TJ Perkins won the Cruiserweight Classic in 2016, becoming the first WWE Cruiserweight Champion. However, the talented performer had fallen out of favour with WWE management, and two months ago it was revealed that he had been released from the company.
Speaking to WrestlingInc, Perkins revealed the specific type of deal he had with WWE, and commented on the benefit of being signed to an NXT contract whilst working on the main roster:
“We all had NXT deals. Mine was pretty big. They offered me two raises before I actually had a deal because they thought I might go somewhere else. I remember getting more than what was normal, but it was still an NXT deal. If you’re on NXT and you’re wrestling on the main roster, that’s the best-case scenario because you’re making a lot extra and getting to keep a lot of it because you don’t have to handle rental cars and stuff like that.”
Perkins would follow this up by saying how he was initially treated differently to the other Cruiserweights and suggested this is why the brand didn’t work:
“I did really well at the gate. I think even to this day none of the cruiserweights lucked out as much as what I got initially. I got like six shirts and two action figures and some of the guys are just getting their first shirts and figures now, which sucks. That’s something that could have really helped the perception of the cruiserweights in terms of the fans if there was more stuff like that put out.”
Thanks to NoDQ for the transcription.
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