Jackie Redmond is living her life a quarter-mile at a time. She has had a particularly grueling stretch as an interviewer on TNT Sports’s top NHL broadcast team and WWE Raw and premium live events. She spoke to FOS about the wildest part of criss-crossing the continent, how she prepares for the dual roles, and CM Punk tormenting her for being a Maple Leafs fan.
Front Office Sports: You’re in the middle of this grueling stretch with the NHL playoffs. What’s been the craziest travel turnaround in recent months as you’ve had these two jobs together?
Jackie Redmond: I thought about this the other day. It’s so funny—I travel so much and have so many crazy things happen that I almost go blank when people ask me this sometimes.
But I think right now, the craziest stretch I’ve had since the playoffs started was in the first round. I did Game 4 of Oilers-Kings in Edmonton, Alberta. I took a red-eye to Raw in Kansas City. Then I took a red-eye again to get to Los Angeles for Tuesday’s Game 5. Then Wednesday, I took the first flight out to get from L.A. to Ottawa.
For those who don’t know, that’s cross-continent and there’s no direct flights, so I had to connect through Toronto. I left at 6 a.m. and got to my hotel at 8 p.m. Then I did Game 6 of Leafs-Senators on Friday.
That was one of the craziest stretches of this playoff run for sure. There was no breathing room. It was Game day → Raw → Game day → Massive travel day → Elimination game.
FOS: Was there ever any time when travel delays or snafus made you think you might be at risk of missing a scheduled event?
JR: I’ve had a lot of them, but it’s never caused me to miss anything. I’m kind of racking my brain because I had one recently, and it might’ve also been in the first round of the playoffs, where my flight got canceled or delayed and I had to stay overnight somewhere. But I found a flight out the next morning.
I was in the air getting text messages from WWE producers about a shoot I needed to be at like three hours from then. I was like, “I’m in the sky! But I’m gonna make it!” I think it was an interview with the New Day. They were really great about it, because they could’ve just had someone else do it, but they were like, “We’ll wait for Jackie.” I got there just in time to do it.
I know this happened in the last couple months, but I can’t remember where I was coming from or going to. It all just becomes a blur, to be honest.
FOS: You’ve got these two jobs. Either one of them could be full-time for a lot of people. You have all this communication coming in, and production meetings, etc. How do you balance the two if/when they come into conflict with each other?
JR: I will tell you this—as a student, any teacher I ever had would tell you that time management is not my strength. I would like to let those teachers know that it is now!
It was definitely a learning curve for me over two years, managing being on the road for WWE and for hockey, it’s like, What do I have the mental capacity to deal with right now? and then, What do I prioritize?
When it’s WrestleMania season, I’m prioritizing WWE. When things become day-to-day, like right up against each other, like the stretch I mentioned earlier, those are the hard ones—because everything is a priority right now. We’re in the Stanley Cup playoffs, I’ve got Monday Night Raw, we just came off WrestleMania season. In that instance, it’s all about what’s pressing in the moment.
It’s also about making sure I’m managing my time properly. Like if I have a two-hour layover at an airport, I’m not wasting time in line at Starbucks to get myself a coffee, right? I’m immediately sitting down and opening up my computer and figuring out whatever prep work I need to do, or email I need to respond to.
It’s all just about maximizing my minutes. When I’m going between things, I’m trying not to sleep on a plane. I’m trying to make sure I’m dialed so when I get to whatever city I’m in I have time to rest and be mentally not-fatigued. I’ve learned that’s important, too. Sometimes the best thing I can do for myself is trust that I know what I’m doing and making sure that I’m rested for the show and ready to go.
It’s a balancing act for sure, but I work with really great people who support me and understand my schedule.
FOS: WWE is scripted, and these hockey games are in-the-moment, but you have a similar role in both of them as an interviewer. How do they compare and contrast?
JR: Being a part of two worlds that are both in similar spheres—they’re both sports entertainment in a lot of ways—I think has made me better at each respective role.
In hockey, we’re reacting to the moment. We don’t know what’s going to happen. But I think working with WWE, what I’ve realized, is just understanding not just the weight of the moment or the weight of the game, but understanding the characters that I’m dealing with—how to get the most out of them, how to elevate what they’re experiencing and pull out of them the emotion and personality with the audience and the people that are rooting for them.
I owe a lot of that to WWE, and then vice versa. When we do a premium live event (PLE) panel or a sit-down for a PLE like WrestleMania, a lot of that I prep questions myself. I treat those sit-down interviews the way I treat any interview that I do, whether it’s in hockey or wrestling. I prepare for it the same way, I approach it the exact same way. At the end of the day, hockey players are telling a story as well.
If I’m sitting down with Jey Uso ahead of WrestleMania, sure, the outcome may be predetermined, but the story he’s telling is still very much real. He’s still somebody that never really expected he would ever elevate himself outside the tag division. So for me, it’s about hitting those points of emotion and vulnerability that are very, very real for Jey Uso.
Even doing a 60-second interview backstage, it’s like, What story are we telling? What is the realest, most vulnerable aspect of that story that I can hit? Even in just my one little question I might be asking.
I do see some similarities between wrestling and hockey, and I actually find a really cool intersection of fans that cross over into both. I wish hockey players were a little more willing to show their personalities like WWE superstars [laughs], but I think we’re getting better and to a point where hockey players are more open to that.
FOS: Has there been a time in WWE where you’ve just cracked and laughed and broken character because a wrestler had such a ridiculous performance in a promo?
JR: Multiple times. I don’t know if that’s good or not. I can’t think of one where I laughed—it’s definitely happened, I think it happened while interviewing the Judgment Day in their original form (Edge, Damian Priest, and Rhea Ripley). I can’t remember what happened.
But the one that really stands out to me, where I broke, forgot what my role was, and was truly just reacting as close to the real Jackie Redmond that there is, I was interviewing CM Punk in front of a crowd. He said something that I truly didn’t expect. I won’t get into the details of what was said, but you could see the shock on my face.
That was not a planned reaction. I didn’t know what he was gonna say. He dropped the mic, as he often does, and I was very entertained in the moment and also very surprised. I think you could see it on my face because the internet let me know that you could see it on my face. I definitely broke in that moment.
FOS: You’re a big Maple Leafs fan. Is it ever gonna happen for them?
JR: Oh God, I hope so. I really hope so, because I don’t know what it’s like to watch my sports team win anything. I don’t even know what it’s like to see them compete in the final round for the ultimate prize. But it feels like they’re cursed. It really does. There’s a hex on the Maple Leafs. I don’t know how we undo it. But I hope in my lifetime I get to see it.
I still consider myself pretty young, but I don’t really want to wait until I’m in my eighties to see the Leafs hoist the Stanley Cup.
And as long as I’m working with CM Punk, I just can’t handle the torture I endure at the hands of him every time the Leafs lose. He’s relentless in his chirping of the Maple Leafs, and in his ridicule of me for continuing to choose to be a fan of them.
I’m doing the Cup finals the next couple weeks, but I don’t know what’s in store for me when I see CM Punk. I’ve actually stopped responding to his texts because our text chain is literally just a stream of memes making fun of the Maple Leafs and their fan base, and I was like I’m just not responding to you anymore. I’m just literally going to leave you on “read.”
To answer your question, it’s tough to be a Leafs fan, but I’ll never abandon them.
