Once homeless, TJ Perkins is now the WWE Cruiserweight Champion. This seemingly inspirational story reportedly is generating some heat for Perkins backstage in WWE.
The latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio included Dave Meltzer discussing the heat on Perkins. Meltzer said that several wrestlers who had similar experiences where they were homeless or evicted are upset with Perkins for talking so much about his circumstances in interviews since he won the Cruiserweight Classic a few weeks ago.
"People are telling me that there's too many guys [saying], 'we were just like that too, what's so special about that,' " Meltzer said.
In doing an extensive number of interviews as of late, Perkins has mentioned that the challenges from his past have helped to motivate him.
"I'm not a terribly sentimental guy, but I kept a lot of old stuff from that time in my life," Perkins told For The Win recently. "I have my food stamps card from when I was homeless. I also have the key to the first place where I got evicted from.
"There were many places where I got evicted from, but I still had that first key. It was a simple reminder for years of the places I couldn't go back to. The further away it's gotten, the more motivating it became to me because I didn't have to go back there. I didn't really think about it until I was in the ring after the match. That was the first thing in my mind: I don't have to stay at that key."
