Sesugh Uhaa aka Apollo Crews was born on August 22, 1987 in Sacramento, California, and was raised in Atlanta, Georgia and early on fell in love with professional wrestling, becoming a fan of performers such as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock and especially Kurt Angle. He went to a military high school and began practicing various sports, including amateur wrestling, soccer, football and track and field, as both an outlet and a way to "get away from the military life".While weight training in high school, he was given the nickname "Uhaa Nation", when his coach noted that he was "as strong as a single nation".

After finishing college, Uhaa quickly got a job in order to pay for his professional wrestling training. He began training at the age of 21 under Mr. Hughes at his World Wrestling Alliance 4 (WWA4) promotion's training school in Atlanta. After making his wrestling debut under the ring name Uhaa Nation on August 17, 2009, he spent over a year working mainly for small promotions on the Georgian independent circuit, but also made trips to Houston, Texas-based Pro Wrestling Alliance (PWA) and Phenix City, Alabama-based Great Championship Wrestling (GCW), often working with fellow WWA4 trainee AR Fox.

On September 9, 2011, Uhaa took part in a tryout seminar held by the Dragon Gate USA promotion. He was immediately signed for appearances for not only Dragon Gate USA, but also its parent promotion, Dragon Gate, and close affiliates Evolve and Full Impact Pro (FIP). He made his wrestling debut for Dragon Gate USA later that same day, defeating Aaron Draven in a squash match. Uhaa made his pay-per-view debut the following day at Untouchable 2011, where he answered Brodie Lee's open challenge and dominated him, before Lee left the ringside area. The following day at the Way of the Ronin 2011 pay-per-view, Uhaa defeated Facade, Flip Kendrick and Sugar Dunkerton in a four-way match. On October 29, Uhaa made his first appearance for Full Impact Pro, when he defeated Jake Manning for FIP Florida Heritage Championship. Uhaa then entered a storyline, where different Dragon Gate USA stables tried to recruit him to join them. On November 30, Uhaa made his Japanese debut for Dragon Gate, during an event produced by the villainous Blood Warriors stable. Uhaa defeated Kotoka in a match that lasted 99 seconds, establishing himself as the newest member of Blood Warriors in the process. For the rest of the tour, which lasted until December 25, Uhaa worked alongside the Blood Warriors stable, winning every one of his matches. At the end of 2011, Dragon Gate USA named Uhaa the Best Newcomer of the year. He also finished second behind Daichi Hashimoto in Wrestling Observer Newsletter's award category for Rookie of the Year.

Upon his return to the United States, Uhaa made his debut for Evolve on January 14, 2012, with a win over Pinkie Sanchez. When the following March, Akira Tozawa took over the leadership of Blood Warriors from Cima and renamed the group Mad Blankey, Uhaa Nation followed along to the renamed stable. On March 29, Uhaa made his first appearance representing Mad Blankey, when he and stablemates Akira Tozawa and BxB Hulk defeated Ronin (Chuck Taylor, Johnny Gargano and Rich Swann) and D.U.F. (Arik Cannon, Pinkie Sanchez and Sami Callihan) in a three-way trios match. However, during the match Uhaa suffered a knee injury, which, according to his physician, could sideline him for up to a year. Uhaa returned to the ring on February 1, 2013, at Full Impact Pro's Everything Burns iPPV, where he successfully defended the FIP Florida Heritage Championship against Chasyn Rance. On July 28 at Enter the Dragon 2013, Dragon Gate USA's fourth anniversary event, Uhaa suffered his first pinfall loss in the promotion, when he was defeated by Anthony Nese. On August 9, Uhaa lost the FIP Florida Heritage Championship to Gran Akuma.

In October 2014, Uhaa took part in a WWE tryout camp, resulting in him being offered a developmental contract. Starting on December 31, 2014, multiple sources reported that Uhaa had come to terms on a contract with WWE. Uhaa reported to the WWE Performance Center, the home of their NXT developmental brand, on April 6, 2015. WWE officially announced Uhaa as part of a new class of NXT recruits in a press release on April 13. Uhaa made his first televised appearance on the May 6 episode of NXT, signing an NXT contract in a segment with William Regal. Uhaa started working NXT house shows the following month, retaining the Uhaa Nation ring name.

On August 5, 2015 it was announced that Uhaa, now working under the new ring name "Apollo Crews", would be making his televised NXT debut on August 22 at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn. Crews made his debut at the August 13 tapings, which would air after NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, defeating Martin Stone. At NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, Crews defeated Tye Dillinger in his official debut match. At the October 8 tapings of NXT, Crews won a battle royal to become the #1 contender to the NXT Championship. Crews received his title shot against Finn Bálor on October 22, winning the match, but not the title, by disqualification, when he was attacked by Baron Corbin, who held a grudge against Crews for eliminating him from the #1 contender's battle royal. The rivalry between Crews and Corbin led to a match at NXT TakeOver: London, which Corbin won. Crews had a small feud with Elias Samson after he saved Johnny Gargano from Elias' assault on the March 23, 2016, NXT. The two would subsequently have a match on the April 6 NXT, which was won by Crews.

On April 4, 2016, Crews made his main roster debut on Raw, defeating Tyler Breeze. Crews then entered a feud with the Social Outcasts, defeating each member of the stable, culminating in a match on the April 18 Raw. Prior to the match, Crews agreed to join the Social Outcasts if any member of the stable could defeat him. As part of the agreement, the Social Outcasts also agreed to leave Crews alone if he won the match. Crews defeated Heath Slater to end the feud. Crews suffered his first loss on the main roster on the May 23 Raw, losing to Chris Jericho in a Money in the Bank qualifying match. The loss was blamed on Sheamus' pre-match attack on Crews, starting a feud between the two. Crews and Sheamus faced off at Money in the Bank, where Crews was victorious.

On July 19, 2016, Crews was drafted to the SmackDown brand in the WWE draft. On the July 26, 2016 SmackDown, Crews won a battle royal to earn a spot in a six-pack challenge to determine the #1 contender to Dean Ambrose's WWE World Championship at SummerSlam. Later that same episode, Crews was defeated by Dolph Ziggler in the six-pack challenge, which also included AJ Styles, Baron Corbin, Bray Wyatt and John Cena. The following week, Crews defeated Corbin and Kalisto to become the #1 contender to the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Crews received his title shot on August 21 at SummerSlam, but was defeated by The Miz. Crews defeated The Miz in a non-title match at the 2016 Tribute to the Troops, which led to a title match on the December 20 SmackDown, where The Miz retained his title.

As part of Superstar Shake-up, Crews was drafted back to the SmackDown brand. At Super ShowDown on June 7, Crews unsuccessfully competed in the 51-man battle royal. At SummerSlam, Crews faced Buddy Murphy, but the match quickly ended in a disqualification loss for Crews after interference from Erick Rowan. In August, Crews competed in the King of the Ring tournament, where was defeated by Andrade in the first round. At Crown Jewel on October 31, Crews wrestled in a 20-man battle royal, which was ultimately won by Humberto Carrillo.

On the April 6, 2020 episode of Raw, Crews was traded to Raw, where he was defeated by Aleister Black in his most competitive match to date lasting 27 minutes. On the April 20 episode of Raw, Crews defeated MVP to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match. However, he injured his knee in a United States Championship match against Andrade the following week, ruling him out of the ladder match. On the May 18 episode of Raw, Crews returned in a tag team match with Kevin Owens to defeat Andrade and Angel Garza. On the May 25 episode of Raw, Crews defeated Andrade to win the United States Championship, his first ever championship in WWE. At Backlash, Crews once again retained his championship against Andrade after an assist by Kevin Owens, ending their feud.

On the June 15, 2020 episode of Raw, Crews was approached by MVP, who offered him his services stating that he could help him reach the top as United States Champion, but Crews turned him down. The following week on Raw, MVP again tried to convince Crews to join him, but Crews again declined and was attacked by MVP's allies, Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin. After defeating Crews in a non-title match, MVP unveiled a new United States Championship design and declaring himself as the "real" United States Champion. This set up a match between the two at The Horror Show at Extreme Rules; however, Crews was absent at the event, due to supposedly testing positive for COVID-19, with MVP unofficially declaring himself the new United States Champion. On the August 3 episode of Raw, Crews returned from hiatus and retained his title against MVP, taking the new title design in the process. At SummerSlam Crews successfully retained his United States Championship against MVP.

As part of the 2020 Draft in October, Crews was drafted back to the SmackDown brand. On the December 25 episode of SmackDown, Crews helped Big E win the WWE Intercontinental Championship by preventing then-holder Sami Zayn from escaping the arena. On the January 8, 2021 episode of SmackDown, Big E issued an open challenge for the Intercontinental Championship, which Crews immediately accepted and lost. On the February 19 episode of SmackDown, after losing to Shinsuke Nakamura, Crews attacked Big E, who was at ringside, turning heel for the first time in his career.

Crews would then debut a new character where he declared himself Nigerian royalty, began to speak with a Nigerian accent in his promos in order to "embrace who he really is" and began coming to the ring with a spear.On March 21 at Fastlane, Crews failed to win the Intercontinental Championship from Big E. On the April 2 episode of SmackDown, Crews challenged Big E at WrestleMania 37 in a Nigerian Drum Fight for the title, which Big E accepted. On the second night of the event on April 11, he defeated Big E with the help of Commander Azeez to win the Intercontinental Championship. Crews then successfully retained his title against Kevin Owens on the April 23 episode of SmackDown,against Owens, Big E, and Sami Zayn in a fatal four-way match on the May 21 episode of SmackDown, and against Owens again on the June 4 episode of SmackDown. On the August 13 episode of SmackDown, Crews lost the title to King Nakamura, ending his reign at 124 days. He failed to win the title in a rematch on the September 24 episode of SmackDown.

As part of the 2021 Draft, both Crews and Azeez were drafted to the Raw brand. He participated in a battle royal at Survivor Series on November 21 and challenged Damian Priest for the United States Championship on the November 29 episode of Raw, but failed to win both.

After spending most of the year relegated to Main Event, both Crews and Azeez were sent to NXT. On the June 7, 2022 episode of NXT, Crews returned as a face and dropped the Nigerian character, confronting NXT Champion Bron Breakker. He made his in-ring return to the brand on the same night, where he and Solo Sikoa defeated Carmelo Hayes and Grayson Waller.On July 5 at The Great American Bash, Crews cut a promo on who he should face in NXT, but was interrupted by Giovanni Vinci. This led to a match between the two on the following episode of NXT, which Crews lost. Crews soon began a feud with Grayson Waller, and on the August 30 episode of NXT, Crews lost to Waller after he was poked in the eye. On the October 11 episode of NXT, a casket match between the two was made official for Halloween Havoc. At the event on October 22, Crews defeated Waller. On December 10 at Deadline, Crews challenged Breakker for the NXT Championship in a losing effort. He then engaged in a feud with Carmelo Hayes, leading to a two out of three falls match on February 4, 2023, at Vengeance Day, where Crews lost to Hayes in two straight falls. After the match, he was attacked by his former ally Dabba-Kato, originally Commander Azeez, who defeated Crews on the March 14 episode of NXT. On the April 18 episode of NXT, Crews wrestled his final match on the brand, where he was defeated by Dijak.

As part of the 2023 WWE Draft, Crews was drafted back to the Raw brand, where he currently wrestles today.