Astonishingly, South African born Paul Lloyd Jnr, better known to watchers of NXT and Superstars as Justin Gabriel, is a 17 year veteran of professional wrestling, having debuted at the age of 16 in 1997, when he used to wrestle in a tag team called Pure Juice with one Ray Leppan, who today is better known (though not by much) as WWEs camp party troll Adam Rose. Gabriel signed with WWE developmental in 2008 when hed already been working for 11 years, during which time hed firmly established the high-flying, fast-kicking moveset hed later bring to the Nexus. Gifted with nicknames like the Cape Town Werewolf, the daredevil, and the South African Sensation, and with a pretty face to go along with the high spots, it seemed like Gabriel would be looking to take on some of the position in the company vacated by Jeff Hardy, Gabriel being booked to some degree of tag and singles success until the end of 2011, when all of that seemed to dry up. 2012 was mostly NXT, Superstars and Saturday Morning Slam for our intrepid hero when he wasnt being booked to job on Smackdown once every couple of months to remind people that he was technically still on the roster (and, of course, that bizarre one-off title shot at Cesaros US championship at No Way Out). Even the apparently dream team-up with superworker Tyson Kidd wouldnt be enough to raise his profile. In 2013, if there was a lower-tier TV show on WWE programming, you could almost guarantee that Gabriel would be jobbing to someone on it but at least he was on television. In 2014, Justin Gabriel has wrestled 9 matches to date, most of which feature him losing to developmental wrestlers. Forget Chris Daniels, this is the real fallen angel.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
