205 Live Superstar TJP was a recent guest on the Wrassle Rap podcast and opened up about his life in professional wrestling. Highlights appear below.
(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)
On Being Compared To Justin Bieber & Why He Chose To Get Tattoos:
The tattoos, where they came about, is I kind of got tired of people telling me who I am and why I am. I don’t like to explain myself a lot and I’m sort of a polarizing guy among wrestling fans, so they fill in the links. To use a pop culture reference to describe it, I think they look at me and see Bieber, but in my real life, I’m a lot more low key, and different, and probably a lot older than they think. Maybe they see Bieber, but I’m more of a Cobain or Depp type. I’m kind of a recluse and I got tired of people defining for me who I am. A lot of people also were asking me if I ever wanted to write a book. They were like, ‘You should write a book someday.’ I said that it would be bigger than The Bible, like Bret Hart’s book because it’s a lot of years and I’m not even done yet, so I said, ‘Screw it, I’m just gonna start writing my story on my arms.’
Read More: TJP On Why Brock Lesnar Should Main Event WrestleMania 35, Star Ratings Being Useless
TJP Reveals His Prayers While He Was Homeless:
I’m a religious guy. I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic school. I used to pray every night for God not to make me have to wrestle anymore. I used to think it was a real sick cosmic joke that wrestling said, ‘We don’t want you.’ WWE was like, ‘We don’t want you,’ and everything that I had done was gone. It was unreachable. I couldn’t just go to New Japan again. I couldn’t just go to Ring of Honor. The spots were gone. I was gone.
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…..if any place hired me, I wouldn’t be a wrestler today. I would have just done that. I didn’t want to do this anymore. If he didn’t force me to keep wrestling just to eat, I wouldn’t be wrestling and able to take care of my family today. You would never be able to make me see that then…..to me that was him pulling the curtain back and saying, ‘See I do exist. I made you do this, so appreciate it.’
Read More: TJP On WWE Allowing Him To Tell His Story, Details How He Ended Up Homeless
