Jimmy Smith Questions Daniel Cormier's WWE Debut And Future
Daniel Cormier appeared on the latest edition of "WWE Raw" on Monday, and WWE announcer and former MMA fighter Jimmy Smith thinks the crowd response to the UFC Hall of Famer left a lot to be desired. On the latest "MMA on SiriusXM," Smith said that Daniel Cormier started out on the wrong foot by introducing himself, but that was just the start of his concerns.
"When he said 'I'm Daniel Cormier' did you hear anything?" Smith asked. "If that had been The Rock, that would've popped like crazy. 'I'm The Rock' popped like crazy. When he went 'I'm Daniel Cormier,' I turned around, and crickets."
Smith's co-host pointed out that Mike Tyson didn't need to "introduce himself" when he appeared in 1998, and that he had a much more electric reaction than Cormier.
"When he first popped on the screen, I expected, I don't know, something, and the crowd just didn't really react," Smith said. "When he goes, 'I'm Daniel Cormier,' look at this crowd. They really didn't react very much. I'm in the bubble of MMA, and the bubble of professional wrestling, that was a great indication of WWE fans — at least the ones that were there — didn't really seem to react much."
'I Don't Know If DC's Ready For That'
Cormier is set to referee the upcoming Fight Pit Match between Matt Riddle and Seth Rollins and has been a topic of discussion for WWE fans for some time, with the company often sending out feelers for the former UFC fighter's interest in crossing over to professional wrestling. Smith, plainly put, doesn't see it.
"The schedule of WWE is a mother," Smith said, noting that the "idea" of Cormier is intriguing, and that Cormier might be interested, but that "people think that [they can handle WWE], until they do the WWE and realize you're there every Monday or Friday depending on whether your working SmackDown or Raw." According to Smith, part-timers like John Cena getting a run at the top of the WWE is more the exception than the rule.
"[WWE is] a full commitment of time and resources," Smith said, "and I don't know if DC's ready for that."