Jimmy Smith Clarifies Whether Sasha Banks/Naomi Situation Is A Shoot

Since Sasha Banks and Naomi walked out of WWE Raw, many people have been speculating whether the situation was real or part of a storyline. During the latest episode of his podcast, Unlocking the Cage, WWE Commentator Jimmy Smith spoke on what happened.

"This is not a work," Smith said. "This really actually happened from everything, I wasn't there I was calling the show, from everything I've been told, everything that the WWE is saying happened. Now obviously there are many sides to the story, I don't know why Naomi and Sasha Banks walked out, I don't know why. I've heard rumors but I'm not going to repeat them because it's innuendo and I don't know. My point is, a lot of people when this was first released on Instagram, half the comments were 'this is a work,' it's not, this legitimately happened.

"One thing you will see in the WWE, from the time I've been there, when they say 'This is our main event,' something goofy may happen in that main event, there might be slight differences but they're not going to say 'this is our main event' and pull the rug from out under you. They will not advertise the main event and pull it out from under you. They want to know that you as an audience member will generally get the match that you thought you were going to get.

"If you stuck around to 10:45 to get this match, that's what you were going to see and what's upsetting to the people behind the scenes on this one is they advertise the main event, I got up there on the microphone and Corey Graves to my left said 'Six women tag team match...' then we sat down and we didn't, we meaning the WWE, couldn't deliver that main event. Not happy about that.

"I believe this statement is seething with that 'we promised a main event and because of these people we couldn't deliver it,' you could almost feel that like hey, we don't like that we promised something we couldn't deliver to our fans."

Smith also revealed how he first heard about the statement WWE made and Smith praised the commentary team for their handling of what was going down.

"The person who showed it to me said 'This is 100% real, dude. We just got a text saying WWE has released a statement, be sure everybody sees it,' I was like 'you're kidding me, nope, really?'" Smith said. "It's not a work, not a work. How it unfolds I have no idea but I don't know any more than you do. It was 100%, it was late notice, really affected the broadcast. Great stuff from Corey Graves, great stuff from Byron Saxton, great stuff from Kevin Dunn because we were changing stuff all night because of this."

Speaking of Corey Graves, the WWE Commentator was very critical of Naomi and Sasha during RAW, saying the team "summarily and unprofessionally walked out". His wife Carmella has since come to his defense, saying Corey was just doing his job.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Unlocking the Cage with Jimmy Smith with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.