Ex-WWE Star Shocked By R-Truth Being Released
A veteran wrestler who knows R-Truth very well is shocked that WWE would release the popular veteran wrestler.
The month of June began with a surprising move by WWE because R-Truth announced that the company was releasing him. It was a case of WWE informing Truth that they would not renew his contract when it expires soon.
Truth started in WWE 25 years ago, but he was gone after experiencing off-screen issues and returned about a decade later. Since then, he has been a beloved babyface wrestler for about 15 years.
Since R-Truth is 53 years old and didn’t wrestle that often, the company likely felt he was expendable. However, there has been a fan backlash since fans chanted, “We Want Truth” on Monday’s Raw, and many WWE superstars were saddened by it due to the high regard Truth holds among other wrestlers and fans.
Matt Hardy is a 30+ year wrestling veteran who spent many years on the WWE roster with R-Truth and is from North Carolina, just like Truth. While speaking on his The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt expressed shock at the news of Truth’s release.
“I mean, it was shocking. You would think with the attitude and mentality he had — If Vince was there, I think he probably would’ve stuck around because Vince was such a big fan. He was easy to work with, he wasn’t difficult, he wasn’t a challenge. It was shocking.
I was shocked that they didn’t re-sign him. I would’ve thought that R-Truth would’ve been a WWE lifer at this point. He liked the gig, he liked what he was doing and I was very surprised by it. I was very caught off vibe. When you sent me his tweet, it was shocking like, ‘Woah.’ That was definitely not on my bingo card as they say.”
As he continued, Hardy spoke about how the TKO Group era of WWE differs from when Vince McMahon was running the show.
“I guess the TKO era is different, maybe they’re looking at a bottom line like, how much many is this talent specifically bringing in? Is this talent bringing in enough to be justified to be paid x amount of dollars. I mean, that’s the only thing I can figure, that they couldn’t justify paying him x amount dollars for the revenue.”
R-Truth Is The Kind Of Guy WWE Should Want To Have Around, Says Matt Hardy
The last WWE match that R-Truth had was at Saturday Night’s Main Event in Tampa when he lost to his “childhood hero,” John Cena, in a match that wasn’t for Cena’s WWE Title.
Hardy agreed with his co-host Jon Alba as they spoke about how WWE should have found a way to keep Truth in WWE.
“I agree. If I would’ve been the boss, if I would’ve been handling his negotiations, I would’ve done anything to keep him around. Even if I felt like you were paying him a little more than he was worth, because the company is making so much money. I feel like not only is he [good] for the fanbase, I think he’s good for morale.
He’s a great employee to have, you know what I mean? He’s an ambassador, he’s the kind of guy you want there. I would’ve went out of my way but they’re looking at it differently apparently. I was shocked by it.”
Regarding the future, Hardy made it clear that he would love to see his friend Truth in TNA with Matt and his brother Jeff Hardy.
“I mean, he has history in TNA obviously being a former NWA champ. He was here five years or so. He has a history in TNA, he’s such a beloved star. Wherever he shows up next, he’s gonna have this groundswell of fans follow him to wherever he is because he has great sympathy on him because you didn’t re-sign this guy. I mean, business is business but at the end of the day, people felt like it was unjustified.
They felt like he should’ve been because he’s so entertaining, he’s so good, he’s such a company guy, he does whatever else. We can’t believe you did this to him because this is one of our guys, they’re connected, they’re attached. This is one of our guys and you let his contract run out. Even though at the end of the day it’s just business and they didn’t do anything wrong or bad, they just made the decision for the bottom line, it’s not worth to pay him this much to be here or whatever — I don’t know, that’s just me guessing.
If he came to TNA, he would be over huge, he’d be able to do comedy, he could roll into a higher position on the card where he could be serious too. He could also do all of his music without any stipulations or parameters. If he wanted to put out a whole new album, he could dedicate himself to that.
It’s gonna be interesting to see what he chooses to do. I would almost recommend to Ron, stay on the outside for a little while and just build yourself up and do everything you want to do, make all the money you can make and I think you can get even hotter where they’re like, oh, maybe we should’ve kept him.”
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter has also reported that TNA is likely going to make R-Truth an offer because they think Truth would be “fairly hot” if he joined TNA.