It isn't easy to break into a major wrestling company period, but it was even harder for one Justin Gabriel. Though Gabriel enjoyed a seven year run with WWE, and later appeared for promotions such as Lucha Underground, TNA, and Ring of Honor under the name P.J. Black, getting a leg up in America proved difficult due to Gabriel getting his start in his native South Africa. Appearing on "Developmentally Speaking," Gabriel credited his persistence in getting noticed by WWE, revealing that he sent tapes of his work to every front office member of WWE he could think of. Eventually, the persistence led to him getting a shot, one which saw him receiving criticism from one of wrestling's most legendary figures.
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"Long story short, I got invited to the tryout in FCW in Florida, so I flew to the US and FCW at the time, in Tampa," Gabriel said. "I walked into this office, and there's Dr. Tom Prichard, Steve Keirn, Norman Smiley, Dustin Rhodes. And it was very intimidating, and they popped my tape in...they watched this tape, and I thought the match was fantastic. It was one of my favorite matches ever. And I was playing this stripper/porn star character at the time, did a decent promo and everything. And when they were finished, they all kind of looked at each other, it got quiet, and I was like 'Oh shoot.' And Dusty was like 'Well, you can't wrestle for s**t, but you can do all the other stuff.'"
Despite that, Gabriel stated that Rhodes and fellow WWE executive Steve Keirn took a liking to him. Gabriel would go on to have a tryout match in an empty arena and worked with Rhodes on his promo, revealing that they wound up doing around 40 takes before Rhodes ultimately decided to use Gabriel's first attempt. While the tryout would lead to Gabriel securing a job with WWE, visa issues would lead to Gabriel returning to South Africa in the meantime.
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"It took them about year to get my work papers to work in the US, so during those twelve months, I was just...I got a job at the gym," Gabriel said. "I was just working really hard. I was like 'Wow, the dream is finally going to come true. I'm going to be paid to just full time wrestle.' So I got into really good shape, worked on some character stuff, got some really cool gear. And then I ended up moving to Tampa, Florida where FCW was at the time, and probably one of the most fun years of my life in wrestling."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Developmentally Speaking" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
