DarkState kick out Saquon Shugars on WWE NXT
DarkState are now a trio.
The end of this week’s NXT saw Saquon Shugars & Dion Lennox fall to Vanity Project in a match for the NXT Tag Team titles. As the group grappled with their loss, Osiris Griffin and Cutler James turned their attention to a recovering Shugars and went in on the attack, with Lennox eventually joining in. Shugars briefly fought back but was cut off again as he was taken to the outside and powerbombed through the announce table. The closing moments of the show saw the remainder of DarkState standing tall over their former stablemate.
Later, WWE on social media shared footage of Shugars being helped to the back.
Shugars questioned Lennox’s motivations
DarkState had been teasing dissension for weeks, with Shugars upset that Lennox had seemingly prioritized opportunities for himself rather than the group as a whole. On last week’s show, Griffin and James told the two that they needed to be on the same page as they got the group a Tag Team title match, but they would be the two to challenge Ricky Smokes & Brad Baylor.
The group made their debut as a quartet in February of 2025 and have held the NXT Tag Team titles twice, including defeating the Hardy Boyz at Halloween Havoc last year. Lennox and Griffin were originally the champions, but in December Lennox relinquished his half to Shugars in order to focus on singles gold.
Bryan Rose is an editor from California that has been covering professional wrestling for well over a decade. He officially joined F4WOnline as an editor in 2017.