Which faction was Eric Young in during his first WWE run?

Eric Young’s days as the leader of Violent by Design ended as the 42-year-old was stabbed to death by Deaner. This, of course, was done to effectively remove Young from Impact Wrestling as the former Impact World Champion heads back to WWE.

According to PWInsider, Eric is WWE-bound, with the outlet reporting that Paul Levesque (aka Triple H’s) takeover of WWE “set the stage for Young's return as he was the person who initially brought Young into WWE NXT.”

For those wondering, the star jumped to the black and gold brand after parting ways with Impact Wrestling in 2016. The real-life Jeremy Fritz formed SAnitY, a villainous stable also featuring Nikki Cross and former WWE stars Killian Dane and Alexander Wolfe, in Triple H’s version of NXT.

SAnitY proved to be a dominant force in WWE’s developmental territory and paved the way for Young and Wolfe to capture the NXT Tag Team Championship.

The stable also competed in the first-ever NXT exclusive WarGames pay-per-view event alongside the Undisputed Era and the short-lived team of Roderick Strong and the Authors of Pain.

Eric Young and the rest of SAnitY (minus Nikki Cross) were brought to the main roster as part of the Superstar Shake-up on April 17, 2018. The trio made their main roster debut on the June 19, 2018, episode of SmackDown Live by attacking The Usos.

The group, however, failed to replicate its NXT success due to ill-advised booking decisions at the time. Young was drafted to Monday Night RAW as part of another Superstar Shake-up, effectively ending his leadership of the group. He was eventually released from his WWE contract in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 budget cuts.

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Deaner stabs Eric Young to 'death' on Impact

The December 1, 2022, episode of Impact Wrestling on AXS TV saw several shocking events, including the 'death' of Eric Young. The promotion aired a vignette for Young’s final confrontation with protégé Deaner during the latest taping.

In the video package, filmed in Nashville, the duo was seen having a conversation. Young asked Deaner to recall his pledge of allegiance to Violent by Design before the two jumped on each other to grab a knife placed on their table.

After a lot of back-and-forth action, Deaner finally got the upper hand on his mentor, who asked him to “eliminate the sickness.” Deaner told the boss they could fix this, but Young insisted only he could get the job done, prompting the “design” to kill the “designer.”

If the reports are indeed true, it remains to be seen if and when Eric Young will return to WWE.