Posted on 1/16/126 by Colin Vassallo
Jackie Redmond sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Washington,
DC to discuss how a phone call from Michael Cole led to her
joining WWE, the unique way she got into broadcasting, her
dream job of reporting on the NHL, interviewing Triple H and
The Rock after the wild WrestleMania 40 press conference, if
she has any interest in getting in the ring, and more!
On CM Punk’s return:
“I crossed paths with CM Punk prior to joining WWE because
he’s such a hockey fan. So I knew him through hockey. So
when he came back, I instantly DM’d him. I was leaving the
venue, and I was like, ‘You little sh*t! I didn’t know you
were coming back.’ This is crazy, and I was still pretty new
at that time. So for me, I was like, Oh my gosh. It’s an
intimidating world. Everyone’s so nice and welcoming, but
it’s a big world with big personalities. Everyone’s focused
on what they have going on. So when I first started, I was
very much in my shell, I was shy. So when Punk came back, I
was like, Oh, my God, a friendly face. I know this person,
which is so crazy because his reputation prior to coming
back, it just amazes me some of the things that people say
about him. Because for me, he’s always just been an absolute
pleasure, so nice, so professional, just awesome.”
So how did WWE bring you in for this job originally?
“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?’ 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. 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.”
You were interviewing Triple H at the WrestleMania 40 press
conference, then The Rock interrupted:
“The jaw drop, the most natural crazy jaw drop of my entire
life. The crazy thing about that situation was I didn’t even
know I was interviewing Triple H until eight minutes before
that. So we’re getting close to the end of this presser, and
a producer comes up to me and is like, ‘Hey, we weren’t
planning for this, but some sh*t is about to go down, and I
think we need to hear from Hunter after this. We need him to
give us something to kind of put a cap on everything that’s
going on.’ So okay, that’s no problem. ‘So just pay
attention. As soon as it’s done, he’s gonna come out of
Gorilla, and he knows he’s gonna chat with you to get this
instant live reaction from the craziness that just
happened.’ So I find that out late, and I’m like, oh. I’m
still only a year into this job, maybe. So for me, Hunter is
still a very intimidating presence. I’ve met him, I’ve
talked to him. He’s lovely, but we’re not buds. I don’t know
him that well. I’m like, Oh man, I’m interviewing Hunter,
can’t blow this, this has to be good. And then I interview
him, and I should know better at this point that basically
99% of the time when I’m interviewing someone, it will be
interrupted, that’s pretty much a staple of what I do. But I
had no idea that Dwayne The Rock motherf*cking Johnson was
gonna come out, yell at Hunter and drop F bombs all on live
television. People do not believe me to this day that I did
not know The Rock was gonna do that. I did not know, hand to
God did not know that that was gonna happen. So when it did,
that was a very real reaction from me. I couldn’t believe
what I was seeing. I felt like I was teleported back to
being 10 years old, it’s the Attitude Era and The Rock and
Triple H are yelling at each other. What is going on? It was
a very surreal, surreal moment for me. I don’t say that a
lot, like that was one where I was like is this my life
right now?”