Also, join us in telling ESPN “no, stop it, what are you doing, leave us alone.”
In a report from The Observer that will be gasp-inducing to wrestling fans and a relief to people who hate all the “RENEE!!” tweets on Monday nights, ESPN is “very interested” in signing away WWE’s Renee Young. I know, I’m clutching my pearls, too.
For those of you who might not know, Renee is a backstage interviewer, analyst and delightful Canadian lady who showed up to work one day and was instantly the most competent and enjoyable person in her position in years. The backstage interviewer spot is usually reserved for Divas who can’t perform at a Divas level and/or random weird dudes who ask a form question, blink heavily when listening to the answer and stare off into space as the interview ends. It’s weird. Renee doesn’t do that, though. She’s engaging, seems to be listening to what the WWE Superstars are saying and reacts accordingly. She sells the moment by actually being in it. Also she is very pretty. Something something. She’s an important part of magical segments like this:
Renee signed with WWE in 2012 after hosting the show Right After Wrestling for The Score, so her Canadian fans were already equipped with the same WE’VE KNOWN SHE WAS GREAT FOR YEARS thing they’d love to be able to do with Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole. On the ESPN side, they’ve been mining WWE announcers for a while. WWE’s turned into a farm system for ESPN talent, with announcers like Jonathan Coachman and Todd Grisham jumping ship from The Worldwide Leader in Sports-Entertainment to The Worldwide Leader in Sports.
If ESPN does sign Renee, we’ll follow up with a story about me lying face down on my living room floor for several days.