Every time I try to apply it instantly declines me. And there's no contact email to talk to the affiliate manager. Anyone have any success with T-Mobile? Do they have some hidden set of standards I need to match before they approve?

I've noticed that the big-name companies on CJ often require well established, high-traffic site to be considered for affiliation.

I attempted to get affiliated with TotalHockey and no matter what I did, they would NOT accept me.

I really don't know why automatically declining this big companies, i have same issues mostly with all reputable companies. How can we build up our CJ account if we don't get any chance?
I have a well established networking (blog) site with 12k monthly UV, highly targeted, ranking well for some good KW's. Cisco declined me instantly. I am thinking to switch back to shareasale.com.

I recommend you trying some SEO steps to get high traffic. Eventhough if you do get accepted without high traffic, you'll not be getting income. So think about it..

You really need some legit traffic. The best for this is SEO but you need to prove them that you traffic is great for their type of offers