Renee Young appeared on The Bump today to discuss her final day with WWE and her eight-year career.
Young said that it’s starting to sink in to be unemployed and it feels weird but is now enjoying spending time with her family. Young was overwhelmed with the amount of support she received online considering the Internet is a “hell hole 90% of the time” and the love and affection shown towards her has been crazy.
The Canadian listed Paul Heyman, Kevin Owens, and Samoa Joe as her top three favorite interviews, saying it was wild to try and be in a stare down with Paul Heyman and Joe kept zinging her during interviews when he was in a feud with Dean Ambrose but she had to keep it professional.
Young also went over her interactions with two WWE legends – Mean Gene Okerlund and Dusty Rhodes – and how she grew better in her work thanks to them. She said that she was shaking in her boots, nervous, and so excited to have worked with Okerlund when she started and it was a joy listening to several road stories about Hulk Hogan and Andre. She called Mean Gene a “firecracker” and said he never lost his sharpness, always cracking timely jokes in between takes.
When it came to Dusty Rhodes, Young said that one time she showed up for rehearsals with no make up, messy hair and certainly not camera ready and Rhodes asked her if she came to the set by hanging outside on a moving train. He told her that cameras are always rolling and to always be presentable because you never know who will see you.
Asked about her proudest moments in WWE, Young said that opening and closing WrestleMania 35 is right up there as she never thought she’d be doing one of those. She also said that calling the Saudi Arabia show and being the first WWE woman allowed to work there was an eye-opener as well and only when she was walking down the ramp with tons of young kids calling her name did she realize what power WWE has around the world and it really put a lot of things into perspective.
Young said that she was hanging around at the hotel after SummerSlam and lots of friends stopped by for a drink. She said that it was not easy to walk away from her job and while she tried not to cry all day, she did cry on the way to the airport on Monday after everything was over.
At that point, Kayla Braxton told her that they have a video for her and to get her tissues ready. A video aired with heart-warming messages from The Miz, The IIconics, Bayley, Natalya, Vic Joseph, Corey Graves, Cesaro, Kevin Owens, King Corbin, and Shinsuke Nakamura. Bayley told her that she knows where to find her and she will be waiting for her at Raw Underground.
“That got me,” Young said as she wiped away tears. “Stupid Bayley. I’ll fight her in the Underground, any day, any damn day!”
Young ended the segment by talking about her upcoming cookbook which will be released in the spring of next year.
