Former WWE Superstars Tye Dillinger and Hideo Itami were granted their releases after asking to be let go by WWE, but Mike Johnson of PW Insider reports that this wasn’t necessarily the case for TJP. Johnson notes that multiple sources within the WWE have confirmed that TJ Perkins never asked for his release and the company’s decision to future endeavor the former Cruiserweight Champion was entirely up to the company.
TJP took to Twitter later this afternoon to express gratitude to the WWE, the company he grew up watching, “Thanks for giving me a chance and letting me play for the team I grew up watching.”
Thanks for giving me a chance and letting me play for the team I grew up watching ??❤️? https://t.co/r7001mqjx2
— ?? TJ Perkins ?? (@MegaTJP) February 22, 2019
The move is another bump in the road for TJP, who once faced homelessness after his wrestling career. Things became so bad for him that he once prayed to stop wrestling altogether. The former 205 Live star described hitting rock bottom on a recent edition of Wrassle Rap, “It was like, ‘This is not your path anymore.’ It’s hard to face that. Any human being hates to face that … to also be put in a position where, ‘Guess what? You’re gonna starve to death, if you don’t wrestle.’ I used to get so angry trying to fall asleep every night when I was homeless because I was like, ‘Why do you make me wrestle to eat? I don’t want to do this anymore. Give me a job as a fricking janitor or something. Just one place, one place hire me that I’m asking for a job, so that I don’t have to wrestle anymore. You don’t want me to do this. If you wanted me to do this, I would be in WWE, I’d be back in Japan, I’d be at one of these places, and I’m not. You’re not letting me do that. I don’t want to want this anymore. Stop making me do this.’ I would get so mad and pray not to wrestle. Every day I’d have to keep wrestling, or I wouldn’t eat, it would just make me really angry.”
TJP also gave credit to WWE for allowing him to tell his story, “WWE wanted to tell my story. They were the first place that wanted me to be me.”
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