Renee Young On Why It's Been Weird Since She Left WWE

It's been almost four months since Renee Young aka Renee Paquette departed WWE. Renee was universally liked by both those in WWE as well as the fans which is rare in today's day and age. She hasn't revealed what she'll be doing now that she's free from WWE but she talked about how she feels "on the outside" when she joined The Bellas Podcast.

"It's weird, but it's good now. I think I kinda came to terms where I was like, 'It's time for me to go. I've done everything that I could possibly do here.' I had a great run and it was awesome. But for the other things I wanna do in my career, I just didn't see it happening there," admitted Renee.

"Just with everything and the way that it lined up with the COVID stuff and me getting sick ? not that that had anything to do with my decision ? but everything was weird for a while."

Renee mentioned that she wasn't thrilled to be traveling back and forth which is a staple in the world of pro wrestling, even during the pandemic. Then it just so happened that what she and Jon Moxley had been trying to do for years finally came into fruition after she left.

"I literally got pregnant the month after I left. Isn't that crazy? We had been trying for a while and were like, 'What is happening?' Then right away, it was like, 'Oh, there it is.' But it's definitely a weird adjustment because you're always used to being on the go. But I did have that ease out of it because of COVID and I wasn't on the road all the time. I was doing Backstage and flying out to LA more than I was flying out to SmackDown," stated Renee.

"But I feel like the weirdest part is being out of the loop with your friends. You miss seeing everybody. You miss the bulls*** in the back. That's what I miss. I don't necessarily miss some of the jobs and stuff I was doing, but I miss the people a lot."

While Renee did return to WWE for one night to co-host the season two premiere of SmackDown on FOX, she doesn't currently have anything else lined up. She talked about going into the unknown by leaving one job without having her next job on deck.

"Now what do I wanna do? Because I just left without having anything lined up or knowing what I wanted to do. My gut was telling me, 'It's time for you to go. Go do this last SummerSlam show and then bounce out of there,'" said Renee. "But everyone was really cool about it. There's no ill-will or bad feelings; it's just I wanna go do other things and I need to spread my wings a bit and get out of that safety net. It's great to be there and it's great to have those opportunities and that steady income. But I feel like when you're not challenging yourself anymore, it's time to step out on a limb again. That's what life is about ? shaking it up and staying on your toes."

While Renee doesn't have anything lined up yet, she knows that the opportunities will come. Those are opportunities that she can now pursue which is something she couldn't do with the restrictions that WWE has on talent pursuing outside endeavors.

"You guys know with WWE, once you're in that wheel and it's moving, those opportunities to get off that ride don't come up often. There's always something else that comes up, another date to be added, another event, whatever. So, once the ride slowed down enough, I could go, 'Oh, this is my exit. I need to jump off now.' Or, another couple of years is gonna pass by and I don't want some of my prime years passing and I'm just sitting and waiting for whatever opportunity might come my way. I'd rather go seek it out and be in control of my own sh*t," stated Renee.

The Bellas then asked Renee what her dream job would be and she pointed to doing something on daytime television.

"Something that I always look at as being a dream gig that I would love to do is something like a Kelly Ripa-gig," revealed Renee. "Just like a daytime, go in there, bulls***. I think she's fantastic at the way she maintains her edge. It's that sweet spot where she's very good at what she does but it's also the I-don't-give-a-sh*t attitude and I think that's when people are at their absolute best."

Renee said she's painted herself into being a sportscaster but she wants to break out of that mold and that's another one of the reasons why she left WWE.

"A show like [Kelly Ripa] would be amazing. Even a show like Rachael Ray where I can combine some cooking and a talk show," stated Renee who has her own cookbook coming out in 2021.

Renee then talked about other things she's interested in doing as well as current projects she has going on.

"Daytime TV is something I always come back to. Initially when I started out hosting and I was figuring out what I wanted to do, it was more nighttime that I wanted to do. Now that I'm getting older and more established, I think daytime is more something that I want to do. Acting is something that I always come back to. I always wanted to do that and dip my toe back into those waters a little bit," Renee said before mentioning she loves indie movies and TV shows.

"Working on my podcast like I'm doing now ? that's really a fun, passion project. I was like, 'I just wanna do a show where I can say what I want and do what I want and flex those muscles outside of WWE.' So far, it has been just wrestlers and MMA; it's very combat sports-centric. That wasn't really my plan but that's where it's been so far. But I'm only a couple of episodes in and I'll start to branch out and get more pop culture and other artists on there and have some cool conversations."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Bellas Podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.