T. J. Perkins

Theodore James Perkins (born September 3, 1984), better known by the ring name T. J. Perkins (or simply TJP), is an American professional wrestler of Filipino descent who currently works for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he is one-half of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion in alongside Francesco Akira and is a member of the United Empire stable.

He is best known for his tenures in WWE and TNA Wrestling.

Theodore James Perkins was born on September 3, 1984, in Kansas City, Missouri.

His mother is from Manila, Philippines, and he 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.

At the age of 18, he began training in boxing, mixed martial arts, and catch wrestling.

Perkins first began his training at the age of 13, at a local lucha libre school in his hometown of Los Angeles, California.

Perkins began his professional wrestling career in 1998.

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 not attend school most Fridays.

He wrestled on independent cards in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Mexico during his first two years.

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 (ROH), Major League Wrestling (MLW), TNA Wrestling, and WWE, as well as Japanese promotions, like NJPW and Dragon Gate.

In 2001, Perkins began training at New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW)'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 (character) 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.

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 (Harry Smith and T.J. Wilson).

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 (APW) 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 (FIP) 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.

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.

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.

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 (with Francesco Akira).