Fil-Am wrestler TJ Perkins on making waves in WWE's Cruiserweight Classic

Shortly after his departure from TNA Wrestling last January, Filipino-American wrestler TJ Perkins had plenty of options on the table before finally deciding to join WWE's inaugural Cruiserweight Classic tournament.

His reason for joining may be a familiar refrain for Filipino fans: puso.

“It came up along with a lot of other offers. I think, for the first time in a long time, I wanted my heart to decide where I go. I thought this would be good for me and good for my wrestling soul,” Perkins recalled, making the decision after long months of meetings with various promotions, including a possible stint with New Japan Pro Wrestling's prestigious Best of the Super Juniors tournament.

Being part of a historic event isn’t the only reason why he chose to be part of the tournament. Donning the iconic Three Stars and a Sun on his ring gear, the 31-year-old says representing his Filipino heritage was as important as getting the gold.

“Not that I wouldn’t wanna win everything but I think for me being able to represent my culture and everything is, to me, that’s just as important as winning the tournament and having that representation on the stage. For everybody, I think that’s really what my goal is,” Perkins told GMA News Online in an exclusive interview.

Even before his first match in the 32-man tournament has aired, Perkins already knows joining the CWC was the right choice.

“I feel like everything was changing already, but when the CWC came, and now that it’s progressing, it feels like it’s actually like, a landmark or an anchor to all the change because it kinda represents something on a visual level in the form of an event that people can look back and say you know what, that’s when everything changed,” said the 18-year wrestling veteran.

First match

Challenging him in his first match inside a WWE ring is Da Mack, the German competitor from Westside Xtreme Wrestling.
The two of them treaded the same road in the indies, but they never met until they stepped inside the WWE Performance Center.

“You know, it’s weird, we actually... We’ve never crossed paths but we have a lot of mutual friends and people that we’ve travelled with. ‘Cause he’s a wXw guy out of Germany. And I know a lot of the guys from there and I’ve actually wrestled for wXw in the past,” Perkins said.

Selfishly, he notes, he looks forward to locking up with the man branded as the “Michael Jackson of the squared circle” because of Perkins’ fondness for the 80’s artist.

Da Mack is far from the only competitor to have caught Perkins’ interest.

Inside the $2.3 million facility in Orlando, Florida, the ring veteran saw wrestlers he never saw or heard of before blow everyone’s minds away with their unique, diverse styles.

“Alejandro (Saez) from Chile and some of the guys that I never met or seen before. I mean, they were just unreal,” Perkins said.

“From top to bottom, it was like, when you kinda see what everybody is capable of, and you kinda forget about how people on the outside see it, from a fan’s perspective, you start to see it in a totally different aspect, what these guys’ potential could be," he added.

Dream scenario

Even with the caliber of wrestlers in the tournament, Perkins is surprisingly quick to name the athlete he’d love to compete with in the finals.

“If I had a dream scenario, it would be Zack... We could do it a thousand times, we’re like Batman and the Joker,” he joked.

The two put on outstanding matches since last year, trading agile strikes and outgrappling each other in multiple match permutations on indie promotion Evolve.

Competing with the British wrestler on a stage like the CWC, Perkins muses, would be “poetic” as he and the 14-year competitor share the same style and fought the same opponents to get to this tournament.

“I think people kinda forget, because I could do a lot of different things, but in my heart, I’m really a technical wrestler. Being in there with somebody like Zack where he’s, you know, pure technician, I think it would be really fun and it’d be cool and we’ve done it in the past,” Perkins said.

“To be able to do that in that sort of a way, it’d be kind of a special moment to look back at one of my long-time opponents and say look at what we’ve done, and look at where it brought us,” he added.

If forced to pick another wrestler, Perkins is rooting for Sabre to win the tournament though standouts such as NJPW’s “Golden Star” Kota Ibushi — who signed a contract with the WWE with Gran Metalik earlier this week — makes it difficult for him to be certain.

“I’m sure everybody thinks Zack’s gonna win this thing. Even I think Zack might win this - I dunno. It’s hard to really guess - somebody as good as Zack - he’s the trendy choice, he’s very popular and Kota is as well, they’re really, in terms of cruiserweights for the world, they’re very much superstars,” Perkins said.

But whatever happens in the tournament, Perkins says this is “an incredible time” for junior heavyweights and cruiserweights due to the attention CWC and the Super J Cup brought to the division. —JST, GMA News