WWE releases fan -favorite 60-time champion in shocking move
As the news hit that WWE Superstar R-Truth was going to be released by the company, several Superstars shared their support of the 60-time champion, who has been a mainstay in the company since his return in 2008.
Advertisement
R-Truth shared that he was going to be released by WWE at the end of his contract on X, formerly Twitter, through a statement to the fans.
'I'm sorry to inform you all,' his post began. 'I just got released from WWE. I want to thank WWE for the ride, but MOSTLY I want to thank each and [EVERY ONE] OF YOU who was along for the ride[.] Thank you for all the love, support, and appreciation you have given me over the years. Thank you [praying hands emoji].'
His release ends a near-17-year tenure with the company. R-Truth was previously with WWE while they were still WWF from 1999-2001. In between tenures, he wrestled in TNA.
Throughout his career, R-Truth won 60 WWE championships. He is a two-time Hardcore Champion, United States Champion, and World Tag Team Champion. He also won a record-breaking 54 WWE Speed Championships. His final match was against his 'childhood hero,' John Cena, as well.
WWE Superstars rally around R-Truth after his release
The news has not appeared to go over well with WWE Superstars. Several posted messages on X following R-Truth's release, showing their love for him.
Advertisement
The Miz is one of the Superstars synonymous with R-Truth. In the early 2010s, they formed a tag team known as the Awesome Truth. Years later, it was revived after R-Truth was kicked out of the Judgment Day stable. They won the RAW Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 40 in a ladder match.
He used a photo of that moment in his tribute. The Miz claimed forming their tag team 'was one of the best runs of my career,' so it appears he will miss him.
'Forming Awesome Truth with you was one of the best runs of my career. No one made me laugh harder. Your energy, heart, and smile lit up every room…and every arena,' The Miz said. 'You're not one of a kind, you're one in a lifetime. Love you, Truth. Keep shining [red heart emoji].'
Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images.
One of his greatest rivals, Nia Jax, initially responded with a red heart emoji. She then followed it up with another post that read, 'R-Truth is a national treasure!!!!!!!'
Advertisement
Monday Night RAW commentator Pat McAfee also reacted to the news with a lengthy message. He revealed that his father's 'favorite' Superstar is R-Truth, so he will surely be disappointed.
'I love [R-Truth],' said McAfee. ' It's guaranteed joy when he's a part of a segment. He's also my dad's favorite WWE Superstar of all time. The McAfees are bummed [out,] but we all know R Truth will continue to bless the world with his BIG ass brain. [Two speaking head emojis] THANK YOU TRUTH'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Hulk Hogan was ‘being run into the ground' before he died with work schedule while dealing with 25 surgeries in 10 years
Hulk Hogan admitted he was struggling with his health in the year before his sudden death Thursday and some of those close to him thought he was taking it too far, The Independent has learned. But others close to him said it was just his way, and that he insisted on being on the road and showing up to meet fans because he was 'running the show'. Jimmy VanderLinden — who goes by "Jimmy Van" online and founded the professional wrestling publication Fightful — alleges he spoke with people close to Hogan who were upset at his heavy work schedule. "People close to Hulk Hogan had told me they weren't happy that his management team was 'running him into the ground,' promoting his beer brand over the last year," VanderLinden wrote in a social media post. The 71-year-old wrestler, whose real name was Terry Bollea, had been promoting Real American Beer, which used his likeness for its branding, in the last few months of his life. The company provided The Independent with the following statement: 'Hulk Hogan wasn't being 'run into the ground' — he was running the show. As the co-founder of Real American Beer, this brand was his vision from day one. He led by example, insisted on being on the road and showed up because he wanted to. Not for money. Not for press. For his fans. He built this for them — and no one was going to stop him from showing up and shaking every hand. That's what being a Real American meant to him.' A spokesperson for Empire Agency, which repped Hogan but had no involvement in Real American Beer or its marketing push, told The Independent they also thought he was pushing too hard before he fell ill. 'We also thought that he was going too far with his health, but we couldn't do anything, because of his deal with the promoter and some other representative dealing with this beer business,' the spokesperson said. Rumors swirled on social media in the weeks before his death that Hogan had health issues. Last month, Todd Clem — otherwise known as "Bubba the Love Sponge," a radio show host with a long and sordid history with Hogan — told his listeners that "allegedly Hogan is in the hospital and I've heard people say that he might not make it." Hogan's management and family denied the claims. The wrestler's wife, Sky Daily, said at the time that he'd only undergone neck surgery. His friend, former WWE personality and longtime in-character manager Jimmy Hart, insisted in a post that Hogan had recently been singing karaoke. The post has now been removed. A spokesperson for Hogan told The Independent last week that Hogan's surgery had "indeed been successful" and that there was "no reason to panic." "He just needs from time to time a medical check up," the spokesperson added. But by July, Clem hadn't changed his tune, warning listeners that "I don't know if we'll ever see Hogan again." On July 21, just days before the WWE icon's death, Clem wrote an update on X, citing people close to Hogan, that the wrestler had been moved from a hospital "to his home in a hospital bed with private doctors." "Transfer was done in secrecy — unmarked ambulances, garage entry, middle of the night," Clem wrote. The Clearwater Police Department said during a brief press conference that Hogan was "experiencing a serious medical related issue" when they arrived. He died after he was transferred to a hospital. Hogan addressed his health when he last September appeared on an episode of fellow WWE star Logan Paul's "Impaulsive" podcast. Hogan noted at the top of the show that he'd been up until 3:30 am the night prior, and mentioned he'd only gotten two hours of sleep another night that week. When asked by Paul's co-host, Mike Majlak, if he needs sleep, Hogan says he does, and noted that when he doesn't get enough sleep, it hurts his back. 'Oh God yeah bro, if I don't man, my back and everything..." Hogan says, implying his back will hurt if he doesn't get enough sleep. He then told the men about all of the surgeries he's needed in the last decade. 'I've had like 25 surgeries in the last ten years. Ten of them were back surgeries,' Hogan told Paul. 'Nobody told me this gimmick stuff was fake. I've had 10 back surgeries, both knees and both hips replaced, shoulders — everything.' Hogan was active in professional wrestling across a number of companies from 1977 to 2012. Despite the staged outcomes, the slams and slaps and chair shots were real, and took a toll on his body. He recalled advice he received from the legendary Andre the Giant about protecting his body in his early career. 'Andre used to tell me, 'Boss, don't fall down. You won't get back up,'' Hogan said. 'It was like a 22-foot boxing ring that had lumps in it, boards sticking up—it was horrible.' Solve the daily Crossword
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
Although Dick Allen And Dave Parker Made The Baseball Hall Of Fame, This Was Awful
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA - JULY 27: A tribute board signed by fans for recently deceased Pittsburgh ... More Pirates outfielder Dave Parker who is being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday afternoon is seen before the game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Arizona Diamondbacks at PNC Park on July 27, 2025 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by) Dick Allen and Dave Parker entered the Baseball Hall of Fame Sunday posthumously when they should have enjoyed their Cooperstown honors while alive and well. This was avoidable, but it also was predictable. They suffered for being themselves. In many ways, Allen and Parker were kindred souls as African American baseball players who operated as free spirits between knocking the daylight out of pitches on a consistent basis. An occassionally stale game, which often was placed on life support after the Yankee dynasty of Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra of the 1950s, needed the colorful jolt of Allen and Parker during their combined decades of the 1960s through the 1980s, but they were rebels in the minds of the naive. The naive? I'm trying to be kind. Let's get the only significant difference out of the way between Allen and Parker, and it was a big one. In January 1979, with Parker fresh from grabbing National League Most Valuable Player honors, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed their right fielder with the potent bat, glove and arm to a five-year deal worth $5 million. Parker became the first professional athlete to receive $1 million per year in Major League Baseball or in any other sport. Allen barely earned $1 million for his career. COOPERSTOWN, NEW YORK - JULY 27: Willa Allen, wife of the late Dick Allen, speaks on his behalf ... More during the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Clark Sports Center on July 27, 2025 in Cooperstown, New York. (Photo by) "Baseball was his first love," said Willa Allen, with teary eyes on the Cooperstown stage while delivering the acceptance speech for her husband who died from cancer in December 2020. Courtesy of one of the heaviest bats for a player in Major League history (42 ounces), Dick Allen won the 1964 National League Rookie of the Year award with the Philadelphia Phillies and the 1972 American League Most Valuable Player award with the Chicago White Sox. Allen also made seven All-Star Game trips before he retired after the 1977 season. He hit .292 for his career with 351 homers, 1,119 RBI, a .534 slugging percentage and a .378 on-base percentage. He slammed at least 20 homers in 10 seasons, including six years of at least 30 homers. Among other things, The USA Today said sabermetric stats showed through OPS-plus (on-base plus slugging percentage, adjusted for a player's home ballpark) that Allen ranked ahead of 11 Hall of Fame inductees of his era. 'He used to say, 'I'd have played for nothing,' and I believe he meant it," Willa continued regarding her husband. 'But of course, if you compare today's salary, he played almost for nothing.' She spoke the truth. The average salary for a Major League player this season is more than $5 million, and get this: The February after Allen won his AL MVP award, he received what was then the largest baseball salary of all-time after a three-year deal worth $675,000 from the White Sox. According to Baseball Reference, even if you consider what it called 'incomplete data before 1985' as well as the possible lack of some earned bonuses, Allen made approximately $1 million during a 15-year career through 1977. Parker played 19 seasons through 1991. In addition to his league MVP accolades, he collected 2,712 hits and 339 homers, and he won three Gold Gloves, three Silver Slugger awards and two NL batting titles. He was named MVP of the 1979 All-Star game for two rocket throws from right field, where he became the Pirates' latter-day Roberto Clemente. There also were Parker's two World Series rings. COOPERSTOWN, NEW YORK - JULY 27: Dick Parker II, son of the late Dave Parker, speaks on his behalf ... More during the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Clark Sports Center on July 27, 2025 in Cooperstown, New York. (Photo by) Parker died in late June after complications from Parkinson's disease, but he composed a poem to be read during his Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech. It was delivered by Dave Parker II, who looked and sounded like his dad. "Thanks for staying by my side," said Dave Parker II, delivering the words from his father from the podium. "I told y'all Cooperstown would be my last rap, so the star of Dave will be in the sky tonight. Watch it glow. But I didn't lie in my documentary. I told you I wouldn't show." This crowd laughed. Those other ones abused the older Parker, and even the crowds at his home ballpark in Pittsburgh. After Parker signed that monster contract for its time in 1979, the UPI wire service reported fans spent the next two seasons throwing various items his way such as 'a bat, a steel valve and a five-pound sack of nuts and bolts at him.' In 1983, while Parker stood in right field at Pittsburgh's Three River Stadium, he had to dodge a battery. He was an easy target at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds. Allen could relate to the hatred. PITTSBURGH, PA - 1976: Dick Allen of the Philadelphia Phillies bats against the Pittsburgh Pirates ... More during a Major League Baseball game at Three Rivers Stadium in 1976 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by) As a 21-year-0ld native of Western Pennsylvania, Allen had to learn how to survive death threats in 1963 while playing for the Phillies' Triple A team in Arkansas. He advanced the next year to the big club in Philadelphia, where all-white teams reigned for a decade after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier in 1947. The Phillies also were the last NL team with an African American player. Not surprisingly, Allen spent his opening six full seasons in the Major Leagues – all with the Phillies -- battling racial slurs and his version of items hurled his way from the stands, both home and away. It led to the guy much smaller than Parker (5-foot-11 and 187 pounds) taking his spot at third base for the Phillies wearing a batting helmet. Allen and Parker remained themselves. That ranged from Allen letting Sports Illustrated snap a photo for its cover during the summer of 1972 of the White Sox star juggling baseballs with a cigarette in his mouth to Parker becoming one of the first professional athletes to wear an earring during games. It was a two-carat diamond. It was too much for some people. The same went for Parker's cocaine use and involvement in the Pittsburgh drug trials of 1985. So, during his maximum time of 15 years through 2011 on the Hall of Fame ballots of voters from the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA), he never received more than 24.5% of the required 75% to reach Cooperstown. In contrast, Allen was victimized by unnamed sources calling him a troublemaker and a bad teammate, and he never got more than 18.9% from BBWAA voters before he dropped off the ballot after 1997. Dave Parker gave this autographed photo to my nephew, Sam, who worked at one of his Popeyes chicken ... More restaurants in Cincinnati. I never met Allen, but I dealt with Parker up close and personal enough through the decades to know he was a Hall of Famer on and off the diamond. We talked often from the time I first began covering baseball for professional newspapers in the late 1970s through his playing retirement in the early 1990s. He later returned to his native Cincinnati, where I grew up as a teenager and where my brother, Dennis, lives with his family. Parker served for years as the grand marshal to open the Knothole Baseball League in Dennis' community, and my nephew, Sam, used to work at one of his Popeyes chicken restaurants around town. Sam received an autographed photo from Parker that said, 'To Sam. Continue your excellent work ethic. My best, Dave Parker.' I used to check both the names of Allen and Parker on my ballot as a BBWAA Hall of Fame voter, but my vote wasn't enough. It took a special group called the Classic Era Committee to vote Allen and Parker into the Baseball Hall of Fame in December 2024. It should have happened earlier for both players. 'Although he is not physically here to accept the honor, I assure you he is with us,' said Willa of Dick Allen, and Dave Parker's folks were likely saying the same about the man nicknamed 'The Cobra.' They were just thrilled their guys made it. They hadn't a choice.
Fox News
4 hours ago
- Fox News
Johnny Depp honors Ozzy Osbourne in surprise performance alongside Alice Cooper
Johnny Depp honors Ozzy Osbourne in surprise performance alongside Alice Cooper By Brie Stimson Johnny Depp made a surprise appearance on Friday, joining Alice Cooper at his concert in London, honoring Ozzy Osbourne with a song just days after his death. The "Pirates of the Caribbean" star rocked out with Cooper and his band on his guitar, playing Black Sabbath's 1970 hit "Paranoid" to a raucous audience while sporting a Captain Jack-style scarf and sunglasses. "Lovely tribute last night to Ozzy by Alice Cooper featuring Johnny Depp," one person wrote on social media while posting video of the performance. A second person posted on X: "I saw Johnny Depp last night in London. He made a surprise appearance at the Alice Cooper gig I was at. I was so excited." OZZY OSBOURNE'S MESSAGE TO FANS CAPS DECADES-LONG LEGACY: 'THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART' Cooper jokingly introduced Depp as "some guy we found out in the alley that said something about vampires" as the crowd roared, another video on social media showed. Depp and Cooper are in the band The Hollywood Vampires together. "Here's for Ozzy!" Cooper shouted to the crowd while wearing an Osbourne T-shirt as they finished the song. The actor, who is returning to Hollywood with the upcoming thriller "Day Drinker" with Penélope Cruz, stayed around after the Osbourne tribute to play the Alice Cooper classic "School's Out" with the band. LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS Osbourne died on Tuesday at 76 years old after battling multiple health issues, including Parkinson's, which he announced in 2022. JOHNNY DEPP SAID 'F--- YOU' TO HOLLYWOOD AS AMBER HEARD ALLEGATIONS DERAILED HIS CAREER "Everybody in, this one's for Oz tonight," Cooper told his band backstage before a show in Cardiff, Wales, on the night Osbourne died in a video he shared on his Instagram. Cooper wrote in the post's caption that the band found out about Osbourne's death just before going on stage. "Well, we all know that time is going to take us rockers, but when the giants fall, it's really hard to accept," Cooper said in a statement he posted in the caption and recorded for his radio show Alice's Attic before performing that night. "Even though everybody saw it coming with Ozzy, it just took our breath away when it happened. So Ozzy and family - your records and your music and your legend and all that you brought - the humor to the rock business - will live on forever and we're gonna miss you man." CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER APP USERS CLICK HERE FOR POST The post said that the Cardiff show was dedicated to the late Black Sabbath frontman. "Following the show, Alice summed up his thoughts by saying 'The whole world is mourning Ozzy tonight. Over his long career, he earned immense respect among his peers and from fans around the world as an unmatched showman and cultural icon,'" the post said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Cooper said he always saw Osbourne as a mix between the "Prince of Darkness" and what his family and friends saw: "a court jester." "He was and will continue to be a rock n roll legend. Rock n Roll is a family and a fraternity. When we lose one of our own it bleeds. I wish I would have gotten to know my brother Ozzy better," he added. URL
