On the latest edition of her Oral Sessions podcast former WWE interviewer, commentator, and host of WWE Backstage Renee Paquette spoke about how the company made her take classes to hide her Canadian accent, and explains why she never took a bump during her time there. Highlights are below.
Says WWE made her take lessons to hide her accent:
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.
Says WWE valued her as an interviewer which is why she never took a bump:
Never [took a bump], 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.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)