Canadian Renee Paquette was destined to shine as a broadcaster in professional wrestling.
The backstage reporter and producer for All Elite Wrestling first aspired to become an actress, but eventually found her way onto the screen through interviewing.
She started out at Bite TV but began her wrestling journey at The Score for a commentary show after Monday Night Raw called Aftermath. It was part of her overall philosophy – don’t turn anything down.
“Especially so early on in your career you say yes to doing things,” said Paquette in a recent internet interview from Cincinnati, Ohio, where she resides with her wrestler husband Jon Moxley. “Because you want the experience, you want to throw something against the wall and see what’s going to work.”
The Ajax, Ont. native was learning how to navigate working in live television in front and behind the camera while still being new to it.
“As soon as I started hosting, everything kind of aligned for me. It felt like it was the right thing to do.” said the 38-year-old.
“You get experience everywhere you are. Whether it’s experience in front of the camera, behind the camera, working with other producers, seeing how different ideas come together and then play out.
“It’s really cool to gather that experience along the way.”
In every workplace, Paquette, who exudes confidence, had a supportive team to help her excel from Greg Sansone at The Score to Paul Levesque in WWE to Tony Khan with AEW.
She’s also been able to work with many experienced professionals, including Michael Cole and the late ‘Mean’ Gene Okurland, where she said she enjoyed their time working together.
“Having really great people around me, supporting me, to help me figure out. I’ve just always been supported by really great people.” she said.
Paquette believes pro-wrestling is a different medium of storytelling. When working in this setting, it’s important that the people (behind the scenes) know the product. Add confidence, authoritativeness and the ability to have fun, and you have a recipe for success.
“I think all those things make the audience want to watch you.” she said.
Now being a producer at AEW, Paquette uses her experience to help produce storylines with talent.
“I really do love working with talent. I love being able to work with some of these girls and guys to help them get to where they need to be to do live tv in that capacity.” she said.
Backstage interviewer Arkady Aura is an example of someone the producer believes she can depend on to execute a segment well at the last minute. Before joining AEW she uploaded episode recaps so she’s familiar with where the storylines are at.
There are many fans out there like Aura where they produce their own similar content to get themselves established in the industry.
“My advice is to just start doing it,” said Paquette. “The world is very small and connected. The more you can make connections with people in the industry you want to be in, the more opportunities are going to start to show for you.”
The wrestling industry, amongst many sports, has been traditionally male dominated but Paquette doesn’t view herself as the female standout in this setting.
“I lead with what I bring to the table in terms of being the talent that I bring, the experience that I have and that seems to be how I think other people perceive me,” she said. “I always want to be the best person for the job.”
She has been able to open doors for more female broadcasters to join the WWE including Kayla Braxton, Cathy Kelly and Jackie Redmond. She even became the first ever full-time female commentator for Monday Night Raw during her eight years there.
“There are so many cool roles for women for them to be on to leading a panel, the lead host on a show.” she said.