WWE News: Update On Why WWE Had TJ Perkins Win The WWE Cruiserweight Classic And New Title

The WWE Cruiserweight Classic sadly came to an end last night as tournament dark horse TJ Perkins managed to walk away the winner. Perkins had been doubted most of the tournament and many thought he would be beaten by tournament favorite Kota Ibushi in the semi-finals last night, which would not have even allowed him to see the finals — much less win it. However, he and Gran Metalik managed to get the finals and have a fantastic match together.

While both semi-final matches were hard-fought and excellent, the final had to go a step beyond that and it certainly did. The shock of the night was when Triple H appeared and told Perkins and Metalik that while they would indeed fight over the trophy and moniker of best cruiserweight in the world, they would also be fighting over the new WWE Cruiserweight Championship. It was already reported that TJ Perkins had signed a WWE contract, as well as Metalik, so this made a lot of sense.

The one thing that didn’t make sense was that both tournament favorites, Kota Ibushi and Zack Sabre Jr., didn’t even make the finals. Most could get behind Ibushi being defeated if the plan was to have Perkins win, as Kota would have to lose in order to make this happen. However, why have Sabre lose in the semi-final when you could have had him lose in the finals and give Perkins an even bigger night saying he defeated both tournament favorites?

It was widely reported that WWE wanted to have Ibushi win the tournament. Some reports have claimed he go on to be part of the WWE. However, they weren’t going to let the winner be someone who was not under contract due to the need for the winner to be the new WWE Cruiserweight Champion. Neither Ibushi nor Zack Sabre signed a WWE contract, mainly because both didn’t want to at the time and felt they could down the line. That pretty much sealed the deal that TJ Perkins was the right guy to win.

Ibushi had just left a full-time deal in Japan where he worked for two different companies, DDT and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Meanwhile, Sabre had been performing with WWN Live’s Evolve company, but he also had other independent ties. Sabre is in his late 20s and could easily sign sometime next year possibly, but Ibushi is in his mid-30s, which means his window is shortly closing. Triple H had been hard at work trying to sign Kota, but the problem has been the full-time deal situation. Obviously, he needs a break from such a tough schedule, and no one can blame him for it.

Kota Ibushi has said he would love to make off and on appearances with the WWE in the future. That being said, we can expect Triple H to allow this and each time trying to convince Kota to sign something more regular. The main reason Perkins won was due to both Sabre and Ibushi not signing, but also because WWE feels they have something special with him as well. Perkins has been slowly gaining love from the WWE fans since he came into the tournament.

He has wrestled all around the world and even performed with TNA Wrestling a little while back. He has a resume that few can believe at the age of just 32, He has been wrestling for about eighteen years, longer than Daniel Bryan which Bryan made known when he interviewed him before the tournament began. Perkins has an amazing history that few can even believe. He began wrestling as a young teenager and worked under a mask for some time so no one would know. He would master the lucha libre style early on before learning more of a technical style while in Japan.

He would then go on to be the youngest man to ever work for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, especially one of the few non-Japanese youngsters the company allowed in. He was known well by many wrestlers around the world and worked for some of the top promotions in the world like ROH and PWG on top of TNA and NJPW. Many knew he was good, but he fell on hard times after his initial success, which resulted in the homeless story.

TJ Perkins is one of the most complete wrestlers in the world with his knowledge on every single style in the world of pro-wrestling from lucha libre to strong style. After Ibushi and Sabre, most felt TJP was the clear best wrestler in the Cruiserweight Classic. It could also be noted that since TJP is a hybrid worker, with knowledge of many styles, he can easily work with anyone the WWE puts in front of him. This is something not all can do. WWE really likes Perkins, so it was by no means surprising that he made it to the semi-finals as this was the plan most likely from the beginning.

The win may have happened due to the lack of certain people signing, but make no mistake thinking WWE did not consider TJ Perkins to be one of the best wrestlers in the world when they brought him in. WWE really liked everyone they brought in, but they absolutely had confidence in Perkins. Now that he is the first ever Cruiserweight Classic winner, WWE will surely use this to help push Perkins when he goes to WWE RAW this Monday.

[Image by WWE]