The Prime Time Players

The Prime Time Players (also referred to as Titus O’Neil & Darren Young) are a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Darren Young & Titus O'Neil and compete on the Smackdown brand of World Wrestling Entertainment.

NXT background
Darren was initially a member of The Nexus as a competitor from WWE NXT (Season 1). He was managed by CM Punk who was a heel at the time. He had refused to join the Straight Edge Society, and seems to have turned against Punk since Punk was also attacked when Nexus attacked Cena under the guidance of the victor of season 1, Wade Barrett. Darren was not present when Punk formed the New Nexus, having been kicked out of the group by Wade for losing matches.

Titus was a competitor on WWE NXT (Season 1), a face managed by Zack Ryder. He was the first to be eliminated, and did join the rest of the season 2 rookies in following their predecessors' example by attacking their pros when Kaval won the finale.

Feud (2011)
The two got a second chance at TV when they were brought onto NXT Redemption under new pros. Darren was managed by Chavo Guerrero and Titus by Hornswoggle. Titus O'Neil was for a long time, a face, pairing with Percy Watson. Darren Young was a consistently a heel for much of the show.

The pair initially feuded, exchanging victories back and forth. Eventually, Titus O'Neil made a heel turn by insulting the crowd, and after defeating Percy Watson, won Darren Young's respect, and Titus also began respecting Darren in turn.

Formation (2012)
Young and O'Neil first tagged together on January 31, 2012 on NXT against Alex Riley and Percy Watson.

Smackdown (2012-present)
On the April 18 episode of NXT, Young and O'Neil were signed by John Laurinaitis to the SmackDown brand. The team made their debut for the brand on the April 20 episode of SmackDown with a victory over The Usos. Backstage they gloated over the demoted Teddy Long, insulting him for not having the vision to draft them earlier. Booker T concurred with Laurinaitis (an oddity, as he had fought for Team Teddy against Team Johnny at WrestleMania) that the pair were interesting and should have been on the show some time ago.

Also see

 * NXT
 * Darren Young
 * Titus O'Neil