WWE: Did Awesome Truth Really Need to Split to Explain R-Truth's Suspension?

Two days after Survivor Series, WWE.com announced that R-Truth had been suspended for 30 days for his first violation of the WWE’s Talent Wellness Program. 

One day after the pay-per-view, on Monday Night Raw, John Cena caused some tension between R-Truth and The Miz, and this eventually lead to The Miz turning on Truth, hitting him with the Skull-Crushing Finale and subsequently writing him off of TV. 

Quite the coincidence, huh? Nah, just kidding. 

It’s pretty clear that Truth was injured at the hands of The Miz as the storyline way of explaining his suspension, and I guess it wasn’t a completely terrible way of doing so. But I still don’t think the WWE needed to split up the Awesome Truth in this situation. 

While I’m fine with the WWE elevating The Miz to the WWE Championship scene, as F4Wonline.com (via SEScoops.com) reports is the plan, I wish the creative team would have written R-Truth off of TV in a different way. 

Perhaps they could have had a frustrated Cena take out Truth instead. Maybe they could have had the maniacal Truth not show up on Raw because he was embarrassed about losing at Survivor Series, or maybe they could have not explained his absence from TV at all, like they did with Evan Bourne. 

I’d actually take any of these story lines over The Miz injuring R-Truth and splitting up their tag team, though. 

Why? Because the fact that The Miz took out Truth all but assures that Truth will return as a baby face after his suspension, which—according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (via WrestlingInc.com)—is the plan. 

And that would be a horrible decision. 

While I understand that the creative team is worried about the lack of top baby faces on Monday Night Raw—it’s pretty much just Cena and CM Punk—the WWE would be best suited turning someone else face because Truth sucks in that role. 

I mean, let’s just take a trip back down Memory Lane and try to remember what R-Truth did prior to his fantastic heel turn earlier in the year. He rapped that wonderful entrance song on his way to the ring, he had that stellar United States Championship feud with Ted DiBiase and he did an excellent job in his role as Cena’s best friend. 

Sense the sarcasm there? 

While I know that Truth’s crazed character is good for comedic purposes, he has been 10 times more relevant as a heel than he ever was as a baby face. I mean, he went from trying to rap to main eventing the Capitol Punishment pay-per-view in a WWE Championship match against Cena for crying out loud. 

There is absolutely no chance that Truth will ever get back to that level—or the level he was at when terrorizing the WWE along with The Miz—as a baby face. I don’t care if he starts slinging Little Jimmy merchandise quicker than hotcakes—he’s always going to be, at the very best, the No. 3 face on Raw behind Cena and Punk. 

Sure, the fact that R-Truth was sidelined by The Miz will get him a nice pop and a decent baby-face reaction when he makes his return and attacks The Miz, likely later this month. But the fans will be cheering more so because The Miz is getting attacked than they are because Truth is the one attacking him. 

If you don’t believe me, then look no further than Alex Riley. 

When Riley finally turned on The Miz and started beating the crap out of him after months upon months of serving as Miz’s lackey, the crowd popped huge for it. Riley was getting great baby-face reactions, and a lot of fans thought that he could be the next young face to get elevated to the main event scene. 

So much for that. 

Riley got such a huge pop because he was laying a beat-down on The Miz, not because he had suddenly developed this great character and become one of the WWE’s most lovable faces. 

The situation will be no different for Truth. 

Truth will make some initial noise when he returns from his suspension and puts a nice whooping on The Miz, but all the excitement from that will die down in a month or two, while Truth goes back to being just another mid-carder. 

I may not be a psychic, but I’m pretty sure I can see where the split of the Awesome Truth has R-Truth headed.