Interview: Renee Young on Commentary, Dean Ambrose’s Return, Women’s Evolution

Yahoo held a recent interview with Renee Young and some of the topics discussed included being WWE’s first ever full-time female commentator, Dean Ambrose’s return from injury, her thoughts on being loved by fans, and WWE’s Women’s Evolution movement.

On the topic of becoming WWE’s first ever full-time female commentator, Young stated she never expected in a “million years” that her career in WWE would be this successful nor lead to her becoming a commentator on RAW.

“It’s so crazy to think about where I was in my life, in my career, before walking into that audition with WWE. I thought I had a terrible audition, and I was like, ‘There’s no way that went well, right?’ And lo and behold, they said I could work there anyway. I never in a million years would have thought this would have been an option.

I knew that I really wanted to be a part of that, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to. I was, in a way, from doing kick-off panels, and I’ve been able to get a fair amount of respect and be taken seriously in the things that I do.

I love now that that door has been opened; it’s a door that can stay open, and it means that other women can come in and start doing commentary, and other women can find roles to work with in WWE.”

On the topic of her quiet reaction to Dean Ambrose’s recent return from injury on Raw, Young stated she did it on purpose since she wanted the moment to be all about Ambrose and less on her commentary.

“That was by design. I think it made more sense because I knew for Dean, he had been waiting for almost nine months, and it was a huge, huge moment for him. Anything that I would have said in that moment would not have added. It was great just to sit back and see him in that moment. My heart was full for him.”

On the topic of being loved by fans, Young stated she still feels surprised at the very positive reception she has received from fans during her career in the WWE.

“I’m not sure what I’ve done to deserve that. We live in such a finicky world where everyone just wants to hate everything. Everyone always has a comment on something. To be held in a nice light is mind-boggling. I owe everybody a round of drinks.”

On the topic of WWE’s Women’s Evolution movement, Young stated she feels proud to be able to help contribute and knows there is still a lot of hard work left to do.

“I feel so proud, really, getting to help lead that march. I know there’s a long road ahead of me and there’s a lot of work that I need to do to really do this justice. It’s a big job, and I’m so excited to do that work.”