News

Renee Paquette Recalls Vince McMahon Yelling She “F**king Ruined” A Segment

Renee Paquette on commentary

Renee Paquette, formerly Renee Young in WWE, has opened up about an incident where Vince McMahon screamed “You’ve f*cking ruined it!” at her through her headset.

There have been many stories over the years of Vince McMahon berating members of the WWE commentary team during shows, and now Renee Paquette has revealed his temper isn’t only directed at the announce booth

Paquette was part of WWE from 2012 to 2020 and worked in roles as a backstage interviewer, kick-off show host, and was also the first female member of the commentary team.

Sitting down with Ariel Helwani, she spoke about a time when she was still a backstage interviewer and Vince McMahon lost it at her through her headset. His issue was that Paquette had not referred to Tyson Fury the way he would want her to when introducing a video package featuring the Heavyweight boxing star, who was making appearances for WWE at the time.

“So I wasn’t on commentary for this moment. But it was after I had done commentary, and I was doing a panel. I want to say it was either the premiere of SmackDown on FOX, no that was in LA, we were in Las Vegas. Anyway, we were doing a panel show where they cut to us in between the show. It was some kind of special. Anyway, Tyson Fury was on the show when he was doing a stint in WWE, and it was me, Samoa Joe, Booker T and Beth Phoenix, I think that’s what the cast was.

I was was throwing to a package, blah blah blah, something something The Gypsy King Tyson Fury, throw to the package. And he [Vince] is in my ear and he goes ‘You f**king ruined it!’ Screaming at me, telling me that I have ruined this segment, because I did not refer to Tyson Fury as the Lineal Champion. I referred to him as The Gypsy King. He’s screaming at me, and at this point I am over it. I did the commentary thing, I’m just a little bit hardened to the circumstances.”

She went on to say that situation was demoralising for her.

“So he is yelling to me about this and I’m looking down at my notes, maybe looking at Samoa Joe and taking in this information in my ear, but he thinks I am ignoring him. So he yells at me again. ‘Do you hear me! Acknowledge that you hear me!’ He wanted me to look into the camera and be like yes sir I hear you, I understand you and I apologise. But yeah, just to be yelled at for a small, I don’t want to say mistake, I just didn’t call him the Lineal Champion.

“I didn’t know it was that necessary that I ruined the run of Tyson Fury in WWE by not calling him that. But to be yelled like that in front of your peers was pretty demoralising. We had to do an on-camera after that, and I just wanted to pull off my headset, get in my car and drive home.”

Tyson Fury was in a programme with Braun Strowman back in October 2019, the two ended up facing off in a match at that year’s Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia on October 31st. Fury emerged victorious from his battle with the ‘Monster Among Men’.

Renee Paquette left WWE in August 2020, and has since started her own podcast, ‘Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette’.

H/T to Inside the Ropes for the above transcription.