Sasha Banks and Naomi’s walkout from the May 16 episode of Monday Night Raw sparked a number of responses from the WWE, including an indefinite suspension, stripping of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships and an official statement harshly criticizing the pair. It has also resulted in WWE’s commentary team consistently bringing the pair up, with Corey Graves saying their decision was unprofessional while Michael Cole talked on SmackDown about how they had let the WWE Universe down. Graves received some flack for his comments, though many fans assumed he was merely parroting whatever Vince McMahon ordered him to say.
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Jimmy Smith, Raw’s play-by-play man, confirmed as much on Unlocking the Cage this week. He also noted that Graves actually toned down what McMahon initially wanted him to say.
“The superstars themselves are able to get their own story out and get their own narrative out in the public in ways they couldn’t 20, 10, or 15 years ago. So what it feels like the WWE is doing, and I don’t know, they haven’t discussed it with me, is they’re getting ahead of the ability of Sasha Banks and Naomi to put out their own narrative. If you don’t say why, they’ll say why. The WWE wants their perspective out there. They’re going to go out and say something, so WWE wanted to get ahead of it and did it first. That’s what it seems like to me,” Smith said.
“What I don’t get at all is the heat that my broadcast partner, Corey Graves, is getting,” he added. “They gave him something to read and much like Michael Cole, he toned it down a little bit. But guys, Michael Cole and Corey Graves aren’t making this stuff up. People are getting mad at them like they’re freestyling this stuff. They’re not. If Vince said, ‘Here, read this’, I would have done exactly what Michael Cole did. Corey Graves is getting all this s—. Corey Graves didn’t make up that statement. He’s a broadcaster and was told to read it and he read it. So I understand the ire of the fans, but the misdirection of that ire is weird.”
