R-Truth’s time with WWE dates back to 1999, where he signed with the company and went to developmental before debuting as Road Dogg’s tag team partner K-Kwik the following year.
After several years with TNA (now known as Impact Wrestling), he returned to WWE in 2008 and, after a few years, found his niche thanks to his gimmick evolving into that of a goofball who doesn’t really know how professional wrestling works, has myriad fears and is also a rapper.
10 R-Truth Does Not Know The Name of His Championship
At this point, R-Truth is like a 897-time holder of the 24/7 Championship. Truth’s held various midcard titles, but he’s become to the 24/7 belt what Shinsuke Nakamura is to the IWGP Intercontinental Title -- he wasn’t the first champ, but he’s come to embody the title, making it what it is today. Unfortunately, he has no idea what the name of the title is, often calling it the European Title. He’s kept adding additional modifiers so that it’s like the 24/7 7-11 I-95 South European Television Title, but the simpler mistakes were the funniest.
9 R-Truth is Not In Money in the Bank
In 2015, R-Truth interrupted an in-ring promo for the lead-up to Money in the Bank to talk about how he was going to climb the ladder and win the title. Unfortunately, it had to be pointed out to him that he was not in the upcoming ladder match. His response, “That’s on me, my bad” quickly became his catchphrase, but the initial moment was so surprising and unexpected that it went down in history.
8 R-Truth Does Not Know Who Drake Maverick Is
A common trope in R-Truth’s shtick is calling other characters by the wrong name. In a backstage interview with Rich Brennan, he once addressed the poor guy as both Sean Mooney and Michael Cole. But his best mistake was addressing Drake Maverick as Hornswoggle. Usually, WWE’s love for short jokes isn’t all that funny, but this moment was disarmingly funny.
Even better was Maverick’s reply, which was basically, “I’m not Hornswoggle, I’m just a small man.”
7 R-Truth Has a Bad Vacation Idea
R-Truth’s best era has to be when he hung out with Carmella, as Truth had someone to play off of and Carmella had a fun partner that wasn’t James Ellsworth. Together, the two ended up winning the second season of WWE, defeating the team of Alicia Fox and Jinder Mahal to win #30 spots in their respective Royal Rumbles and a free vacation. Of course, he ended up blurting out the WWE corporate offices in Stamford, Connecticut.
6 R-Truth Needs to Pin Carmella
There was one time R-Truth almost had an idea of how pro wrestling worked. On the previous episode of Smackdown, the main event was Charlotte Flair defeating Carmella to be added to a title match at SummerSlam. Truth wanted to challenge Shinsuke Nakamura for the US Title, so he proclaimed that he’s going to get his title opportunity the same way everyone else does: by pinning Carmella. The result of this was Nak insulting Truth enough to get a title shot, only to lose in three minutes.
5 R-Truth Does Not Want to Go to Sioux Falls City
The best part of R-Truth’s shtick is definitely when he comes out to proclaim something factually incorrect about an upcoming big match. It started with him saying he’ll win the Money in the Bank ladder match he wasn’t in, but his masterpiece was interrupting a Brock Lesnar promo by saying he was entering the Royal Rumble and would eliminate Paul Heyman. Upon finding out that he had to eliminate Brock himself, he “undeclared” himself and got an F-5 for his troubles. The only thing that would have made this better would be if Lesnar pinned Truth for the 24/7 title and held it forever, as no member of WWE’s comedy jobber division could hope to beat him.
4 R-Truth is Afraid of Spiders and Ladders
It makes sense for R-Truth to be confused about whether he’s in MITB or not, as he’s been in them before. After all, the lead-up to the 2011 ladder match established Truth’s most enduring quality: his fear of spiders.
He cuts a promo on the other competitors saying that his being in a ladder match was unfair, as he had acrophobia (fear of heights). But he kind of got over that, so now the only problem would be if there were spiders on the ladder, because he’s got arachnophobia.
3 R-Truth’s Worships John Cena
Truth’s Smackdown era was truly his best work, and shows that you can be funny on WWE television without sporting a Sherlock Holmes costume and a magnifying glass -- which R-Truth has also done, but still. When Truth won the United States title, he decided he was going to tailor his title reign after the wrestler he idolized in his childhood, John Cena. What’s important to know here is that R-Truth is five years older than John Cena.
2 R-Truth Deconstructs John Cena
For more examples of the R-Truth renaissance of 2018, there’s this promo where Truth begins talking about his childhood hero, John Cena, only to begin deconstructing the “you can’t see me” catchphrase. Truth points out that he sees the big JC everywhere, from his bedsheets to literally every other piece of John Cena merchandise he knows. Why, he even saw a movie about a robot car and John Cena was there, too! Outstanding.
1 R-Truth Marvels at John Cena’s Valor
Sometimes the best joke is the simplest. One time, Truth’s US Open challenge resulted in multiple competitors showing up, and Truth not knowing what to do. Carmella informed him that his hero John Cena would take on all competitors and overcome the odds. Truth’s awestruck response ended up being the funniest thing anyone has ever said on WWE television: “Damn, he brave.” It’s extra funny when you remember that Cena’s supposed to be Truth’s idol, and he did not know a basic fact about John Cena.