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WWE Champion Willingly Gives Up Title

By Lyle Kilbane • Published Dec 03, 2025 07:10 EST
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One WWE champion has handed over their title belt as they try to take their career in a whole new direction.

There have been plenty of instances in WWE history of a champion being forced to give up a championship due to injury or even in one famous case, losing their smile.

Seth Rollins was the most recent victim, vacating the World Heavyweight Championship due to a shoulder injury apparently suffered during his Crown Jewel match with Cody Rhodes. Rollins is targeting a WrestleMania return and is sure to have current champion CM Punk firmly in his sights when he is back in the ring.

What’s less common in WWE is a champion willingly giving up a title because they want to look elsewhere for gold. But that’s what happened on the December 2nd edition of NXT.

WWE Crowns New NXT Tag Team Champion

DarkState’s Dion Lennox and Osiris Griffin captured the NXT Tag Team Championship from The Hardys at Halloween Havoc. Since then, the pairing has only defended the title once, retaining their gold against Je’Von Evans and Leon Slater at Gold Rush. But now one of them has given up their gold.

Dion Lennox addressed his DarkState teammates on NXT and revealed that, as he was heading into the Iron Survivor Challenge match at Deadline with a shot at the NXT Championship on the line, he was giving up his half of the tag team title. Lennox left it to his teammates to decide what to do with it, with Cutler James insisting that Saquon Shugars hold the gold with Griffin.

And that’s exactly how the NXT Tag Team Championship changed hands in a dimly lit backstage segment.