PJ Black on Why He Quit WWE, Vince McMahon and a WWE Return

Global Force Wrestling star PJ Black, formerly known as Justin Gabriel in WWE, was interviewed by Cult of Whatever recently to discuss his time in WWE and NXT. Below are some of the highlights from the piece.

He opened up on why he quit WWE back in January:

“It was hard, there wasn’t just one or two things that happened, it was a build up of six months. I had all these new ideas for new character builds, but it seemed like every time I had these ideas and was gaining momentum something happened that would stop this momentum.

It began to get really frustrating in all truth it was probably longer than six months, it was more probably like a year. It was just frustration on frustration and on the day I quit it wasn’t just one thing that happened that made me do it.

I didn’t realize the Royal Rumble was coming up, I didn’t anticipate that, I didn’t plan it that way. It just kind of happened on the day, I just had enough, I’m 34-years-old, I have all of this stuff that I want to show people and if WWE won’t let me do it on TV then I’m just going to go and do it on the independents where people can appreciate it.

I see myself as more of an artist, I don’t really care about how much money I make, for me it’s more about the art of professional wrestling. There are a lot of guys that will just hang around because Vince will give everyone a shot and some guys will just hang around thinking that tomorrow will be their shot and then the next thing you know three years have gone by.

One year went by and I realized it wasn’t going to happen and I couldn’t wait any longer and that is the reason I quit. There are guys there that will just hang around waiting for their shots, who knows if it’s going to happen, it’s all a timing thing.”

He discussed what it was like working for Vince McMahon:

“Crazy genius, he is awesome, I love him.  He is definitely a crazy billionaire, he has a very extract way of thinking, he is very out of touch with reality, so very in touch if that makes sense.

He doesn’t know what goes on in the movies, if you talked to him about Wolverine he wouldn’t have a clue but if you were to talk to him about a storyline or pure raw emotional passion or human phycology he is just a freaking genius, I love the guy to bits.”

Black also spoke on the possibility of a WWE return:

“Quite possibly, in two or three years who knows, I don’t plan that far ahead. Vince actually called me and said he knew I wanted to do my own thing and have more wrestling time so he told me go away for two or three years and go do my thing and possibly comeback.

Hunter on the other hand didn’t like the way I did it because I quit over the phone and told me he’s going to make me wait ages before I’m allowed to come back to WWE.”

More from the piece can be found here.

Editor’s Note

Talented and underutilized for sure. Seems to be doing fine for himself right now though.

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