T.J. Perkins Discusses The TNA Rumors, Manik Mask, GFW, More

The v2 Wrestling Podcast recently interviewed TNA star T.J. Perkins, aka Manik, who discussed the rumors currently surrounding TNA, wanting to drop the Manik mask, and more. Below are some highlights.

On not knowing much about the current TNA/GFW relationship: “I’ve got no idea, to be honest. I’m sure maybe some people do, but I kinda feel like a lot of people don’t. I think that maybe it really is a rollercoaster that everybody just decided to get on without seeing how far the track goes. Maybe that’s a good thing, I’m all for it. I hope that it’s going to continue to become a bigger and bigger thing, because the guys that have been or are going to be working with Jeff, a lot of them are friends of mine. I was thrilled to see them working together, so it would be cool to share a banner or share a ring with them in some sort of fair-weather status or better.”

On the endgame for the Revolution story: “I don’t know. In some ways I”ve tried to overachieve a little bit lately out of frustration, not really at any particular thing. Just sometimes I personally feel like I”m treading water. It’s funny because there’s been times where I thought that there was no idea for me and then I found out that there was a lot for me to do that had been set in place. And then there”s times where I feel like maybe I have to figure out my own details myself. But as far as treading water, it’s not in the group sense or anything like that. Personally, sometimes I set little goals for myself that’s not really being asked of me. It’s just something that I’m trying to do on my own. Now I kind of feel like I’m treading water because there’s little things that I’m expecting of myself that I’m not always getting. It’s not necessarily something I wish I could be doing and I’m not getting the opportunity or anything like that. It’s really more of a personal thing.”

On the talk of per appearance deals in TNA: “Pretty much nobody is on a per appearance deal. Maybe people have asked for that now in an effort to change course in their careers, because maybe they have other stuff they want to do. Some of these guys might not even want to necessarily be wrestling anymore, so a lot of it might have to do with that too. But as far as before recently, none of us were on a per appearance deal. I don”t know where people would get that from, but if you got it, you were definitely lied to. And actually where it might come into play is because all of us were getting guaranteed money, and then on top of that we get extra bonus money per appearances. So I think people might hear that and depending on your level of personal negativity, you choose only to hear the last part. Some people have a different ratio where their appearances are more than their guaranteed, but everybody was definitely on guaranteed money.”

Perkins on his Deadpool obsession: “I’ve always felt like the Deadpool character is very different from everything else. It has so much freedom. I’ve always been into it, but I also drew inspiration for Suicide and Manik from that character. Like with other characters I’ve done, I’ve never had a character that I felt more handcuffed than I did when I took on the role for Suicide and Manik. So I really started to embrace my fanboy for Deadpool because I felt like channeling that was my way of creating freedom in that situation. It kind of helped me open my mind to other ways I can individualize myself and it became a good model for me. It’s funny because some of the best stuff about the character is in a lot of ways how Deadpool is. For example, Deadpool is just barely getting a movie and the reason being is because everybody, probably even down to the people at Marvel offices, thought: not enough people are going to get this, not enough people have seen it and not enough people will understand it. In my case, sometimes I feel like the best stuff for my character is a lot of stuff that most people won’t get, but some people will get because they’ve followed me more closely. Like on social media, they’ll follow me when I live tweet shows and some of the funniest and brightest stuff as far as my charisma will come out in that medium, but most people don’t get that because not everybody is following me closely. But those that do, think that some of those things are my most brilliant stuff, because I don’t get to hold the microphone very often.”

On wanting to drop the Manik mask: “I hope so. It’s funny because if you ask everybody individually in the TNA office about me, then all of them have the same answer. Why is this guy in a mask? He”s good looking, he”s charismatic, he’s funny, he’s very witty. But I feel like if you guys never had this conversation altogether, it’s like none of you guys think I should not be doing it, so then why am I doing it? So I like to think that that’s a sign of changes to be made when it’s ready to come out.You don’t want to move too quickly. You look at people’s careers and the arc that their creative character took and the arc that their personal real life took it didn’t happen overnight. At least people that did something great, it took a long time to really progress and there were specific times and reasons for those things. You have to find the right time, like now’s the time it’s going to start getting better because this part of my life or my creation is done. You know, like losing the skeleton mask. At that point I felt like the suit was ready to be retro, so I had to let it go for a while and the change ended up becoming something else, and eventually that’s going to need to change too.”

On his best friends for the TNA tapings: “Lately I”ve created a small clique with myself, Mandrews and Crazzy Steve. We”ve become like the three amigos, at least for the last little while. They’r’e fun guys, I like them a lot. We snuck out and rode rollercoasters one time. It was fun.”

On if he will work any GFW shows: “I simply don’t know. If it were up to me, yeah, I would be on everything, even if it meant rocking the boat. But then again I don’t want to be like Hernandez or anything. Only because it’s so new and I haven’t really approached that professionally yet as far as what’s going on personally and what’s going on between the two, I haven’t really caught myself up on it.”

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