Yesterday, WWE Raw commentator Renee Young released a new episode of Regular Girls, a “shoot-the-breeze” podcast she hosts with friend Stacey McGunnigle. In the episode, Young talks about her job as commentator, and feedback she’s received.
Specifically, Young talks about her on-the-job commentary trainers Tom Phillips, the lead play-by-play commentator on SmackDown Live, and Vic Joseph, the lead play-by-play commentator on 205 Live. Young describes how the two male commentators instructed her to talk less.
Transcription of quote from 411Mania:
“So I’ve been working each week — I work with Tom Phillips, this week I worked with Vic Joseph — but we’ll go back and watch [and] listen to my commentary on Raw or on a pay-per-view or whatever and like, dissect it. They’ll give me pointers, et cetera, et cetera, and it’s extremely beneficial to me. But yeah, that was kinda the note where they’re like ‘You don’t have to talk as much as you think you need to talk. Maybe just sit back and listen a little bit.’ I was like, ‘Okay.’ And that’s like, really no easy task for me. I’m so used to being like, the talker. And keeping the ball afloat. So when I don’t have that ball, to keep it afloat, I think that’s an uncomfortable spot for me and then I end up, just like … diarrhea of the mouth because I don’t have a firm grasp on what’s happening.”
Before becoming the first full-time female commentator in WWE, Young acted as a pay-per-view panel host and backstage interviewer. She’s been at her new gig for six months, and fan response has been generally positive.
Besides the argument that male commentators training and providing feedback of the sort to a female commentator is questionable, it’s also strange to note that their job titles don’t quite match Young’s.
Readers can listen to the entire podcast above.
What are your thoughts on the feedback given to Renee Young? Do you think the feedback is out of line? Let us know in the comments below.
