Renee Young To Be Guest Commentator For Full Duration Of Raw Next Monday

As Renee Young records her second day of commentary for the Mae Young Classic in Winter Park, Florida later today as part of the first WWE commentary team with two women (alongside Beth Phoenix, with Mauro Ranallo), she’s set to make more history this coming Monday night.

With Jonathan Coachman out fulfilling another obligation, Young will serve as a guest commentator for the final episode of Monday Night Raw leading into SummerSlam, ESPN.com reports.

Young will work alongside Michael Cole and Corey Graves for all three hours of the broadcast, making this the first time a woman has called an entire episode of Raw.

“When Michael [Cole] told me, I was like, ‘This Monday?! What are you talking about?!’,” Young said. “I am so excited for this opportunity. To be sitting with Cole, who has been such a great champion of mine since I’ve been working for WWE, it’s going to be really cool.”

Young has served in a variety of roles throughout her WWE career, which started in late 2012. For the last several years she’s been one of the primary interviewers on Raw and SmackDown LIVE, as well as the primary anchor for pay-per-view Kickoff Shows and the post-pay-per-view shows Talking Smack and Raw Talk.

In 2013 and 2014, Young served as part of the NXT broadcast team alongside a variety of other commentators, which is also where Graves got his start with WWE. From July 3, 2014, to January 9, 2015, Young served as a color commentator on WWE Superstars, alongside Tom Phillips. In an interview with former WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia that was released this week, Young said the role stressed her out.

“It stressed me out more then, but I also was so much newer in the company that I felt like, and I did this to myself I think, but I felt like I was on such a tightrope about what I can say, what I can do, how I can behave, how am I supposed to come across,” Young said.

“I was like, ‘Who am I? What is this thing that I’m delivering to people because this doesn’t feel like it’s me.’ I just feel like I had to rework how I speak and I can definitely be a little crass or I can make fun of stuff in ways that doesn’t work here.

“So I think now that I’ve been here long enough and I’ve been on the panels long enough, that I have such a better perspective of how everything works from a non-scripted idea. So I think if I were able to apply that again a second round, it might be a different outcome.”

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