Renee Paquette Discusses Joining AEW

Renee Paquette is now All Elite and the former WWE announcer has opened up about why this was the right time for her to join AEW.

Prior to AEW’s Canadian debut in Paquette’s hometown of Toronto, Tony Khan took to social media to reveal that the former Raw commentator was joining the company.

Speaking on The Sessions podcast, Renee Paquette spoke at length about her decision to finally delve back into the world of a wrestling company for the first time since leaving WWE in 2020 and says she took her time to figure things out after having she and Jon Moxley’s first child:

“So you know, I think for me it is like, you know, it’s a really funny moment right now, where I feel like over the past two and a half years, I planted a lot of seeds. And while you’re planting those seeds, you’re watering them, are they growing? Is the thing doing what I want it to be doing? oh God, that I overwater something sh*t, this thing’s dried out, blah, blah, blah, all those different things that now I really feel like I’m at a point where they’re sprouting some things that are really coming out of the ground.’

‘And I think that’s a reminder to myself to anybody listening to this that like, you know, when I left WWE, it wasn’t that instant, like cool. I’m doing this and I’m doing this. I didn’t really have any like announcements. I wasn’t you know, I was doing my own thing and kind of grinding away but it’s not like I was like, I’m joining Good Morning America or something like that, you know, like, I was home.”

“I just had a baby, that was like a whole ordeal. Obviously like you know, you’re having a kid you’re pregnant for nine months. You figure out being a mom for the first time while also carving your own path and trying to figure all that stuff out.”

“So there’s definitely like those ups and those downs and it’s not that instant gratification and I would be remiss to not say that there weren’t times that I didn’t think like oh my God I feel like I am batting my head against the wall, I am barking up the wrong tree is should I just be like calling it for now and like just hanging at home with my kid?”

“And like no shade to that at all like that’s a beautiful option and honestly, when I was looking at those options for me it was like I love spending time with my kid, how lucky would I be to be a mom that can spend that much time with her daughter? I still do get to spend a lot of time with my daughter so it’s not like you know, of course, I have these jobs that will take me away a little bit more as we figure out you know, travelling with a kid and all those things that we have not figured out yet. Put a pin in that one for the time being, we’re gonna sort that out as we go.”

Renee Paquette then explained how despite all of her other work and commitments, ultimately she missed being part of a live show and was ready to get out of the house again:

“[…] So to have that happen, and now this opportunity with AEW. And yeah, I mean, I guess going back to your question, which is now taking me approximately 35 minutes to get to answer, is that, you know, it’s missing being around professional wrestling, it’s missing that TV aspect of doing things. I love that I get to work from home. I love that I can pop upstairs, turn on the microphone, turn on the camera, do the podcast.”

“I was doing hits of the NHL network all from right here as well. Like I lived a really great life of being able to work from home while we were all stuck in COVID and that’s just how everyone was existing. To be like, Yeah, you know, I miss that I miss the crowds. I miss the lights. I miss the like outfits and the aspect of putting on an actual show. I’m ready to get out of my f*cking sweatpants is what I’m saying.”

Paquette then explained how she hadn’t discussed things about coming to AEW with Tony Khan but says a lot of it came down to conversations she was having with her husband Jon Moxley about what such a move might look like:

“So it’s kind of funny because as much as I had been around a lot, I really never talked to Tony about coming into AEW. A lot of it was, and this probably gonna sound bad and I’m sure people are going to take this out of context. But honestly, a lot of it was talking to Jon, of being like, man, like, I want to get back into [it], I want to be back in the wrestling world, I miss being around and I miss doing stuff.”

“And, you know, as he’s like, thinking about, like, what the shows look like, and his role on the shows and all that, like most of our conversations, were internally between Jon and I, about figuring out like, yeah, I want to do something, I want to come back. I don’t know what that conversation is like, how are we going to go about that kind of thing? And him and Tony are obviously very close, they spend tonnes of time talking about things. So I think it was more so like them talking about it.”

“Because I don’t know if it was like, I think a lot of people just thought that I was sort of like done with wrestling to a degree. And maybe they didn’t want to ask me to do something that I didn’t want to do, or they didn’t want to step on Jon’s toes or any of those things, and those are all very real things that could have been. But yeah, I think like, it was just the timing of everything.”

“I want to 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 want to be an ear for people in any way that I can. Yeah, just kind of use you know, my eight years of experience having worked in WWE to seeing how I can sort of help in AEW now.”

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