We found out during last week's SummerSlam pre-show that the rumors were true and Renee Young had decided to part ways with WWE. No specific reason was given at the time, but Young - real name Renee Paquette - has now explained in more detail why she chose to leave the company.
While speaking with Jimmy Traina on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast, Renee said she got the impression that nobody in WWE really seemed that bothered or reached out to her when she tested positive with COVID-19, but it sounds like the final straw came with the cancellation of WWE Backstage.
“I’m at home, I get my diagnosis, that same day I found out that Backstage gets cancelled. But it was really with Backstage being cancelled that I was like, ‘What am I doing? I’m not really doing anything anymore and my skillset of being a host … there’s just nowhere for me to do it anymore. Even with Talking Smack coming back, I had heard the rumblings that Talking Smack was making its way back, I was planning on perhaps doing that. But I was like, ‘You know what? 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.”
There's inevitable speculation that Renee will now join her husband Jon Moxley in AEW, but they already have more announcers and interviewers than they know what to do with, so we don't see that happening anytime soon.
Whatever Renee ends up doing, we wish her all the best.