I know what you’re thinking after watching that video: That is a lot of candy!
After predicting it for weeks, my broken clock was finally right. DarkState, as we knew it, is no longer a thing. No, they didn’t break up, but like Destiny’s Child in the year 2000, the quartet became a trio. Which begs the question: Is Saquan Shugars destined for bigger things as a solo artist or will he go the way of LaTavia Robinson and LeToya Tuckett?
Let’s start from the top. Saquan and Dion Lennox got on the same page. They said they worked together on a game plan to snatch the tag titles from Vanity Project. This was their night! However:
Ominous, right? If they didn’t win tonight, a change was going to come.
Well, they indeed loss and a change game.
It wasn’t just that they took the L though. Dion and Saquan looked good together. They had the champs on the ropes—pun intended—multiple times. Their loss came down to miscommunication:
A missed blind tag spelled their demise.
This was clearly premeditated. As we wait with bated breath for the backstory and machinations, the funny thing is Saquan was the one guy in the group with actual personality. This bodes well for his singles career and makes me worry about the three men he’s leaving behind. Dion has the look but all the charisma of Principal Skinner during a visit from Superintendent Chalmers. Cutler James and Osiris Griffin may as well be Grand Theft Auto NPCs.
For this upcoming feud to really cook, all three of these cats have to find their voices. They need to differentiate themselves from one another while establishing what this group will be now vs. what it was then. Saquan won’t have that problem. If anything, he should flourish as a solo act.
DarkState is still around but as of now, it feels effectively dead with its most interesting member on the outs.
NXT can be a very trope-y wrestling show but on a night where the actual wrestling impressed shined, the tropes feel less grating. I want the championship pictures to be more than a bunch of people telling one another why they’re more deserving than the other but if those championship matches deliver, then unlike my morning multivitamin, that’s a little easier to swallow.
What say you, Cagesiders?