Fil-Am wrestler TJ Perkins crowned first WWE Cruiserweight Champion

Filipino-American wrestler TJ Perkins is the first WWE Cruiserweight Champion after a Cinderella run through the Cruiserweight Classic.

Perkins pulled off two stunning victories in the live finals of the competition on Wednesday (Thursday morning PHL time), defeating tournament favorite Kota Ibushi in the semifinals before outlasting Mexican luchador Gran Metalik in the title match.

 

Sometimes the monsters we create....survive and go on to exceed all of our expectations. #CWC #WWE

A photo posted by TJ Perkins (@megatjp) on

Sep 14, 2016 at 8:29pm PDT

CWC creator Triple H announced before the final that the winner of the tournament will be crowned the first WWE Cruiserweight Champion, who will defend his title in the new division on Monday Night Raw.

"It just means the world to me to inspire somebody else," said Perkins after winning, while paying tribute to the 32 men in the pioneering tournament.

"This is bigger than me. This is not one person. This is 32 people. This is every single one of them."

Top WWE officials congratulated the new Cruiserweight Champion in separate tweets.

Congratulations to @MaskaraManik on becoming the NEW Cruiserweight Champion. Welcome to Monday Night #Raw. #GameTime pic.twitter.com/LgtVeWzbtN

— Triple H (@TripleH) September 15, 2016

RAW General Manager Mick Foley tweeted out his salutations to Perkins, who will head RAW's Cruiserweight Division beginning on Sept. 19.

Congratulations #TJPerkins @MaskaraManik - what a great night for you, the #CruiserweightClassic & @WWE. A very classy, touching promo too.

— Mick Foley (@RealMickFoley) September 15, 2016

SmackDown GM Daniel Bryan also handed out his thanks to the champ. Bryan and Perkins fought for Pro-Wrestling Guerrilla in the past and have known each other since the Fil-Am grappler was 18.

So proud of @MaskaraManik! #DoWhatTheySayYouCant pic.twitter.com/T7XR8qAuvy

— Daniel Bryan (@WWEDanielBryan) September 15, 2016

Filipino heritage

In an interview with GMA News Online prior to the semifinals, Perkins opened up about his Filipino background, and the importance of being able to represent his heritage on the WWE stage.

"Growing up, that's the only culture or family that I had, it just happened to be that. So it's always been important to me to embrace it and I just, I dunno, being by yourself all the time, you want to be able to identify with something and for me, I found my identity in my family," he said.

"The way that I act, the way that I talk, and my charisma, and things like that, it comes from my family and my heritage so it's important for me to express that and because we don't have a lot of representation in the world. It's important to me that I have the opportunity to represent that." --Rie Takumi/JST, GMA News