‘I Hadn’t Auditioned, I Hadn’t Applied For Anything’ – Jackie Redmond Thought She Was Getting Pranked When Michael Cole Called Her With WWE Job Offer

WWE

Jackie Redmond has recalled receiving her job offer from WWE, and why she thought she was being pranked when being contacted by Michael Cole.

With a decade of sports broadcasting experience under her belt, Jackie Redmond signed with WWE in October 2021 as a co-host of Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown’s talk shows: Raw Talk and Talking Smack.

In the years since, Redmond has progressed to become a regular host of WWE PLE pre-shows and post-shows, as well as a weekly backstage interviewer on Monday Night Raw.

While she wouldn’t arrive in WWE until years later, one of Redmond’s first broadcasting gigs was SPORTSNET’s WWE Aftermath – talk show focused on the events of Raw and SmackDown.

During an interview with Awful Announcing, Redmond attributed her time on Aftermath as where she figured out who she was on camera, before eventually moving on to work for the NHL Network.

While she remained away from wrestling between 2012-2017, Redmond acknowledged that WWE were aware of her covering their product during her time on Aftermath, and she eventually got a call from the company:

“I had gotten a call maybe 2018 to see if I maybe wanted to go work for WWE and to be a host. But I got the hockey offer at the same time. So, I chose hockey and I had gotten some advice from someone that worked in WWE kind of about where the company was at the time, and I was like, you know what let me go hockey, see what happens.”

Another opportunity would indeed emerge, with Michael Cole contacting Redmond about joining WWE as a co-host of Talking Smack and Raw Talk, however, she initially thought it was a prank due to her not applying or auditioning for a role in the company.

Redmond continued:

Well wouldn’t you know it, like six years after that, I’m doing the Stanley Cup final in Montreal actually, which is interesting because Montreal is still in it this year. They were playing Tampa, but it was in Montreal, and I got a call from Michael Cole.

“Now, my agent was supposed to tell me that Cole was calling me. He didn’t deliver the message in time. So, I just picked up the phone in my hotel room and I was like, ‘Wait am I being pranked right now? Michael Cole’s calling me. Like I hadn’t auditioned. I hadn’t really applied for anything. I think they knew who I was because of the past, obviously. And I think when I switched agents, not to get into the whole thing, but he probably sent my demo around to a lot of people as agents do. But I had no idea.

“And so when Cole called me and was like, Hey, we’re revamping Raw Talk and Talking Smack into more of a postgame format.You work in sports, we think you would be great, what do you think?’

“And I just said ‘Do I have to leave hockey?’ And he was like ‘No, you’re working in Jersey and we’re up the road in Stamford, as long as you’re willing to take on the workload.’ And I said ‘Yeah of course, where do I sign?’

“So it just kind of was something I think where I had been on their radar in the past, and when they started looking for more sports people, it sort of just aligned that way and happened and it was a great moment for me because it changed my life.”

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• Jackie Redmond
• michael cole
• wwe

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