CJ Perry is looking well beyond the wrestling ring for her next big move, but she has no plans to leave wrestling behind while doing it. In fact, her dream is to take the stories that come out of the business and turn them into movies, television shows and even cartoons.
During an interview with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, Perry first talked about CJPerry.com and how the subscription platform currently gives her the financial freedom to pursue projects that can take years to actually get made.
“Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, I really appreciate that I have something like cjperry.com, which, please, people, go subscribe. I’m actually doing a little sale on there right now where if you subscribe to the Legends tier, you will get a free signed customized book. So please do that.
“It is actually the only place that I do respond to all the DMs, and I do communicate with people. On the Legends tier, you get custom cameos as well, and that’s my site. It’s a place that I really love because I do get to connect so personally with fans, you know? And I’ve developed relationships, so many great relationships with fans over the years who have just been so loyal.”
Perry described the platform as her current “bread and butter,” explaining that having that income allows her to spend time developing much longer-term projects.
“And so that’s been really, really beautiful because, you know, that’s like my bread and butter right now, right? You have that, and you can wait for—you can do these jobs that take two years to make, you know? I can focus on producing movies.”
And that movie-producing career is already starting to take shape. Perry revealed that she recently signed with Luber Roklin Management and is now looking for the right projects to get behind.
“Right now, I just signed with Luber Roklin Management Company, and we’re working on a lot of different projects, trying to find the right projects for me to produce and get attached to.”
Perry knows none of this happens overnight either. She pointed out just how much goes into getting a movie from an idea to something people can actually watch.
“And so, you know, that’s the next venture. And that also takes time. I mean, movies take time, you know? And you have to find the money, you have to raise the money, then you have to cast, and you have to live with it all through editing.”
But if Perry gets to build exactly what she wants, wrestling will be right in the middle of it. She said her ultimate dream is producing movies based around wrestling stories, with real-life stories especially appealing to her.
“So, you know, I just love storytelling. I’m very passionate. I’m very passionate about wrestling stuff too. My ultimate dream would be to produce movies that are driven by wrestling stories and real life, you know? I always think real life are the best, but, you know, fictional—they need to be translated into series, translated into cartoons, you know?”
Perry believes there’s a huge audience waiting for that kind of content because wrestling already connects people across the world regardless of their backgrounds.
“If anything, we know the wrestling community and fan base is so international and so global, and it brings us all together. It doesn’t matter what ethnicity, what culture, what religion, what color, we all share this love and this passion for wrestling and this soap opera where we can resolve our conflict in the ring, and it’s just so beautiful. I have an instant connection with people that are wrestling fans, no matter where I meet them. And I love that.”
She’s also already seen what happens when she puts wrestling into the other content she creates. Perry said her wrestling-related TikToks perform better, especially when she brings elements of her old Lana character into them.
“And so I’m always trying to figure out how can we take as much wrestling stuff as possible and translate it into whatever it is, you know? If I do a TikTok and there’s some form of wrestling in it, it goes more viral than if it doesn’t, you know? Or if I have the character Lana in it, or any character, and it just shows you the appetite for wrestling and the fan base, you know?”
That’s also why Perry doesn’t want her move into other forms of entertainment to mean abandoning the audience that originally supported her. She estimated that practically her entire fanbase comes from wrestling and wants to remain true to that connection even as she branches into fashion, producing and other interests.
“So I always try to stay loyal to that because I know my fan base is a wrestling fan base, and a good 99.9% of it is. And so I never want to—you know, I can sprinkle in my love for fashion, I can sprinkle in my love for different things, but I always try to go back to also trying to stay true.”
Even her book, “Bulletproof Angel,” was developed with that audience in mind. Perry deliberately leaned into action because she believes that’s something wrestling fans will naturally connect with.
“And even with this book, Bulletproof Angel, it’s action. So that’s why it’s very much an action thriller. So I always hope that will resonate with the wrestling fan base because they love action and I love action.”
So Perry isn’t trying to completely reinvent herself after wrestling. She wants to take the audience and storytelling instincts she built there and carry them into Hollywood — with the ultimate goal of getting wrestling stories onto screens in completely different ways.
What real-life wrestling story would you want to see CJ Perry turn into a movie or television series? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
