R-Truth On Vince McMahon Once Not Liking His Promo, Idea He Pitched For The B-Team, WWE 24/7 Title
The former and 8-time WWE 24/7 Champion R-Truth was a guest on the latest installment of E&C's Pod of Awesomeness. During the discussion, Truth thoroughly explained his belief that your creative success in WWE is up to you as the performer. This reminded him of a time when Vince McMahon disliked a promo that Truth had given, prompting him to investigate why it didn't receive the typical, positive response from the boss.
"It's a matter of taking what they give you which regardless of how you look at it, it is what you make out of it. That's just the way I view things," Truth said. "I did a promo that Vince McMahon didn't like; it bothered me because Vince likes all of my promos. I said to him that, 'I heard you didn't like one of my promos.' Which he stated that one of my promos he [indeed] didn't like. I asked him what was missing in my promo and he told me that I wasn't in character. [In my opinion], I thought that I was in character.
"You know what it was? It was how it was delivered to me on what I had to do. A person delivered it to me in a dry monotone; he told me the steps on what I was to do. Me, I'm a person that goes on how you feel," Truth stated. "That's how I can make you feel, on how I feel. He gave it to me like someone had stole my dog. It was something like, damn, I'm in trouble. That's how it was delivered to me. So I told Vince that it was a cornball that had delivered it to me. He was like, 'What's a cornball?' I said it was a person that isn't funny. Bruce Prichard is more funny than him, Jeff Jarrett is more funny, Shane Helms; when these guys give me a promo, they almost turn into my character and say that they can almost see this being in my character, and they act it out. They're doing me and I get it, and I'm laughing while doing my promo. The [first] guy gave me my promo and didn't laugh one time – he didn't smirk, smile, laugh or anything, so I was thinking that I had to be serious in my promo, which was the interpretation of how I took it. I take whatever they give me and try to make it the best that it can be."
In June of 2011, R-Truth became well-known amongst WWE fans for his "Little Jimmy" shtick that, apparently, started by accident. Truth explained to the listeners of the podcast how Vince McMahon first pitched the idea to him.
"Little Jimmy was an accident. Vince caught me smoking and, so, I guess to rib me and get back at me he had me smoke a cigarette on TV," Truth said. "And it got me over more because people were like, 'Oh s–t, he's cool. He's smoking a cigarette right now. He's blowing smoke.' The moment I came out, Vince was like, 'Well, they're cheering for you so I want you to come out and call all the people, 'Little Jimmy's' because they're all John Cena fans.' I did that, and I just happened to turn to the side and bend down and say, 'Oh, Little Jimmy. All the Little Jimmy's want to be like you.'
"From that point on, people were pointing at me and saying, 'Oh look, he's talking to Little Jimmy.' I was just talking to myself, but if Little Jimmy is there, then he's there," Truth joked. "It just blew up from there. I would turn my head to the side and everyone would say I am talking to Little Jimmy. There were grown people that have kids wanting to take a picture with an empty chair because I told them that Little Jimmy was sitting there. It was contagious man, everybody loved Little Jimmy. As of right now, people were still chanting Little Jimmy on Raw."
Since the WWE 24/7 Championship was presented on RAW earlier this year, no one has seen quite as much success with it as Truth. He is now an 8-time WWE 24/7 Champion and has every intention of continuing the on-screen antics with the title.
"I've been loving it man. It gives me a chance to release. I can be funny, I can be entertaining; I am getting more views doing this than a wrestling match," Truth explained. "I'm having a ball. I'm glad I can take something that everybody thought was the ugliest thing in the world – everybody loves it now. The title is not ugly, it just has a different look. I get to have so much fun with it and it can be never ending with me."
Truth recognizes that the 24/7 Championship is giving more TV time to WWE stars that may not regularly see it as much.
"The fact that I love most about it is that it gets a lot of the guys you don't see TV time," Truth continued. "I even asked creative about using the guys more, using Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel as my bodyguards. Creative would say to me, 'Well, why wouldn't they want to pin you?' I'd tell them, 'Well, you don't want this ugly title, you want the tag team titles.' They would respond with, 'Yeah, he's right!' That's funny, comedy stuff. Things like that, there are so many things we can do with the 24/7 title. I don't want to do the same thing [each week] because it'll get boring."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit E&C's Pods Of Awesomeness with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.