Theodore James "T.J." Perkins (born September 3, 1984), better known by the ring name TJP, is an American professional wrestler of Filipino descent, currently signed to New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a former three-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion, and the second leader of the United Empire stable. He is best known for his tenures in WWE and Impact Wrestling.
Perkins began his career in 1998. In 2001, he went to New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) Dojo, where he became the youngest wrestler to perform in a NJPW ring. Since then, Perkins worked in various American promotions, including most notably Impact Wrestling, where he is a former two-times X-Division Champion and WWE, where is the winner of the Cruiserweight Classic and a former and inaugural WWE Cruserweight Champion, as well as in Japanese promotions such NJPW and Dragon Gate.
Since his return to NJPW, Perkins began making appearances for the promotion, joining the LA Dojo until he turned on his teammates and joined Will Ospreay's United Empire stable, turning heel in the process. Perkins debut in Japan in May 2022, upon the mitigation of COVID-19 Pandemic restricitions, where he would form a tag team with fellow stablemate Francesco Akira, as part of the junior heavyweight division, known as Catch 2/2. This led them to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships and hold them for 311 days, the second longest reign in the title history. In April 2024, TJP took over the leadership of United Empire, when Ospreay all left NJPW for AEW.
Early life[]
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.
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 not attend 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; 2011)[]
He began training at New Japan Pro Wrestling's L.A. Dojo in Los Angeles along with friends 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. In NJPW, he holds the record of the youngest non-Japanese wrestler to compete for the promotion, at 18 years and 3 weeks old. 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 late May and early June 2011, Perkins, under the ring name TJP, took part in NJPW's Best of the Super Juniors tournament. After winning three of his eight matches in the round robin stage of the tournament, TJP finished seventh out of the nine wrestlers in his block and did not advance to the semifinals.
Return to NJPW (2019–Present)[]
Early Appearances and LA Dojo (2019-2021)[]
On July 26, TJP was announced as one of the participants of the 2019 Super J-Cup. On August 22, TJP defeated Clark Connors in his first round match, but was eliminated by El Phantasmo in the second round of the tournament. From October 16 until November 1, TJP and Clark Connors took part in the 2019 Super Jr. Tag League, finishing the tournament with a record of one win and six losses, failing to advance to the finals of the tournament. Since March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, TJP along with several NJPW wreslters were unable to work on NJPW events in Japan. In August, TJP took part in NJPW Strong series. On December 3, TJP took part in the 2020 Super J-Cup, losing to eventual finalist ACH in the first round.
United Empire (2021-Present)[]
See also: Catch 2/2
On August 14 at Resurgence, Will Ospreay made his return from injury, announcing that he was medically cleared to return in-ring competition, before citing his disgust on NJPW's favoritism to Jon Moxley for refusing to strip him of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship for not defending the title under a year, while they stripped him of his title, due the time to recover from his neck injury. Afterwards, Ospreay called out members of the LA Dojo, being confronted by TJP, Clark Connors and Karl Fredericks. Over the following weeks, Ospreay began actively recruting new members to expand the stable. On October 10, 2021 at Autumn Attack TJP, who had previously aligned with Fredericks, turned on him, and joined the Will Ospreay and the United Empire becoming the stable's newest member.
On May 1, TJP was announced to take part in the 2022 Best of the Super Juniors in Japan, marking his return to Japan since the summer of 2019. At the tournament in May, TJP finished his block with a record of four wins and five losses, failling to advance to the finals of the tournament. On June 3, TJP and United Empire stablemate Francesco Akira defeated reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Six or Nine (Master Wato and Ryusuke Taguchi) in a non-title match. Afterwards, both challenged Wato and Taguchi to a title match. In a rematch on June 20, TJP and Akira defeated Master Wato and Ryusuke Taguchi to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. Shortly after, they named their team "Catch 2/2". TJP and Akira then defeated Wato and Taguchi in a rematch on September 25 to make their first sucessful title defense. From November 21 until December 11, TJP and Akira took part in the 2022 Super Jr. Tag League, finishing the tournament with a record six wins and three losses, but were left behind them in the final standings due to losing to Ace Austin and Chris Bey on the final day.
On April 2, in a pre-taped vingette, KUSHIDA and Kevin Knight challenged TJP and Akira for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. Two days later, in a pre-taped vingette, TJP and Akira answered KUSHIDA and Knight's challenge by mocking the them, before accepting their challenge. On April 27, TJP and Akira lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to KUSHIDA and Knight in their fifth title defense, ending their reign at 311 days. The following month, TJP took part in the 2023 Best of the Super Juniors, finishing the tournament with a record of four wins and five losses, failling to advance to the semifinals of the tournament. During the tournament, TJP defeated KUSHIDA, while Akira defeated Knight, in their head-to-head matches, leading them to receive a rematch for the titles.
On June 4 at Dominion 6.4 in Osaka-jo Hall, TJP and Akira defeated KUSHIDA and Knight in a rematch to regain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. After the match, they were confronted by Clark Connors, who teased a challenge alongside a mystery partner, before their United Empire stablemate, Dan Moloney, was revealed to be Connors' partner, after Moloney turned on them to join Bullet Club. On July 4 at NJPW Strong Independence Day, TJP and Akira lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney. From October 21 to November 2, TJP and Akira took part in the 2023 Super Jr. Tag League, finishing the tournament with a record six wins and three losses, advancing to the finals. On November 4 at Power Struggle, Akira and TJP defeated Sho and Yoshinobu Kanemaru in the finals to win the 2023 Super Jr. Tag League. During the December 21 Korakuen show, the War Dogs mockingly brought a wooden coffin to ringside claiming "Catch 2/2 is dead". TJP then challenged both of them ahead of their match in January to a coffin match the next day. TJP and Akira lost the match after TJP was locked inside the coffin. On January 4, 2024, at Wrestle Kingdom 18, TJP returned as "The Aswang", a direct reference to the creature of Filipino folklore, emerging from the same coffin he was locked in back in December, debuting a new attire and a monstrous mask, also adding the red mist to his arsenal. Afterwards, he and Akira defeated Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the third time, only to lose it back to them a month later. Shortly after, the rivalry between United Empire and Bullet Club War Dogs built to a Dog Pound Cage match on February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka, which United Empire lost, with Will Ospreay leaving the promotion shortly after.
Afterwards, a power vacuum was left inside the stable with Opsreay's departure. The stable began to live a losing streak, meanwhile on March 12, TJP claimed himself as leader of the stable, but O-Khan pushed back TJP's claim due to the stable's results. However, on April 22, after defeating Just 5 Guys in a gauntlet match, the remaining members fully accpeted TJP as the new leader of the stable. The following month, TJP took part in the 2024 Best of the Super Juniors, finishing the tournament with a record of five wins and four losses, advancing to the semifinals of the tournament. On June 3, in the semi-finals, TJP was defeated by Taiji Ishimori. From October 24 to November 2, TJP and Akira took part in the 2024 Super Jr. Tag League, finishing the tournament with a record three wins and two losses, advancing to the finals. On November 4 at Power Struggle, TJP and Akira were defeated by Kosei Fujita and Robbie Eagles in the finals of the 2024 Super Jr. Tag League.
Personal life[]
Perkins was born in Los Angeles to two airline workers. He attended St. Thomas the Apostle School, a middle school in Riverside, California. At the age of 18, he began training in boxing, mixed martial arts and catch wrestling. By the age of 21, Perkins had earned enough money to buy his own house.
Perkins is a fan of Kobe Bryant. After his death in 2020, Perkins began using a new finisher named the Mamba Splash in honor of him. During the Speaking Out Movement in 2020, he came out with his own allegations of being sexually abused by older female wrestlers at age fifteen.
He is engaged to fellow wrestler Aria Blake. The couple welcomed their first child; a boy named James Theodore Perkins on August 26, 2021.
Other media[]
As TJP, he made his video game debut as a playable character in WWE 2K18 and also appears in WWE 2K19.
In wrestling[]
- Finishing moves
- Detonation Kick (Fireman's carry dropped into an overhead kick)
- Figure Four Deathlock (Leglock cloverleaf)
- Mamba Splash (Frog Splash)
- TJP Clutch (Leglock inverted cloverleaf, usually preceded by a kneebar)
- Pinoy Stretch (Arm trap cross-legged STF)
- Signature moves
- 520° corkscrew springboard tornado DDT
- 86er (Diving high knee)
- Brainbuster
- Butterfly suplex
- Clutch Dagger (Double chickenwing double knee gutbuster)
- Flying armbar
- Jumping neckbreaker
- Mega Buster (Jumping hangman's neckbreaker)
- NBA Jam (Diving crossbody)
- Skull Crusher (Kneeling reverse piledriver)
- Senton bomb
- Sharpshooter
- Sitout scoop slam piledriver
- Snap suplex
- Tiger suplex
- Tornado DDT
- Wrecking Ball Dropkick (Springboard front dropkick to the outside of an opponent draped over the second rope)
- With Francesco Akira
- The Leaning Tower (Electric chair drop (TJP)/Springboard avalanche cutter (Akira) combination followed by an arm trap cross-legged STF (TJP))
- 2x2 (Running knee strike to an opponent's head from opposite directions)
- Nicknames
- "Fil-Am Flash"
- "Jinrui no Teki" (Japanese for the "Enemy of Mankind")
- "Public Enemy"
- "The Aswang"
- Entrance themes
- "Where’s Your Hero Now?" by Heroes Lie
Championships and accomplishments[]
- New Japan Pro Wrestling
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Francesco Akira
- Super Jr. Tag League (2023) – with Francesco Akira
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- PWI ranked him 122 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2014