Yeah, the X Games definitely helped him out. Vert was still pretty dead for a while, though, even in the early 2000's. I think the X Games helped the established vert pros make a decent living while skateboarding was still hyper-focused on street. And then Tony's career exploded, which resulted in his foundation building loads of parks; I think those parks are really what has led to the resurgence of vert and transition skating more than anything. I stopped paying attention to magazines around 2004 or 2005, and when I started looking at them again in like 2008 there was way more focus on transition than there had been last time I looked. And it's only gotten more popular since then. The lack of variety is pretty much the reason I stopped paying attention in the first place, too; it kinda got old seeing the same kind of stuff over and over.