Former Raw commentator Jimmy Smith talks WWE departure, thanks fans

[Liz]

Now former Raw commentator Jimmy Smith addressed his departure from WWE and his role as the main play-by-play guy for the red brand.

In a post on Twitter, Smith said that he had a lot of fun and met some great people along the way.

"Really and truly blown away by the acceptance from the WWE fans! You folks make it work every week and your enthusiasm was amazing," Smith wrote.

On his podcast MMA on SiriusXM, Smith went into greater detail about his release.

"I didn't expect to do this at at all. At all. I had no idea that I would be doing professional wrestling at all. The call came out of the blue, the audition came out of the blue, getting on Raw came out of the blue, and me leaving is out of the blue," Smith said.

"So, I didn't expect any of this, so then to lose it...I'm fine. I didn't expect to be there at all! This is all kind of like a goof. This all feels like a dream when you look back on it. I called WrestleMania? It's weird, yeah, I did call WrestleMania! It's insane," he continued.

He explained how getting released from WWE is different from when he got released from the UFC, which he called devastating and financially crushing. He said he lost everything he owned when he was let go from UFC but now he works on Sirius XM and ESPN.

"I lost one of three jobs. A big job, but is not a financial ruin," Smith said.

He then gave kudos to WWE fans who embraced him with very kind words and said that he keeps getting supportive messages even right now. He admitted he didn't expect fans to accept him and it was a cool experience overall.