MR. TITO: R-Truth’s Return Proves that Wrestling Fans Still Have Leverage Against WWE and TKO
At tonight’s WWE Money in the Bank 2025 premium live event, R-Truth (maybe Ron Killings now?) made his return after last Sunday’s 6/1/25 news about WWE letting his contract expire. As it turns out, the real story was that WWE offered him a smaller contract to extend him, as WWE, TKO, and Triple H overseeing the talent relations assessed that he was making TOO MUCH compared to his output. The John Cena vs. R-Truth Saturday Night’s Main Event match was just a proper send-off and squeezing the last bit of juice out of that turnip.
We’ve all enjoyed the antics of R-Truth in the WWE for the past 17 straight years and even though we don’t see him weekly, when he’s there, he has always made it count with his unique comedy. From entering the Women’s Royal Rumble, thinking another Royal Rumble was a Ladder Match, wondering where “Dom and Nick” Mysterio were, and the several times he thought he was involved with a match only to say “my bad, that’s on me”… R-Truth has given us moments that we can NEVER forget as wrestling fans and better yet, those moments are replay-able. I have seriously watched him put up a ladder in that Rumble Match so many times and I love it every time!
His release hurt because he had a big program with John Cena on the way out that it reminded many fans of how good he once was. WWE’s reason was that at 53 years-old and earning multiple salary promotions through 17 straight years of work, he was earning too much guaranteed salary per his output. As I indicated in a recent column, R-Truth has only wrestled 6 times during 2025.
BUT, now he’s back…
However, why is he back?
(a) Was this a work the entire time and he was going to be always be a surprise during the tag match at Money in the Bank?
(b) Did the fans actually force the issue and cause the WWE to rethink the expiration of R-Truth’s contract?
I think (b) because many details came out, specifically about the WWE offering him a lower offer than his current deal and that’s consistent with how they’ve treated other veteran wrestlers.
Thus, wrestling fans, DO YOU SEE THE POWER THAT YOU HAVE?!?
And STOP being REACTIVE to situations like this… Be PROACTIVE and heavily support your favorite wrestlers and be vocal about wanting to see your favorites more often instead of them being stuck on the sidelines often.
Did you NOT remember what happened during 2024 with Cody Rhodes and the WWE trying to crowbar his match with Roman Reigns away to allow for Reigns versus The Rock at Wrestlemania 40? Then, y’all went nuclear and forced that the WWE not only change it back to Roman vs. Cody, but to book it to allow Cody Rhodes to defeat Roman Reigns and end that extensive World Title run.
The FACT is that the MAJORITY of WWE’s business is still here in North America. FACT!
Where does WWE tour mostly again? North America, specifically the United States of America.
Who offers the WWE their biggest television contracts again? Oh yeah, AMERICAN companies such as NBC/Universal for USA Network (ha, “USA” Network) and Netflix who are damn near paying WWE up to $500 million per year.
Who buys the most merchandise? United States fans BY A MARGIN.
So, what if you stopped watching USA Network/Netflix, stopped attending WWE events, and stopped buying merchandise here in the United States?
Do you REALLY think that the international markets can fully pick up the slack? Sure, Saudi Arabia pays between $20 to $30 million per event, but that’s because they host 1-2 per year… What if they hosted 10 events per year? Oh yeah, WWE would eat those travel expenses to get there… Same thing about Europe and Australia. Yeah, they pop for their WWE tours, but that’s because WWE tours them so scarcely. However, if WWE tours them more often, they’ll get burned out on them. Furthermore, international markets just aren’t providing those massive television dollars as the United States can, the biggest media country of the world and it’s not even close.
DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE POWER THAT YOU HAVE?!?!?!
If fewer United States fans stopped watching RAW on Netflix, NXT on CW, Smackdown on USA Networks, attending live WWE events, and boycotted all merchandise, TKO’s revenues would tank and when that gets reported, the TKO stock tanks especially since Endeavor racked up a ton of DEBT in order to acquire WWE.
Thus, I don’t EVER want to hear any fans complaining about a released wrestler EVER again, along with any wrestlers who appear to deserve a push. YOU HAVE THE POWER to push them over the top and lucky for you, Triple H’s hearing is better than Vince McMahon’s.
Speaking of Vince McMahon, FINGER OF SHAME to all of the IDIOTS who said “Vince McMahon wouldn’t have fired R-Truth”. Huh?
Did you not see all of the wrestlers he terminated during 2020-2022 when the WWE was raking in RECORD PROFITS?!? And they were completely unannounced, too.
How about that massive Non-Disclosure Agreement for like $7 million, which involved a female wrestler whom Vince McMahon requested oral sex in order for her character to be pushed and after she performed such duty, Vince McMahon requested more services instead? When she refused, he depushed her character and eventually released her.
How about all of those wrestlers that Vince McMahon starved or stuck with bad gimmicks? Why did Cody Rhodes leave the WWE during the mid 2010s? Vince refused to let him out of his Stardust gimmick. Shelton Benjamin was given a stereotypical overweight black mama. How about those terrible outfits that FTR was going to wear per Vince? How about MANY, MANY OVW, FCW, and NXT call-ups who were terribly used? How about all of those female wrestlers who degraded based on how Vince and Kevin Dunn felt about them personally?
So tell me, how is R-Truth’s released even comparable to some of the mistreatment that Vince gave many, many talents?
Vince shows loyalty to the top stars who keep making him money and that’s it. Why was he so loyal to the Undertaker? Because Undertaker drew money for literally anything that he did. DUH!!!!
But remember, Vince is petty, too… Remember during the mid 2000s when he let the Rock’s contract expire and the Rock was pissed off about it because it created major issues with the nickname of “The Rock” for marketing of his movies. WWE let his contract expire, yet they still retained copyright of that nickname. Caused friction between the WWE and the Rock for a while, but smarter heads luckily prevailed on that one.
Can we stop it with the Vince McMahon love? Yes, he gave us this great WWE platform and we should always respect that… But Vince’s effectiveness managing talent and handling creative literally died over 20 years ago. He’s been an utter shell of himself in both of those buckets ever since and within those 20 years, some deviant sexual habits came to light.
I could have SWORN that I repeatedly read how much the vaunted Internet Wrestling Community HATED Vince McMahon’s mid-to-late 2010s storylines, pushes, and champions with many fans calling him “senile” and wanting him to leave the WWE. I didn’t have to swear on it, as I can still pull up the Tweets from the late 2010s to see how much ALL OF YOU hated Vince and wanted to go. Hell, many of you initially supported All Elite Wrestling as a means to “stick it” to Vince McMahon’s brand of wrestling.
Go ahead and attempt to tell me that Vince McMahon “heard you” following the 2012 “Summer of CM Punk” stuff and the 2013-2014 Daniel Bryan stuff. Yeah, he heard you alright… After CM Punk won the WWE Title at MITB 2011, what happened? Ruined that title reign in the weeks afterward and then through SummerSlam 2011, while CM Punk went on to lose multiple Pay Per Views in a row (like 3-4 straight). The “YES!” chants grew louder and louder, so Vince tried to place Daniel Bryan in the Wyatt Family. Fans rebelled and along with Orton vs. Batista tanking Wrestlemania 30 ticket sales, a quick change was made. But what happened AFTER Wrestlemania 30? Feuded with Kane and was marginalized as champion, not being featured as the top guy. Has their chance to repair things in 2015, but they made him a midcarder again.
Vince DID NOT hear you booing babyface Roman Reigns from 2015 through early 2020… Sure, he eventually turned Roman during August 2020, but Paul Heyman made Roman into a credible heel NOT Vince. And again, he listened to WWE fans going nuclear on him about babyface Roman Reigns for 5 straight years from 2015 to early 2020, and yet Vince did NOTHING but push harder and have Roman headline repeat Wrestlemania after Wrestlemania that caused many bad shows during the late 2010s.
So STFU about Vince McMahon being “loyal to talent” or “listening to fans”. I just ended that stupid argument with a few paragraphs and I have plenty more receipts where that came from.
Did Vince McMahon “hear you” on any of those 2020-2022 WWE releases? No, but Triple H sure did and he tried to bring many of them back. Just as he heard you going nuclear about Cody Rhodes losing his Wrestlemania 40 spot against Roman and just as he’s now heard you on R-Truth’s contract expiration.
Thus, you as a United States wrestling fan have two distinct advantages in your favor… For one, you’re still the biggest client group that the WWE has and losing their faith, trust, and loyalty would be detrimental to WWE and TKO. WWE and TKO is sure testing all of that with HIGH ticket prices, but until fans reject those ticket prices, it’s just a sign of WWE fan demand increasing. Secondly, Triple H listens to fans…
Still don’t believe me about Triple H listening? Well, once he knew that the Rock wasn’t going to wrestle at Wrestlemania 41, he tried a few things on the card such as Rollins vs. Roman vs. Punk and Cody vs. Cena instead. He heard backlash regarding those matches, so what did he do? He created a fantastic finish to Rollins vs. Roman vs. Punk by having Paul Heyman turn on both Roman and Punk while HHH changed the dynamics of Cody vs. Cena by having Cena turn heel. The result? Wrestlemania 41 moved more tickets thanks to Cena’s heel turn and Rollins vs. Roman vs. Punk was not only considered “match of the night”, but “match of the year”.
This is what pisses me off about wrestling fans right now… You have it SO GOOD right now and don’t even realize it. Things SUCKED during the 2010s, yet some of you NERDS are still showing fondness for Vince McMahon to return to those terrible times. Why don’t you just meet up with him and request him to do the same things he reportedly did to his victims and maybe let him traffic you around, too? It’s like you’re in a cult or something with Vince as the abusive leader.
While TKO and WWE are constantly finding ways to diversify where the revenues are coming from, they are doing so because there’s so much dependence on one country for the majority of its revenues. Thus, they are literally telling you how much power YOU, the United States wrestling fan, has because they are trying to obtain more international funding and opportunities. They know that a breaking point of high prices is coming, so the more they can push internationally, they less risk they have for the future.
For example, if you don’t like the Royal Rumble being in Saudi Arabia next year, then DON’T WATCH IT. Purposely unsubscribe to Peacock or wherever it is streaming next year for January 2026. Then, you’ll get that event back here in North America.
Don’t wish to see any of your favorite wrestlers get released? Then start buying their merchandise, buy their themes on iTunes, attend live events when they wrestle, only watch a show when they are wrestling, and get as loud as you can on social media. WWE’s analytics team tracks that data heavily and it would be beneficial for your favorite wrestler.
Don’t like WWE pimping out to all of these sponsors and having ads placed everywhere? Boycott ever guying anything that WWE advertises. Besides, Slim Jims are BAD for you. One tiny 4-inch stick that is purchased in a box with other meat sticks has 10mg of Cholesterol and 130mg of Sodium. Pretty much quadruple that for the longer ones purchased at gas stations and then you have the Monster Slim Jim or even the “Savage” one. Lots of fat in them, too.
And damn it, hold your favorite wrestling promotions ACCOUNTABLE when a wrestler is poorly used. Call them out and rally the troops to help your favorite wrestlers.
If you want your favorite wrestlers to be actually used and pushed, FIGHT FOR THEM. Like ya did for R-Truth, but only in a reactive fashion rather than something proactive.