Booker T Is Disturbed By Jimmy Smith's Post-WWE Comments

Two-time WWE Hall of Famer and six-time world champion Booker T is not impressed with the pot shots taken by recently fired "WWE Raw" announcer Jimmy Smith at the wrestling industry.

Smith, a former MMA fighter, claimed that he didn't receive any explanation from WWE regarding the end of his employment, which he learned about when Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque mentioned it ahead of the "WWE Raw" telecast. Smith later referred to his work with WWE as being someone who "played a commentator on television" and was merely "a character pretending to commentate fake fights."

While Booker used his "Hall of Fame" podcast to praise Smith as a "good dude" who "did a good job" despite not having previous experience as a wrestling commentator, he thought Smith's remarks about the genuine nature of the WWE presentation were unjustified and mean-spirited.

"When I hear people talk like that, after they've gotten paid from this business, I think you should never let a guy like Jimmy Smith in the wrestling business," Booker said. "They think we're just a bunch of fake guys? We're out there just playing the game?"

While Smith's comments were not aimed personally at Booker, he took it as a slur.

"It bothers me because I love this business," he said. "I love what it has done for me and my family. And I love to watch these young guys get a chance to go out there and fulfill that dream that they probably had since they were little bitty kids. And that dream wasn't to go out and be a fake wrestler or anything like that. That dream was to go out there perform in front of the world in front of the greatest fans that ever lived — the WWE Universe. So it pisses me off a little bit."