NXT Season 1 Elimination #4: Darren Young
The fourth individual to be eliminated from NXT was “Mr. No Days Off” Darren Young. Young was represented by WWE pro CM Punk. In his first match on NXT, Young would lose to David Otunga in 37 seconds. Not exactly the strong start you’d want for a show like this. Throughout the first season, Young would amass a record of seven wins and four losses. However, this decent win-loss record couldn’t save Young from elimination.
Young would be eliminated on the Week 13 edition of NXT via the WWE Pro voting system. As the story goes with this cast of superstars, Young would debut on the WWE main roster as a member of The Nexus. Young would later be exiled from the group in 2011 after failing to pick up a victory over John Cena.
In April 2013, Darren Young would partner with fellow NXT rookie alumnus Titus O’Neil to form The Prime Time Players. The pairing would find moderate success but would disband on January 31, 2014, following O’Neil attacking Mr. No Days Off. Three months afterward, Young would find himself with a torn ACL in his left knee following a match with Fandango.
Eventually, in January 2015, Young and O’Neil would reunite to fend off an attack from the recently debuted Konnor and Viktor of The Ascension. This would lead to an eventual WWE Tag Team Championship reign when Young and O’Neil defeated The New Day to win the titles at Money In The Bank 2015. However, they would drop the belts back to The New Day at SummerSlam that same year.
In the most interesting turn of events for Young, the superstar would be situated with Bob Backlund as his protege. This would lead to the “Make Darren Young Great Again” mantra – which led many to ask when Darren Young was ever great. Young would pursue the WWE Intercontinental Championship, but would never pick up the belt. In January 2017, Young suffered an arm injury that required surgery. Sadly, on October 29, 2017, Young would be released from his WWE contract.
After being released from his contract, Young would return to the independent circuit where he would compete under his legal name – “Fred Rosser.” Nowadays, you can find Rosser competing for various independent promotions. Primarily, Rosser has been wrestling under the NWA and NJPW banners the past year. His most recent match (as of this writing) took place on June 18, 2021, where he and Adrian Quest would lose to Barrett Brown and Bateman on NJPW STRONG.
