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What's the story?
Former WWE Tag Team Champion Justin Gabriel appeared on the Pancakes and Powerslams Show recently, where he spoke about a whole host of subjects. During the interview, Gabriel discussed Total Divas and his relationship with Jo-Jo and their on-screen break-up, in particular.
In case you didn't know...
Justin Gabriel burst onto the WWE main roster back in June 2010 as a part of The Nexus, who famously invaded RAW and destroyed everything in sight. The Nexus angle ended abruptly, and Gabriel bounced around the midcard until his release in January 2015.
Total Divas is a WWE-produced reality show that premiered in July 2013. The show focuses on a number of female performers in WWE and their relationships outside the ring and has since led to the spin-off show Total Bellas.
It was Total Divas that led to Jo-Jo being signed in 2013. She now works as the ring announcer for RAW.
The heart of the matter
During the interview, Gabriel stated that he wasn't aware of Jo-Jo's age when they started dating. At the beginning of the relationship Gabriel was asked if he would like to appear on Total Divas, and when told that all it entailed was going on dates and having it filmed, the now-Lucha Underground star agreed.
The 11-year age difference soon became too much for the Darewolf and he decided to end the relationship. Upon informing the producers of the show, they told him that the break-up had to happen on TV, and Gabriel was not happy with how the whole thing played out.
"What they did was make me look like this super womanising heel, the edited everything to make me look bad. That's not what happened at all"
Gabriel says that he didn't want to be a part of the show at all, a stance that was hardened when he realised how fake the 'reality' show was.
"If it's a reality show, let me do and say whatever I want. It wasn't very organic or spontaneous"
What's next?
Justin Gabriel has recently been wrestling as PJ Black in the seemingly-dead Lucha Underground promotion. The man from Johannesburg was most recently in the news when a base jump went wrong and he lost a finger in the process.
Season seven of Total Divas is due to hit television screens on November 1 this year.
Author's take
A modern-day 'reality' show isn't actually real? What?! Of course, nobody is shocked by the news. Reality TV is more rigid and fake than most dramas in the modern age. Gabriel was lucky to be on and off the show quickly even though he claims to have been portrayed quite poorly.
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