Renee Paquette Reflects On ‘Talking Smack’ And Working With Bryan Danielson

Renee Paquette and Bryan Danielson are set to reunite at Starrcast in Nashville with a special stage show as part of the weekend. 

Paquette and Danielson worked together on WWE’s Talking Smack when Bryan had retired from in-ring competition. The show was praised by fans as Bryan and Paquette had noted chemistry and they were able to get away from WWE’s television show format. 

Speaking to Rick Uchinno for Bleav Pro Wrestling and Cageside Seats, Paquette reflected on her time on Talking Smack. 

“I loved working with him. There’s something so special about working with him. I mean obviously you look at Bryan, you look at his accolades, and everybody loves the guy. He’s one of the best wrestlers in the entire world. But he was at a time in his career where he was just kind of like, F it. Throwing s*** against wall. We were saying things we shouldn’t be saying. We were pushing the envelope. And that was the thing to me that was so much fun,” she said.

Talking Smack debuted in August 2016, but was canceled in July 2017. The show was revived in October 2020 with Kayla Braxton as the host. 

Speaking about the cancelation and reboot, Paquette said, “Especially when the core group of people that were working on it, we were all just having such a good time. The feedback was great and it felt like we were doing something different and something fresh. And obviously that’s something that the fans were really craving at the time. Was being able to have something like that, where it is a peel behind the curtain, but like not too much. We’re kind of in and out of characters and whatnot. Yeah, it’s a bummer that the show got canned and, you know, the show still lives on in some capacity. But it’s obviously significantly different than from when we started doing the show. And I’m sure the version that they have of it now is more what they were looking for, but I’m really glad that we got to just like, really f*** around at the beginning.”

The show has since been renamed The SmackDown LowDown. 

Paquette’s reunion with Bryan will take place on July 30 at Starrcast V. The stage show will be part of the Starrcast package on FITE TV.