TJP Says The Cruiserweight Classic and X-Division Opened Doors For Smaller Guys

– TJP spoke with Wrestling Inc for a new interview discussing his work in TNA’s X-Division and WWE’s Cruiserweight Division, his recent appearance for PWR and more. Highlights are below:

On the X-Division’s impact on wrestling: “I always thought that the X-Division affected the social culture of wrestling in the 2000s the same way the WCW Cruiserweight Division did when it was first starting. I meet young fans who grew up on the X-Division and during that time TNA was the hot, trendy thing. The generation is so far removed from it now that people forget that the type of trendiness AEW has now TNA once had.”

On WWE’s Cruiserweight Division: “It opened the doors for a generation of guys who didn’t have a certain stature and didn’t have an opportunity for maybe 10 years. There was a time I was homeless and went down to FCW in 2008 and 2009 and it was unheard of someone of my size trying to get in.”

On the Cruiserweight Classic breaking down walls for smaller guys: “What will go down as why this was important, mostly from the CWC, it now opened the doors for guys like Cedric [Alexander] and Lucha House Party to be doing what they’re doing. Now it’s not even about cruiserweight wrestling, it’s about allowing guys of a certain stature to have real opportunities and it started out by just being a part of a division.”

On the success of Ali and other cruiserweights in WWE: “It doesn’t surprise me for any of the guys. That’s kinda why I made it a point to mention the night of the [CWC] Finals when they asked me to speak. They didn’t give me a script and let me talk about whatever. I thought about talking about my family or career, but it was important for me to address that all 30 guys could have been in that position.”

On appearing in PWR in the Philippines: “I didn’t expect it as it’s kind of like the reaction videos of like an NFL field goal where bars of fans have meltdowns or get really excited. When these videos came in, I realized how big of a deal it was for them. I don’t normally think I’m in those terms. I knew it would be special but I didn’t realize the effect it would have. When I heard all of that and was able to see it, in the [social media] post I mentioned that it brought me to tears and that’s the truth. You forget what kind of effect you can have on people in your day-to-day life.”TJP