AEW: More on Jeff Hardy Return, Renee Paquette on WWE & AEW Work Differences, All Access Ratings

Apr 14, 2023

Jeff Hardy AEW Return Update

As noted before, Jeff Hardy made his surprise return to AEW at this past Wednesday’s Dynamite show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Prior to his return, Hardy had been absent from AEW since this past June due to his suspension over a DUI arrest and court case in Florida.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Hardy is still recovering from his recent eye surgery but AEW officials currently have plans in place for him for the next few weeks that do not involve him to do any wrestling.

Renee Paquette Comments on Similarities & Differences in Working for WWE & AEW

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured Renee Paquette as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Paquette’s thoughts on the similarities and differences between working in WWE and AEW.

“Yeah of course, I mean in terms of like wrestling is wrestling. Day of show is always a little bit crazy, ‘What’s happening, are things changing, is this what’s happening?’ That happens in both places for sure. There’s a fun energy, it’s a different energy and that’s something that took me a little bit to adjust to because I’m so used to… I was at WWE for eight years, so to know be in a similar environment to that, but it’s not the exact same environment as that, it’s cool to kind of like figure that out and figure out the ropes. It’s fun doing the backstage promos there. I think with WWE having their writers and having written promos for a majority of the people, that definitely serves a purpose and there is a benefit to that, but it’s fun to hop on the set and go ‘What are we saying? What are we doing? What do we need to try to accomplish here?’ Just trying to connect the dots to make the most sense of those promos, it’s a fun challenge. I like it.
It’s cool to be able to have that input and to try to make sense of it. You’ve got two hours of TV time for Dynamite, an hour for Rampage, trying to get the proper storytelling in place for each show to make the most sense with usually a pretty small amount of time. If you’re given two minutes for a promo, that’s a lot of time. When you have sixty seconds to try and accomplish [getting those points across], it’s really fun trying to figure out how to make it make sense.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com