For the past several weeks, tensions have risen between Dion Lennox and Saquon Shugars of DarkState. But the cause of their issues goes way further back than that. Last winter, Lennox went off on a singles run.
He had an impressive showing in the Men’s Iron Survivor Challenge and was a part of the seven-man ladder match for the NXT Championship in February. Holding his own in singles and multi-man matches, he seems to have gained a lot of fans.
But one of those fans hasn’t been Shugars. He thinks that this singles run is for himself instead of DarkState. That has led to the tension between them. On the May 12, 2026 episode of NXT, Cutler James and Osiris Griffin had enough of their arguing.
They said that the following week, they would face the Vanity Project for the NXT Tag Team Championships together. Would they fold under the pressure or finally band together to take back the titles that once belonged to them?
Saquon Shugars Gets Ejected after a Vanity Project Retention
DarkState has had two reigns with the NXT Tag Team Championships. Their first reign, lasting 44 days, was ended by the Hardy Boyz. They regained the titles only 18 days later and held them for 122 days. The Vanity Project won them after Tony D’Angelo interfered with the match and has held them ever since.
Griffin and Lennox held them for the first reign and the first 38 days of the second reign. That was when Lennox relinquished his half to Shugars to begin his solo run, truly. Now the two have to work together to get their third run as tag champions, potentially.
The match started with both of them on the same page. They got in some offense on Brad Baylor and Ricky Smokes, and they got in offense on them in response. Several times, it looked like they were about to win the titles back, settle their differences, and be a dominant faction once again. However, that didn’t end up happening.
While Lennox was in the ring with Baylor and Smokes, Shugars tagged himself in. However, Lennox was unaware that had happened and continued as usual. He was in a position to pin Smokes and potentially win the match, but nothing happened.
The referee waved off the pinfall due to the tag that he had never seen. That led to Shugar’s delivering an elbow drop onto Smokes, giving him the pinfall.
After Smokes was kicked out, Lennox started yelling at him about what had just happened. That allowed Baylor to shove Lennox off the mat. Shugars tossed Baylor over as well, but that allowed Smokes to deliver the roll-up pinfall. The three-count was applied, and the Vanity Project retained their NXT Tag Team Championships.
Once again, disagreements between Lennox and Shugars led to a costly defeat. After the match, the members of DarkState gathered in the ring to talk about the loss.
Shugars remained on the ground, slamming his fists into the mat. After he stood up, Griffin and James clotheslined him and began to kick and punch him. It was clear that he was now out of DarkState. They turned to face Lennox, and it looked like he was done as well. But Lennox also ran to Shugars and started punching him.
Griffin and James rolled him out of the ring while Lennox began to clear off the announcer’s table. They tossed him to Lennox as he powerslammed him through the table. They stood over him as the show ended, showing everyone that the faction now only has three members in it.
Clearly in pain, he was helped to the back by the officials after the show. With Shugars officially out of DarkState, it’ll be interesting to see if this was the wrong decision or if his expulsion will make the faction stronger.
