WWE Officially Confirms New Champion After Top Star Handed Title

This week’s episode of WWE NXT saw a top star relinquish his title. The 27-year-old handed his belt to another member of his faction to pursue other goals. Shortly after this, the Stamford-based promotion officially confirmed that Saquon Shugars is now the new NXT Tag Team Champion.

A backstage segment showed Dion Lennox speaking to his faction with his NXT Tag Team Championship belt in his hand. He stated that he is heading for the Iron Survivor Challenge and wants to bring singles gold to DarkState. However, at the same time, he can’t be lackluster in the tag team division.

Stating this, he asked Cutler James and Saquon Shugars to take the belt from him. James deemed Shugars as the more deserving wrestler for the title and asked him to take it and lead the faction. Not long after, WWE officially replaced Lennox with Shugars in the graphic for the championship on its official website.

Screengrab from WWE's official website [Image Credits: WWE.com]

DarkState is currently in its second run as the NXT Tag Team Champions. They had lost the titles to The Hardy Boyz at NXT vs TNA Showdown, and regained them at Halloween Havoc. It would be interesting to see how Orisis Griffin and Saquon Shugars fare with the gold.

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Dion Lennox challenges former WWE NXT Champion

Shortly after Dion Lennox gave his title to Saquon Shugars, Oba Femi crossed paths with them backstage. Lennox and Femi had a verbal spat in which the DarkState member reminded The Ruler that he had ignored him when he was new to the developmental brand.

The 27-year-old told the former NXT Champion that while he didn’t think Lennox was Championship material, he was very close to the title now. Cutler James pitched in and said that Lennox was handpicked for the Iron Survivor Challenge by Grand Slam Champion John Cena.

Femi said that while Lennox had come a long way, he shouldn’t get ahead of himself. However, the former NXT Tag Team Champion said that he will knock The Ruler’s teeth down if the two of them compete for the NXT Championship. It would be interesting to see whether both Femi and Lennox can win their matches at Deadline and face each other.