Jackie Redmond Recalls Renee Paquette Informing Her Of WWE Interest In 2016/2017

Jackie Redmond recalls interest from WWE in 2016-2017.

Redmond officially signed with the company in 2021, starting off as a host for the Raw Talk and Talking Smack shows. Fast forward to 2026, where Redmond is a crucial member of the broadcast team for the Raw brand, serving as a backstage correspondent/interviewer.

Speaking with Chris Van Vliet for a new interview, Redmond revealed that WWE had interest in bringing her in back in 2016 or 2017.

“So I was in Montreal covering the Stanley Cup final between Montreal and Tampa. I mean, this business is funny, right? Because years prior to this, because that would have been 2021. Around 2016 2017 again, Renee Paquette calls me and is like, ‘Hey, WWE might be interested in you. What do you think? I told them I’d call you first just to see kind of what you think. And she’s been such a great person to me. I know we talked about her earlier, but whenever I’ve reached out to her for any type of advice, she’s always been there, even as the years have passed. So she had called me and told me that my name had been brought up, and asked me what I thought. I said, ‘Well, what is the gig?’ And I was still in Toronto at this time, and just like, it would be hosting. She goes, ‘I see everything you’re doing in Canada right now with misplays of the month, and you’re hosting our equivalent to SportsCenter on the weekends. You’re doing all this great stuff. I feel like they might put you in NXT, you might be in the middle of nowhere.’ Experience outside of WWE isn’t the same as experience inside of WWE. And she goes, ‘So I don’t know if you’d be into it.’ So I said, ‘You know what? Let me think about it.’ And at the same time, I got an opportunity at NHL Network, and so I ended up not doing the WWE thing, and it never went further than a convo with Renee on the phone. It was very much like early stages, like, ‘Hey, your name was mentioned by somebody.’ So I end up taking the hockey show. My dream job, right? I’m covering hockey two hours a day, live television. Best thing for me to ever happen as a broadcaster, because when you’re live for two hours straight, oh, man, you make some mistakes, but you learn how to kind of roll with the punches.”

Redmond then recalled getting another call from Michael Cole years later.

“So years go by and I’m covering the final in Montreal, and I am not even joking, I get a phone call. I don’t know the number. I pick it up and it’s Michael Cole and he’s like, ‘Hey, I know your agent. I got your contact info from your agent. We are looking for someone to host our post-shows, our Raw Talk and our Talking Smack, and we’re kind of changing them a little bit. We want them to be a little bit more like a real sports post-show where you come into a studio, you talk about what happened. Maybe you go back to the venue, there’s an interview, yada yada yada.’ So I literally get a cold call from Michael Cole, which is so weird. I’m in Montreal, and I’m like, I can’t wait to text my sister after this and be like, Michael Cole just called me. How weird is that? I guess my agent was supposed to give me a heads up, but didn’t get me the heads up in time that the call was coming. So I had been on their radar, and yeah, he called me, and I said, ‘Do I have to stop doing this hockey show that I’m doing?’ And he said, ‘Well, where’s the hockey show?’ And I said, it’s in New Jersey. He said, ‘Well, Connecticut’s 90-minute drive. It’s only twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. You do both. It’s fine with us if it’s fine with you.’ So I did the audition, and he called me pretty much after the audition, and said, ‘You got it, if you want it, it’s yours.’ Those were crazy days, because our show was four to six Eastern time. So on Monday, I’d be on the air four to six live, and then I would leave from NHL network and drive right to Connecticut, get there basically, with the traffic and stuff right on time for Monday Night Raw to start, watch the show and then go live again.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Jackie Redmond was asked about possibly wrestling in the future. Check out her full comments by clicking here.

Special thanks to Chris Van Vliet and his team for the quote(s) provided in this article.