Renee Young

Renee signed with WWE in October 2012, where she was initially given the ring name **Renee Sterling**, before choosing the name **Renee Young**, and made her on-screen debut on the 29 March 2013 episode of *SmackDown*, interviewing Randy Orton, Big Show, and Sheamus. Young had previously performed interviews exclusively for WWE Active since February 2013, and had also presented the 2012 Survivor Series pre-show alongside Scott Stanford. Young debuted on the January 23 episode of *NXT* as a backstage interviewer.

Young began co-hosting the World Tour segments, which was a segment detailing the city they were filming in, showcasing various tourist attractions, before later being promoted as a third main presenter on the *JBL and Cole Show*, which was shown on YouTube and WWE.com, until its cancellation in June 2015. It received a Slammy Award for Favorite Web Show of the Year. She also presented *WWE Vintage Collection* alongside Hall of Famer Mean Gene Okerlund.

In September 2013, Young made her commentary debut on *NXT*. She began performing color commentary during NXT Divas' matches, before later becoming a full-time color commentator on *NXT* for several months. From July 3, 2014 to January 9, 2015, Young served as a color commentator on *WWE Superstars*, alongside Tom Phillips, which made her WWE's first full-time female announcer in more than a decade. In April 2015, Young began hosting her own show titled *Unfiltered with Renee Young*, in which she interviewed fellow WWE employees, which aired on the WWE Network. In June, Young served as the co-host of the sixth season of *Tough Enough*, alongside Chris Jericho.

On the December 20, 2016 episode of *SmackDown*, Young interviewed Intercontinental Champion The Miz following his successful title defense against Apollo Crews. After Young asked Miz about his "obsession" with Dean Ambrose, Miz sarcastically responded by revealing Young and Ambrose's real-life relationship, prompting her to slap Miz. On December 27, Young was confronted by The Miz's real-life wife, Maryse, backstage on *SmackDown*. Maryse slapped Young the following week in retaliation, for which she was fined for. Young also seemed unhappy with Samoa Joe's comments on the January 1, 2018 episode of *Raw*, when he said that Ambrose became a stay-at-home husband after he injured Ambrose in storyline.

On August 9, 2018, it was announced by WWE that Young would join the commentary team for the August 13, 2018 episode of *Raw*, making her the first woman that has called an entire episode of *Raw*. Her debut coincided with her real-life husband Dean Ambrose's return from a lengthy injury. Young would return to the *Raw* commentary desk on September 3, 2018 to fill in for Jonathan Coachman. On September 10, 2018, it was announced that Young had joined the *Raw* commentary team full-time.

On September 26, 2019, WWE announced as a part of their "WWE Premiere Week" that a new commentary team would be on all three brands. Young would be moved to Friday Night SmackDown as a "Special Contributor" alongside Corey Graves and Michael Cole. It was later revealed during the SmackDown FOX premiere episode that she would no longer be on the commentating team, and would in fact be hosting a new WWE TV show with Booker T titled *WWE Backstage*. On November 1, 2019, Young filled in as commentator on *SmackDown*, as Michael Cole and Corey Graves missed the episode due to travel delays returning from Crown Jewel. Young announced her departure from WWE at SummerSlam in August 2020, stating that the event would be her last appearance with the company.

Renee Young returned for a special *SmackDown* pre-show on Friday, October 16, 2020, co-hosting the kickoff show alongside Booker T. She made another special appearance on the return of *WWE Backstage* for the January 30, 2021 episode, promoting the upcoming Royal Rumble with her returning co-hosts Paige and Booker T.