10 Worst WWE Gimmicks Of 2016
2. TJ Perkins
TJ Perkins had the world at his feet after the Cruiserweight Classic. Minutes after defeating Gran Metalik in the tournament final, Perkins cut an outstanding babyface promo on the trials and tribulations that brought him to WWE, and looked set to lead Raw’s new Cruiserweight Division as its first champion.
Predictably, things started falling apart as soon as he hit the main roster. TJP is a fantastic wrestler, but he’s been saddled with an absurd video game gimmick that sees him strut out to garish 8-bit entrance music, wear a pair of comedy glasses, and spit-out forced video game references that would’ve sounded a lot cooler 20 years ago. He’ll tell Brian Kendrick to “hit hard reset” and “press the pause button” in the same sentence, then presumably head elsewhere to collect mushrooms and jump on Goombas.
Nothing about this is good. Nothing. TJ Perkins has gone from a believable, likeable human being to a Toejam & Earl character in the space of a few months, and it’s absolutely killing him. He’s one of only a few guys who legitimately stands-out in the division, but he does so for all the wrong reasons. This is about the worst thing WWE could’ve done to him on the main roster, and it’s hard to see him going anywhere until he ditches the puns and starts gaining some clear character traits.