Renee Paquette Recalls Vince McMahon Yelling In Her Headset During WWE Run

In an interview with Ariel Helwani, Renee Paquette was asked if she was ever screamed at over the headset by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon during her time in WWE. She confirmed that had happened, and pointed to one specific moment where McMahon screamed at her that caused her to nearly walk off set.

"Yes, of course," Paquette said. "I wasn't on commentary for this moment, but it was after I had done commentary and I was doing a panel. We were in Las Vegas and we're doing a panel show where they cut to us during the show. It was some kind of special. Tyson Fury was on the show, when he was doing his stint in WWE, and it was me, Samoa Joe, Booker T and Beth Phoenix. And I was throwing to a package, 'blah, blah, blah, something, something, the Gypsy King, Tyson Fury, throw to package.' And he's in my ear and he goes, 'YOU F**KING RUINED IT!' Screaming in my ear, telling me I ruined this segment because I didn't refer to Tyson Fury as the lineal champion. So he's screaming at me, and at this point, I am over it. I've done the commentary thing, I'm just like, I'm a little bit hardened to all the circumstances.

"So he's yelling at me about this, and I'm looking down at my notes. Maybe I'm looking to Samoa Joe, taking in this information in my ear. But he thinks I'm ignoring him, so he yells at me again, 'DO YOU HEAR ME?! ACKNOLWEDGE THAT YOU HEAR ME!' And he wanted me to look into the camera and be like, 'yes sir, I hear you, I understand you. I apologize.' But yeah, just to be yelled at like that for a small– I don't even want to say mistake. I didn't make a mistake, I just didn't call him the lineal world champion. I didn't know it was that necessary. It was if I had ruined the run of Tyson Fury in WWE by not calling him that. But to be yelled at like that in front of your peers was pretty demoralizing. To just be yelled at that I had ruined a segment, I felt bad about it. Then we had to come back and do an on camera after that, and I wanted to pull of my headset and just literally get in my car and drive home. At that point, I had just had it."

Paquette revealed she never cried after outbursts like that, but did find them jarring. She did her best to find comedy in them, and revealed that by the time the show had ended, Vince had moved on and seemingly forgotten his tirade.

"I don't think I ever cried at that," Paquette said. "I can't think of a time that I cried. There's times that I had cried during my duration of WWE for sure, and we can get into those. But as far as being yelled at and being upset about that, not so much. It's more so– it's shocking. It's like jarring to be yelled at like that as a grown ass woman. Like, 'wait. You're talking to me like that? What the f**k?' You almost find comedy in it, like, 'this is happening?' It's also like, you're sitting there with your crew of people who are also on the panel. They understand what's happening, so we're all on the same page. As much as it can be embarrassing, we also all understand the circumstances of which we're working. So we can sort of roll our eyes at each other and just go, 'okay. He's on one today. I guess we've just got to take it on the chin,' and that's more of what that is.

"But there's been other times, just having a f**k up on air. I remember doing a fifteen second on camera, it was when Bray Wyatt was doing he Firefly Fun House. Try saying that out loud really quick. I said it wrong and I was like, 'oh, f**k.' But I still threw to the thing and he was like, 'you messed that one up.' And I was like, 'yeah, I did. That was my fault.' But you're doing live TV, you're doing it on the fly and it is what it is. As much as I can say those moments happened and you hear the stories about Vince yelling in someone's ear and whatnot, but by the time you walk back through gorilla at the end of the show, he's over it. It's not like he's holding onto this grudge, like, 'you did this terrible thing and now I'm going to hate you forever.' It doesn't really work like that. Sometimes it does, but usually by the end of the show, he's moved on to the next thing. It's not even a blip on his radar. It's just that kneejerk reaction to yell."

Helwani asked if McMahon ever apologized to Paquette for his behavior. She confirmed he hadn't and that she never discussed it with him, something she wishes she would've done.

"Oh God, no," Paquette said. "God no. Not that I can remember. But that's just not really the way that it works there. I do have regrets that I didn't talk to him more about that, especially the Tyson Fury thing. That was one of just being screamed at that I really wish I had went to Gorilla. Because at that point, I knew I was like, 'I'm out of here, man. This is crazy.' I wish I had gone back and had a conversation with him about that a little bit more just to clarify. And honestly, maybe that would've made my relationship with him better. And I think me kind of turning more insular after that and being like, 'oh, I'm just going to avoid him now. He screamed at me like that, I'd rather not talked to him.' I should've gone the other way and addressed him. Maybe he would've respected me more if I had done that."

You can watch the full interview below.