Justin Gabriel Reportedly Quits WWE

Bad news for all you Justin Gabriel fans. Per a recent report, the long-time midcarder has left WWE.

In a (subscribers-only) post over at F4Wonline.com, Dave Meltzer notes that the star is—rather surprisingly—on his way out of the company: “Justin Gabriel quit WWE this weekend but we don't know any details past that right now.”

Gabriel (aka Paul Lloyd Jr.) signed his contract with the company in 2008. While the South African performer wasn't blessed with a big physique or enthralling promo skills, he did have the cool high-flying in-ring skills, charisma and boy-band good looks to suggest he could at least have some level of success in the company.

Which he did initially, on the first season of NXT then, later, as part of dominant heel group Nexus.

Credit to Gabriel: He, along with Heath Slater, carried a lot of the group's earlier television matches. The others, like Ryback, Wade Barrett and David Otunga, were simply too green at that point to produce anything of quality in the ring. 

Sadly Nexus floundered soon after due to some rather inept booking from WWE. The writers seemingly forgot that a tough, dominant heel stable has to, you know, win a lot.

Gabriel's career following the group's disbandment was rather patchy. He frequently struggled to remain relevant. 

Credit: WWE.com

He had a run with The Corre—a forgettable stable formed by Barrett. He participated in the 2011 Money in the Bank match and then formed a decent but unremarkable tag team with the equally underrated Tyson Kidd. He's been sporadically involved in the storylines over the last couple of years, reduced mainly to appearing on shows like NXT, Superstars and Main Event.

It's very possible he may have just gotten frustrated with his lack of progress and quit. Maybe the indie scene i.e. TNA and Lucha Underground just seem like more appealing and artistically satisfying options for the performer right now.