Tyler Reks Biography

Gabriel Allan Tuft (born November 1, 1978) is a retired American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure with WWE under the ring name Tyler Reks. He also competed in WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling, where he held the Florida Tag Team Championship once with Fandango and held the Florida Heavyweight Championship once.

Tuft attended the Santa Rosa Junior College in Santa Rosa, CA from 1996-1999 and then transferred to the California Polytechnic University in San Louis Obispo (Cal-Poly) in 2000. There he completed his coursework and obtained a degree in civil engineering with a major in hydrology and structural engineering.

After graduating, Tuft secured a job as an assistant engineer at PBS&J in Encinitas, CA. He was staffed at the City of Dana Point as an extension of staff and was in charge of the Public Works Permitting Department.

Tuft is also known for being an entrepreneur. In 2007 he started a land development company called Xclusiv Development, LLC. He also started a personal training center with his wife, Priscilla Tuft, in San Clemente, CA called Xclusiv Fitness. In 2011, prior to retiring from WWE, Tuft founded an internet marketing company called Local Marketing 2.0. In 2013, Tuft was appointed to the Board of Directors for the Rock of Ages Festival in Calistoga, CA. Tuft's company is also a current member of the Rohnert Park Chamber of Commerce and the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce.

Professional wrestling career

Training and independents (2007)

Tuft was trained by Mike Bell. He made his professional debut in February 2007 for Ultimate Pro Wrestling.

World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE

Florida Championship Wrestling (2008"2010)

Tuft was signed to a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment in January 2008 and was assigned to the Florida Championship Wrestling territory as Tyler Reks. He made his FCW debut on February 5, 2008 with Johnny Curtis in a losing effort against Eric Perez and Eddie Colon. A few days later on February 12 he made his singles FCW debut in a losing effort once again against "The South City Thriller" Hade Vansen. He participated in a FCW Florida Heavyweight Title Battle Royal which was won by Jack Hager. He also took part in FCW Florida Tag Team Title Tournament with Rycklon, during this tournament he had his first victory at FCW defeating Ted DiBiase, Jr. and Afa, Jr. in the first round, however the pair were to lose Eddie Colon and Eric Perez in the quarter finals. Tuft then had two chances at FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship against the current champion Jack Hager first in a one on one match and then in a triple threat match along with Johnny Curtis. On the August 28 he participated in FCW Florida Heavyweight Title No. 1 Contendership Fatal Four Way along with Johnny Curtis Tyrone Evans and Sheamus O'Shaunessy, who went onto win the match. Tuft then went on to have another two FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship shots against Sheamus O'Shaunessy and lost both times. On December 11, 2008, Tuft and Johnny Curtis defeated The New Hart Foundation (DH Smith and TJ Wilson) to win the Florida Tag Team Championship in Tampa, Florida. After numerous defenses and 139 days of holding the titles they lost them to Caylen Croft and Trent Barreta. Tuft won FCW Florida Heavyweight Title No. 1 Contendership match and on June 11, 2009, he captured the Florida Heavyweight Championship by defeating Drew McIntyre. He later lost the title to Heath Slater at the FCW television tapings on August 13. He later lost to Slater again during his rematch for the title. He lost to Joe Hennig in a FCW Florida Heavyweight Title No. 1 Contendership match and lost a FCW Florida Heavyweight Title No. 1 Contendership battle royal. He and Leo Kruger had a FCW Florida Tag Team Title match against Epico and but lost.

ECW (2009"2010)

He made his main roster debut on ECW on Sci Fi on the June 30, 2009 episode, with a surfer in-ring persona, in a backstage promo with Zack Ryder. Reks had suffered a knee injury just prior to his debut, but was able to work through it and made his in-ring debut on the July 2, 2009 episode of WWE Superstars, losing to Ryder. On the July 21 episode of ECW, Reks gained his first win after defeating Paul Burchill, and then beat him again the following week. Reks participated in a 10-man battle royal on the September 15 edition of ECW for an ECW Championship opportunity against Christian, but the match would go on to be won by Zack Ryder. Tuft would begin a brief hiatus from television starting in November 2009 and began mainly working dark matches and house shows for both Smackdown and Raw and FCW matches. Reks was one of the participants in the 26 man pre-show battle royal at WrestleMania XXVI.

SmackDown (2010"2011)

In late April 2010, Reks joined the SmackDown roster following ECW's closure. After months of only working dark matches, Reks made his SmackDown television debut as a heel on the October 15 edition of the program while sporting a beard, chest hair and new attire in addition to never referencing to his time on ECW. After a promo, he challenged and successfully defeated Kaval in a match for the latter's spot in the SmackDown Bragging Rights team. On the Raw before Bragging Rights, he participated in a SmackDown vs. RAW 30 Man Tag Team Battle Royal, in which Smackdown was victorious. At Bragging Rights, Reks was able to eliminate Santino Marella before being eliminated by Sheamus. However, Team SmackDown was successful in winning the Bragging Rights Cup for the second consecutive time. After this, Reks was placed in Alberto Del Rio's Survivor Series team and at the event. On the Smackdown before Survivor Series 2010 he competed in a Ten Man Tag Team Battle Royal but his team lost. At Survivor Series 2010 he was eliminated by Kofi Kingston as Team Del Rio went on to lose the match to Team Mysterio. Reks was then moved into a feud with Chris Masters, defeating him once on SmackDown and twice on WWE Superstars. On January 30, 2011, Reks made his Royal Rumble debut as he entered the match as the sixteenth entrant, but was eliminated from the match in only 34 seconds by CM Punk and the New Nexus. Reks was involved in another dark battle royal at Wrestlemania 27. Reks participated in and lost a World Heavyweight Title No. 1 Contendership 20 Man Battle Royal. His last in ring television performance for five months would be beating JTG on Superstars.

Teaming with Curt Hawkins (2011"2012)

On April 26, Reks was drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2011 Supplemental Draft. After wrestling dark matches for a few months, Reks made his Raw debut in a backstage segment with Curt Hawkins, Wade Barrett and Alberto Del Rio. On the September 8 edition of Superstars, Reks made his in-ring return as he teamed with Hawkins to defeat Titus O'Neil and Percy Watson. Hawkins and Reks then began appearing on the fifth season of NXT, by attacking the Usos from behind on the September 27 episode NXT. Over the next two weeks on NXT, Hawkins and Reks faced the Usos in tag team matches, with Hawkins and Reks winning the first match and the Usos winning the second match. Reks made his singles return on October 16 losing to Yoshi Tatsu. Reks participated in a World Heavyweight Championship number 1 contender 41 man battle royal and the "All I Want For Christmas Battle Royal" and was eliminated in both. Hawkins and Reks would lose to The Usos once again on December 6. Reks and Hawkins would then lose a non-title match to the tag team champions Air Boom on the December 22 episode of Superstars. Hawkins and Reks would feud with the duo of Trent Barreta and Yoshi Tatsu from December 2011. Both teams would play pranks on each other, with Tatsu being locked in a closet and Reks' hands being superglued onto an Xbox controller. Hawkins and Reks would beat Barreta and Tatsu on the January 18, 2012 episode of NXT.

Hawkins and Reks would then settle into the role of NXT's troublemakers, tormenting NXT host Matt Striker on his lacklustre career and how they should be main-eventing NXT, even once going to the extent of assaulting him after a match. This forced Striker to appoint William Regal as NXT's prime authority figure on the February 29 episode of NXT. Regal would employ harsh measures to keep Hawkins and Reks in line, including threatening suspensions for bad behaviour and condemning them to janitorial duty, this caused them much frustration. On the March 21 episode of NXT Redemption, Striker was knocked out with chloroform by Johnny Curtis and Maxine, and then Striker was kidnapped (kayfabe) by unknown persons, later revealed to be Hawkins and Reks, who intended to blackmail Maxine into using her charms to get Regal to leave them alone. Unfortunately for Hawkins and Reks, Striker was rescued by Derrick Bateman and Kaitlyn. On the April 18 episode of NXT, the freed Striker confronted Hawkins and Reks about the kidnapping, and Hawkins admitted the crime. As punishment, Regal put Hawkins and Reks in a match against each other with Striker as referee and the loser of the match would be fired. Even though Reks won to supposedly save his job at the expense of Hawkins', Regal decided to fire Reks as well, sending the two troublemakers away from NXT.

However, Regal could not keep the duo away from NXT for long, as they managed to convince villainous higher authority figure John Laurinaitis to rehire them as NXT's security team on the May 9 episode of NXT. Hawkins and Reks would then continue to play the role of Laurinaitis' lackeys, confiscating anti-Laurinaitis signs at Over the Limit and attacking John Cena on the May 21 episode of Raw. Hawkins and Reks' association with Laurinaitis ended after Laurinaitis lost his job at No Way Out. On the final episode of the fifth season of NXT on June 13, Hawkins and Reks defeated Percy Watson and Derrick Bateman.

Hawkins and Reks would then engage in a one-sided feud with Ryback in July 2012. After both Hawkins and Reks lost singles matches to Ryback on SmackDown, Ryback defeated both of them in a handicap match at Money in the Bank. At Raw 1,000, Hawkins and Reks, along with Jinder Mahal, Drew McIntyre, Hunico and Camacho, attempted to ambush Kane to make a statement, but a returning Undertaker interrupted the attack and the Brothers of Destruction disposed of Hawkins and Reks. The duo would once again lose to Ryback on the August 6 episode of Raw.

After being told by SmackDown General Manager Booker T to "step it up", Hawkins and Reks debuted a stripper gimmick on the August 17 episode of SmackDown while squashing a jobber tag team. A week later, Reks asked for his release as he intended to retire from wrestling to spend more time with his family; he and WWE parted ways on August 21, thus ending the team.

In other media

Reks started a YouTube channel called TheRekkingCrew and created his first series called GET PWND which involved himself playing Halo Reach and "pwning" people over Xbox Live, he also started a contest where viewers would work out a code in order to enter his chat room and play Halo Reach with him.

Reks, together with Curt Hawkins, created an animated YouTube series called MidCard Mafia in 2011, that garnered over 54,000 views on YouTube in 3 days and trended worldwide on Twitter the night of its debut. Due to an oversight whereby Hawkins and Reks did not obtain permission from WWE management to launch the show, they cancelled the series and removed the uploaded shows.

Personal life

Gabe Tuft has been married to his wife, Priscilla Tuft since July 2002. They have one daughter, Mia, who was born in November 2011.

After Tuft retired from WWE in 2012, he was asked to speak to a class of special education students at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa. Tuft spoke about career options, the importance of having a life plan and following one's heart not only professionally but in all matters. In 2013, Tuft partnered with the Dream Factory to fulfill a wish of a young man who has dermatomyositis. Tuft and his wife worked closely with the Dream Factory as well as several local business in his community to allow Jonothan O'Mally to visit Tuft for a 3-day weekend, as his wish. The weekend included several activities including a trip to Great America, a free dinner from Guy Fieri at Johnny Garlics, and private go kart racing at Driven Raceway in Rohnert Park. On September 20, 2013, Tuft announced that he had been asked to run for election as a California Senator.

In wrestling

• Finishing moves
  • Big Kahuna (Springboard moonsault) " 2008"2009
  • Burning Hammer (Backbreaker rack dropped into a DDT) " 2009"2012
  • Killjoy (Overhead gutwrench backbreaker rack dropped into a DDT) " 2012
  • Springboard dropkick " 2009

• Signature moves
  • Big boot
  • Clothesline
  • Diving crossbody
  • Dropkick
  • Elbow drop
  • Elevated gutbuster
  • Flapjack
  • Forearm club
  • Multiple suplex variations
    • Belly to back
    • Inverted
    • Inverted slam
  • Powerslam
  • Reverse STO, sometimes into the turnbuckles or while lifting the opponent
  • Shoulder block
  • Sliding punch to the opponent's midsection
  • Stinger splash

• Nicknames
  • "The X-Factor"
  • "The Dreadlocked Demolition Man"
  • "T. Reks"

• Entrance themes
  • "Hang Ten" by Non-Stop Music (FCW / WWE; 2008"2010)
  • "In the Middle of it Now" by Disciple (WWE; September 8, 2011"August 22, 2012; Used while teaming with Curt Hawkins)
  • "Tyrannosaurus" by Jim Johnston (WWE; 2011"August 22, 2012)

Championships and accomplishments

• Florida Championship Wrestling
  • FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • FCW Florida Tag Team Championship (1 time) " Johnny Curtis (1)

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI ranked him #180 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2010

• World Wrestling Entertainment
  • Slammy Award For Most Menacing Haircut (2010)