The only thing that’s for sure about WWE’s brand split is that nothing is for sure, because things change all the time. Just look at the WWE’s best backstage interviewer and host, Renee Young. When the brand split happened last year, Young only appeared on Smackdown while Raw had the likes of Mike Rome, Charly Caruso and others appearing on Raw. Young also got to host the Talking Smack show on WWE Network after Smackdown was over. A few weeks ago, WWE announced Talking Smack was going to be canceled as a weekly show and only to be used after WWE pay-per-view events. The reported main reason for Talking Smack ending as a weekly show was because WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon didn’t like it.
One of the saddest things about Talking Smack being canceled as a weekly show is that Renee found out via Twitter when I tweeted her about it.
Hmmmm that's one way to get news. https://t.co/sNIYUZfD7N
— Renee Paquette (@ReneePaquette) July 14, 2017
To Renee’s credit, her and former Talking Smack co-host Daniel Bryan have had fun with it as they released the “Smacking Talk” show with Chad Gable as the guest. It was pretty funny and I hope there are more episodes in the future.
It was announced via WWE.com on Wednesday that Young will be a part of both WWE Raw and Smackdown Live going forward:
No, your eyes and ears weren’t deceiving you: Longtime SmackDown LIVE interviewer Renee Young appeared on Raw this week and continued her duties on Team Blue. And she will be a fixture on both brands for the foreseeable future, WWE.com can confirm.
It’s good news for Young because her husband Dean Ambrose was moved from Smackdown to Raw back in April, which meant they didn’t get to see eachother as often as they should. At least now they can see eachother on Monday nights while she stays on the road on Tuesdays for Smackdown.
I’m happy for Renee because she’s a talented on camera performer that genuinely loves the wrestling business and working for WWE. I remember her working for The Score TV network (now Sportsnet 360) here in Canada for a few years before she got the WWE job. She is where she wants to be. There are always rumors that she might leave one day for ESPN or some other network because she is a huge sports fan too, but with her husband Dean Ambrose in WWE it’s easy to see why she might stay there for a very long time. It’s also smart for WWE to try to make her happy by putting her on Raw as well as Smackdown. If it was up to me, she would replace Byron Saxton on Smackdown Live and make her a babyface announcer on the commentator. She would do a great job at it.
If you want more of Renee, here’s a recent interview she did from the San Diego Comic Con talking about how busy she is, her marriage to Dean Ambrose and more.
