Jimmy Smith Says He “Wasn’t A Commentator In WWE”
Former Raw announcer Jimmy Smith says he was anything but a commentator during his time in WWE but instead he played one on television.
WWE recently announced a huge shake-up of their announcing rosters on Raw, SmackDown, and NXT with the lead voice on Raw Jimmy Smith being released from the company. Kevin Patrick and Corey Graves will take over commentary duties for the red brand as WWE returns to two-person announcing booths.
Speaking on MMA on Sirius XM, Jimmy Smith refuted that he was a commentator during his time in WWE, and says he was another of the company’s cast of characters:
“First off, let me explain that I wasn’t a commentator in the WWE. I was not. I played a commentator on television. And that’s not an insult. I’m not saying it wasn’t difficult or not, it was very difficult. But it’s like, you’re a character pretending to commentate fake fights…”
“And I had a mailbag question … about, ‘Man, you’re always staring at the screen.’ I was like, ‘Yeah because you’re not supposed to acknowledge anything that’s not on the screen. Anything the fans can’t see, I don’t see.’
“Yeah, I see Finn Balor running into the ring with a chair. I’m not blind. But I’m not supposed to acknowledge it, because they shoot around it until he hits Edge over the head with a chair. So I’m not supposed to see it until the audience sees it. So I’m like, blinding myself, literally. I have blinders on. I just watch the stream.”
“I’m not telling you what’s really happening, I’m not telling you what you’re not seeing, which is kind of the fun part of doing commentary. It’s having that in-depth analysis, that you’re not really able to do, or that vision that you’re really not able to have in WWE.”