The original Talking Smack on the WWE Network, which was hosted by Renee Paquette and Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson), was the brainchild of Mike Mansury.
All Elite Wrestling‘s Mike Mansury was a recent guest on The Sessions with Renee Paquette to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked what made the original Talking Smack on the WWE Network that he was in charge of producing so special, Mansury said it simply came down to the fact that they were making it up as they went.
“So it’s funny because when the [WWE] Network launched, there was a need for content,” Mike Mansury began. “As there is when any network launches or when any network is just in existence. You need content, and what can we do outside of the in-ring stuff that was going to appeal to the fans? And a lot of that stuff sometimes just fell over to me, ‘Hey, we want to do this, or we want to start doing these kickoff shows before the pay-per-view to sell, or we’re going to start doing these post-shows and pre-shows for RAW and SmackDown.’
“So we were making it up as we went and to answer your question about what made it so special. I don’t mean this in a disparaging way. I think what made it so special is that we made it up. Anything that was on Talking Smack and RAW Talk, specifically Talking Smack is, I think, what made Talking Smack so special. That show wouldn’t have been what it was if it weren’t for you and [Daniel] Bryan. Again, right it’s just kind of like the devils in the details there, right?
“Bryan is in the midst of this tumultuous part of his life where wrestling was taken from him, and he’s still involved in the business somehow, but It’s not where he wants to be, but he’s making the best of it. But also, we know Bryan, Bryan was also kind of taking the piss out of things while we were doing Talking Smack, and not in a way that he wasn’t trying to like bury anybody or not getting anybody over. Right, but he was having fun. And you were finally in a position where you could work as a host and a presenter without any sort of limitations, right? Like you got to be Renee. You got to have an opinion. You got to do your part in storytelling.”
When Renee Paquette mentioned that it was a great opportunity for all of them to work without the typical WWE parameters, Mansury said it was always his goal in everything he did as a producer to make sure the talent looked their absolute best. He went on to give the example of the showdown between The Miz and Daniel Bryan as one of the highlights of the show’s run.
“I think what helped me in that position was that creatively I knew where we were,” Mike Mansury said. “I mean, I think regardless of whether we had parameters or no parameters, had been instilled in me to do what was always best for WWE to do what was best for the business and for me, as a producer, one of the main functions that I hold paramount and all my work is to make sure that my talent looks the absolute best that they possibly can look.
“And I don’t mean that just from aesthetics. I mean that from presentation to what they’re saying and how they’re going, etc. You know, there it’s a multifaceted approach. And we got to do some pretty cool things, and we made we created moments, right? It’s funny. You always hear people talk about The Miz and Bryan’s interaction, the one episode where Bryan got hot and walked off. People forget the setup that we had done.
“I think it was a week or two prior. I think Mike was left off the show, he was left off the show, and he is cutting this impassioned promo to the camera, and I remember going to Renee, ‘Take me off the air.’ I didn’t even tell Miz that we were going to do this. I just said, ‘Renee, take me off the air.’ If Mike is talking about how he’s underutilized, abused by the system, etc. Let’s amplify it.
“So you didn’t even wrap him up. You literally just did your sign-off to the camera, and we fade it out. And he’s still on his harangue about being misused and wanting to bring glory back to the Intercontinental Championship and being disrespected, etc. And it was just that next step that was needed to get him to come back and to have that epic confrontation with Bryan.”
Mansury spoke about how creating these special moments led to WWE management getting involved and putting writers on the show, which completely changed the dynamic of what they were trying to do.
“You could argue that a lot of Mike’s frustrations at the time were legitimately coming out on the air, and he had every right to be, and to be able to give him that outlet. And then look at what we did. We had started creating moments and enhancing characters on the show without any adult supervision,” Mike Mansury said. “And the adults came in, and they said, ‘Hey, you guys are doing something here where we’re gonna start putting a couple of writers on this.’ And slowly but surely, it’s like — and not taking anything away from the writers. They’re an unbelievably talented group of folks, and they bust their ass off, but it was just something so organic about it.”
More must-reads: