WWE's Reaction To Jimmy Smith's Raw Debut Revealed

Jimmy Smith's first night as a WWE Raw announcer was well received by the red brand's production team, reports WrestleVotes.

The former Bellator and UFC broadcaster was described as "tremendous" and a "natural fit" by WrestleVotes' sources, who were said to be thrilled with how Smith did alongside Corey Graves and Byron Saxton.

Smith was installed as Adnan Virk's Raw replacement following the former ESPN man's release last week. Virk had only been in the Raw hot seat since 12 April, when he came in for Tom Phillips as part of a wider commentary shakeup, with Graves moving over from SmackDown. Phillips followed Virk out the door later in the week.

His experience in calling live combat sports likely helped Smith, who immediately felt like a more natural wrestling commentator than his predecessor. It likely helps, too, that this isn't the first time he has had a promoter yelling through his headset during a broadcast.

Here's what Smith told SiriusXM's Busted Open's Bully Ray and Dave LaGreca of having Vince McMahon in his ears (h/t POST Wrestling for the transcription):-

"Yeah, because I’ve heard all the stories you guys have heard but you gotta remember I had Bjorn Rebney yelling at me in Bellator, you know what I mean? That happens. It’s not a big deal. Dana [White] didn’t really do that in the UFC but, you know, I’ve dealt with people yelling and multiple people talking to me at the same time, that’s not weird at all and when Vince [McMahon] hopped on, it was about things that was specific to WWE that I need to learn that I found very, very helpful. He didn’t just, I don’t know. I don’t know what anybody expected but you know, things like, ‘Whenever we say WWE fans, it’s our fans.’"

Smith, 43, had been training under senior announcer Michael Cole prior to his Raw debut this week.