By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Renee Paquette
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
Video available at Chris Van Vliet’s YouTube Page
On why WWE commentators are changed so frequently: “I’ll tell you exactly why. Because they put somebody in to do commentary and I don’t think that there, I don’t know, I don’t know how to frame this the right way. It’s not that there’s not enough respect put on what commentary means and to be good at commentary, they do understand that. But a lot of times, they’re like, Okay, well put Renee on, she’ll be good, she’s good in these other things, let’s put her on commentary. I was not ready to do commentary, I wasn’t ready to do Raw commentary specifically. And that happens a lot.
“Adnan Virk was like a great broadcaster, fantastic broadcaster, I think it’s like, well, let’s bring in somebody from the outside world, from outside sports that really knows that space, he had never done it [play by play commentary]. And it’s like, you put it’s really just not setting people up for success. When I think sort of the training program like we had with doing NXT being in that phase, then you get called up, because it’s also very different doing a show at NXT versus doing Raw or Smackdown. The game completely changes once Vince is in your ear, once you’re doing a three hour long show. It’s just such a different dynamic.
“And you know, I’m sure having Vic [Joseph] on, I’m sure he’d be able to talk about that as well. But yeah, I think it’s just really putting people in, and it’s a sink or swim mentality. And it just sucks because most people end up sinking. And it’s not for lack of talent or like not being good at that position. It takes a really long time to become a great wrestling commentator, you can be a sports commentator, and I think probably get better at that because you’re really just dealing with calling what you see and talking about facts. That’s not what we do as a wrestling commentator, now you’re telling stories.
“You’re putting over the babyface, you’re talking about the heel, you’re talking about them in different ways. Sometimes there’s just like the different nuance, subtleties of things that are happening. So yeah, wrestling commentary is just so different from being a hockey commentator, a football commentator, whatever it may be. And as much as I think it’s interesting to try to I mean, you know, Pat McAfee is such an anomaly. He’s so great at what he does, but he’s also a huge wrestling fan. So that, of course helps, he’s just a huge personality. But yeah, I think it’s, I think it’s really just that I think it’s putting somebody in that’s not ready and that not giving them the time to develop to be where they need to be.
“Michael Cole has been doing commentary for what, like twenty years or something? He’s so good. I could literally dedicate like an hour of this time to just talking about how good he is at what he does. And I think now he finally does get the credit for everyday. Michael Cole is pretty great. Like he’s so fantastic.”
On the Talking Smack segment with The Miz and Daniel Bryan: “I don’t really remember much happening in my earpiece during that except for at the very end. It’s funny Mike Mansury, when I had him on my podcast and now he’s co-executive producer of AEW, what a huge asset he is for us to have. But he was a producer of the show during that time. And he I remember him while all of this action is happening, he’s really, he’s not saying anything in my ear. I think he kind of knew he was following Mike; he was following this to see what he was going to do, follow that promo, follow what’s happening with Bryan.
“And I remember like, while they’re in the midst of all this chaos, he’s saying to me, take us off the air now. And I’m like, what the f—!? Like What do you mean take us off the air right now? Like we are in the moment right now but it was like his genius to have it just kind of wrap up as it was with no real outcome or like we didn’t know where things were gonna go after that moment with that promo. So yeah, that’s really kind of what I remember and just being in the middle and like being between Bryan and between Miz. And to see Miz cutting this promo on why he wasn’t wrestling, why the Intercontinental Championship meant so much to him and like to see though his eyes welling up in these tears happening.
“I’m like, Oh my God, he’s crying, he’s gonna start crying. Oh, my God, this is happening. And then he starts digging into Bryan who like, I’ve got so much sympathy for this man that has had to retire from his in-ring career. We don’t know what this means. Where’s things gonna go for him? The injuries, rattling off all these things. Then I’m like, do I have to fight The Miz right now? Like, holy sh*t. This is crazy.”
On the similarities between working for WWE and AEW: “Yeah, of course. I mean, in terms of like, wrestling’s day of show is always a little bit crazy of like, what’s happening? Are things changing? And what’s happening? Like, that happens in both places, for sure. But yeah, so that fun energy is it’s a different energy in that something that took me like a little bit of a second to adjust to. I’m so used to, you know, I was at WWE for eight years, so to now be in a similar environment to that, but it’s not the exact same environment.
“It’s cool to kind of like figure that out and figure out the ropes. And it’s fun doing like the backstage promos, there’s, it’s cool. You know, I think WWE having the writers and having written promos for you know, a majority of the people, that definitely serves a purpose, and there is a benefit to that. But it’s fun being able to hop on the set and go, What are we saying? What are we doing? What do we need to try to accomplish here? How do we do that? Like just trying to like connect the dots to make the most sense of those promos? It’s a fun challenge. I like it.”
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