WWE’s Vic Joseph & TNA’s McKenzie Mitchell Get Candid About Marriage and Family Life

Vic Joseph and McKenzie Mitchell is a match made in pro wrestling broadcast heaven. Joseph can be heard calling the action Tuesday nights on WWE’s NXT and during premium live events like Stand & Deliver airing April 4. Mitchell ring announces Thursdays during TNA Wrestling’s iMPACT! on AMC and its pay-per-views including April 11 for Rebellion. The couple got together while Mitchell also worked for WWE, marrying in 2022. Joseph came into the relationship with two children Brooklyn and David. 

They’ve been there for each other through the ups and downs that come with a career in sports entertainment. And the two are busier than ever with Mitchell in particular gearing up to release her book “Threads of Triumph: Professional Wrestling’s Most Iconic Looks.” This project leans into a love for fashion, chronicling the evolution of gear and presentation from the 1940s to the golden age of television and the decades that followed. 

Mitchell certainly has credentials to write on the subject with her own jewelry line and business Headline by MM based in Nashville. Top names in the industry Seth Rollins and Jeff Hardy have been among those to wear pieces, as well as country superstars Sarah Evans and Lainey Wilson. 

Ahead of the busy week ahead, Joseph and McKenzie open up about their life together. 

Vic Joseph and McKenzie Mitchell

When was the moment you two realized you were each other’s person? 

Vic Joseph: It was love at first sight. 

McKenzie Mitchell: Oh my God [laughs]. Well, we met for the first time backstage at Raw. It was my very first WWE show on the road. He was calling Raw at the time. I was still working on the digital side in Connecticut. We met each other, and I thought there is something about this guy. I don’t know what it is, but I’m definitely interested. We went on a date a month later. 

Vic: It was around Survivor Series in 2019. She was doing NXT at the time, and she was asked to stay at the end because WWE used to do those things with Hunter [Paul Levesque}. They were Facebook Live posts. She texted me that she will be late. I took an Uber to the hotel. There was a Target next to the arena. I was then sitting on cat food hiding from people in the Target for about 25 minutes. Then I walked out and had the car where we picked her up and went to dinner. That was our first date. 

McKenzie: You may ask why cat food. That’s where he thought to hide out in the Target to be the least conspicuous. 

Vic: Nobody was back there in the cat food aisle. There was one cat food, so I just sat down and leaned back. I sat there for 20 or so minutes. That is a true story. 

Then you weathered through COVID while working for the same company. Do you feel this showed how your relationship could withstand different things? 

Vic: I think if you stayed married or in a relationship through COVID, you can get through just about anything to be fair because you were with that person all the time. We actually during COVID we were either staying at the Hyatt Hotel at the MCO (Orlando International Airport) or we have a condo on the other side of the state in Florida. We were a lot luckier than a lot of people in terms of living conditions. We were with each other all the time, driving to and from work. We were taping at the time. During the early part of COVID, I got furloughed. I don’t think I’ve ever said that publicly. So, I wasn’t working while she was doing NXT at the time. 

McKenzie: So, he would drop me off at work, and I’d go, “See you in 12 hours.” He would come back to get me back at work. Wild times, but that is the industry. 

How do you approach the work-life balance? I’ve talked to wrestling couples, but yours is unique in that’s on the announcing end. 

McKenzie: I think it’s an advantage for both of us to do the same job because we can bounce ideas off of each other. I’m very lucky for that because I may have something in mind that’s a backstage interview or a ring announcement, I’m able to come to him. I feel as we talk about storytelling, things going on in the industry. I think it’s all unique. 

People also ask us if we talk about wrestling all the time at home. We do, but there is also a healthy balance as well. We make sure that is separated in terms of talking about a show, but also what is at hand and priority with our home life. That’s something we balance pretty well. Especially now with us in different companies with me in TNA and him in WWE, we do have this awesome partnership going on between the companies. That creates a fun balance for us as well to be back working together. When we were at NXT, we had this routine we did every Tuesday. We’d wake up, get ready, get our coffee, and I’d go into makeup. He’d go talk to Wade Barrett at the time. They would just start their day. Now work is a little bit different. Life is a bit busier on my side. A good calendar keeps us balanced for sure. 

Vic: If I have a question about TNA because sometimes TNA recordings are in advance, I will always bounce things off her. For example, this past Tuesday on NXT we had the TNA Champion Mike Santana. I go, “Hey, what is Mike Santana doing next week? What has been happening?” She’ll give me bullet points, and I’d work those into a match for him. We also have the Knockouts Champion Arianna Grace, who is an NXT superstar as well. Well, who is she facing next? What just happened to her? Even though I may think I know it, it’s still nice to say, “I just want to make sure because I don’t want to do something wrong.” It’s such a great partnership to cross over to another brand. It is so unique, but I think that gives us an advantage. She may ask me how to do the Birthright [faction] announcement. I’d tell her, and she’d work it in her own way. That’s the synergy that happens. I don’t even think companies know that it’s an easy dynamic for us to make sure we’re doing things right for both brands. 

So Vic, you’re saying you owe McKenzie some producing money. 

Vic: Oh yes. And she dresses me most of the time, too. 

McKenzie: I’ll give you a great example. Not this shirt exactly, but before we went to do this interview, he was wearing a winter sweater. I was like, “Honey, it’s April. We’re right into spring. I just wrote a book about fashion. I’m in full spring and you’re wearing this deep dark winter sweater.” He changed. 

Vic: Spoiler alert. This is also the same shirt you’ll see me wear in the new Shawn Michaels documentary coming to Peacock in two weeks. 

You also have fun together with kids. How is it juggling that as well and being present? 

Vic: Just last Saturday Brooklyn was in a Winnie the Pooh play. She was a critter who sang in the chorus. Unfortunately, our son David broke his jaw in three spots. We had to take care of that. It is part of juggling as well. At the same time, they do love entertainment. David loves the wrestling aspect. Brooklyn loves the fashion aspect. It is easy to pull those apart a little bit, but it is a balancing act. 

McKenzie: It is, but they love coming to Florida. Every time we are in town or visit them in Ohio, we try to make the trips and experiences moments. We talked about seeing A Christmas Story house or we’d go to Disney quite often. We like to have those moments with the kids to create lifetime memories. 

Vic Joseph and McKenzie Mitchell

McKenzie, your book is finally coming out. What does that mean to you? 

McKenzie: I was just thinking about that today. I went on my Amazon account. My mom and I share an Amazon account, and it says arriving on Tuesday as I’m shopping for something else. It’s such a crazy thought. I had the idea for six years and then I put the book proposal together, got a literary agent and really got to work on it in June 2024. I started getting a mock design, a feel of everything white we had the kids in the house. They were very interested. I would bounce ideas off of Vic. It is wild that it has been going on a year-and-a-half of work. I feel like a musician who has written this beautiful album or song or EP and poured their heart into something. Then they are like, “Do you like it? What do you think about it? Do you want to listen to it over and over again?” I think it’s an interesting thing when you think about it that way. A lot of thought and time and effort went into it. 

Vic, you’re a noted wrestling fan. If you saw this book on the shelf, and she wasn’t your wife, what would you think of it? 

Vic: Ironically, this is what she asked me when she first started writing about it. Not to get too deep into it, but I take this as this is her love letter to professional wrestling in a different way. Most people will write books and say, “I wrote this chapter and this chapter and had help here.” She wrote every single word, every single sentence, every single paragraph.” It all came from her. It did not come from anybody else. The interviews were done by her. She came up with the questions. The fun game we did play was when she would show me a photo and say, “Hey honey, when did Shawn Michaels wear this?”  I’d look at it and go, “Bad Blood?” She’d think, “How do you just know that?” She messages Johnny Gargano since I’m at work. When did Shawn Michaels wear this or Undertaker or Bret Hart? He’d answer. 

She took the time to dive in and break it down. The questions to the talent are so in-depth across the board. If I saw this on the shelf, one of the questions may be, is it manly enough? One hundred percent because anybody reading this right now is a wrestling fan, you can’t tell me you don’t have a favorite piece of gear that someone wore or someone’s favorite entrance a wrestler came out to. Mine was Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels at SummerSlam 1995, their second ladder match. It was those light blue trunks that Shawn had on. Those are my favorite. I have the action figure in my man shed right now. We all created gear from video games. I’ve definitely would have picked it up and bought up. 

McKenzie, who would be your Top 5 stylish wrestlers? 

McKenzie: That’s steep. I would say obviously for many reasons, not just because he is on the cover, but “Macho Man” Randy Savage. I had the honor of connecting to his family, his widower Lynn Poffo and the one who still runs the estate. The guy who designed the gear for “Macho Man,” Michael Braun. He also did stuff for Jimi Hendrix. So I spent a lot of time with them. I got to know them quite well, so getting to know on a deeper level of understanding of who Randy Savage was and how important it was to carry on that legacy, it’s a no-brainer with Randy Savage. Then it’s Shawn Michaels. Not just because we have a good understanding of Shawn and relationship with Shawn. 

Vic; It gives me goosebumps every time she says it. He is my hero. 

McKenzie: Shawn really took the time with whoever did his gear, Julie Youngberg, who did a lot of his gear back in the day. He gives so much credit to Julie. Actually, there is a first-ever Shawn Michaels story that he has never told. When you think about all the interviews he has done over the years, how have we never heard some of the stories? We had a 45-minute interview and he went on. I felt lucky in that situation because Shawn wanted to tell me about these things because it was a question who had never come up. Of course, we have to give Bianca Belair her flowers. She put so much time and effort into her gear. I think there were fun stories that came out of Bianca’s interviews. As well as Mick Foley, where I think it’s important to pinpoint this. A lot of people wouldn’t expect my favorite interviews would have been with Mick Foley. We had some really good conversation and pieces you wouldn’t have known other than this book talking about his gear, characters, and story points. If we’re going number five, I’ll let Vic chime in…

Vic: David would say Rey Mysterio because Rey through the curtain looked at me one time after doing the interview for the book. He said, “I owe this to your son.” He took off his mask and gave it to me. So, we have a one of one Rey mask. I think lending the Americana of professional wrestling with the lucha libre tradition of Mexico and staying true to himself from the beginning. One of the most iconic pro wrestling gears ever is from WCW Halloween Havoc 1997. The full body suit he had when he faced Eddie Guerrero. I’d put him at five because he continues to evolve himself and his masks are so unique. 

McKenzie: Rey or Seth for sure. I have to give credit to Seth Rollins as well for the path he has been carving out. 

Vic Joseph and McKenzie Mitchell

This is not something that has been covered at all. People have never been asked about it. And also having the support of the companies to make these connections, I think it’s a testament to the belief they have in the project. 

McKenzie: I think that is the goal in this is it’s a first-ever conversation like this. I think that is surprising to a lot of people. Nobody asked Rey Mysterio how many gear or masks he has in his closet. We have that answer. He didn’t even think about it. He was like, “Nobody has asked me that before.” That was surprising to me. 

Vic: It’s wild to think about. 

McKenzie: A lot of the time we get caught up with how the match is, what was your favorite WrestleMania moment. For this, we were able to dive a little bit deeper to tell those stories. Maybe superstars had for a long time and had all these hidden message points but never got to share the story. That was a big goal of mine. To have the first-ever conversation about the gear. These are connecting to fans worldwide. Why not put a spotlight in the medium of a book that can lay beautifully on a coffee table. I say this book is for everyone. It’s not just for day one wrestling fans or those in the industry. It truly a book if you are in the industry and know further conversations or learn to become a wrestler, this will be a Bible learning from the best, the legends, the icons who have done it before him. Also, the day one fan. It’s also great for the wife who has a husband who says, “I want to buy this coffee table book.” She may think it looks beautiful and be like, “Let’s just put it in the house.” It works for everybody. That was my goal as well to make sure everyone felt included in this book. 

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Candice [LeRae] and son Quill. Ricky Saints has something for his mom. Trick [Williams] has stuff. It’s so unique to actually hear how many athletes and superstars you see come to the ring and there is actually something for somebody nobody has any clue of and it’s such a unique story that can connect to the audience. It helps me out because it gives me another layer of commentary.

“Threads of Triumph: Professional Wrestling’s Most Iconic Looks” is available for preorder now.