music that he comes out to so, that also worked… Exactly (they were chanting ‘one more time’). As much as they love someone like Seth Rollins or any of the top guys that are super over, I guess that move now has its own lore, the Tsunami, and I always tell people, ‘If you get to see it live, it’s different to seeing it on TV.’ It’s very impactful so I guess six in a row, which I’ve never done, was a lot.
No, no (it was not finalized that I’d be giving six Tsunamis to Rollins when I first went to the ring). As it’s happening (is when I’m informing Rollins that I’d be continuously doing the move). So, it’s one of those things like, yeah, he has to be willing to be able to be there and I have to be willing do more but, it had definitely worked out and it made for such a great moment in television. I think I had so much buzz around that and then people online as well saying they haven’t seen something like that in WWE for so long where you can take someone and just propel them in one night with just one segment. Not a match, nothing else, just brutality.”
Reed also gave his thoughts about his belief that his moment with Rollins was a career defining moment for him.
“Yeah, I think so for sure (Tsunamis on Seth Rollins is a career-defining moment). I spoke with Hunter right afterwards and he said that’s a moment that will last forever. They can replay that as much as possible… I’m not gonna say it’s nowhere near as good because, you know, he’s one of the best ever but it’s like Stone Cold at King of the Ring doing the 3:16 line, that promo, you instantly remember it and you instantly remember a switch in his character and where he went from then, and I’m hoping that people remember the six Tsunamis as something similar.”
Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com
WWE News & Notes
ESPN reported that the roof of Tropicana Field sustained major damage due to high winds caused by Hurricane Milton’s impact in Tampa, Florida. In regards to wrestling history, the stadium was the host of this past January’s Royal Rumble 2024 event and had been the home of WWE’s ThunderDome from December of 2020 to April of 2021.
CM Punk reportedly was in attendance backstage at this past Tuesday’s NXT show in Chesterfield, Missouri, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Punk was seen giving advice to talent backstage.
WWE recently released a new music video recapping the CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre Hell in a Cell match from this past Saturday’s Bad Blood 2024 event in Atlanta, Georgia. This music video was set to the song “It’s Supposed To Hurt” by House of Protection.
WWE recently filed trademarks for “Tiffy Time,” “Mami,” and “Bad Blood” on October 8th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Netflix recently revealed that their Mr. McMahon docuseries was the sixth most watched television show on the service for the week of September 30 to October 6. The docuseries was listed with a viewership of around 3,400,000 views and around 19,500,000 total hours viewed, both down from its premiere week’s 4,900,000 viewers and 28,200,000 total hours viewed.
WWE recently released two new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a “The story of “Evil” Doink the Clown: WWE Playlist.” The second new video was a tag team match of Rikishi & The Rock vs. Kane & Kurt Angle from the Oct. 9, 2000 episode of WWE RAW.
As noted before, Wednesday’s WWE Speed show on Twitter featured Candice LeRae defeating IYO SKY in the Finals of WWE’s WWE Speed Women’s Championship tournament to become its inaugural champion. WWE recently released a post-match backstage video featuring LeRae and Indi Hartwell’s thoughts about LeRae’s victory.
Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that those spoken to within WWE stated that while WWE officials have stuck to a usual 5-match format for their WWE PLE events of late meaning less people get matches, they still plan to frequently use backstage segments to get as many people on the show, including the use of WWE Legends. Those spoken to stated that WWE has starred producing packets for their younger talent to let them know the legends in attendance at shows if they want to ask them questions or seek advice. Those spoken to reportedly stated that WWE keeping the five-match card format for PLEs has saved the company a lot of money on travel costs and stars who are not booked for them get an extra day off that they wouldn’t usually get as the company tends to hold house shows over the weekend, which is something they are toning down moving forward.
William Regal recently reflected on Twitter about his belief that the late Eddie Guerrero is the greatest all-around pro wrestler of all time in wrestling. Regal stated “Without a doubt in my mind Eddie was the best all round Pro Wrestler ever. An exceptional in ring command and ability to wrestle anyone in the world without ever meeting them until the bell went, entertaining skills and presence and exceptional (once he figured it out) talking ability. And a very close friend. The greatest.“
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