T.J. Perkins wins WWE Cruiserweight Classic, becomes WWE Cruiserweight champion

The scars and welts that covered the left side of T.J. Perkins' chest at the end of the WWE Cruiserweight Classic Wednesday night looked painful, but they were also symbolic.

They were a symbol of not only the grueling journey Perkins endured to reach the final round of the 32-man tournament, but also the roller coaster ride his entire career has been.

Perkins has endured some good times in professional and some bad. Even worse, he wound up living on the street for a period of time after being evicted from his home.

But on Wednesday night, in front of a couple hundred fans at Full Sail University in Orlando, Fla. and thousands more watching at home live on the WWE Network, Perkins' journey finally reached its zenith, as he forced Gran Metalik to submit to a knee bar to win the inaugural WWE Cruiserweight Classic.

By virtue of his victory, Perkins also became the new WWE Cruiserweight champion, which WWE executive Paul "Triple H" Levesque re-introduced to the world before the final match.

Perkins said after the match that he kept the key to the place he was evicted from, as it was a reminder of a place he could not go back to.

By winning the Cruiserweight Classic and becoming the new Cruiserweight championship, he said that he doesn't need that key anymore. He now has the key of a different kind — the key to stardom in the largest professional wrestling promotion in the world.

"It's a reminder of a place I never have to go back to," he said during a post-match interview.

"During that time I searched so hard for inspiration because it's all I had," he added. "All I had was inspiration. I looked to my heroes and my heroes did stuff like this. I was in that place that I thought I would never find something like this.

It just means the world to me to be able to inspire somebody else that's going keep coming because this is bigger than me. This is not one person. This is 32 people — all of them. Every single one of them."

Perkins' inspirational victory capped off a tremendous night of wrestling that had two fantastic upsets in the semifinals, a tremendous final match and tag team showcase that wowed the fans.

Perkins got to the semifinals by narrowly winning what was arguably the best match of the entire tournament against odds-on favorite Kota Ibushi.

Perkins had to kick out of Ibushi's golden star power bomb in order stay alive and eventually found a way to lock in the knee bar to force the former IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion to submit.

Perkins' opponent in the finals was Gran Metalik, who upended another favorite in Zack Sabre Jr. in the other semifinal.

Metalik didn't waste any time jumping on the offensive against Sabre Jr., but was eventually slowed down by his technical offense.

Metalik endured Sabre Jr.'s onslaught and eventually delivered the Metalik driver to pick up the surprising victory.

In the final match, Perkins and Metalik left the fans at Full Sail on the edge of their seats with another dramatic contest, but in the end, it was Perkins that persevered to win the tournament.

In the only non-tournament match on the card, Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano defeated Noam Dar and Cedric Alexander in a very exciting contest.

But Wednesday night wasn't about just Perkins' triumph. It was also about the rousing success the WWE Cruiserweight Classic turned out to be.

The concept of putting 32 of the best wrestlers in the world at 205 pounds or less in a single elimination tournament isn't a novel or original concept, but it was a sign that WWE was stepping out of its comfort zone and broadening its horizons to provide a product that fans from around the world would enjoy.

WWE is not big on tournaments and haven't always been big on cruiserweight wrestlers, but combined the two to produce one of the best endeavors the company has done in a long time.

Not only did it provide something exciting for the fans, it also helped WWE find a slew of talent to add to its main roster. Names like Perkins, Gran Metalik, Alexander, Ciampa and Gargano are just a few of the Cruiserweight Classic participants that will be appearing on Monday Night Raw starting next week as part of the new cruiserweight division.

And there were others like Drew Gulak and Tony Nese that have participated in matches on NXT.

Perkins may have walked out the ultimate winner of the WWE Cruiserweight Classic, but in reality, there were no losers. The fans, the wrestlers and WWE all won because of the tournament.