Originally published at Renee Paquette: WWE made me take classes to rid of my Canadian accent
If any of the quotes from the following podcasts or video interviews are used, please credit those sources and provide an H/T and link back to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
** Renee Paquette hosted a Q&A on her Oral Sessions podcast. She shared that when she signed with WWE, the company requested that she take classes to tone down the Canadian accent in her voice.
“So I would just like to go on the record and say that I do not have a Canadian accent. I worked very hard to develop this non-regional dialect. When I first signed to WWE, they made me take classes to get rid of my Canadian accent, which I’m honestly, I’m sure it was more than it is now but it was like very faint, if any and I had to go into Manhattan once a week and sit with this woman and she would give me words. I’d have to read during the week to make sure I didn’t like mispronounce vowels or some sh*t.”
Continuing on the topic of WWE, she feels that the company never slotted her into any physical segments because they valued her in the role she was in as an interviewer and host.
“Never , no. Well, that’s not totally true. One time I took a bump at this training facility in Toronto back when I worked at The Score. So that was a decade ago and I just did it once for a segment for The Score when I was like, ‘I’m just gonna go learn wrestling,’ and I had no idea. Though I will say during that day, I did do a hurricanrana so, not a big deal but, I could’ve been a lucha star. So sad that-that never happened but I honestly, truly think what it boiled down to is I think that upper management in WWE never wanted me in the ring because I think they valued me so much in the role that I was in, they didn’t really want that to get tainted with any kind of gimmickry of any sorts, so it never happened.”
** Conrad Thompson and Arn Anderson hosted a Q&A for the latest episode of the ARN podcast. Anderson told the story of when we was riding with the late Buddy Landel and Buddy pulled out a gun on another driver who was tailgating him.
“I remember one day, I’m going down the road and I’m — I made the mistake of — it’s just me and Buddy .”
** The newest Keepin It 100 with Konnan podcast featured MLW CEO Court Bauer. Before signing exclusively to Ring of Honor, the current ROH World Champion RUSH was a part of MLW. Bauer opened up about how losing RUSH changed how he approached the wrestling business and how it also allowed him to fill his talent roster for the following years.
“Those guys were not under contract. Now our contracts are… so interesting case with RUSH, so guy was huge, killed it for us in Chicago and I saw this guy had huge potential. I think he did like two or three days for us. Like Miami, Chicago and somewhere else and he worked because we have a show in English every week. We also have a show every week in Spanish on beIN Espanol that’s really well high-rated and primarily our audience is comprised of first, second generation Mexican-Americans, and so we saw a real big play to make one of our top guys when we were in talks to do a deal, and we got the blessing from Paco Alonso who was alive at the time, and then other parties got involved to try and pull him in a different direction and it was one of those interesting moments where you’re like, we had such a rich package put together in terms of a deal for him that as you seen this in sports, right? Like teams put it all on one guy and it kinda went against how I approached the business. Like I do a wrestling version of Moneyball and find undervalued, undiscovered talent and put them in our system and they thrive and this guy was a stud, just a stud and you had to figure out a way to make this make sense from a financial point of view and I was looking at that deal, I was like, ‘Man, this is gonna be a really risky deal because we’re putting everything behind him. All of our resources and a big chunk of our budget,’ and the deal didn’t happen and that allowed me when that deal didn’t happen to go out there and sign principle, don’t be tempted over this because he was an incredible and is an incredible talent and will be for years to come but, there are a lot of great guys out there. If you know where to look — even right now, no one thinks there’s no great talent out there. I’m about to sign another guy that’s a stud, so it’s like, they’re out there.”
The MLW World Tag Team Champions Marshall and Ross Von Erich came up during the conversation and Bauer stated that as a duo, they are among his top merchandise sellers.
“Interesting case, The Von Erichs (Marshall & Ross) who have become — they’re my like top merch sellers, they sell out Dallas automatically anytime I go there. Whenever they’re on, they’re like our top rated guys.”
** Daniel Bryan’s name was brought up in the most recent edition of Hiroshi Tanahashi’s Ace’s HIGH series. Tanahashi recalled wrestling Bryan in Kobe, Japan. Tanahashi spoke highly of Bryan’s in-ring skills and said he deserves to be a top guy.
“I remember that match, in Kobe World Hall! Danielson was just such a wrestler’s wrestler. To the very model; an orthodox opening, moving onto rope work, progressively bringing in bigger moves. He’s younger than me, but I was able to learn so much by wrestling him.
He’s great. A smaller guy, but so strong, put together, and an expert on the mat. He wholly deserved to be a top guy.”
** MLW owner Court Bauer chatted with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful and told the site that he’s in conversations with two “tier one networks” about possibly bringing MLW programming onto their platform.
“I’m actually right now as we’re recording sandwiched between two Zoom calls with two major networks. I can’t name names or I’ll get into trouble, but I don’t want to complicate things there. But, I will say these are what they call tier one networks. There’s tier one, tier two, tier three, tier four. Tier one is the top of the top. So, we’re very cautiously enthusiastic about this and excited to see where this takes us. Given that the TV landscape hit the breaks last year, we’re glad there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. A lot that can happen. We’ll see where these conversations take us. But, tapings is our thing right now. To have the other side of the screen engaged to the level we’re seeing them is very important to us. I’ll say the end is a long-term partner. So, these talks would expand our footprint, not subtract. But, as the only free agent right now in the game when it comes to rights fees and what we can do right now, we’re in a really good position and we’re glad to see the network folks are really interested in having those conversations right now.”
** ‘Metro’ asked Finn Balor for his thoughts on legends of the business coming back to WWE TV for one-off matches. He said it doesn’t bother him and thinks everyone has a place in wrestling.
“Doesn’t bother me at all. I believe that everyone has a place in this business, and if you’re on the show, you’re on the show for a reason. If you’re on the show once a year, if you’re on the show every night, that’s down to everybody’s individual circumstance. Those guys have carved out their legacy and proven over the years that they belong on the show. Whether it’s for one night or it’s every night, that doesn’t affect me and it shouldn’t affect anyone else.”
** During the 1/5/21 episode of AEW Dark, Brodie Jr. cut an in-ring promo on Marko Stunt. The likes of Tony Khan and Cody Rhodes came to the ring and “separated” Brodie and Stunt. Tony Khan shared that Brodie spoke off the cuff during his promo. Also, Amanda Huber, wife of Jon, shared footage of Brodie Jr. in the ring with Liv Morgan at Natalya and TJ Wilson’s warehouse where their ring is located. She clarified that his contract with All Elite Wrestling becomes valid on his 18th birthday and added that he’s not seriously training at the moment. Here’s what she wrote in full:
Tonight was pretty cool. We got to go visit @tjwilson711 & @natbynature and let Brodie work in the ring. @yaonlylivvonce is a gem for working around the ring with him and letting him learn.
He also cut promos on @allelitewrestling #aewdark which I didn’t know was going to end up making the show. I thought AEW was just letting him have some fun after a really really tough night. Having them air it was incredible and I wish you guys could have seen his smile when we watched it. I told him what @tonyrkhan said about his promo and he was BEAMING.
Also, just for clarity’s sake.
1) His contract with AEW is valid on his 18th birthday *if* he chooses to wrestle. Nobody is going to push it with him. If you were to spend 10 minutes talking to him you’d understand why they gave him a contract though.
2) School is number one for him.
3) He is not seriously training at the moment or will be taking bookings or anything ridiculous right now.
I know I shouldn’t have to clarify but with social media I end up seeing stories how he’s being forced into this or questions about his “contract” or all sorts of craziness.
At this moment, all of this wrestling around him is our friends trying to make an 8 year old pro wrestling fan feel a bit of happiness after losing his hero. 💛🖤
I’m also pretty sure our only hope of stopping this monster Brodie Lee Jr -1 is Nolan Rhino 🦏
-1 Brodie Lee Jr & @realmarkostunt finally meet.
FACE TO FACE!Watch #AEWDark NOW via our Official YouTube Channel ➡️ https://t.co/l6s91UI7e3 pic.twitter.com/xTrf1PMjoY
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) January 6, 2021
** Sabu was interviewed for season three of Dark Side of the Ring.
** Stone Cold Steve Austin was a guest on the CBS affiliate WFSB to promote the next season of ‘Straight Up Steve Austin’.
** Former wrestler Black Bart, real name Richard Harris spoke to Sportskeeda and told the story of when Booker T was branded with a branding iron in the early 90s for the Global Wrestling Federation promotion that was based in Texas.
“We get this great idea that we are going to really brand Booker T. In other words, the match starts, and Akbar is supposed to just heat it up, the branding on it, just before. He starts full blasting on that branding iron at the beginning of the match, and you can see the branding iron starting to turn red, brother. We are on TV, and I have got to, and I have to do something to him, get Booker T down. We are supposed to have that pad; you know what I’m saying, with paper or something. And my hands meet that branding iron, it’s red hot, and I stuck it to his butt, and brother, I mean smoke, a shot of smoke came up. Shot of smoke, boom, and Booker T went ‘Yaaaahhh!’ and took off saying, ‘Bart’s burning me.’ I said, ‘Man,’ I said, ‘You silly son of a gun, come here we got to do this.’ No!’ he went running with his butt smoking… there was a B on it.”
** Santos Escobar is defending the NXT Cruiserweight Championship against Gran Metalik at New Year’s Evil. Mas Lucha caught up with Escobar to promote the show and he brought up how he wants everyone to recognize Latino talents.
“Stay tuned for this fight, you are going to like it, that people want to see. I don’t really like fighting between Mexicans or Latinos, rather I like that everyone else recognizes Mexicans. My step has been impeccable in NXT, I am the champion, the number one, and no other person is going to come to take the crown from me, so all my public have to be aware, it is not the start I had planned, I had other plans.”
** Ring of Honor uploaded the following match with Brodie Lee and Delirious taking on Kenny King and Rhett Titus:
** Rohit Raju (Hakim Zane) was interviewed by Chris Van Vliet. Rohit discussed his on-screen feud with TJP and how working with the current X Division Champion has increased his confidence and provided him with some of his favorite matches.
“TJP for instance, I have learned so much with this program and my confidence level has just elevated so much because it’s a different feel. TJ, when we put a match together, and this is how I put my matches together now, it’s like, ‘What’s the story you’re trying to tell? We can incorporate all the move sets and sequences later, but what’s the story we wanna tell?’ So my matches with him recently have been some of my favorite matches because there’s story behind it and when you see reviews on it, people are like, ‘Man, that’s a really good match. They told a good story’ and that’s what I want. I wanna tell the stories.”
** AEW and NXT are presenting their respective special episodes on 1/6. Here are the lineups for each show:
NXT New Year’s Evil
– NXT Championship: Finn Balor (c) vs. Kyle O’Reilly
– Karrion Kross vs. Damian Priest
– Last Woman Standing Match: Raquel Gonzalez vs. Rhea Ripley
– NXT Cruiserweight Championship: Santos Escobar (c) vs. Gran Metalik
AEW New Year’s Smash
– * Snoop Dogg as a special guest
– Jon Moxley returns
– AEW World Championship: Kenny Omega (c) (w/ Don Callis) vs. Rey Fenix (w/ Penta El Zero M)
– AEW Women’s World Championship: Hikaru Shida (c) vs. Abadon
– The Young Bucks & S.C.U. (Frankie Kazarian & Christopher Daniels) vs. Jack Evans, Angelico and The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster)
– Jake Hager vs. Wardlow
– Cody Rhodes (w/ Arn Anderson) vs. Matt Sydal
– Chris Jericho back on commentary
– Sting appears
– Darby Allin/Brian Cage weigh-in
** Jazz vs. Jordynne Grace is official for IMPACT Wrestling Genesis on 1/9.
** Here is the newest episode of WWE The Bump featuring the likes of Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Finn Balor and Billie Kay:
** NXT Champion Finn Balor spoke to Sportskeeda ahead of his title defense against Kyle O’Reilly at New Year’s Evil. This will be Balor’s first match since TakeOver 31 where he faced O’Reilly and suffered a broken jaw during the match.
“I’m more worried about, you know, my jaw. Obviously, your health comes before anything we do in the ring. It was a confusing couple of days. We didn’t really know what was going on with regards to diagnosis. We kind of been (sic) misdiagnosed with the fact that it wasn’t so bad and you know, I might be back in the ring in six weeks. And then, you know, we got a couple of second opinions thanks to WWE. And then we realized we needed surgery and it was going to be a little longer. Uh, but you know, the surgery was all taken care of. WWE handled it incredibly.”
** In two weeks on ROH TV, Dragon Lee is going to defend the ROH World Television Championship against Rey Horus.
** WWE released the audio of Big E’s theme song that was created by Wale and DJ Money.
** Tony Khan purchased the rights for the song ‘Tarzan Boy’ so Jungle Boy can use it during his entrance.
** Stadium Astro has an interview with Booker T.
** Alicia Atout released her interview with Lio Rush.
** Vicente Beltran posted a clip to his YouTube channel from the international media call with Finn Balor. Digital Spy has an article up about the media call.
** New Japan Pro-Wrestling ‘New Year’s Dash’ Results (1/6/21) Tokyo Dome City Hall
– Yuji Nagata def. Gabriel Kidd
– DOUKI & Minoru Suzuki def. Tiger Mask & Yuya Uemura
– The Empire (Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb & Will Ospreay) def. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Yota Tsuji
– El Phantasmo, Taiji Ishimori, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa def. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr.)
– CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI) def. BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, EVIL, Jay White & Yujiro Takahashi)
– Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) def. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Master Wato, Rocky Romero & SHO
** AEW’s Year In Review video:
** The Bella Twins’ first episode of their podcast in 2021.
** ‘Metro’ conducted an interview with Eric Young.
** Konnan turned 57-years old 1/6.
** Darren Paltrowitz caught up with Moose.
If any of the quotes from the following podcasts or video interviews are used, please credit those sources and provide an H/T and link back to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.