Jimmy Smith Believes WWE Is Trying to Control the Narrative With Sasha Banks & Naomi Situation

– During his Unlocking the Cage podcast for Sirius XM, WWE Raw broadcaster Jimmy Smith discussed the Naomi and Sasha Banks situation. They were indefinitely suspended by WWE last Friday on SmackDown after they walked out of Raw. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

Jimmy Smith on his belief that WWE is trying to control the narrative with Sasha Banks and Naomi: “The rumor I have heard is, in the days of social media, where the performers themselves can spin their own narrative. Nowadays, if The Ultimate Warrior got cut — people know the story, at SummerSlam, he ran to the back, was immediately fired by Vince McMahon because he made all these demands — Ultimate Warrior would have picked up his phone and recorded something on Instagram and said ‘F Vince McMahon’ or whatever. The superstars themselves are able to get their own story and narrative out in the public in ways they couldn’t 20, 10, 15 years ago. What it feels like the WWE is doing, I don’t know, they haven’t discussed it with me, is they are 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, and it’ll paint them in a different light. WWE wants their perspective out there.”

Smith on WWE’s stance on the issue: “I’m not surprised at all by the stance of WWE. They almost don’t have a choice. You don’t release a statement saying, ‘they dropped their titles, they’re unprofessional, we expect our talent to perform their contractual obligations.’ You don’t make a statement like that and not punish the people. Once they did that, the consequences are there.”