WWE Cruiserweight Champion TJ Perkins spoke with WWE.com about winning the Cruiserweight Classic. During the interview, Perkins was asked who his influences in wrestling were. Perkins stated that he looked up to Eddie Guerrero as a kid.
“I grew up on WWE. Eddie Guerrero is my everything. He’s my hero, as are Shawn Michaels and Tiger Mask. I tried to model myself after them. Lucha libre culture was part of my wrestling upbringing. I’m Filipino, so it wasn’t a part of my normal upbringing, but it’s what gave me my start. I get a lot of my technical and high-flying wrestling from that.”
Perkins compared the Cruiserweight Classic to the Super J Cup in NJPW and explained that just like the Super J Cup, the Cruiserweight Classic had so many great talents competing in the tournament.
“I think about the Super J Cup, because it was one of my favorite things when I was younger and really enjoying wrestling as a fan. I thought it was amazing that they had all these global companies coming together and putting together these great talents — Jushin Liger, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko. The Cruiserweight Classic is the rebirth of that. It’s an opportunity for the best guys at this style of wrestling to have a platform to showcase what they do. It has been several generations since fans have been able to see this. It’s amazing because I think that’s a benchmark for the industry.”
When asked about making his WWE RAW debut on Monday night, Perkins explained how lucky he is to be in the company.
“Monday Night Raw is something that has been a part of my childhood, adolescence and now, my adulthood. To be a part of that, with such a great crew, great performers like Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins … I’m in very good company.”
Perkins also talked about his goals and more. You can read the entire interview here.
