Renee Paquette weighs in on Bully Ray’s comments about Jon Moxley’s return speech.
After being away from in-ring competition since October, former AEW World Champion Jon Moxley made his return to TV. He entered an inpatient alcohol treatment program several weeks before AEW’s Full Gear pay-per-view.
Since his return, Moxley has scored a win over Ethan Page on Rampage and this past Sunday, he successfully defended the GCW World Title against Homicide inside Hammerstein Ballroom. Renee Paquette took to her Sirius XM show with Miesha Tate to speak about Moxley’s return and how proud she is of him.
It definitely got me a bit emotional like watching him do this [Jon Moxley’s return], talking about the things and you know, a lot of the stuff that went on was obviously incredibly personal and you know, as much as people know what happened, they don’t really know anything about it. So just to see him out there and see him doing his thing and to know how much the words that he had to say touched so many people and my Twitter was blowing up with so many people that could just relate, that have been where he’s been or have been where I’ve been. It was really, really cool to see that and to kind of have that vulnerability and the guy, he’s a special guy. He’s so — he’s got such a way with words, he’s obviously an incredible wrestler. He’s an incredible person, incredible man. I could not be more proud of him, I could not love this guy anymore so to see him out there doing that was so great.
Coming out of Moxley’s AEW Dynamite appearance during which he gave a speech to the crowd, Busted Open Radio’s Bully Ray commented on Moxley’s return and felt that he should have apologized to the crowd for the time he missed.
Renee reacted on social media and noted that it was a bad take. She further dove into the topic and expressed that it becomes personal when someone speaks about her family in a negative manner. She said she’s always had a good relationship with Bully, although there are others who had negative experiences with him or he left a bad impression on them. Bully has yet to reach out to Renee or Moxley and she said he has both of their phone numbers.
I hate even having to talk about this because it’s just stupid and it’s annoying and I don’t even wanna pay it even more attention. Honestly, the whole thing, this Bully Ray thing, you know, I saw it all over my Twitter and I was like, ‘Do I even address this?’ But it’s like that thing, people can talk sh*t about me all day long and whatever, it’s fine. You talk sh*t about my husband? You talk sh*t about my family? That becomes personal to me and that bothers me more. It also bothers me because Bully is somebody who I’ve always really enjoyed, I’ve always really liked Bully. I’ve said I’ve had a good relationship with him, despite other people not having a good relationship with him or him having burned bridges other places and leaving a bad taste in other people’s mouths. I’ve never had that situation with him so now to be on that receiving end of it sucks. I’ve not talked to him since this has all gone down. He certainly has my phone number, he certainly has my husband’s phone number but like [Dave] LaGreca said, he was out at Northeast Wrestling over the weekend, I know Bully was with him. So yeah, I mean it sucks so just for context, for anyone that doesn’t know — yeah, sorry, sorry. I’m like in my own world right now. Bully said he thought that Jon should have apologized to the audience and apologized — you know, he doesn’t necessarily have to apologize to the boys in the back and the girls in the back for the time that was taken off, but people that have bought tickets and wanted to see Jon Moxley and blah, blah, blah and there could not be a more bullsh*t, trash take then that.
He wanted Jon to apologize to the fans and it’s like, yeah, he took time off to take care of himself. Him being there and having longevity in this business is plenty. You know, the guy’s already put his body through the ringer with the job that he does, with the style of wrestling that he works and you know, like I said, he loves wrestling. He loves wrestling, he loves this business. So for Bully to think that he also needs to apologize on top of that — honestly, my first reaction to it was like, I just thought it was like some shock jock sh*t where I was like, ‘He doesn’t actually think that. There’s no way he actually believes that Jon needs to apologize for taking time off to better himself’ but which by the way, three months is also nothing. In the scope of what wrestling is and also in the scope of his life, three months is nothing so for him to go and do the things that he needed to do for himself, for our family, for our daughter, that’s for us. That is for us, that is not for anybody else and I could not be more proud of him for doing that. In a business that is so notorious with addiction issues, we’ve seen the untimely passing of so many wrestlers. It has been a thing that has affected the business for such a long time. It’s a stigma that comes with the business so the fact that Jon is one of those guys in the spot that he’s in and he’s going against the grain and doing the things that he needs to do, I think speaks volumes to the fans. Not even just the fans, the people inside the business, to the other boys in the back, to the girls in the back that might be going through a similar thing. [It] happens to so many people, it’s unfortunately so common so, he went and did what he had to do and no apologies necessary.
Moxley’s name was mentioned by Seth Rollins on the most recent Friday Night SmackDown while he was referencing The Shield. Rollins is challenging Roman Reigns for the Universal Title at the Royal Rumble.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit ‘Throwing Down with Renee & Miesha’ with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
