Jimmy Smith Reveals Triple H Accidentally Tipped Him Off About WWE Exit

Amidst a broadcast team shake-up on Thursday within WWE, it was confirmed that Jimmy Smith had exited the company, leaving his role as the play-by-play announcer on Monday Night Raw. Smith has been replaced by Kevin Patrick on play-by-play while Corey Graves will continue to be the colour commentator on the red brand, with Byron Saxton and the returning Cathy Kelley as backstage interviewers.

Speaking on his SiriusXM 'Unlocking the Cage' show, Smith revealed that he wasn't surprised by his WWE exit as Triple H had accidentally hinted a change was coming ahead of Monday's episode of Raw.

"Triple H accidentally told me before the show Monday. He screwed up and told me [about the commentary changes]. He didn't mean to...What happened was I was doing my prep for the show and we had a production meeting and on-air, Seth Rollins had cut a promo saying, 'Hey, D.C. hates Riddle just as much as I do' and so everybody in the production meeting turns to me and goes, 'What did he mean? Do they have some kind of personal problem?' Because I'm the MMA guy, right? And I said, 'Well, Riddle's been critical of fighter pay of the UFC and Daniel Cormier's kind of considered a company guy' so I go, 'That could be what he's talking about.' That's the only thing I could think of," Smith began.

"And so anyway, before the show, I go up to Riddle and I go, 'Do you and D.C. have any kind of beef or problem?' And he goes, 'No, no, no! We're cool.' He goes, 'He might be upset that I out-wrestled Jon Jones and he couldn't,' meaning he beat - the famous photo of Riddle first place on the podium at State and whatever place Jon Jones was. He beat Jon Jones wrestling twice in New York, whatever. So he goes, 'Hey, he might be mad I out-wrestled Jon Jones twice.' I go, 'Oh man, that's a good line. Gotta use that.' 

"So I go to Triple H. Triple H standing there, I go, 'Hey, I just talked to Riddle and he gave me this line about how he out-wrestled Jon Jones twice' and Triple H goes, 'Okay, cool. Give that note to Cole' and I went, why would I have to give that note to Cole if I'm calling the match on Saturday? Oh. I'm not calling the match on Saturday. Oh, I'm probably fired. In about two seconds, my brain went, that's so - okay...and I was like, all right. So I knew basically the whole show on Monday night that I wasn't coming back so when I got the call Tuesday, I was not particularly surprised."

H/T to POST Wrestling