When superstars like John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley, and The Rock debuted, you might not have been able to predict their entire career trajectory but you had a pretty good idea where they were going to end up and how successful they were going to be.

I don't think anyone who saw Memphis era K-Krush, or even Smackdown era R-Truth could have predicted he'd be in the world title scene in two different companies, spend time as a beloved heel, or that his last ten years would involve him being everyone's favorite airheaded wrestler. But he did all that and more.

Hopefully, he'll pop up back in TNA or AEW for a nostalgia run before he retires for good but, for right now,* it looks like his wrestling days may be over, so please enjoy this series of episodes. Each is between 55 and 94 minutes and features some of his best promos be they the intensely serious TNA speeches or the ridiculous skits with The Judgment Day in WWE.

I will miss every aspect of R-Truth's characters. Except, possibly, the 24/7 championship.

* - this post was made in the week between when R Truth was released from WWE and when WWE rehired him , leading to what will hopefully be an eventful additional season of R Truth as an edgy and more focused wrestler than we'd previously seen him in WWE

101. Get Rowdy (1999-2001)  
 
Our introduction to R-Truth comes from his brief stint in NWA’s Memphis territory. After a couple of matches he gets snatched away by WWE. This is not the hilarious comedy wrestler WWE fans came to know and love, This was an athletic rapper who did a lot of acrobatics in and outside of the ring. He looks like he’s headed up the mid-card but he got cut during the middle of the dreaded WWE/WCW/ECE InVasion storyline.
We also see our first R-Truth Intergender match. It’s going to be years before we see another but the prototype here was a blast.
 
1. AJ Styles (NWA Champ) vs R-Truth (as K-Krush) from NWA Wildside 11.06.1999.

2. R-Truth (as K-Krush) vs Brian Christopher (as Grandmaster Sexay) from Memphis Championship Wrestling 02.19.2000.

3. Road Dogg and R-Truth (as K-Kwik) vs The Radicalz from Smackdown 11.16.2000.

4. Taz & Kaientai vs R-Truth (as K-Kwik) and Too Cool from Raw Is War 01.15.2001.

5. R-Truth (as K-Kwik) vs Taz from Sunday Night Heat 1.21.2001.

6. Matt Hardy (WWE European Champ) vs R-Truth (as K-Kwik) from Smackdown 06.14.2001.

​7. Jacqueline and R-Truth (as K-Kwik) vs Haku and Ivory from Jakked 06.16.2001.
 
MAIN EVENT: BILLY KIDMAN (WCW CRUISERWEIGHT CHAMP) vs R-TRUTH (as K-KWIK) from SUNDAY NIGHT HEAT 07.15.2001

108. Trouble In Paradise (2011, 2012)

When The Awesome Truth implodes, R-Truth hits a lull in his career until he forms another tag team with future world champion, Kofi Kingston. They have a brief but fun run as tag champs here.
 
1. John Cena & The Rock vs Awesome Truth at Survivor Series 2011.

2. R-Truth vs The Miz from Raw 01.23. 2012.

3. Kofi Kingston & R-Truth vs Epico & Primo from Raw 02.20.2012.

​4. Kofi Kingston & R-Truth (WWE Tag Champs)  vs Jack Swagger & Dolph Ziggler at Over The Limit 2012.
 
MAIN EVENT: KOFI KINGSTON & R-TRUTH (WWE TAG CHAMPS) vs TEAM HELL NO at NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS 2012

109. R-Truth Is For The Children (2012-2016)

This is peak clueless R-Truth. After some charming matches from the short-lived but entertaining kids' WWE show, Saturday Morning Slam, R-Truth begins cutting promos for matches he isn't in, and preparing for the wrong sort of match when he is actually booked in them.
 
1. William Regal vs R-Truth from Saturday Morning Slam #13.

2. R-Truth vs Cesaro from Saturday Morning Slam #33.

3. R-Truth & Xavier Woods vs The Real Americans at a House Show 03.28.2013.
 
MAIN EVENT: THE MIZ & MIZDOW vs DOLPH ZIGGLER & R-TRUTH (as R-ZIGGLER) from SMACKDOWN 09.24.2014

110. US Champ 24/7 (2019)

I think everyone was pleasantly surprised at R-Truth's second run as the US Champ. He was only in five title matches but they were all excellent. Then he spent more time than anyone as the 24/7champ. That was less excellent but occasionally fun.
 
1. Shinsuke Nakamura (WWE US Champ) vs R-Truth from Smackdown 01.29.2019.

2. R-Truth (WWE US Champ) vs Rusev from Smackdown 01.29.2019.

3. R-Truth (WWE US Champ) vs Andrade vs Rey Mysterio from Smackdown 02.26.2019.

4. R-Truth (WWE US Champ) vs Andrade vs Rey Mysterio vs Samoa Joe from Smackdown 03.05.2019.

​5. Samoa Joe (WWE US Champ) vs Andrade vs Rey Mysterio vs R-Truth at Fastlane 2019.
 
MAIN EVENT: R-TRUTH’S BEST OF 24/7 TITLE MATCHES

111. No Judgment Day (2020-2024)

R-Truth really wanted to be in Judgment Day. Judgment Day really didn't want anything to do with R-Truth. This was basically a re-tread of his run with Goldust as The Golden Truth but the jokes here were funnier and the matches better, so we skipped over The Golden Truth entirely to get to this superior storyline.
 
1. R-Truth vs JD McDonogh in a Miracle On 34th Street Fight from Raw 12.18.2023.

2. Awesome Truth vs Judgment Day from Raw 01.01.2024.

3. The Miz vs JD McDonough from Raw 01.08.2024.

​4. Awesome Truth vs Judgment Day from Raw 01.15.2024.
 
MAIN EVENT: ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH 2024.

112. The Ron Cena Retirement Tour (2024, 2025)

This seems to be the end of R-Truth's WWE wrestling career. Once he wrapped up his Judgment Day story with the surprise title run as part of the reunited Awesome Truth, he disappeared for a while, resurfacing to try and take down WWE Champ, John Cena. It looked to be a reigniting of R-Truth's character but, alas, he was let go by WWE shortly after his shot at the WWE title.
 
1. Awesome Truth & #DIY vs Judgment Day from Raw 02.19.2024,

2. Six Pack Ladder Match For The WWE Smackdown Tag Championship.
A-Town Down Under vs Awesome Truth vs #DIY vs Judgement Day vs New Catch Republic vs New Day at Wrestlemania 40.

3. Awesome Truth (WWE Smackdown Tag Champs) vs #DIY from Raw 04.22.2024.

4.Awesome Truth (WWE Smackdown Tag Champs) vs Judgement Day from Raw 06.24.2024.
 
MAIN EVENT: JOHN CENA (WWE CHAMP) VS R-TRUTH (as RON CENA) in a SURPRISE TITLE VS CAREER MATCH from SATURDAY NIGHT’S MAIN EVENT 05.24.2025

Now that The Doctor knows who he is, and knows to keep a better eye on his companions, it's time for him to have some therapy sessions about his interpersonal relationships. And once that's over, there is also a problem with planets disappearing. Sometimes, even entire solar systems. Three major interplanetary problems are introduced (and two of them solved) this season, amongst The Doctors and his companions trying to get some downtime, only to be sucked into some really weird traps.

Donna is the A+ companion in this season. As The Runaway Bride she encounters two different faces of The Doctor, only...they're the same face? What does that mean

301. The Runaway Bride
(10, Donna)

We ended our last season with The Doctor's sad separation from a companion. Then a random woman just appeared on his TARDIS, this is his first adventure with that woman, and serves as a mini-therapy session as he talks about his grief and loss. There's also a spectacularly campy villain.


302. The Doctor's Wife
(11, Amy, Rory)

The Doctor's...married? Not really. We determined last season that Leather Doctor and Smiling Doctor both belileve they are the last surviving Time People, so when The Doctor received a message begging for help from a fellow Time Person, he rushes to a planet where we get an in-depth look at a relationship that the series usually ignores.


303. The Three Doctors
(1, 2, 3, Brigadier, Jo, Benton, Omega)

We saw in the first season how The Flute Doctor was exiled to Earth and forced to regenerate into The Kung-Fu Doctor. This Doctor is mostly Earth-bound but occasionally the incompetent Time People need his help in space and send him on very specific missions. Well, they finally have one so important that they need not just Kung-Fu Doctor but also Flute Doctor and Grouchy Doctor too all add their unput to stop a rogue Time Person.


304. The Celestial Toymaker
(1, Steven, Dodo, The Toymaker)

This is a wacky, mostly animated episode (due to the BBC having erased a bunch of the episodes from the 1960s) about a chaos god messing around with The Grouchy Doctor and his companions.


305. Midnight
(10, Donna)

Smiling Doctor takes a break from his companion (The Runaway Bride) and goes on a relaxing train trip for tourists where things get real weird and real wrong real fast.


306. Pyramids Of Mars
(4, Sarah Jane, Sutekh)

Scarf Doctor and Sarah Jane end up being trapped by The God Of Death in a fun, archeology-focused adventure.


307. Planet Of The Ood
(10, Donna)

A very polite race of aliens is being used as slaves by a greedy corporation. The Smiling Doctor and his Runaway Bride get caught up on the corporation's home planet and are determined to end the slave ring.


308. The Sontarem Strategem
(10, Donna, Martha, Sylvia, Wilfred, The Sontarans, UNIT)

One of The Doctor's companions from the first season is now working for UNIT and sends a distress signal to The Doctor. A warlike race that we've encountered a couple of times has created technology that threatens human life in a variety of ways.


309. The Poison Sky
(10, Donna, Martha, Sylvia, Wilfred, The Sontarans, UNIT)

Continuing from the last episode, The Smiling Doctor and his companions try and save the Earth. An evil and easily manipulated tech nerd is involved in the possible destruction of the human race, which hasn't at all been relevant at any point in 21st century history.


310. The Doctor's Daughter
(10, Donna, Martha)

We know The Doctor has a granddaughter floating around, surely he must have a child that produced said grandchild. While his UNIT friend and The Runaway Bride are still travelling with him, he ends up in the midst of an unusual civil war that creates the circumstances for him to have a child.


311. The Pandorica Opens
(11, Amy, Rory, River Song, Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Autons, Sycorax, Judoons, Silurians)

Bowtie Doctor stumbles into a trap connected to those weirds cracks in the walls he's been seeing since the first season. Also, that woman from the library in the first season appears to be involved.


312. The Big Bang
(11, Amy Rory, River Song, Daleks, Autons)

Oh no, is The Doctor the reasons for all those cracks in the walls? Is that woman from the library way more important to The Doctor than we could have possibly imagined? Did one of his companions wait literally thousands of years to re-enter The Doctor's life? What's the deal with the fez?


313. Turn Left
(10, Donna, Rose, Sylvia, Wilfred)

While The Smiling Doctor checks out a street fair, The Runaway Bride enters a fortune teller's booth and experiences what her life would be like without The Doctor, which, in turn, shows her what would happen to The Doctor without her.


314. The Stolen Earth
(10, Donna, Rose, Sarah Jane, Martha, Jack Harkness, Sylvia, Wilfred, Harriet Jones, Gwen, Ianto, Davros, Daleks)

Luckily for everybody everywhere, The Smiling Doctor and The Runaway Bride did encounter each other and now the two of them, having run into Bad Wolf again, end up encountering a ton of characters from our first three seasons as the Earth is transported away and invaded by Daleks.


315. Journey's End
(10, Donna, Rose, Sarah Jane, Martha, Jack Harkness, Mickey, Jackie, Sylvia, Wilfred, Gwen, Ianto, Davros, Daleks, K-9)

K-9 is pretty much a kitchen sink, so let's just use the cliche "everything and the kitchen sink" are thrown into this episode as The Smiling Doctor must save The Earth from The Daleks and then somehow get it back into its proper galaxy.


316. The Rebel Flesh
(11, Amy, Rory, Mme Kovarian)

They're not precisely autons but there is a manaufactured alien race of doppelgangers designed to keep miners from being killed in dangerous operations. This, of course, leads to the problem of Who Are The Real People and Who Are The Dopplegangers?


317. The Almost People
(11, Amy, Rory, Mme Kovarian)

Things from the last episode get even more complicated as a Doppleganger Doctor gets involved in the adventure. Which one is he? Naturally.


318. City Of Death
(4, Romana)

Time to go back to The Scarf Doctor Days for a good old fashioned art heist involving The Mona Lisa. 


319. The Space Museum
(1, Ian, Barbara, Vicki, Daleks)

Now let's travel even further back as The Grouchy Doctor and a couple of his original companions find a museum in which there are exhibits focused on them!


320. Kerblam!
(13, Graham, Ryan, Yas)

It's Amazon.com in space. The Steampunk Doctor sees how poorly employees are treated by a space corporation. See how it indirectly helps AI start to kill its employees, even though it was programmed to help them. See how corporations make everything go horribly, horribly wrong whilst, naturally, underpaying their workers.


321. The Star Beast
(14, Donna, Sylvia, Shirley, Shaun, Rose Noble)

The Smiling Doctor is back but having been regenerated into his old face. He doesn't understand it. Things then take a worse turn when he encounters The Runaway Bride who, last time we saw her, would literally explode if she ever rememberd The Doctor and her adventures with him. Oh, there's also a very cute little alien who needs help.


322. The Giggle
(14, Donna, Kate Lethebridge-Stewart, Mel, 15, Sylvia, Shirley, The Toymaker, Shaun, Rose Noble, Vlinx)

It's another multi-Doctor, multi-companion episode as that chaos god who we encountered earlier this season has laid a trap in the early days of television that has become a problem in the early 21st century.  Can the extensive team The Once Again Smiling But Not As Much Doctor has assembled stop the chaos god from overpowering humanity?


323. The Devil's Chord
(15, Ruby, Maestro, Susan Triad)

The Once Again Smiling Doctor regenerated into The Crying Doctor during the last episode. This new face has a new companion and a new very campy, very fun antagonist. Buuuuuuut...is she connected to the chaos god from the last episode? And if so, are there more of these gods?


324. Lux
(15, Belinda, Mrs Flood)

Yes, there are more of these gods! The Crying Doctor has yet another new companion and they end up having to rescue a theater full of people who've been trapped by....a cartoon? It's a mixed media adventure with a lot of meta references but it's really fun.


325. The Well
(15, Belinda, Mrs Flood)

We end this season with a call back to The Smiling Doctor's train trip. It appears that the antagonist, who we never precisely met, still exists and has become, potentially, much more dangerous. In the background of this story, we learn that The Earth seems to have not just disappeared physically this time but disappeared historically, as if it never existed. This seems like it might be a big problem next season.

I started the X-Files Headcanon project during the pandemic and ended up being distracted by a thousand other things.

We're considering watching this Headcanon in a couple of months when we wrap up our watchthrough of The Stargate Headcanon. It will be a fun tonal shift, as the last season of Stargate was pretty bleak, and the X-Files goes from "just spooky" to "occasionally very silly" pretty early in its run.

41. Paper Hearts
(Mulder, Scully, Skinner, Samantha Mulder, Teena Mulder)

The whole root of Mulder's obsession with aliens began when his sister was abducted by aliens. But what if she wasn't abducted by aliens but by a serial killer.


42. Never Again
(Mulder, Scully)

Did you ever get a really bad tattoo? Not just poorly drawn but one that speaks to you and leads you to to commit crimes? Me, neither.


43. Momento Mori
(Mulder, Scully, Skinner, Smoking Man, The Longe Gunmen, Grey Haired Man, Margaret Scully)

What if there was a type of cancer caused by alien abduction? Would that mean that Scully has that type of cancer? Mulder hires The Longe Gunmen to find some answers.


44. Small Potatoes
(Mulder, Scully, Skinner)

A series of babies are born with tails. This seems very alieny.


45. Zero Sum
(Skinner, Smoking Man, Grey Haired Man, Mulder, Scully, First Elder, Marita Covarrubias)
​
The bees from Season Four are back! Also, Skinner is definitely up to something that Mulder and Scully might want to be aware of.


46. Demons
(Mulder, Scully, Smoking Man, Samantha Mulder, Teena Mulder)

Mulder wakes up with a headache and missing time. Did he kill someone during that time?


47. The Unusual Suspects
(The Lone Gunmen, X, Mulder)

The Lone Gunmen are caught running from a box containing a naked Mulder. They're caught by the police from the show Homicide: Life From The Street, which means Lieutenant Munch from Law & Order and a billion other shows, also exists in the X-Files Universe.


48. The Post-Modern Prometheus
(Mulder, Scully)

The monster of the week is a Frankenstein in a comicbook style story. 


49. Kill Switch
(Muder, Scully, The Lone Gunmen)

Artificial Intelligence is the center of an episode written by famed Cyberpunk writer, William Gibson. 


50.Bad Blood
(Mulder, Scully, Skinner)

We're just over halfway through this Headcanon, and we're just now encountering the possibility of vampires? Well, Mulder and Scully aren't fully convinced they've encountered vampires and decide to get their stories straight before getting Skinner involved.

At its core, the entire modern era of Doctor Who has been less about creating good sci-fi and more about being nostalgic for the 20th century version of the show. And that's ok. It has created some wonderful emotional moments and some genuinely good sci-fi that isn't dependent on you enjoying a random sci-fi episode from fifty years ago.

Russsel T Davies was the showrunner for the 9th and 10th doctors, which was a love letter to Daleks, Cybermen, and The Master that also introduced three very different companions who each had their own merit, and got to team up with some classic companions for a big showdown at the end of his run.

Steven Moffat, who wrote the 11th and 12th Doctors, liked creating his own villains, mainly The Weeping Angels and The Silence, but drawing in some more obscure 20th century villains like The Zygons. Sure, he also threw The Daleks and some Cybermen in from time to time, and he had a wonderful take on The Master but his series was really a love letter to fairy tales. His ending was flat and uninspiring but there were tons of highlights during his run.

Chris Chibnall, who exclusively wrote the 13th Doctor, wrote terrible fanfic in the guise of Doctor Who episodes. Occasionally, one of his writing staff would sneak in a good episode while he wasn't looking. He didn't know The Doctor at all, and so wrote her as a woman who never knew what she was doing and never felt comfortable being herself. It was very frustrating. His Master was initially fun but got bogged down in a terrible storyline called The Timeless Child that also turned the Cybermen into a much stupider and toothless enemy than previous versions. The first two times he wrote The Daleks were very boring but at the very end of his run, he wrote a wonderful time loop Dalek episode and then threw a lot of nostalgia at his final episode, which ended up being one of the very few highlights of his era.

Then Russel T Davies came back for the 14th and 15th Doctors, and he wrote...a love letter to his previous time writing Doctor Who. It's very self-indulgent. It really relies on people already loving the series and knowing obscure episodes from the 1970s. There are no Daleks, no Master, no Cybermen. There is a whole new pantheon of villains who are mostly very entertaining but who are also tied to obscure 20th century villains that only Russel T Davies cares about. It was a slog to get into but then early in his second season, he started to do something really interesting and I was totally on board for his finale. And then I watched his finale, and it was awful. But it doesn't negate its interesting setup.

If you've been on this Headcanon journey, I think you'll find this to be a really strong season. If you don't bother with the beginning of the 15th Doctor's adventures or his terrible final episode, you get a much stronger Doctor than poor Jodie Whittaker's 14th Doctor from last season.

Episode 1: The Star Beast
(10/14, Donna Noble, Wilfred, Sylvia, Rose Noble, Shaun, Ruth)

Using an amazing villain from the Big Finish Audio Plays, The Fourteenth Doctor turns out to be the same face as The Tenth Doctor, which seems dangerous when he runs into Donna Noble who, last we knew, would literally explode if she ever remembered who The Doctor was. Her whole family returns, including her daughter for this space shenanigans on Earth story.


Episode 2: The Giggle
(10/14, 15, Mel, Donna Noble, Kate Stewart, Sylvia, Shaun, Rose Noble, Shirley, Vlinx)

An audio remnant from one of the first ever TV shows wreaks havoc on Earth as people start behaving like Youtube comments. Neil Patrick Harris as The Toymaker, is clearly responsible for this mess, and it's up to The Doctor, Donna, Kate Stewart, and a long absent companion of The Sixth and Seventh Doctor to sort everything out. Also, Two Doctors!


Episode 3: The Devil's Chord
(15, Ruby, Susan Triad)

The new face of The Doctor has a new companion, and they decide that their first time-traveling adventure should be seeing The Beatles record their first album. Unfortunately, someone has altered time so that there's no more joy or emotion in music. This is a very silly episode but it's tied into The Giggle and is a campy blast!


Episode 4: 73 Yards
(Ruby, Kate Stewart, Susan Triad, Carla, Cherry, 15, Mrs Flood)

A Doctor-Light episode where Ruby finds herself on her own. Luckily, it's on her own planet, in her own time, relatively close to where she lives. Unfortunately, she's haunted by the specter of a woman who won't leave her, and who drives anyone who tries to talk to her away from Ruby forever.  There are some wonderful moments of humor at the beginning, and the overall plot is a nice little slice of political sci-fi tropism.


Episode 5: Dot And Bubble
(15, Ruby, Susan Triad)

Doctor Who has swung wide several times trying to do episodes about social media. They're usually terrible. This one has the nice twist of Russel T Davies channeling Steven Moffat's "Blink" but imagining what would happen if the people The Doctor was trying to save were more revilable than sympathetic.
​

Episode 6: Lux
(15, Belinda, Mrs Flood)

The first ever live action/animated hybrid episode is also the first episode that goes full-meta, as The Doctor and a new companion find their non-white selves in mid-twentieth century Florida where they have to flout segregation to solve the mystery of a group of people who disappeared while watching a cartoon in a movie theater. This is a really fun episode that reminds us that the pantheon of gods we started seeing back in "The Giggle" are still floating around wreaking havoc.


Episode 7: The Well
(15, Belinda, Mrs Flood)

A terrifying sequel to the David Tennant era episode, "Midnight", The Doctor and Belinda encounter a planet where a military base has massacred themselves for reasons no one can explain. The one survivor is a Deaf woman who watched all the madness unfold. We also discover that a small problem from the last episode (they can't seem to get back to Earth on the day Belinda left) is a much bigger problem as even humanoid aliens have never even heard of Earth.


Episode 8: Lucky Day
(Ruby, Kate Stewart, Shirley, Conrad, 15, Belinda, Carla, Cherry, Vlinx, Mrs Flood)

Ruby meets and falls in love with someone who, as a child, encountered The Doctor and Belinda and who has become obsessed with them. Of course, nothing is as it seems, and UNIT has to step in and help her pick up the pieces when Conrad turns out to be a very human villain.
​

Episode 9: The Story And The Engine
(15, Belinda, Mrs Flood, The Fugitive Doctor)

The Doctor goes to his favorite barber shop in Nigeria to relax, only to discover that the shop is being used to fuel a god machine using storytelling. The Doctor is briefly shown as The Fugitive Doctor, as we discover that she left one of her companions behind to become entangled into the storytelling engine.


Episode 10: The Interstellar Song Contest
(15, Belinda, Mrs Flood, Susan Foreman, The Rani)

It's Eurovision in space! With a touch of the comic series "Saga". A terrorist from an oppressed race is willing to commit mutiple genocides to get his revenge on the corporation that destroyed his planet. Of course, The Doctor isn't having it. 


Holiday Special: Wish World
(15, Belinda, Ruby, Shirley, Mrs Flood, The Rani, Conrad, Kate Stewart, Mel, Susan Triad, Carla, Cherry)

The Rani and Mrs Flood's plan comes together as they use Conrad and a pantheon baby to create a mid-twentieth-century-like dystopia. This is technically part one of a two-part finale but, trust me, you're better off not ever watching it.