Originally published at Jimmy Smith comments on new role on Raw, audition process
On Wednesday, WWE confirmed an earlier report that Jimmy Smith will be joining the broadcast team of Raw beginning this Monday.
It was first reported by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer that Smith will be filling the role previously held by Adnan Virk by calling Raw alongside Byron Saxton and Corey Graves.
Smith spoke about the new role on Instagram Live discussing the tryout process a few months ago and how it went:
Apparently, they’ve liked the work I’ve done so far. I did my audition for them, what was it? Two months ago? Three months ago? They liked it. I worked with Corey Graves calling fights/matches, they loved it, they thought it was great. a lot of fun to do and they were kicking around, kind of, where to put me and what to do and I did NXT, the pre-show of the NXT show – they liked that a lot, and then this opportunity came up and here I am.
The proof is in how I do Monday night, that’s everything. I’m on Monday, so if you don’t like it, I’ll know Tuesday morning, if do like it, I’ll know Tuesday morning.
One of the matches he called for his tryout with Graves was Cesaro versus Daniel Bryan, which Smith loved since it was heavily based on submissions.
He said the audition came out of the blue when a former executive from Spike TV went to WWE and passed his name along.
Smith acknowledged a tweet that several people discovered from 2019 where he stated he had not watched wrestling since he was young. Smith said that’s true and told Michael Cole that fact when Cole first contacted him. Cole asked him to familiarize himself with the product with Smith noting he has not missed a second of WWE programming since that call.
Smith said his favorites as a kid were Mr. Perfect, Bruiser Brody, and the Von Erichs adding that he remembers watching Kerry Von Erich defeating Ric Flair for the NWA Championship in May 1984. He said he followed pro wrestling very closely until falling out of it around 1990.
He said he is prepping very hard for Monday’s episode and isn’t doing any media appearances until his first show is over. He plans to be in Florida all weekend in advance of Raw including attending Friday Night SmackDown.