Jimmy Smith Liked ‘On-Air Traffic’ By Vince McMahon On WWE RAW

Jimmy Smith made a name for himself as a play-by-play commentator on Bellator and it seems his skills transferred quite well into his role as part of the commentary team on Monday Night RAW.

Smith made his debut on this week’s episode of Monday Night RAW as a WWE commentator, as he replaced Adnan Virk. While Virk would be criticized on a regular basis, that was not the case for Smith as fans certainly loved his work.

In fact, his work was received so well that those in WWE considered him to be natural fit in the role on Monday Night RAW. As is the case for all WWE commentators, Vince McMahon was certainly speaking in his ear. While the likes of Mick Foley and CM Punk weren’t fans of McMahon doing that, it seems Smith felt differently.

While speaking on Busted Open Radio, Jimmy Smith talked about his experience working as a WWE commentator, particularly with Vince McMahon buzzing in his ear. Smith stated that Vince McMahon was very helpful to him and that he liked the ‘on-air traffic.’

“I had Bjorn Rebney yelling at me in Bellator. It happens. Dana [White] didn’t really do it in UFC, but I’ve dealt with multiple people yelling at me or multiple people talking to me. It wasn’t new at all. When Vince hoped on, it was about things that were specific to WWE that I need to learn that I found helpful. Whenever we’d say, ‘WWE fans’ it’s ‘our fans.’ There’s verbiage specific to the WWE. Every time Vince jumped on, it was, ‘In WWE, we say this.’ Got it. It was all helpful.

“Three people were never talking at the same time. Even though it was three different voices, they all jumped on at different times. I had [Michael] Cole in my ear because he was producing and I had Kevin [Dunn] and occasionally Vince. Vince, not that much, and Kevin and Cole were good at not stepping on each other. The on-air traffic was great and Kevin gave me plenty of time. The countdowns were shorter, I have to get used to that. It’s the nature of the way wrestling works.”

We will have to see whether Jimmy Smith will continue to do a good job or not in the coming few weeks as consistency is the key when it comes to being a commentator in WWE.