Report: Renee Young Will Be Part of WWE Announce Team at Crown Jewel Event in Saudi Arabia
The WWE Crown Jewel event takes place this Friday, November 2 in Jiyadh, Saudi Arabia and if you’ve followed the rules surrounding the show then you know there are no female wrestlers on the card. However, there is apparently going to be a female announcer there because Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin is reporting that Renee Young, who is a full-time WWE Raw announcer, will be there at Crown Jewel calling the action.
According to the Pro Wrestling Sheet report, WWE has been trying to make this happen since September when they promoted Young to a full-time role as an announcer in WWE. They also note that it’s not known if there will be any guidelines for Renee or WWE to follow.
It’s also not known what the announce team will be for Crown Jewel, but it’s I know Michael Cole and Corey Graves have mentioned that they will be there to call the action. It’s possible that one of Smackdown’s other announcers like Tom Phillips or Byron Saxton may be there too. There is also a Kickoff Show with no word yet on who is hosting it.
The reason why this is newsworthy is that following the Greatest Royal Rumble event, the Saudi Arabian General Sports Authority was upset with WWE for showing a video that had women’s wrestlers in it. They issued an apology to people, which comes off as so awkward. This is what that translated message said:
“The General Sport Authority would like to apologize to the viewers and attendees of last night’s WWE event that took place in Jeddah, over the indecent scene involving women that appeared as an ad before a segment. It would like to confirm it’s total disapproval of this, in the shadow of its commitment to eliminate anything that goes against the communities values.
The authority has made sure to ban showing of any segment that involves women wrestling or any scenes related to it, and stipulated that to the company (WWE). The authority also disapproved any promotional stuff with pictures or videos showing women in an indecent way, and emphasized on commitment of this rule. And it’s a commitment that the authority would still commit to forever in all of its events and programs.”
Young has yet to comment on calling the action at Crown Jewel probably because WWE hasn’t announced it yet. When they do, I’m sure they’ll say something. Young did post on Instagram about calling the action at Evolution this past Sunday.
Young’s husband Dean Ambrose isn’t booked for the event. I doubt WWE is going to fly him in just to cost Seth Rollins a match at the show, but that’s a possibility.
TJR Thoughts: I’m happy for Renee. She continues to be given opportunities by WWE and I think it’s at least some progress by the Saudi Arabian people working with WWE to allow her to call the action. They still need to do more to allow women’s wrestlers there, but that may be a few years away.