In a bit of irony, Perry admitted that his desire for fans to like him applied only to wrestling, and that he had never worried about such things in his personal life. He believes that desire to be likeable in everyone’s eyes is what led to the controversy and subsequent reaction hitting him as hard as it did, and it was only when he stopped caring about certain reactions that he began to move forward.

“It felt like something…I don’t know, I kind of wanted to micromanage it and make it perfect, to like have it be the dream that I had,” Perry said. “So then when I would come up short of that, it was very disappointing. And I think coming up short of anything sucks, but then doing it in such a public way, and then there are a million people telling you you’re a piece of s**t or whatever…I don’t know, it’s hard. 

“And I think, through all that, I finally realized there are some people that are never gonna like me no matter what I do, and in a way that was really freeing because then I was like ‘Well, I don’t have to worry about that anymore, what do I wanna do?'”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Close Up with Renee Paquette” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription