D'Lo debuted at the 1996 Survivor Deries when he accompanied Faarooq to the ring as a bodyguard for the newly formed, Nation of Domination, His biggest moment as a bodyguard was probably getting piledrived on a car by Ahmed Johnson on the first episode of Shotgun Saturday Night in January 1997. Faarooq fired all NoD members in June 1997, but D'Lo and D'Lo started to wrestle. D'Lo wasn't in any big feuds at the time, but was just mostly a Nation lackey. One of his weirdest things he done was at 1998 Royal Rumble match he attacked all his Nod allies for no reason. D'Lo won his first WWE gold when he defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley for the European Title on a July episode of RAW with help from the Rock. D'Lo held onto the belt for two months until losing it to X-Pac in September, but D'Lo regained it a couple of weeks later in October, but lost it a couple of weeks later back to X-Pac at the October 1998 PPV: In Your House: Judgement Day.

D'Lo and Marc Henry started to tear up the tag team scene in 1998 and 1999, and were in a few tag team matches in 1998 and 1999, but never won the gold, even with help from their new manager , Ivory. D'Lo's single career again started to rise. He won the European Title a third time, when he defeated Mideon for the belt at the July PPV: Fully Loaded, and 2 days later he won the Intercontinental belt from Jeff Jarrett. At Summerslam he defended both of his belts against Jarrett, and Henry turned on him and D'Lo lost both of his belts. The next month at the September PPV: Unforgiven, D'Lo won the European Title from Marc Henry, He held onto it for a month before losing it to the British Bulldog on an October episode of Smackdown. D'Lo got a couple of rematches of the European Title, but lost at them, but he still has his best days ahead of him with more great matches waiting for him.