"Sort of what Demon Balor is now" – Two-time X-Division champion reveals plans of playing a similar character as Finn Balor

Theodore James Perkins, or TJP in short, had come up with a similar idea to Finn Balor's alter ego The Demon before Finn Balor used the Demon character himself.

The former two-time IMPACT Wrestling X-Division champion spoke to Shakiel Mahjouri of Cageside Seats and discussed an old gimmick in TNA, going by Suicide. However, when the company was in Boston on the back of some terrorist attacks, TJP felt having a character named Suicide wasn't the best idea.

“I think it was the day of the Boston pay-per-view, we had Slammiversary. It was not long after the bombing in Boston. They had thought about changing the character, changing the name. At the time, TNA was doing arena shows and live TV every week. It was closer to what AEW is doing now. They were trying to get over that hump. They had network TV with Spike and everything. Maybe they thought the name should be changed. I was really kind of the one to break the silence and say, ‘Hey, maybe now is the time. We’re going to a city that needs a little bit of uplifting. I don’t know that Suicide is the best name for the correct. And you guys have been wanting to rebrand it a little bit for a while so," said TJP.

The new character pitch included Manik, and TJP stated he wanted to turn it into something similar to what Finn Balor has been doing for years now.

"I don’t know who came up with Manik but I said, ‘Okay, we could do something with that. It’s better. I had pitched a lot of different ideas for the character change. I had wanted to do something based on the Aswang, which is Filipino folklore. It’s like our vampire, ghoul, werewolf-type thing. I wanted to turn it into a Great Mutah-type character. Sort of what Demon Balor is now. I don’t think he was doing that at the time yet, but that’s sort of what I wanted to do. They had taken the mask off and everything and I said, ‘What if we have a character that is me and this character at the same time. Sometimes it’s this character, sometimes it’s me.’ We had a lot of starts and stops and what we ended up getting was Manik with a new suit,” added TJP.

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Finn Balor lost as The Demon to Roman Reigns at Extreme Rules

Finn Balor was undefeated on the WWE main roster as The Demon but that changed at Extreme Rules as he succumbed to a pinfall defeat to Roman Reigns as the two battled over the WWE Universal Championship.

The finish to the match was bizarre, to put it lightly. Balor was laid out at ringside but mounted a comeback as red lights flickered, seemingly awakening the Demon. After a strong offensive flurry, Balor headed to the top rope but the turnbuckle gave away.

Balor collapsed to the canvas and The Tribal Chief delivered a spear to pin and retain his title. The Demon was one of the most protected characters in wrestling and its aura has significantly diminished following the strange finish at Extreme Rules.