TJP Talks About Upcoming Match In Manila At "PWR: Homecoming"

TJP is one of the few Filipinos wrestling for a major promotion as the former WWE Cruiserweight Champion recently rejoined Impact Wrestling. He also competes for various independent promotions including PWR which is the top wrestling company in his mother's native land of the Philippines.

TJP talked about the Philippines wrestling scene when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.

"Filipinos are very in tune with what's going on in the world today. They're really open and outgoing in trying to adopt a lot of different qualities and cultures. So, the wrestling scene out there is no different [than mainstream]," said TJP.

"Their wrestling in my opinion is very modern in nature and it has a contemporary style to it which is cool because it feels very in-line with everything else going on?I just think they don't have enough eyes and hopefully as they grow that'll change."

TJP had an epic announcement trailer that revealed the talent for his PWR: Homecoming show and he talked about putting that together.

"Actually that was produced and shot all on my phone and edited by myself," TJP said before adding he taught someone at the show how to walk very slowly and steadily to get the crane shot effect. "Yeah I just tried to get really creative with it but also keep it simple in nature. I was working with my booking manager and he's done a lot of work to help put together the show in the Philippines. He said we need to shoot a promo and announcement for it."

TJP says he debated doing a simple selfie video promo ala The Rock but he thought that was too plain. He took a chance with the shooting of it and was admittedly surprised it worked out.

"I was actually pleasantly surprised because I'm not very good with video graphic work or anything like that," stated TJP.

With TJP's video and Jon Moxley's recent videos, wrestlers are putting their creative skills to use in different ways. TJP was asked how important it is for pro wrestlers to have video skills now.

"It's not necessary but it's more important than people think that you can offer yourself in artistic ways like that because it's another medium in which you can be creative and carve your own mark. I've said in interviews recently that now being back freelancing, everyone is so creative and in command of their own brand," said TJP. "Things like that aren't a necessary element but is a layer that's becoming common. If that's a skill you can develop, then the sky's the limit."

TJP put over the Moxley trailer and said his own video took an hour to make, but it created much more of an emotional investment.

As now an Impact employee, again, TJP was asked about the promotion's recent even Slammiversary and Sami Callihan vs. Tessa Blanchard closing the show.

"I'm not really old fashioned in the way where the title match has to go last," said TJP. "The way that entertainment is produced, it can go in any order. Even in sports, in a boxing or fighting card, the light heavyweight title match might close the show instead of the heavyweight title match. I don't think there's a necessary sense of trying to place one ahead of the other."

He added that the tension and story Sami and Tessa told was amazing and he praised both of them as incredible performers.

It's funny because earlier in the night I told the other women's match that went on, 'You guys crushed it and nobody's gonna be able to follow you guys.' And then Tessa and Sami went out and I was like, 'Ok well?they did!' But everybody did and I thought the world title match was incredible," said TJP. "I remember thinking it was gonna be great when I saw the finish to the TV episode previously and I knew it was gonna be epic. Knowing Elgin and Cage a little bit, I knew they were gonna deliver something hard to follow."

TJP can be seen every Friday night at 10 pm on Pursuit and Twitch as part of Impact Wrestling. He will also be heading to Manila on October 13th for PWR's Homecoming. Tickets for PWR's Homecoming will be released shortly, follow PWR on Twitter at @pwrofficial to know when they are! His full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In it TJP discusses getting to perform in his mother's home country of The Philippines, what Manila's pro wrestling scene is like, why he returned to Impact Wrestling, his desire to resurrect the Suicide character, the differences between Impact's X-Division and WWE's Cruiserweight Division, Impact and WWEs' creative structures, the Jon Moxley – Chris Jericho interview and more.

You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.