WWE Day 1 underwent a big last minute change as WWE announced an hour before the kick-off show that Roman Reigns had tested positive for COVID.
As a result of the positive test, Reigns was pulled from the event and WWE added Brock Lesnar, who was originally scheduled to face Reigns in the main event, to the WWE Title match, making it a fatal five-way that also featured Big E, Bobby Lashley, Kevin Owens, and Seth Rollins.
Speaking on Throwing Down with Renee Paquette and Miesha Tate, WWE Raw announcer Jimmy Smith discussed learning of the changes made to the event.
"It was awesome and completely surprising. I didn't have any more notes than you guys did about Brock and the fatal five-way. WWE, they're like, 'Roman Reigns is out, so Brock is going to be in the fatal five-way, you're now calling the main event.' 'Really?' 'Really. Literally, he's out, he's a fatal five-way, have fun,'" he recalled.
Lesnar would go on to win the main event and capture the WWE Championship by pinning Big E.
Smith took over as the lead announcer of WWE Raw in May 2021, joining Byron Saxton and Corey Graves in the booth.
When asked about Graves' mustache and working alongside Graves, Smith said, "It is creepy and awesome, all at the same time. It is very creep-stache, creepy uncle. The weird thing is, he's a heel and it's his job to basically break my balls every chance he gets. He's a total bastard, that's his schtick. What people don't get is he'll rip me up or Byron or whatever, we'll go to commercial and he'll look at me like, 'Yeah, you like that? You have to take that.' It's like, 'I could beat your ass right here in front of everybody...and I can't.' It's great because he's allowed to do that and getting used to that character and vibe took a minute. I was like, 'Oh, cool,' it's kinda fun that we can rip each other mercilessly."
Along with his work on WWE Raw, Smith hosts his own MMA podcast on Sirius XM.
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