T. J. Perkins
Theodore James Perkins, also known by his ring name T. J. Perkins or simply TJP, is an American professional wrestler. He is working as a freelancer. He is best known for his tenures in WWE, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Evolve Wrestling, and New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Perkins began his professional wrestling career in 1998. In 2001, he went to the NJPW Dojo, where he became the youngest wrestler to perform in a NJPW ring. Since then, Perkins worked in various U.S. promotions, such as Ring of Honor, Major League Wrestling, TNA Wrestling, and WWE, as well as Japanese promotions, like NJPW and Dragon Gate. In 2013, Perkins signed a contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and worked as Manik, a masked character originally based on the Suicide gimmick. During his time in TNA, he would win the TNA X Division Championship. He also joined The Revolution stable. In 2016, he left TNA and participated in the Cruiserweight Classic tournament produced by WWE, which he won and was crowned the inaugural WWE Cruiserweight Champion. Perkins would work for WWE until his release in February 2019. He then returned to Impact Wrestling, as well as working in other companies on the side. In 2020, he won the Impact X Division Championship for a second time. He also returned to NJPW again and began making regular appearances, later becoming the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion.
Early life
Theodore James Perkins was born on September 3, 1984, in Kansas City, Missouri. He is of Filipino descent through his mother, who comes from Manila, Philippines, and learned Filipino culture growing up with his family in Riverside, California. He attended St. Thomas the Apostle School and Poly High School in Riverside, California, and at the age of eighteen, began training in boxing, mixed martial arts, and catch wrestling.Professional wrestling career
Early career (1998–2001)
Perkins first began his training at the age of 13, at a local lucha libre school in his hometown of Los Angeles, California. Perkins debuted in August 1998, under a mask as promoters felt he looked too young to be wrestling. Initially, he wrestled under the ring name T.J. Perkins, utilizing "Pinoy Boy" as a nickname. In order to attend shows, he had to be absent from school most Fridays. He wrestled on independent cards in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Mexico during his first two years.New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2001–2005)
In 2001, Perkins began training at New Japan Pro-Wrestling 's Inoki Dojo in Los Angeles along with Ricky Reyes, Rocky Romero, and Bryan Danielson. They all made their debut in NJPW on the same Korakuen Hall card in October 2002, with Perkins debuting as the maskless "Pinoy Boy" T.J. Perkins. At the age of 18 in 2003, following his third tour with NJPW, he was given the gimmick of Puma, a masked character with similarities to Tiger Mask, and he began teaming with Tiger Mask IV. Perkins stated the character was created due to perceived similarities between himself and the original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama, and the idea was that he would be the American version of Tiger Mask.Independent circuit (2003–2016)
In 2003, Perkins spent time in Mexico with Rocky Romero and Bobby Quance, where the trio trained with and wrestled for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. In January 2004, the masked Puma wrestled on two Major League Wrestling television tapings, teaming with Bobby Quance in a loss to The Stampede Bulldogs. The following night, Puma lost a four-way match featuring Jack Evans, Chasyn Rance and MLW Junior Heavyweight Champion Sonjay Dutt. In December 2004, Puma won the All Pro Wrestling Worldwide Internet Championship by defeating J.J. Perez. He held the championship until July 2005, when he lost it to Perez.In January 2005, Perkins as Puma debuted in Full Impact Pro by defeating Azrieal. At Unfinished Business, Puma was attacked by Azrieal and his ally CM Punk, and at the following show Puma lost a singles match to Punk. On February 12, Puma won a four-way match against Azrieal, Jerrelle Clark, and Eddie Vegas. Four years later, he returned to FIP as T.J. Perkins, in a loss to Davey Richards on March 28, 2009. He developed a winning streak, defeating Jay Bradley, Nigel McGuinness, and Sal Rinauro. In November 2009, Perkins entered the 2009 Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup, defeating Arik Cannon and Shane Hollister en route to the semi-finals, where he lost to Richards. In April 2010 at Southern Stampede, he returned to FIP using the ring name TJP, where he participated in a battle royal before he defeated Chasyn Rance.
Puma wrestled in the 2005 edition of the East Coast Wrestling Association'a Super 8 tournament and made it to the final by defeating Eric Matlock and J.J. Perez, before losing to Petey Williams. He also competed in Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling's Pacific Cup in 2005, where he faced Aaron Idol and Bryan Danielson in a three-way match in the final, which was won by Idol.
In August 2005, Perkins debuted in UWA Hardcore Wrestling as Puma, in a loss to Ricky Reyes. In May 2006, Puma defeated M-Dogg 20 to win the UWA Canadian Championship. He successfully defended the championship against Petey Williams the following month, before losing the championship to M-Dogg 20 in July. In October, Puma participated in UWA's Grand Prix Tournament, where he defeated Kazuchika Okada and Dan Paysan en route to the final, where he lost to Sonjay Dutt. He continued wrestling for UWA throughout 2007, competing against wrestlers including Último Dragón and Daisuke Hanaoka.
Perkins debuted in the Empire Wrestling Federation on September 22, 2005, at Chaos, teaming with Dan Kobrick to defeat Big Ugly and Vinnie Massaro. On December 23, at EWF's Holiday Fear Perkins challenged EWF Cruiserweight Champion Joey Harder in a Triple Threat Championship match, which also involved Rocky Romero and was won by the defending champion Harder. Perkins continued to challenge Harder for the Cruiserweight Championship. In a match on February 12, 2006, Harder defeated Perkins by submission. On September 8, Perkins faced EWF World Champion Bino Gambino, defeating him by countout. When the match was restarted, they wrestled to a draw. On November 21, Perkins again failed to win the EWF Cruiserweight Championship, when he was defeated by new champion Ryan Taylor. In November 2006, Perkins entered the EWF's Inland Title Series Tournament. His first match against Harder ended in a draw, before he defeated Hook Bomberry in the second round and Jason King in the third round. He faced Harder in the final on January 5, 2007, but lost via submission. On June 27, 2008, at Knockdown Dragout 2, the team of Perkins and Liger Rivera challenged La Ola Del Mal for the EWF Tag Team Championship, and were successful.
In 2006, Puma wrestled as part of MTV's inaugural television taping for the Wrestling Society X promotion, participating in a battle royal but being eliminated by Vampiro and competing in dark matches against Altar Boy Luke and Human Tornado. In a 2009 interview, Perkins stated he asked to be released from his contract with WSX, calling the promotion "terrible". Over the next two years, Perkins competed for several different National Wrestling Alliance promotions, and on June 1, 2008, at Mach One Wrestling's debut show, he won a battle royal to become the NWA Heritage Champion.
He began working for Dragon Gate USA and Evolve in 2010 as TJP. On Evolve's first show he faced Munenori Sawa in a losing effort, before defeating Kyle O'Reilly at Evolve 3. In Dragon Gate USA, he defeated Gran Akuma at the DGUSA Fearless pay-per-view. In March 2010, Perkins made his debut for Westside Xtreme Wrestling at their debut show in the United States, losing to Zack Sabre Jr. He also travelled to Germany to wrestle for the promotion in July 2010.
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (2003–2015)
Perkins first began competing in the Southern California promotion Pro Wrestling Guerrilla in 2003 as "Pinoy Boy" T.J. Perkins, appearing at Are You Adequately Prepared To Rock?! where he pinned Vito Thomaselli and An Inch Longer Than Average where he was on the losing end of a six-man tag team match. After changing his ring name to Puma in December 2003, he entered the Tango and Cash Invitational Tournament to determine the inaugural PWG World Tag Team Champions with Samoa Joe as his partner. The pair made it to the second round before being eliminated. Throughout the remainder of 2004, Puma competed regularly in singles matches, defeating competitors including Ricky Reyes, Tony Kozina, Brad Bradley, and The UK Kid. In the first half of the following year, he competed sporadically in PWG, mainly in elimination matches.In July 2005, he changed his ring name to TJ Perkins, and defeated Davey Richards and Hardkore Kidd in successive singles matches, but Perkins and Alex Shelley subsequently lost a tag team match to the duo. Perkins went on to lose a singles match to Shelley at After School Special. Perkins finished out the year in tag team matches with various partners, and began 2006 the same way. He transitioned back into singles competition at Beyond The Thunderdome in March 2006, defeating Mr. Excitement, before embarking on a losing streak that lasted until June, when he defeated Excalibur. His losing streak included a loss to Rocky Romero in singles competition and alongside him in a tag team match. The duo faced off again at Self-Titled in October, which Perkins won, but he lost a rematch that same month. He later developed a feud with Bino Gambino, facing him in several six-man tag team matches in early 2007. In May, Perkins defeated Gambino in a singles match, before they returned to being on opposite sides in tag team matches in mid-2007.
In January 2008 Perkins formed a regular tag team with Hook Bomberry, and the pairing competed in the Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament round robin qualifier series. At Pearl Habra the team defeated The Young Bucks, but lost their next match to Los Luchas at ¡Dia de los Dangerous!. At Scared Straight they defeated Scorpio Sky and Ronin by disqualification, and later in the night Perkins and Bomberry interrupted the match between the Young Bucks and Los Luchas, causing a no contest. This led to a four-way elimination tag team match taking place at 1.21 Gigawatts, which was won by Los Luchas. After the qualifier series Perkins and Bomberry got one last chance to enter the DDT4, facing Scorpio Sky and Ronin once again at It's a Gift.... and a Curse, in a losing effort. Perkins went on to defeat Charles Mercury and Mikey Nicholls and Mark Davis and Ash Riot in tag team matches, before Perkins returned to singles competition. In November, Perkins participated in PWG's Battle of Los Angeles for the first time. He defeated Chuck Taylor in the first round, but was eliminated from the tournament after losing to Bryan Danielson in the second. In January and February 2009, Perkins lost singles matches to both Austin Aries and B-Boy. After moving to Florida in early 2009, Perkins stopped appearing for PWG.
Following a hiatus lasting longer than eighteen months, Perkins returned to PWG at The Perils of Rock N' Roll Decadence in September 2011, losing to Eddie Edwards. He competed regularly for the promotion in 2012 with mixed results. In September, he entered the 2012 Battle of Los Angeles, defeating Joey Ryan in the first round before losing to Sami Callihan in the quarter-finals.