Jimmy Smith, former lead commentator on RAW has made some comments on his job, that has drawn the ire of Booker T. The WWE Hall of Famer lashed out on Smith during his Hall Of Fame podcast for insinuating that his job and WWE were totally fake.
WWE recently released Jimmy Smith after a huge shake up of their announcing rosters of RAW, SmackDown and NXT. Smith was an MMA commentator before switching to WWE in 2021.
Just wanted to say, now that the story is officially out, that my time with the WWE is officially done. Had a lot of fun and met some great people. Really and truly blown away by the acceptance from the WWE fans! You folks make it work every week and your enthusiasm was amazing!
— Jimmy Smith (@jimmysmithmma) October 6, 2022
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While on the MMA On Sirius XM podcast, Smith claimed that he played a commentator on TV, commentating fake fights:
“…I wasn’t a commentator in the WWE. I was not. I played a commentator on television…you’re a character pretending to commentate fake fights…”
He went on to point out all the discrepancies in WWE matches and what the commentators had to do.
Although Booker T liked how Smith did his job on RAW, he didn’t like Smith’s comments one bit. He questioned his intentions about joining WWE in the first place. He said: “…it just kind of disturbs me as far as letting guys like a Jimmy Smith into our business ever again…to leave the job to want to disparage it is, you know, it’s beyond me,” (29:20-29:42)
NXT COMMENTARY DEBUT, RENEE IS ALL ELITE, THE OC IS BACK & MORE https://t.co/FnMpIiiTLE
Advertisement— Booker T. Huffman (@BookerT5x) October 13, 2022
The two time Hall Of Famer continued to say that people like Jimmy Smith thought pro wrestlers were a “bunch of fake guys” playing some kind of game even after getting paid well in real money.
Smith is a former mixed martial artist and was working as a host and commentator for many combat sports organisations. Most notably, UFC, Bellator, American Ninja Warrior and Fight Quest (where he was also a participant). He had replaced Adnan Virk last year as a play by play commentator on RAW.
Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick have taken over as the commentators on RAW as the format returns to two person announce teams. Booker T has himself joined as a commentator for NXT alongside Vic Joseph.
