R-Truth Opens Up About Being The First African American NWA World Champion, Working W/ Carmella, Why Daniel Bryan Thinks He’s A Vampire

R-Truth was a recent guest on the Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia podcast. The WWE Superstar opened up about working with Carmella, what it was like to be the first and only African American to win the NWA World Championship, and why WWE Champion Daniel Bryan thinks he may just be an ageless vampire. Highlights appear below.

(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)

On Daniel Bryan Thinking He’s An Ageless Vampire:

Me and Daniel Bryan has been having that argument. I want a copy of this so I can let him hear that [my debut] was ‘99. He’s got people thinking that I’m as old as a vampire, that I’m like 1,000 years old or something. I want a copy of this tape. In ‘99 Lilian [Garcia] and I met….he’s like, ‘Man, you’re not aging and something is wrong here. I think you’re a vampire.’ He has this thing that I have no sense of time. Therefore when people leave me my body shuts down and I don’t exist anymore until people come around. [Being told that I look young] is a huge compliment, but Daniel Bryan has a way of turning it around to where it’s a questionable compliment where you leave going, ‘Huh?’

On His Age:

In certain aspects of business and entertainment they will say something and it’s a negative bug you can get, like a cold or a flu. Yes, it will affect you, if you let it. I remember asking E-40 and he’s my age. He’s older than me. I said, ‘Do you think I’m too old to be doing music, to be doing rap?’ He was like, ‘Dude, there ain’t no such thing as age and music. I know cats that are still going in their 50s and 60s. There’s no such thing as age when it comes to your entertainment or when you have fans.’ There’s no age with our thing. We only get better.

On The Scariest Thing He Ever Experienced In Prison:

Shoot, the mystery meat. Not knowing what the food was [laughter]. Yeah. I’ve had this protection of the universe and God around me for so long. When I went to jail, I was one of the well known drug dealers around town. I was a football star in Charlotte. I was one of the guys and people knew I hung with 2Pac and Eazy-E. I was opening shows. I kinda went into jail like, ‘Oh, that’s Ronny. That’s Ron Killings. He’s one of the big guys around here.’

On Being The First & Only African American To Win The NWA World Heavyweight Championship:

It goes back to what we talked about. This guy that came from a dream, from having an inspiration, a goal, or chasing glory that met this guy that believed in him. Crockett believed in me. Something told him to give back to me because I would make good of it. I was at the point of my life where I was ready to accept and make good of something. The first time I was told I was gonna get that title, I didn’t realize how important or how special and how amazing it would be. When I got it, to hear the feedback from it, and to feel it was another surreal moment because I didn’t see it coming, but I knew it would come. I always knew God had me pretty much protected and on this mission. I knew great things were coming, but to be the first African American to hold that title, I felt like I reached the pinnacle of my career then. God just keeps giving more, keeps giving more. I’m just trying to be as positive of an inspiration as I can be to anybody and everybody to where – if you respect, appreciate, and see where I came from, to where I’m at now – it’s because I believed, somebody else believed, and I chased.

On Working With Carmella:

I love Carmella. I love it. It wasn’t her idea. It wasn’t my idea. They just put us together and it just boom, worked out and blew up overnight…..she’s very very very talented. She’s very smart. A lot of the ideas we have, she comes up with herself. She would come up and say, ‘Hey Truth, how do you like this right here?’ I’m like, ‘You came up with that? Oh my goodness, that’s good.’ I would add something to it and we gel very good together, especially being creative. It’s easy. Sometimes you can have a partner or be matched with someone and it could be a little, ‘I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do that.’ It could be a little hiccup, but with me and her it’s so easy and fun, always fun.

On Floundering On The WWE Roster:

I was just waiting and that’s the business. You’re waiting for that bone to get thrown, either you’re gonna eat it up or you’re gonna gnaw on it. When opportunity knocks, you have to be ready. My character was at that point to where the writers didn’t know what to do with it, or what to do with me, or where to put me at. My character is such an entertaining character. It’s a whole different element and part of the show. Once they put me and Carmella together it was just, ‘OK, now I’ve got something to do.’ Not only do I have something to do, it’s double the entertainment because she was a bad guy. She was a heel. Just by me and her going out together, her hanging with me turned her and people took to it. In a society of today, for them to take to me and her like that – we’re pretty much like the Jay-Z and Beyonce of wrestling.

On Whether His Personal ‘Chase For Glory’ Has Lived Up To His Expectations:

It’s beautiful now, but it’s gonna be beautiful-er in a little bit.

Readers may listen to Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia in its entirety below:

Listen to “Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia” on Spreaker.

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