Renee Paquette tells all about signing with AEW.
All Elite Wrestling made their debut in Canada on 10/12. Kicking off Dynamite was the newest signee to the company, Renee Paquette.
Coming off of her AEW on-screen debut, Renee released an episode of The Sessions podcast during which she tells all about her decision to join the company. Paquette recorded this episode several days before the announcement of her being signed.
She’s glad to be back in the mix of pro wrestling and added that her podcast is not going anywhere.
It’s out there and I am so excited [about signing with AEW]. I’m so excited to be back in the world of professional wrestling and not that it feels like — it does feel like I left in the sense of being at the shows, working at the shows, being around the ring, shooting the sh*t with everybody, seeing what the creative looks like, all that stuff. I love that aspect and in the last two-and-a-half years with us doing this show and of course guys, this show still goes on as usual. Me joining AEW does not affect The Sessions at all, I mean other than getting more great guests but actually, even to give a little nod about that is AEW has always been so great to us for booking guests as is so, it’s already been an easy process. But yeah, it feels so good to be back in this world.
Paquette had been backstage at AEW events on multiple occasions as a guest of Jon Moxley’s. She said it was different being there and not contributing because that’s what she’s used to.
It was always sort of like an odd, displaced sort of feeling any time I went to shows with Jon [Moxley] because I’m always used to being at the shows but working and being useful and contributing. So being there for the duration of Jon being at AEW and not doing that and just being there, being Jon’s wife, I’m just hanging out and I’ll pop through catering and grab a bite and it’s just a different feeling kind of going as a guest as opposed to now being like, oh my God, yay, oh, I go here now.
As the conversation continued, Renee explained that the talks of her joining AEW did not stem from conversations she had with Tony Khan.
Renee would talk to Moxley about how she was interested in getting back into it and what that would look like for her. She added that she believes it was more so Moxley and Tony talking about bringing her in and things came together really fast.
So, it’s kind of funny because as much as I had been around a lot, I really never talked to Tony [Khan] about coming into AEW and a lot of it — this is probably gonna sound bad and I’m sure people are gonna take this out of context but honestly, a lot of it was talking to Jon [Moxley], or being like, ‘Man, I wanna get back into — I wanna get back in the wrestling world. I miss being around it, I miss doing stuff’ and as he’s thinking about what the shows look like and his role on the shows and all that. Most of our conversations were internally between Jon and I, about figuring out, ‘Yeah, I wanna do something, I wanna come back. I don’t know what that conversation is. How are we gonna go about that kind of thing?’ And him and Tony are obviously very close. They spend tons of time talking about things so, I think it was more so them talking about it because I don’t know if it was like — I think a lot of people just sort of thought I was done with wrestling to a degree and maybe they didn’t wanna ask me to do something they thought that I didn’t wanna do or they didn’t wanna step on Jon’s toes or any of those things and those are all very real things that could have been. But yeah, it was just the timing of everything. I wanna be there as a broadcaster, as a personality. I want to be able to help other people if they want help or need help on things. I wanna be an ear for people in any way that I can and yeah, just kind of use my eight years experience having worked in WWE to see how I can sort of help in AEW now.
It all happened really fast. It literally happened so fast where like Jon and I had been talking about it and yeah, it felt like the next day, my manager is calling me being like, ‘Oh yeah, they’re reaching out. The contract’s coming through.’ I was like wow, that was a real quick turnaround. Holy sh*t.
While Paquette was still with WWE, she became a full-time commentator for the Monday Night Raw brand. She has opened up in past media appearances about how tasking that role was and the struggles she faced.
When asked about the idea of doing commentary again, she immediately said no. But then went on to say that it could be a different experience under different circumstances. Ultimately, Paquette feels that commentary is not her groove and she enjoys doing interviews.
No [Paquette immediately responded]. I shouldn’t say no but I also feel like anyone that just heard you [podcast co-host] say that probably had the same reaction as me as like, no thanks. We don’t need that, we don’t want that and that’s always how I’ve felt about it which is why I always feel I have that quick, knee-jerk reaction because I feel like people had such a negative reaction to it, you know? And it wasn’t the thing I wanted it to be and could it be different in different circumstances? And we all know what those circumstances are. Could it be different? Possibly, because honestly, when I did commentary at NXT, I did have a good time and I did enjoy doing that so maybe, but I don’t know that that’s the thing that I love doing. If the opportunity made sense and it was something everyone was on the same page about, maybe. But I just don’t see that being what I wanna do. I like doing the TV stuff, I like doing the interviews, I like all of that stuff. I think just being the voice during the entire show is just not really my thing. I’m not a sound-biter either. I’ve learned that real quick. Not a sound-biter.
Paquette then dove into a conversation about possibly working with Jon Moxley on-screen. She is unsure about that and feels Moxley has this special aura about him and does not want to take away from that.
She’s not of the mindset that she has to pretend like she does not know her husband but doesn’t feel the need to remind everyone that they are together.
See, I just don’t know. I don’t know about that [leaning into the husband-wife dynamic on-screen with Moxley].
We’ve never spoken about it to be completely honest. It’s not something we’ve spoken about but the way that I look at it and feel about it without the risk of sound super cheesy, it’s like, he has built something so special and so authentic and great with what he does. He is just in such a great groove. He’s the best, sh*t. What he’s been able to do within his time in AEW, within the stuff he does on the indies, the stuff he decides to do, he is just in this pocket and I never want to do anything to distract from that or get my own sh*t in there with what he’s doing… I don’t wanna [be] that person that’s like, oh me too, don’t forget about me too. That’s my husband. I think that’s obnoxious as hell so I don’t wanna do — if there was a thing, of course I’m not gonna pretend that I’m not married to the guy or act like I don’t know him or something. That’s dumb. But I think in terms of positioning myself or making it aware to, ‘That’s my husband.’ There’s Jon Moxley’s wife. I just don’t think anyone needs that.
Not that people don’t like the idea but I think Jon just has such a loner, lone wolf kind of vibe about him. To be like, oh, the cheery, happy girl is his wife? It’s just a weird juxtaposition that I don’t know that works on-camera in that way.
To hear POST Wrestling’s recap of Paquette’s introductory segment and the entire program, check out the newest Rewind-A-Dynamite episode.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Sessions with Renée Paquette with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
