R-Truth says WWE non-renewal ‘felt like a firing’
When he got the call that his WWE contract wasn’t being renewed last year, R-Truth felt like he was being fired.
Truth’s contract saga is one of the main stories in the new season of “WWE: Unreal.” In June 2025, he was informed that his contract was not being renewed after a 17-year run with the company. But Truth ended up staying with WWE after fan outcry over his departure led to him being brought back under a new long-term deal.
The “Unreal” episode covering the situation includes Paul “Triple H” Levesque saying that Truth was never actually fired. Levesque claims that, when WWE decided not to renew, they did so with the hope that it would bring Truth back to the table after a breakdown in negotiations.
Truth responded to those comments during an interview on The Breakfast Club this week. Because WWE was telling him not to come to work, Truth viewed it as being released.
“Let me ask you this then, I got the call, right? I got my agent working on this end with their agent. I’m going to stay out of that, right? Let them handle that thing,” Truth said. “I get a call from this side saying we’re not going to renew your contract or however it was. ‘So do I come to work? It’s Sunday. Next Sunday my contract would be ending. So do I come to work?’ [They said], ‘No, don’t come to work.’ Oh, okay, ‘Am I done now?’ ‘Yes.’ There was no flight, no calendar. What do you call that? I don’t know if it’s all the same or if it’s different…
“It felt like a firing to me. And that’s when I paused, took that moment. I couldn’t figure out how I felt. It was sudden. We were in negotiations. So I thought, so I was told. It was a negotiation. So it was like, never for once did I feel bitter, jaded, or anger. I was just at loss for feelings, at loss for words, at loss for emotion.”
Truth said this was the first time he had an agent negotiating for him, so he was more removed from the contract process than he had been in past deals. Because he had been with WWE for so long, he felt like he owed the fans a “thank you” — which is why he sent out the tweet saying that he had been released.
After all this, Truth feels like he’s more popular than he’s ever been. He appreciates that, with the new contract he signed, WWE is helping him promote his music career. He released a new country/hip-hop album — titled “The White Album” — in 2025.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.