Ron Killings

The Truth Has Set Me Free!

Ronnie Aaron "Ron" Killings (born January 19, 1972) is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name, R-Truth (previously K-Kwik and Ron "The Truth" Killings). He's wrestled in TNA and currently WWE. His career started in 1997.

A rundown of his career can be found at The Other Wiki.

Ron Killings provides examples of the following tropes:

Angry Black Man: His recent heel turn.
- Scary Black Man
Anti-Humor: Truth pulled one during his Survivor Series 2011 promo in which he had the crowd expecting him to explain his conversation with a bunch of pigeons, since he's the WWE's Cloudcuckoolander. The MSG crowd gave him an ovation for the hilarious bait-and-switch.

"I yelled to those pigeons, I said, 'Hey pigeons! The Rock and Cena are gonna lose tonight!' You know what those pigeons said?...Nothing. They're pigeons. Pigeons don't talk."

The Artifact: "The Truth" moniker originally came from a Malcolm Xerox gimmick he had in TNA. After turning face he kept The Truth, even after rejoining the WWE.
Arch Enemy: Little Jimmy. Not anymore. Now, it's The Miz.
Awesome McCoolname: Ron Killings, anyone? And they went with R-Truth and K-Kwik before.
Berserk Button / Hair-Trigger Temper: After turning heel.
- After turning face again, someone hitting Little Jimmy.
Character Development: Before his heel turn, Truth was a bland face who rapped, then he lost out on a Championship opportunity and turned heel and lost all his marbles. Now he's back as a face, but still has his Cloudcuckoolander mannerism. And he's all the better for it.
Catch Phrase: What's Up?
- Truth is...
- And that the truth, the whole truth and nothin' but the truth.
- It's a conspiracy!
- Don't boo me, you should be booing yourselves!
- Lil' Jimmy!!
- [Insert Wrestler Here] is about to get GOT!
- I'm Gonna be a GOOD R-TRUTH!!
- Don't "what?" me
  - (After crowd shouted "What" at him) Okay, what me!
Cheap Pop: "[Name of city he's currently in], WHAT'S UP?"
- DON'T WHAT ME!
  - Crowd: WHAT!?
  - Okay, "what" me!
Cloudcuckoolander: Became one after his 2011 Face Heel Turn. Then again, this might be putting it a bit mildly...
Conspiracy Theorist: Considers himself a victim of a massive conspiracy.
Dark Reprise: "U Suck" is pretty much a Villain Song version of "What's Up".
Do-It-Yourself Theme Tune: "What's Up/U Suck" and "Right Time." When he was a Face, his entrance included him dancing and performing the rap over the track on his way to the ring.
- He does all of his themes except for two out of seven.
Everything's Better with Spinning: Apparently, he thinks so. Two of the finishers he's used (Truth Axe and Lie Detector) - respectively, a corkscrew scissors kick and a double corkscrew flying elbow.
Expy: Shows several similarities to Booker T - a black, dreadlocked, Spirited Competitor with a Lightning Bruiser fighting style (although more emphasis on the "lightning" and less on the "bruiser"). He even used a modified version of the scissors kick for a while.
- The beginning of his late 2011 Heel run. Extremely violent, slightly unhinged loose cannon with anger issues. It later (d)evolved into something completely different, but at the beginning it was a near dead-ringer for Randy Orton's heel run, particularly in the Legacy days. (Truth's finisher even changed to something slightly resembling the RKO.)
Face Heel Turn: Performed one after he lost a Championship opportunity to John Morrison who had goaded him in to a match with the contendership at stake, and went from a happy go lucky guy who raps to the audience to a raving mad conspiracy nut.
Flanderization: At the very beginning of his most recent heel turn, he was certainly a slightly unhinged loose cannon, but as the heel run has gone on, his Sanity Slippage has been cranked Up to Eleven...and then slightly past it.
Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: After doing a Face Heel Turn by beating up John Morrison, he took out a cigarette and began smoking it, as the crowd chanted "That's illegal!" and a woman in the audience very audibly shouted "Will somebody please think of the children?!"
Green-Eyed Monster: At least part of his recent heel run seems to be because he's jealous of the fact that people only seem to care about John Cena.

"I Want My Son Back!"

Heel Face Return: Upon returning from his Wellness Policy suspension, R-Truth seems to be OK with Little Jimmies.
Hoist by His Own Petard: In the weeks building to his match against John Cena at Capitol Punishment, Truth had been antagonizing Cena's fanbase, even throwing a cup of soda/water in a fan's face. During the match, Truth had Cena down and decided to bully a kid at ringside, drinking from his collector's cup. The kid would throw the liquid in Truth's face, distracting him long enough to get thrown back in the ring and get hit with the Attitude Adjustment for the three count.
Imaginary Friend: Little Jimmy. And lord help you if you decide to play along with him and actually kick Little Jimmy for hell of it. Truth doesn't react well to Little Jimmy getting kicked. At all
Large Ham: Is a bit of one as a face, but then again, so are most guys in pro wrestling. Since his most recent heel turn, Truth hasn't just chewed scenery, at some points he's swallowed it whole.
- Evil Is Hammy: Oh God. The image of him entering an arena in Richmond, VA to "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" in full Confederate soldier regalia will not be unseen for a long time.
  - Better yet, the look Stone Cold Steve Austin gave R-Truth suggests he'll be taking that image to the grave.
- Ham-to-Ham Combat: A three-way version occurred on 06/20/11 Raw between Truth, The Miz, and Christian. It was pretty funny.
  - Then there was that Elimination Chamber promo, which was something like Ham-To-Ham-To-Ham-To-Ham-To...yeah. You get the idea.
- Incoming Ham: Whenever you hear "The Truth Shall Set You Free/The Truth Has Set Me Free," expect something awesome to follow.
Kid Appeal Character: As a face. Part of his Face Heel Turn involved Truth saying he would no longer dance and smile for the "Little Jimmys". Following his face turn a couple months later, he is accompanied to the ring by Little Jimmy.
Lampshade Hanging: "I don't even know if that's PG!"
Lightning Bruiser: Is he a fast power wrestler or a strong high flyer?
Living Lie Detector: Just for Pun.
Malaproper: During his heel run. Mainly Played for Laughs.
Malcolm Xerox: During his original heel run in TNA.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: His attack on John Morrison after losing his number one contender spot.
- His run-in along with The Miz during the Punk/HHH match at Night of Champions 2011. They beat the hell out of both competitors, and then beat the hell out of the referees.
- Then came Hell In A Cell 2011 when they beat the crap out of everyone including the cameramen
- His return on the last Raw of 2011 has him beating the shit out of The Miz
No Indoor Voice: Face or heel...when cutting promos, R-Truth has two volumes: loud and louder.
Non Sequitur: Half the stuff that comes out of Truth's mouth on camera makes no freaking sense at all. Doesn't stop it from being hilarious, though.
Odd Friendship: With The Miz. It also consistently provides the most entertaining parts on Raw.
Older Than They Look: He's 40. For perspective, Undertaker is 46 and Triple H is 42. Edge is 39.
Quieter Than Silence: His theme 'song' right after his heel turn consisted of "THE TRUTH! SHALL SET YOU FREE!" Then R-Truth came out to a loud, blaring track of nothing, usually having conversations with the voices in his head on the way.
Real Life Writes the Plot: Awesome Truth was split up after R-Truth was hit with a Wellness Policy violation, which was played out with Miz deciding that Truth had outlived his usefulness. Obviously, upon his return, R-Truth would be looking for revenge, which meant one of the hottest heels in the company had to do a Heel Face Turn in order to align himself against The Miz.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After returning from being injured by The Miz, he proceeds to beat the stuffing out of him... Then stop JUST short of taking him out so he can stretch it out over several weeks, telling Miz as much to his face.
Sanity Slippage: Oh so very much since his recent Heel turn. Even if a viewer could think it was something else, announcers and people fighting him will tell you directly that R-Truth has lost it.
- He's still insane after turning face.
Slasher Smile: Look at the above picture and say that this a guy that you'd want to run into in a dark alley.
Stunned Silence: When Truth came down to the ring in the aforementioned Confederate uniform and song, Steve Austin raised his microphone to make a remark and then let it drop back down. You could actually see the point as to when he simply went "Screw This, I'm Outta Here" on the conversation entirely.
- And when you stun Steve Austin...you've done something.
Talking to Himself: He also plays the part of...LittleJimmy.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Went from Kid Appeal Character to the guy blowing smoke rings in people's faces and chucking drinks at audience members.
Uncle Tomfoolery: Played straight, then subverted, then double-subverted in the course of a single year. Truth's heel turn in the spring of 2011 was partly prompted by his desire to stop acting hammy for the fans like a stereotypical black comedian. But now that he's back to being a face again, the drawl and the double-takes and the other minstrel-like qualities seem to have not only returned, but are being taken Up to Eleven. At least he's a Badass minstrel.
Villain Song "U Suck"
Villain Team-Up: With The Miz
Weapon of Choice: A water bottle. Seriously. And it works.
- Continuity Nod: The bottle comes from the angle that originally turned him heel. As part of John Morrison's promo against Truth, JoMo claimed that R-Truth's stamina was down because of his smoking habit. Truth was caught at one point during his match drinking from a water bottle. Later that same episode, when he beat down John Morrison, he used the water bottle for the first time.
We Used to Be Friends: With John Morrison. After Morrison took his spot in a WWE title PPV match, Truth took him out of commission for several months.
- And again with The Miz, who decided a few weeks before that Truth had outlived his usefulness and assaulted him on the steel ramp, giving Truth a concussion ^[1] that put him out of action for a month.
What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: Heath Slater kicking Little Jimmy in the face on Superstars. Even better, the crowd reacted as if he had actually kicked a small child in the face, as did Truth.
- This happened again in his and Kofi Kingston's tag match with Epico.
You Fail Geography Forever: "Nothin' good comes from the South." Says the guy who came from North Carolina/Georgia.
- It's just Cheap Heat. Michael Cole said pretty much the same thing, despite being from Texas.
- "The good R-Truth is gone." He was including himself in that statement because he's not a good guy (at least at the time).
- And then there was the Milwaukee/Green Bay mix-up...

↑ in kayfabe, of course. Another example of Real Life Writes the Plot here - Truth was sent on a Wellness Vacation.

[1] yfabe, of course. Another example of Real Life Writes the Plot here - Truth was sent on a Wellness Vacation.

[1]