WWE Gets Crazy: How R-Truth Is Hitting His Stride as an Unstable Anti-Hero

R-Truth went from being a happy-go-lucky rapper whose only reaction was for crowds to chant, "What's up?" back at him to knocking opponents out with water bottles and quacking like a duck.

And it works.

That sentence should make as much sense as Truth's character, but like many things in wrestling, the absurd does better somehow.

R-Truth started his change after he faced John Morrison, taking his persona to a crazed but intelligent conspiracy theorist. There were some bumps along the way in molding the character, such as when the WWE paired him with the Miz.

The pairing was great, but at the beginning there was some trouble with Truth coming off as an uneducated sidekick. That didn't last long.

It was a stumble, albeit a small one, and didn't last long. Truth and Miz worked over the division, and both came off as a conniving, anti-authority group while they were together. They really could have done something as a tag team.

And then Truth got busted for violating the WWE Wellness Policy as shown by the pwtorch.com

It could have been the end of Truth. He was cut off from the Miz, and his momentum was gone.

When he returned, the WWE decided to make him a babyface. It didn't seem possible that the crazy gimmick could work as well as it did as a villain.

But it has. In fact, it is working better than it was when Truth was a villain.

Fans who couldn't have cared less about him loved him as a villain because he was giving them something different: an intelligent conspiracy theorist, who was just intelligent enough to make you listen and yet also come dangerously close to truth.

Truth was also able to come from any angle with his promos. If they come off as strange or aren't coherent, that is okay. It's just a part of the character.

The impressive part is that he has been able to parlay the joy the viewers feel while watching him into an actual following. The WWE has noticed this and is letting him start winning matches.

Monday night was a great example. Whereas once he would have lost to Miz easily, he had a short match in which he beat his former tag team partner and a man who once held the WWE title.

That is a huge change from where he was last year and shows how his odd character has taken off with people and made the WWE that much more fun.

Truth represents a new phase in the WWE where a Funkasaurus roams, the main guy can have tattoos and not be chiseled and a huge star can be a Long Island guido.

He was even able to sell him hunting the Miz in a scene that reminded fans of Elmer Fudd, except that Truth was successful.

And that is why viewers and the WWE are getting behind Truth: He is delivering something else no one in the company can, and he is getting to the audience to believe it.

Crazy, right?

At one time maybe, but not anymore and not for R-Truth.

Matthew Hemphill writes for the MMA and professional wrestling portion of Bleacher Report.  He also hosts a blog elbaexiled.blogspot.com which focuses on books, music, comic books, video games, film, and generally anything that could be related to the realms of nerdom.