Triple H Accidentally Told WWE Star He Was Getting Fired

WWE

Jimmy Smith has opened up about an awkward exchange he had with Triple H which made him realise that he was going to be fired.

Smith was released from WWE on October 6, after more than a year with the company.

Speaking on his Unlocking The Cage podcast, Smith said that he realised that he would soon be losing his job before his final episode of WWE Raw:

“Triple H accidentally told me before the show on Monday. He screwed up and told me. He didn’t mean to.

“What happened was, I was doing my prep for the show, and we had a production meeting. On-air, Seth Rollins had cut a promo saying, ‘DC [Daniel Cormier] hates Riddle just as much as I do.’ Everybody in the production meeting turns to me and goes, ‘What did he mean? Do they have some kind of personal problem?’

“I’m the MMA guy, right. I said, ‘Well, Riddle has been critical of fighter pay, UFC, and Daniel Cormier is considered kind of a company guy. That could be what he’s talking about.’

“Before the show, I go up to Riddle and say, ‘Do you and DC have any beef?’ ‘No, we’re cool, he might be upset that I out-wrestled Jon Jones and he couldn’t.’ Riddle took first place at state, and whatever place Jon Jones was, he beat Jon Jones at wrestling twice in New York. ‘He may be mad I out-wrestled Jon Jones twice.’ ‘That’s a good line, I’m gonna use that.’

“I go to Triple H and go, ‘I just talked to Riddle and he gave me this line about how he out-wrestled Jon Jones.’ Triple H goes, ‘Okay, cool, give that note to (Michael) Cole.’

“I went…why would I have to give that note to Cole…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 weird…oookay.’ I knew, basically the whole show Monday night that I wasn’t coming back. When I got the call Tuesday, I wasn’t surprised.”

The WWE Raw commentary team of Jimmy Smith, Corey Graves and Byron Saxton has now been changed to the team of Graves and Kevin Patrick, with Smith let go from the company completely, and Saxton moving to a backstage interviewer role.

WWE also made changes to its other commentary teams as well as Raw – you can find all the updated commentary and broadcast teams for each show at this link.

Transcript courtesy of Fightful.

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• Jimmy Smith
• WWE Raw
• Triple H
• Matt Riddle

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