We came up with this bit of fantasy booking together, and I just had to write it down before we lost it. And it entails re-creating a heel tag team that together had a serious, if short, run in 2011-- R-Truth and The Miz, collectively known as "The Awesome Truth."
The Original Run
The team had its start because both R-Truth and Miz believed there was a "conspiracy" by WWE management to keep them out of the main event picture. Truth had turned heel earlier in the year, claiming that "popularity" hadn't led him to success, and The Miz had fallen down the card after his WWE Championship run that ended after Wrestlemania XXVII. Their heel team helped keep them both somewhat relevant, while other big names floated around the main event scene (C.M. Punk, Alberto Del Rio, John Cena, among others) for that summer and fall, culminating with a big tag match against Cena and The Rock at Survivor Series. After they lost, Cena instigated an argument between the two which broke up the team.The Miz continued to float around the mid-card, and it wasn't until his "Hollywood A-lister" gimmick that he started to build a lot of momentum. His Intercontinental Championship runs have now effectively cemented him as a top star. R-Truth, meanwhile, drifted down the card after a few mid-card feuds, as his character drifted into crazy loon territory, hearing voices, talking to people that weren't there, going off on non sequitur tangents, and constantly getting his facts wrong (such as confusing acrophobia (fear of heights) with arachnophobia (fear of spiders)) and having to apologize for it. "That's my bad, dog. My bad."
The Miz was traded to Smackdown with the 2018 Superstar Shake-Up, not least because with Daniel Bryan returning to in-ring competition, there could finally be a match between the two after their 2016 war of words. R-Truth also went to Smackdown, though his first appearance was in a backstage segment, establishing him as friends with Smackdown wrestler Tye Dillinger, though kooky R-Truth mistakenly thought he was on Raw.
Why Reunite Them?
R-Truth could be a solid hand in the mid-card, potentially being another challenger for the United States Championship on Smackdown. He's been used so long as jobber fodder and as "crazy loon" that some rebuilding would be necessary to establish him as a threat.The Miz arguably doesn't need R-Truth, as he's become solid enough on his own that he works better as a singles wrestler. But putting the two together as an alliance/tag-team will give Miz someone to run interference for him in his matches, and for rivals to have to get through before they can get to Miz.
Book It, Winger
Some of what I'm writing below is dependent on the outcome of matches at Backlash, but let's get into it.It's plain WWE wants to hold off on the eventual Bryan/Miz blow-off match. It's a money match that fans have been waiting to see for two years now. Also, WWE wants to build Big Cass as a major singles star, and are using Bryan as a means to help get Cass over. At the time of this writing, Bryan is set to face Cass at Backlash as step one of the "get Big Cass over" plan. Regardless of the outcome, I see the Cass/Bryan feud continuing for at least another month.
Smackdown after Backlash, Jeff Hardy comes out to reinstate the United States Title Open Challenge. Out to the ring comes Tye Dillinger, hoping to use this as a chance to reinvigorate his career. But before Tye can get in the ring, Samoa Joe jumps him and chokes him out. He then faces Hardy in the Open Challenge, but it doesn't get far before Randy Orton interferes and costs Joe the match.
This leads to a backstage argument in the G.M./Commissioner's Office, where Tye Dillinger comes in, angry at Joe for sniping the Open Challenge from him. Joe just scoffs at him, while Orton states he should get a title shot, since he never got a fair rematch against Jinder Mahal without interference from Sunil Singh. Joe objects to this, calling Orton out on his hypocrisy, since he just interfered in Joe's match. And Shelton Benjamin steps in to point out to Orton, "You lost the title, you lost the rematch, and more importantly, you lost to me, so you lose your place at the front of the line." Miz steps in and points out that as one of the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champions in history, he should get a title shot also, since he's better suited to be U.S. Champion than Hardy, "I've been consistent across my career, without any personal issues or injuries keeping me out of action." Daniel Bryan comes in, saying that Miz shouldn't get ahead of himself, since "we've got unfinished business." Miz rants at him about how Bryan is lucky that they weren't scraping him off the bottom of Big Cass' boot, and it all breaks down into shouting and yelling.
Paige calls things to order, and says they can shake out details on who deserves a title match later. But for now, she's making an eight-man tag for the main event-- Hardy, Orton, Dillinger, and Daniel Bryan taking on Benjamin, Miz, Joe, and Big Cass.
Just before the main event, however, the cameras find Tye Dillinger knocked out backstage. Paige and the medics are checking on him. She tells Bryan, Orton, and Hardy that Dillinger can't compete tonight, so they need to find a partner. R-Truth walks up, sees Dillinger is out cold and gets angry about it. He turns to the face team and says, "Don't worry about this, someone's about to get got!" He ends up being their fourth man.
The match itself proceeds as per usual. Eventually, Bryan ends up on the receiving end of a protracted heat segment by the heel team, before things start breaking down. Everyone except for Bryan, Truth, Cass and Miz ends up brawling on the outside and they fight up the ramp. Bryan, worn out from the beating he's taken, fights out of a superplex attempt by Cass and hits a missile dropkick. Cass tags out to Miz, who makes a point of savoring the moment as he prepares to set up Bryan for the Skull-Crushing Finale, but Bryan fights out of it and hits Miz with an enzuigiri. This lets Bryan make the crawl to Truth to tag him in. Truth circles Miz's body, standing him up as if to prepare him for a finish--
--and then Truth runs over to Bryan, who has just pulled himself to his feet in the corner and attacks him. He beats him down in the corner and stomps away on him. Miz gets to his feet, and mugs for the crowd as Truth drags Bryan up and stands him for Miz, and together they hit a double-team Skull-Crushing Finale. (A move that commentary will later dub the "Skull-Crushing Duet.") Miz pins Bryan to win the match and the reunited Awesome Truth pose to close out the show.
The next week, The Miz brings us MizTV on Smackdown, and his guest is none other than R-Truth. Truth responds to the heat from the fans with a sarcastic, "Aw, London, what's up?" Truth mocks their boos, "Aw, what's up? Ya'll just thought I was just that crazy guy, right? Walkin' around, talkin' to imaginary people, lost in my own head, huh? What's up? You didn't know I was foolin' every last one of ya'll crumpet-eatin' tea-drinkin' idiots?" He just flashes a grin at the booing and sarcastically says, "That's my bad, dog. That's my bad."
Truth eventually explains that he was wasted on Raw, teaming with guys like Goldust, but now he's on Smackdown, "the land of opportunity," and he's gonna take as many as he can get. Before he can go on any further, Tye Dillinger interrupts, demanding to know why Truth is hanging out with Miz, and why, if Truth's "crazy man" schtick had been an act, he'd led him on for weeks, not showing up to Smackdown. Truth fires back on him, "Yeah, Tye, about that. You say we're friends, but while I was laid up for months after surgery, how come I didn't get any calls? You got my number. Only person I heard a damn thing from was Miz." This leads to a Bryan & Dillinger vs Awesome Truth tag match later in the show.
What Next?
From there, in the short term, while Daniel Bryan finishes up his feud with Big Cass, the Awesome Truth are there, still antagonizing Bryan and keeping the heat on that rivalry. They're also, however, complicating things in the U.S. Title scene. They could step into the Tag Division if need be, but with heel teams like The Bar, SAnitY, and especially the Bludgeon Brothers around, they don't really need Awesome Truth making the tag scene too heel-heavy.I see Awesome Truth being primarily an alliance, rather than a tag team for the division. Truth helps Miz out in his quest for gold, and Miz in turn tries to help Truth get title shots as well. After Miz's brief flirtation with the U.S. Title scene, he instead sets his sights higher, and looks to get the WWE Championship, while instead angling to get Truth a shot at the U.S. Championship.
After Daniel Bryan is done with Big Cass, he starts to come for The Miz again, but R-Truth serves as an obstacle he has to get past. Truth still plays up some of the craziness to his character, but now he's revealed that a lot of it was a ruse, it becomes more a mind games tactic. And, of course, The Miz is likely to interfere in the matches as well, to further rile up Bryan and continue the feud.
Done properly, it could be possible to spin out the Bryan/Miz rivalry until Summerslam, when Miz can't avoid the match any longer. The Awesome Truth team would continue to be a thing, again, primarily as an alliance between the two, rather than a shift to the tag division.
Your Thoughts?
That's the basic gist of how I'd bring back Awesome Truth, as a means of delaying the Miz/Bryan match to build more heat for it, while also serving as a way to "rehab" R-Truth from "goofy jobber" into "heel midcarder," which might revitalize his career.Have an opinion on this? Leave a comment below, or hit me up on the Twitter machine, or on Facebook.
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