Renee Young looks back on her time hosting the original Talking Smack.
In her farewell piece for The Players Tribune, Renee took time to write about how much she enjoyed working on the show and thanked her co-host Daniel Bryan. After fulfilling a number of roles for the company, Renee, whose last day was at SummerSlam on August 23, said she enjoyed working on Talking Smack the most.
Thank you to Daniel Bryan and everyone involved with Talking Smack. Out of everything I did in WWE, that’s probably the single thing that I enjoyed the most. I think I felt like it was the most me, if that makes sense. Like I finally got a chance to do something approaching “my thing.” I could be fun, I could be sassy, I could be a little messy and a little rough around the edges and real — and that’s just always been my M.O. I think it worked, too. Talent got to be themselves on Talking Smack: there was sort of this IDGAF attitude, but at the same time you were seeing work. Like, some of the character work that guys did on our show was just unreal. And PEOPLE GOT OVER!! People got over, in a really unique way….. that to me is just a fact. From working with the Miz and Bryan, to Owens and Jericho, to the Usos, to AJ, to Naomi, to Sami, to even some of the greener talent who got to use our show to go out there and flap their creative wings a bit — honestly I’m just so impressed with what we built there, so glad they’re bringing it back, and I hope it lasts a million seasons.
Renee had been with WWE since 2012 and filled multiple roles including interviewer, host of WWE Backstage, host of various WWE panels, Raw announcer, doing work for WWE digital and more.
A number of people in and out of WWE have thanked her for her time with the company and you can find reactions to her departure at this link. You can check out the full letter from The Players Tribune at this link.
