After officially winning the biggest prize in NXT on Week 1 of Spring Breakin’, the NXT Championship, you would think Trick Williams would want to celebrate his big win and make a spectacle of his big moment, right?
Yes, and technically, that very much did happen, but first, Trick Willie wanted to give credit where credit is due, and thank one of the performers who helped him to get where he is today: the “Mad Dragon” himself, Ilja Dragunov.
“Ayo, check it out; let’s get down to business. I talked about this, I dreamt about this, I prayed for this, we all wanted this, Trick Williams is your new NXT Champion. Yo check it out, check it out, there’s a lot of people who helped me get right here to this moment, a lot of people who I could thank right now, but there’s one person I’m going to focus on tonight, and that’s Ilja Dragunov,” Trick Williams declared on NXT.
“As you all know, me and Ilja got in this ring, we went to war multiple times, he pushed me to levels I didn’t know was there. Ilja Dragunov, thank you for everything you’ve done for me and my career. Straight up, thank you for everything you’ve done for NXT, and I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say Ilja Dragunov, do your thing, dog, RAW has got a good one.
“But as for NXT, we’re entering a new era, and I’ve been think of this for a long, long time, I think we’re gonna call this era the ‘Whoop That Era!’ And I guarantee, in this ‘Whoop That Era,’ we’ll continue to break records, and we will continue to make history.”
Now granted, technically, the man most responsible for Williams’ success is probably Carmelo Hayes, with Shawn Michaels a close second at worst and maybe even tied for the first spot overall. Still, Dragunov was Willaims’ first big feud as a singles star away from Hayes, and while they didn’t work at Stand & Deliver, they were the perfect bridge feud to end the last era of NXT and usher in the “Whoop That Era,” which opened up with a segment with Lash Legend centered around Hershey’s candy bars. That’s… something, right?
Trick Williams is proud of his NXT history with Carmelo Hayes.
While Trick Williams didn’t use his promo time on NXT to promote Carmelo Hayes, he was incredibly complimentary on The Bump, where he praised his former friend for their incredible efforts in 2024 together.
“Man, we made history. We broke records all in the same night, and the thing is, nobody saw this coming. Nobody knew that Trick Williams was gonna rise to the occasion, man. God just had a plan right here,” Trick Williams explained via Fightful. “As great as the moment is, to have that with the man that I used to call my brother, I hate it have to end like this, but it is what it is, man. It’s cool that, in the history books, when it goes down, they’re gonna say, ‘Hey, who had the biggest attendance ever in an NXT match?’ They’ll say Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes. Until the next PLE, when we break that one.”
Though Williams and Hayes may no longer be friends, as their feud ended with a major steel cage match shortly after the former secured the win at Stand & Deliver, in the end, Trick is proud of their work together, and it helped him become the performer he is today.
“Everything, man. That rapport, y’all saw the way the whole arena was jumping [when I won the title]. That’s because I have a rapport with that audience. They’ve seen me grow for three years almost, and that all started being alongside of Carmelo Hayes,” Trick Williams said via Fightful. “When I first got there, Carmelo was the man. He just won the Breakout Tournament, and it was my job to make Carmelo Hayes look as good as possible. I took my job very seriously. By doing that, the harder I went for Carmelo Hayes, the more people got to see me, like, ‘I kind of like this guy.’ It just all worked in my favor. It wasn’t intentional, I was just doing my job, trying to help Carmelo Hayes. Me doing my job so hard really helped me build that rapport with that audience, and here we are today.”
Could Williams and Hayes eventually link back up on the main roster? Frankly, that could and maybe should be the route WWE takes things in, depending on how things shake out. But in the end, if they do link up once more, as either friends or foes, Hayes will have the experience of the “Whoop that Era” behind his back.
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