[2] Lloyd grew up watching his father wrestle and in the early part of his training he used to practice in the backyard of his home, in which two rings were positioned.

His final match in South Africa took place on 8 November 2008 at WWP's bi-annual Carnival City Casino show, where he was defeated by Terri Middoux in front of a record attendance.

He was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's developmental territory, where he made his debut under the name Paul Lloyd on 5 February, in a loss to Kawal.

[12] At the 23 July 2009 tapings of FCW's television show, Angel and Logan defeated Barreta and Croft to become the Florida Tag Team Champions.

[14] After a near six-month reign, Gabriel lost the championship at the 18 March television tapings, when Alex Riley won a three-way match, which also included Wade Barrett.

[14] On 16 February 2010, it was announced that Angel was going to be competing on the first season of NXT under the name Justin Gabriel, with Matt Hardy as his storyline mentor.

[21] On the 7 June 2010 episode of Raw, Gabriel and the other season one NXT rookies turned heel (villainous) by interfering in the Viewer's Choice main event match between John Cena and CM Punk, attacking both competitors, the announcing team and Justin Roberts, the ring announcer before dismantling the ring area and surrounding equipment.

[22] The following week on Raw, the rookies (excluding Daniel Bryan who had been released) attacked general manager Bret Hart, when he refused to give them contracts.

The following week on Raw, Vince McMahon fired Hart and announced the hiring of a new general manager, who had signed the seven season one NXT rookies to contracts.

[28][29] On the 25 October 2010 episode of Raw, Barrett made a tag team match, with Gabriel and Heath Slater facing Otunga and Cena for the championship.

[30][31] Gabriel and Slater held the championship for nearly two months before losing it to Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov in a four-way elimination match, also involving The Usos and Mark Henry and Yoshi Tatsu on 6 December.

[32] Gabriel and Slater received a rematch for the championship at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on 19 December, but lost by disqualification when Nexus member Michael McGillicutty interfered.

[33] On the 10 January 2011 episode of Raw, Gabriel and Slater refused to take part in new Nexus leader CM Punk's initiation and walked away from the group.

[34] The following day, at the tapings of the 14 January 2011 episode of SmackDown, Gabriel and Slater helped former leader Barrett and Ezekiel Jackson attack Big Show.

[39][40] They received a rematch at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view on 20 February and defeated Marella and Kozlov to win the WWE Tag Team Championship for the second time.

[58] On Raw, he failed to win a battle royal for the WWE Intercontinental Championship on 26 September 2011; while on SmackDown, he lost singles matches to Wade Barrett, Hunico and Cody Rhodes.

[58][59][60] In January 2012, Gabriel began an alliance of sorts with Hornswoggle, saving him from Slater and Cody Rhodes, leading to matches with both which he won and lost respectively.

[69] He returned on the 30 May episode of NXT, scoring the win for himself, Derrick Bateman and Percy Watson over the team of JTG, Johnny Curtis and Michael McGillicutty.

[71] At the No Way Out pay-per-view, Gabriel and Kidd were defeated by The Prime Time Players (Titus O'Neil and Darren Young) in a number one contender four-way tag team match, also involving Primo and Epico and The Usos.

[75] On the debut episode of Main Event on 3 October, the pair, now unofficially called International Airstrike,[65] lost to Santino Marella and Zack Ryder in the quarter-finals of a tournament to decide the number one contenders.

[76] The following month, they were named part of a team for Survivor Series, and were on the winning side of a precursor match on 12 November when they, Rey Mysterio, and Sin Cara defeated the Prime Time Players, Primo, and Epico with Gabriel pinning Young.

Gabriel did not perform on pay-per-view for 2013; from May, he largely wrestled singles matches on Main Event and Superstars, with wins over Curt Hawkins and Darren Young, but lost to other wrestlers including Antonio Cesaro, Big E Langston, Damien Sandow, and Fandango.

[93] The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported on 24 January 2015 that Gabriel had quit WWE,[94] one day before the 2015 Royal Rumble in which he was scheduled to compete.

During that day's Impact Wrestling tapings, Black defeated Lashley, Chris Mordetzky, Eric Young and Robbie E in a King of the Mountain match to win the vacant TNA King of the Mountain Championship and on the 19 August episode of Impact, Black got a shot at the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Ethan Carter III but lost the match.

After Team TNA members Drew Galloway, Lashley, Bram and The Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards) defeated Team GFW members Jeff Jarrett, Chris Mordetzky, Brian Myers, Sonjay Dutt and Eric Young in a Lethal Lockdown match for Jeff Jarrett's share of the company, the invasion angle ended.

[112] After seven months on inactivity for his jumping injury, Black returned in a Wrestlecade show teaming with Willie Mack and Jason Kincaid but were defeated by Juventud Guerrerra, Super Crazy and Caleb Konley.

[113] On 2 March 2018 it was announced that former WWE Superstars and members of The Nexus faction Darren Young, Michael Tarver and Black will be competing at this year’s Chikara: King of Trios tournament.

[117][unreliable source] They lost their titles to Aero Star, Drago and Fénix at the third and final part Ultima Lucha Dos, which aired on 20 July.

Aldis had issued an open challenge offering to give any competitor lasting five minutes in the ring with him a future title opportunity.

[123] Black would go on to suffer a loss to Nick Aldis in a match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at the 12 January 2019 ROH television tapings.