Jimmy Smith was a hit in his debut as the voice of Raw

After weeks of Adnan Virk struggling in a job he was ill-suited to and never prepared for, there was almost no way Jimmy Smith wasn’t going to be an improvement as Raw’s play-by-play voice.

But even without the low bar, the former Bellator announcer acquitted himself quite well in his debut last night (May 31). Ably assisted by Corey Graves & Byron Saxton, Smith smoothly sailed WWE’s Monday night flagship. His voice and delivery are pleasing to the ear. He knows how and when to convey excitement without calling too much attention to himself (if he’s taking notes, mine would be “say ‘oh my God’ less”). For his first night on the job, Smith demonstrated a good grasp of Raw’s characters & storylines, and even occasionally slipped in some insights from his background in non-scripted combat sports.

Without overshadowing his color men, Smith worked in a few clever one-liners along the way, too. My personal favorite was saying “ring ropes are like sidewalks” to Lucha House Party.

There’s a ceiling to how high any Vince McMahon/Kevin Dunn-produced announcer can reach in my estimation, and Smith is already pretty close to hitting it. Assuming he gets better and not worse (which isn’t a lock), he looks to be a really good addition to WWE television.

And don’t just take my word on it. Twitter agrees... and we all know it’s never wrong.

Post Wrestling’s John Pollock asked for feedback on the new voice of Raw, and got almost unanimous positive reviews:

There’s more, much of it unsolicited to boot. In case you were worried the folks replying to Pollock are plants, these guys are clearly real pro wrestling fans:

So we’re off to a good start. And Jimmy seems like he had fun, too.

See you next Monday, Jimmy! Possibly with a few fewer “oh my Gods”? And even if there’s the same amount, at least we won’t be hearing about boat tracks or whatever.