Former WWE United States Champion discusses potential heel turn

R-Truth opened up about the possibility of transforming his long-standing character in WWE. During an appearance on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, the former United States Champion explored the idea of becoming a heel after years of maintaining his comedic persona.

The 52-year-old wrestler acknowledged his interest in exploring a darker side of his character while recognizing the unique challenge it would present:

A selfish part of me would love to turn heel, but most people say I could never do it. People would think it’s cool if I did something bad. When I smoked a cigarette, they thought it was the coolest thing on TV.

Elaborating on the complexities of character work in professional wrestling, R-Truth explained the fundamental requirements for a successful heel turn:

To be heel you need to get that genuine hate. In my case, they would want me to hit somebody in the head. Selfishly, I would love to see it one time, but it’s not needed.

Making Brock Lesnar break character

R-Truth recalled a memorable RAW segment from 2020 involving Brock Lesnar, which stemmed from an unexpected challenge by Paul Heyman:

I got to Gorilla and Paul was there. He said, ‘We got a bet.’ I said, ‘What bet?’ He said, ‘That you can make Brock laugh.’ I suggested letting Brock know what we were going to do, but Paul said no. It was totally improvised and worked perfectly.

The segment concluded with Lesnar delivering an F-5 to R-Truth.