DarkState Turns On Saquon Shugars After Losing NXT Tag Team Title Match

Saquon Shugars has been kicked out of DarkState.

Headlining the May 19th episode of WWE NXT on The CW was an NXT Tag Team Championship bout. Vanity Project (Brad Baylor & Ricky Smokes) put the titles on the line against DarkState (Saquon Shugars & Dion Lennox).

Lennox and Shugars had not been seeing eye to eye, and fellow DarkState members Osiris Griffin and Cutler James told them that if they could not get the job done in the title bout, something would have to change with their group.

Shugars made a blind tag into the match, and he ended up losing the bout when Smokes trapped him in a cradle pin.

Post-match, Griffin and James attacked Shugars, and it was soon revealed that Lennox was in on the plan because he targeted Shugars as well. Shugars attempted to fight back, but DarkState put him through the commentary table with an alley-oop bomb.

DarkState formed in 2025, and the original incarnation had two runs as NXT Tag Team Champions.