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       #Post#: 32061--------------------------------------------------
       Manik Says He Wants To Lose His Mask, Talks GFW & TNA Status
       & More inside
   DIR By: tnafanforum
       Date: July 21, 2015, 5:32 pm
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       The following are highlights of a new v2 Wrestling Podcast
       interview with T.J. “Manik” Perkins:
       On the future of the 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 storyline: “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 rumors 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.”
       On his obsession with Deadpool: “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 whether he will drop the 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 during 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 whether he will work the 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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