TJ Perkins wins WWE Cruiserweight Classic, becomes Raw Cruiserweight Champion

Ten long weeks of excellent tournament action passed quickly and ended tonight with the crowning of a Cruiserweight Classic winner. But wait, not just a tournament winner, nope. Triple H came out before the start of the finals and revealed the brand new reactivated WWE Cruiserweight Championship and announced that the winner of the finals would be the first champion.

You can check out all the details in my full-service live blog, but those finals, as it turned out, pitted Mexico’s Gran Metalik against TJ Perkins, representing the Philippines. Metalik forced his way past Zack Sabre, Jr. with both high flying pyrotechnics and his technical grappling acumen, and Perkins, in an instant classic, beat Kota Ibushi by the skin of his teeth and the damage done to Ibushi’s surgically repaired neck over the course of the tournament.

And in the finals, Perkins emerged victorious after all-out war, reversing an attempted Metalik Driver off the second rope into TJP Clutch for the submission victory. TJ Perkins will walk into Raw on Monday night with the title belt around his waist, his 18-year career finally paid off with championship gold on the highest level professional wrestling has to offer.

Throughout the finals and after, commentary was quick to emphasize that TJP was the first Cruiserweight Classic winner. All you folks as excited as I am for next time?