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Former WWE Superstar and the first-ever Cruiserweight Champion in the title's current itteration, TJP (fka TJ Perkins) recently shared a heartfelt story about how Hulk Hogan signed his headshot pictures.
The winner of the one-and-only Cruiserweight Classic in 2016, Perkins spent in few years in the Stamford-based promotion before his departure from the company in 2019. He has since wrestled all around the world in several major promotions like IMPACT Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), and Major League Wrestling (MLW).
TJP recently appeared on Chris Van Vliet's Insight podcast, where he revealed that he was a child actor, and that one of his headshot pictures was signed by WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan.
"I was an actor when I was a kid, yeah. I still have my headshot. My mom had Hulk Hogan sign it one time. She would keep some of them, of course cause she's a flight attendent, she likes to brag about her son. She had Hulk Hogan on a flight, and she went into first class and brought him this picture of my headshot and was like, 'WIll you sign it?' So I have a Hulk Hogan signed headshot, my own headshot." said Perkins [42:35 to 43:03]
He would then go on to discuss how Hogan is a cultural icon, and the fact that many non-wrestling fans are aware of him.
TJP discusses how William Regal called him multiple times to take part in WWE's Cruiserweight Classic
During the same interview, TJP revealed how WIlliam Regal, who was an essential member of the company's talent recruitment team, called him up multiple times to take part in the Cruiserweight Classic tournament.
"He just kept asking me to do it. He called me one day. I was doing motion capture and stunt work for the WWE game at the time... He [Regal] left me a voice mail, and then he called back again and I answered it and he asked me to do it. I didn't turn it down, like I didn't have any reason to not necesarily want to do it. What I didn't think I was gonna do was sign and stay with the company." said TJP [49:21 to 50:37]
The on-screen NXT General Manager at the time, WIlliam Regal was instrumental in the hiring and training of developmental talent for the company in mid-to-late 2010s.
As for Perkins, he would defend the Cruiserweight Championship for a few months in 2016 before dropping the title to Brian Kendrick later in the year. He would then be a fixture on WWE's 205 Live for a couple of years before being released in 2019.
