WWE: Renee Young Reveals Why She Left Company

WWE fans were surprised to see Renee Young leave the company. She made the announcement during the SummerSlam pre-show in August, and she’s now opening up about her departure. Young recently made an appearance on Sports Illustrated Media Podcast and revealed she was “spinning her wheels” at this point in WWE.

“I don’t know if there was a definitive ‘I’m leaving now’ [moment],” Young said. “Backstage got canceled, I got COVID, a lot of s— just kind of happened… I’m at home, I get my diagnosis, that same day I found out that Backstage gets canceled. But it was really with Backstage being canceled that I was like, ‘What am I doing? I’m not really doing anything anymore and my skill set of being a host, there’s just nowhere for me to do it anymore.” Young also mentioned the return of Talking Smack where she was the host alongside Daniel Bryan during its original run and possibly doing that. However, Young stated: “I feel like I’m taking steps backward. I’m sorta spinning my wheels to go back and do a show. To not be doing it with [Daniel Bryan.] To not be doing it with [former WWE producer and VP of Television Production] Mike Mansury, who also is no longer with WWE. But that was sort of the magic of what that show was to me.”

“It was all that stuff happening at once and just being like, ‘What am I doing here? I’ve checked off all the things I’ve been able to do.’ Stepping away from commentary ultimately left kind of a bad taste in my mouth,” Young continued. “So going to working for FOX was incredible, and I’ll still be doing stuff for FOX as we’re kind of figuring out what that looks like with WWE and FOX.”

Fans have been wondering what’s the next move for Young. Will she join her husband Jon Moxley in AEW soon? Young said there have been “no talks” with the promotion and also stated I knew it was going to come up. What I found interesting is, as much as I assumed that’s what everyone was going to say, more people were like, ‘She’s going to work for FOX or ESPN.’ A lot of people saw me leaving the wrestling world, which I was surprised by.” Young has been with WWE since 2012 and wore a number of hats including being the first female commentator for Monday Night Raw.