R-Truth appeared on the latest episode of the INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, the WWE Superstar and longtime pro wrestling veteran spoke about his favorite comedy segment, if he tries getting talent to break character, a possible heel turn and more.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview sent to us by Chris Van Vliet where R-Truth touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On his favorite comedy segment: “Probably Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar. I come to Gorilla and Paul was there. He’s like, ‘Hey, we got a bet going on.’ I was like, ‘What bet?’ He’s like, ‘That you can make Brock laugh.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘We’re not going to tell him what you’re gonna say, we don’t want to hear what you want to say. We just go.’ I said, ‘Man, I think we should let Brock know what we’re gonna do.’ He said, ‘Nope, we’re not gonna let Brock know it all.’ And that was the most impromptu thing that just came off like sliced bread. It was just great.”
On if he tries to get people to break character: “I haven’t tried to break anybody, it just happens. Everybody got a funny bone. It is all timing. And I think a lot of people when they’re in a promo with me or they’re in a backstage with me, I think their guard is up so much. Because of that, it’s easy to penetrate. When you try not to do something too hard, too good, you end up doing it. So it’s that reverse psychology type thing. So you have to just be yourself. I’m gonna be myself.”
On a possible heel turn: “There’s a part of me that does want to turn heel again. I think it’s a selfish part so that people can see me as a heel, just because a couple of generations have just known me as R-Truth the fun guy, the comedic guy. A lot of people have not seen that side of me that can still be brought out. The only time I went to talk about turning heel [they said] ‘I don’t think people want to see you as a heel, you to make people feel good.’ There’s a part of me that wants to turn heel, selfishly, because I can be a good heel, I can be an asshole. But there’s so many bad guys, you gotta be one of the good ones. Everybody’s a bad guy. It’s easy to be a bad guy. The selfish part of me would love to turn heel and be a heel, but the majority of me is like I could never be a heel. People would think it’s cool if I did something bad, if I did something heelish they would think it’s cool. I smoked a cigarette and they thought that was the coolest thing on TV. To be a heel you have to get that real, genuine hatred heel heat. Mine would be more of like, they will want me to bash somebody’s head in. Selfishly, I would love to see it one time, but I don’t have to.”
On nearly losing his leg to infection while out injured: “At one point I thought it was [the end of my career], because it was when I caught the infection. A lot of people thought I just tore my quad. I did tear the quad tendon, but a couple of weeks out when I go to get the stitches out it wasn’t healing. And that’s when they found out I had five different bacteria like staph, MRSA, their cousins and kinfolks and relatives. Yeah, it was bad. It was so bad the doctor wouldn’t even give me a high five. I know it sounds crazy that I want a high five with the doctor. He’s like you don’t have time for high fives, this is serious. I just went to get my stitches out. He said, ‘What are you doing this afternoon?’ I said ‘I’m gonna pick my kids up.’ He said ‘Can somebody else go do it?’ I’m like, why? [He said] ‘We need to take you to surgery now.’ So everything went from haha to you better be ready. It was serious. There was a chance I could lose my leg. That’s how serious it got. The infection was that bad that he thought they would have to amputate if they couldn’t get it slowed down. I was on antibiotics that was like, it was $4,700 a week for it. I was on the heavy stuff. I had a PICC line for the first 6 weeks. Deep down it was like it might be going. He told my wife if we don’t get this under control we are going to have to think of other options. My wife said what other options? He said amputation. I’m like what the f*ck? But that’s when I was thinking I may never come back to this, how can I adapt? It was scary but it’s a part of life. I think it was moving so fast that I just took it as it came.”
