Renee Young opens up what went down with WWE when she revealed she had Covid
Popular host and interviewer, Renee Young, made her last appearance for the WWE on Aug. 23 at SummerSlam. Young joined this week's SI Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina and opened up about her departure from the company after eight years, why she felt it was time to go, her future plans, her battle with Covid and much more.
While repeatedly saying that she has no hard feelings and that she still loves everyone at the company, Young did express some frustration about the WWE's reaction to her coronavirus diagnosis and her decision to make it public.
When asked if the rumors were true that WWE was not happy she shared the news about testing positive for Covid on Twitter, Young said, "Yeah. I generally just like to be transparent about everything. I like to just be honest. There's no shame in having got it. Again we don't know what's going on with anything. We're all trying to figure it out. So when I tweeted that I had it, I wasn't doing it as, like, "I GOT COVID." That was not my MO when I tweeted. It was mostly, 'Hey, I have it.' Also, in case there were people that could've been around me and maybe seen that I had it, I felt a responsibility to make sure people knew that I was sick. But, yeah, it was NOT well received."
Young explained on the podcast that after her tweet, she went to bed and woke up to a some texts.
"They weren't even even like 'You shouldn't have posted it.' But it was like, 'We wish you gave us a heads up.' It was bad for PR and whatnot. But again, I wouldn't have even thought to be like, "Hey guys, I'm gonna tweet that I have Covid, ha, ha. Like, that was just not what I was thinking about when I posted it."
Young was then asked, Do you think WWE handled everything with Covid as well as they could've? They never shut down. Do you think they should've shut down?
"Listen, anything I say on this is gonna end up seeming like controversial or like I'm shitting on it or whatever," she said, "but, yeah, did I feel a little slighted? I didn't really feel like anyone was all that concerned that I got sick. That bothered me for sure.
"But, you know, it's hard to say. Again, it's like, shit, the show goes on and now they're working at the Amway Center and they're essentially doing the best that they can NOW. Now doing the proper tests. I think that was something that should've been implemented from the beginning. Since everything that's gone down and however many people ended up getting sick, now it feels like a much safer environment. Even when I was there for SummerSlam, I was definitely less concerned about it knowing that everyone in the building has been properly tested with the nose swab and whatnot."
When the discussion shifted gears to how the WWE handled things with corona in March and April by keeping the shows going, Young said, "It was shocking. It really shocking to see that this was deemed essential business. That made it seem like, hold on a second here."
She went on to add, "I was not traveling for a while. I was doing stuff from home. I was like, 'I just don't need to be there.' Especially when you look at what I was going on the shows at that time. ... For me to fly from Las Vegas to Orlando when you have Kayla Braxton local in Orlando, you have Sarah Schreiber local in Orlando, Charley Caruso was spending most of her time in Florida, there were hands on deck that didn't have to travel, so for me to feel like I had to actually still had to get on a plane and go do it was like, "Oh my God. For what? What are we doing here? It felt insane to me."
You can listen to Young's full appearance on the SI Media Podcast beginning at the 44-minute mark below. You can also listen to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.
Will Young join her husband, Jon Moxley, in AEW? Which successful podcaster is an inspiration for Young? How strange is it not to have the WWE restrictions anymore.
She discusses all this and much more on the podcast.