Entertainment
Ex-WWE star Renee Paquette hopes CM Punk returns because he’s still ‘a wrestler through and through’
Former WWE star Renee Young admitted it would be ‘real shame’ if CM Punk doesn’t return to wrestling one day.
The 35-year-old broadcaster – now known as Renee Paquette since leaving the sports entertainment company last summer – has become close friends with the Voice of the Voiceless over the years, and has spoken to him extensively about his feelings towards the business both on WWE Backstage and her own Oral Sessions podcast.
Now, she exclusively told Metro.co.uk: ‘I think it would be an absolute shame if he did not come back. Like you said, that passion is still there! He’s a wrestler! He is a wrestler through and through.
‘Whether he was busy doing movies or TV shows or other aspirations that he has, I think at the end of the day wrestling is the thing that makes that guy tick.
‘I think for him to not come back in some capacity, whatever creative he ends up working out that he really wants to do – I think ultimately, that that’s what it would come down to for him, is finding that great creative.’
Punk said as much when he opened up to Renee about what it would take to get him back in the ring, as he insisted there needs to be an interesting scenario to spark a return seven years after his acrimonious departure from Vince McMahon’s.
‘Paycheques are nice too, but really I think it’s just being able to tell the stories that you wanna be able to tell,’ she pondered. ‘He’s got lots that he could serve up to both promotions – WWE or AEW.
‘But people would lose their minds to see him come back, so let’s hope that he doesn’t have too much dust on those boots.’
Renee’s well placed to give a bit of insight into Punk’s mind, having been a big part of him returning to the business as a guest host on WWE Backstage – which ran from from November 2019 to March 2020, with a special return in January for the Royal Rumble – in one of the most shocking wrestling moments in recent memory.
‘That was such a fun day,’ she beamed, remembering the secrecy that went into getting him into the Fox Sports studio with only three other people knowing it was happening.
‘As soon as we started putting Backstage together and figuring out who was gonna be on the show, how the show was gonna work and all that – we’re like, “Man, if we get CM Punk that would be amazing”.
‘We’re like, “There’s no way! No way we’re gonna get Punk!” Then the more we talked – I’d not spoken to Punk in years, years!
‘So to reach out to him and be like, “Hey, do you wanna talk about this idea?” Just to reconnect with him as a friend was really cool.
Renee didn’t actually see Punk on the day itself, with the former world champion staying hidden until the moment of truth while she wanted to make sure she didn’t ‘mess up’ big moment.
‘Just to get to hear Cult of Personality kick in again within that studio space was like – oh my God,’ she remembered, noting how significant it was to have Samoa Joe in the studio.
‘You look at the history between Joe and Punk, to have him there was really special. Adam Cole was our guest on the show that week, and he grew up a big CM Punk fan as well.’
However, with not everyone clued in, there was a moment of panic when one of the crew thought the team had gone rogue by getting Punk in without approval.
She laughed: ‘I guess there was somebody in the control room – I think maybe five people on the whole set knew that Punk was coming, like executives, to me, to Punk.
‘But yeah, somebody in the control room was like, “Who approved this?!” They started freaking out because they didn’t know that he’d signed a contract and we’re good!
‘That whole experience was really, really fun. I wish that we could have kept the show going long and kept working together, because it really was a lot of fun getting to work with him again.’
*Renee Paquette hosts the Oral Sessions, and her cookbook Messy In The Kitchen will be released in May.
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