WWE Releases Darren Young

WWE announced Sunday that Darren Young has been released from his contract.

The company put out a statement saying they’ve come to terms on Young’s release and wish him “the best” in all of his “future endeavors.”

First appearing as a Rookie on the debut season of NXT in 2010 — with CM Punk as his mentor — Young went on to be a part of The Nexus

After getting booted from the group later that year, Young bounced around on NXT before forming The Prime Time Players with January 2012. They joined the main roster in April 2012 as part of SmackDown.

After disbanding and a brief feud in 2014, The Prime Times Players reunited in February 2015 and subsequently captured the WWE Tag Team Championship from The New Day at Money in the Bank before splitting once again in February 2016 and subsequently starting a feud between the two again.

When that ran its course, Bob Backlund agreed to be Young’s life coach, in a campaign to “Make Darren Young Great Again.” Young got a small a push out of it, but things came to halt in January 2017 when he suffered an arm injury while teaming with Sin Cara in a WWE Main Event match against The Shining Stars.

He got cleared to return to the ring in August and resumed working house shows. Young, however, did not return to television.

Young’s release comes as a bit of a shock as he attended a Los Angeles Clippers game with The Miz, Enzo Amore and Becky Lynch last night as part of “WWE Night” to promote an upcoming Raw at the STAPLES Center.

The @WWE squad @mikethemiz, @BeckyLynchWWE, @real1 and @DarrenYoungWWE are in the house tonight! #LACWWENight pic.twitter.com/DFbfHJD9jy

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) October 29, 2017

WWE Superstars @mikethemiz, @BeckyLynchWWE, @real1 and @DarrenYoungWWE made this young fan's year before @WWE Night at the @LAClippers game. pic.twitter.com/pgdQZpPcml

— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) October 29, 2017

Awesome time @LAClippers game helping promote Dec4th @wwe #raw #ClipperMania was lit and what an honor meeting @DocRivers 🙏🏽 #BLOCKTHEHATE pic.twitter.com/h9lRwBdNGb

— nodaysoff D-Young (@DarrenYoungWWE) October 29, 2017