WWE's R-Truth Explains How Wrestling Journey Began In Halfway House After Prison

Former NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion R-Truth has been in the wrestling business for nearly 25 years, a consistent and unaging presence on TNA and WWE television for that whole time. In a new interview with Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, Truth explained that he was introduced to wrestling during his time at a halfway house, where a member of the legendary Crockett family found him.

"Jack Crockett found me in a halfway house," Truth explained. "I actually turned him down for two years. When I became a willing vessel, to want to change, to want to do something different than what I was doing, I had to go a different route. He introduced professional wrestling to me."

Though Truth initially wanted Crockett to invest in his music career, Crockett took Truth to three WCW events, and -familiar with how talented and charismatic the former WWE World Tag Team Champion had been during his time in prison- showed him the ways he could succeed in wrestling.

"Ric Flair music hits," R-Truth remembered. "Ric Flair is coming down the ramp. [Crockett] said, 'You see there? That could be you right there, how you was rapping and dancing in jail. You could be rapping and dancing for all these people. But your own music, you could be doing that right there. You can dance too. You can mix all that athleticism in with. And you could become this great wrestler.'" Truth would go on to hold the same title as Ric Flair, becoming the first Black NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion in 2002 during his stint as Ron Killings in TNA Wrestling.

Jack Crockett, a lead cameraman for much of his WCW career, passed away in March.