WWE personality Renee Young was a guest on Lilian Garcia’s “Chasing Glory” to talk about several professional wrestling topics.
Here are the highlights:
Moving from weekly Raw commentating to hosting a show on FOX:
It was really odd. You realize how much of your identity is wrapped up in WWE. For me, it wasn’t like ‘Oh, I’m not on TV anymore with the WWE.’ For me, it was like ‘I’m not going to be around my friends.’ Without these people, who are my other adult friends? I don’t really have any. You get plucked out of your life, and then think like oh s–t, what do I do now? You feel a little bit lost at first. You’re like Oh my God, what is everyone up to?
Not missing the road:
I enjoy my time off the road. I was on the road for seven years. It’s nice to catch a breather.
Feeling like she didn’t belong on commentary:
I felt like I didn’t belong there. I wanted to be like I belong here, I earned this spot. This should be my spot. But, I kept hearing the background chatter, like ‘Why is this woman calling the matches? She’s never been in the ring. What’s she going to bring to the table?’ There was a ton of support, like an immense amount of support. That was really, really cool, but you tend to be like I want to listen to what the negative people are saying because I’m feeling insecure about it, and they’re probably right. It’s hard not to feel weird out there.
Feeling like the odd man out on the team:
Corey is one of my best friends, so I was like cool, we get to work together. This is going to be great, we’ve got such a cool chemistry. But, it doesn’t work that way out there. He and Cole had such a dynamic bond. Like on SmackDown now, they didn’t need a third person. By the time they were done doing their deal, I was like ‘Umm, go get them.’ I was already inexperienced in this game, so I was like s–t, everything has been said.
Being relieved when she was dismissed from her duties:
I was up for the challenge and I really wanted to make it awesome. Like, I really wanted to make it succeed. You get down on yourself and you’re waiting to get the call from the office saying we’re not doing this anymore. They let me stay out there a lot longer than I thought they were going to. It was nice to feel like I got a good opportunity. But honestly, I was relieved to stop doing it.
Backlash she faced online:
I think the silver lining was to step up to the challenge. Whether it’s going to be like the thing people remember me from, which I hope not. I had many conversations about his with Jon and I asked him ‘Jon, am I the worst commentator you’ve ever heard?’ He was like ‘No.’ He was like ‘I don’t get why you have it in your head that people think you’re horrible.’ He’s not a social media person, so, that’s not a thing for him. He would tell me ‘These are strangers, why are you listening to what strangers say about you?’ I felt like I had imposter syndrome.
H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions
