The Most Famous
WRESTLERS from South Africa
This page contains a list of the greatest South African Wrestlers. The pantheon dataset contains 700 Wrestlers, 2 of which were born in South Africa. This makes South Africa the birth place of the 50th most number of Wrestlers behind Lithuania and New Zealand.
Top 2
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary South African Wrestlers of all time. This list of famous South African Wrestlers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Justin Gabriel (1981 - )
With an HPI of 30.51, Justin Gabriel is the most famous South African Wrestler. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages on wikipedia.
Phillip Paul Lloyd (born 3 March 1981) is a South African-American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE, under the ring name Justin Gabriel. He is currently wrestling under the ring name P. J. Black. A second-generation wrestler, Lloyd was initially trained by his father. Debuting in 1997 at the age of 16, where he competed in the United Kingdom and South Africa and was the inaugural winner of the WWP World Cruiserweight Championship in World Wrestling Professionals as P. J. Black. In 2008, Lloyd signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment, and was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's developmental territory, where he won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship, with Kris Logan, and the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship. In February 2010, he competed in the first season of NXT, finishing third, before being called to the main roster in June 2010 joining The Nexus. He joined the Corre in 2011. Teaming regularly with Heath Slater, the duo won the WWE Tag Team Championship three times in 2010 and 2011, which was the apex of Gabriel's success with WWE. He also won the TNA King of the Mountain Championship during his brief GFW crossover appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2015.
2. Adam Rose (1979 - )
With an HPI of 23.11, Adam Rose is the 2nd most famous South African Wrestler. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.
Raymond John Leppan (born 20 July 1979) is a South African retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE under the ring name Adam Rose. Making his debut on the South African independent circuit in 1995, Leppan signed with WWE in 2010, wrestling in its developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) under the ring name Leo Kruger, where he became a two-time FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion. After FCW folded in 2012, Leppan continued to wrestle in its successor NXT as Leo Kruger, before moving to WWE's main roster, as Adam Rose in early 2014. After a series of controversies, Leppan asked for his release from the promotion in April 2016 and wrestled in the international independent circuit.
Pantheon has 2 people classified as wrestlers born between 1979 and 1981. Of these 2, 2 (100.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living wrestlers include Justin Gabriel and Adam Rose.
