Lil Yachty (@lilyachty) is a Grammy-nominated rapper who has been making appearances in WWE since March 2026. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Atlanta, GA to discuss his WWE debut against Baron Corbin at Sunday Night’s Main Event, how much he hurt after the match, his real life friendship with Trick Williams, if he wants to wrestle more matches, being a massive CM Punk fan growing up, being referenced by Eminem in a song, Michael Cole being a fan of his music, and more!
How are you feeling?
“I feel like sh*t. I feel like someone hit me with a bag of bricks.”
What hurts the most?
“My kneecaps. But when I woke up this morning, my shoulder felt dislocated. My kneecaps, my shins. I couldn’t even tighten my hand. As the day goes on, everything’s loosening up. When I first sat up in bed, it was the most pain I ever felt in my life. Shins, knees, whatever this is behind the kneecap, my back, my lower back. I feel like I’m wrestling for 20 years. Man, it’s bad.”
What was the spot that hurt the most?
“The clothesline. I came in, I hit him with the kendo, and I charged up to give him another one, and he gave me that clothesline. It’s so funny because my entire life, I wondered what a clothesline felt like, because JBL used to make them look so disgusting. The clothesline from hell looked so excruciating. So I always wondered what they felt like, and I always wanted to take one. I don’t think that was anywhere near JBL’s, but it hurt so much. When he first did it, I thought I wasn’t gonna be able to finish. I could not breathe at all; that was not selling. I think that was a receipt for me hitting him with that microphone, but I don’t know. It hurt so bad, bro. Then when he threw me at the barricade, that shit really hurt too.”
Did you realize how hard you had hit him with the mic?
“No, I didn’t know where the blood came from. I thought it was a kendo stick shot. I thought I hit him with the kendo. It’s so crazy, bro, because in the moment of it I do not remember. I remember it, but I don’t remember when [it happened]. I remember that clothesline. It was painful, and I remember being thrown to that barricade. But I didn’t see that blood. Honestly, it’s funny, I think about it. It was extremely overstimulating, the whole thing. From people screaming at you, to just trying not to get your ass kicked, it was just always stimulating.”
Did those five minutes feel really, really long or really, really short?
“Neither. It’s so weird. I don’t want to say flow state, but it felt like this weird space where nothing in the world existed. Time didn’t even exist until like the last 10 seconds to me. I didn’t look at the clock until like 13 seconds. Not once did I look at the clock because again, it’s overstimulating. I can’t even think about the time because I’m just trying to exist, and then my friends were f*cking with me. They kept screaming at me. It was a lot. Tyler was screaming at me f*cking front row. He kept shouting sh*t at me. I’ve done thousands of shows, and I’ve done hundreds of shows in that arena. It’s never felt like that ever.”
Baron Corbin hit you at the end of days. One of the most devastating finishers
“Twice, man, and his punches f*cking hurt. I’m telling you, he’s big.”
If you’re talking about having an opponent for your first match who’s going to take care of you, you couldn’t ask for someone better than Baron Corbin.
“Again, though, this wasn’t expected. I didn’t expect to come to WWE and wrestle. I want to be the best manager ever. That was my thing. I mean, not ever. All respect to Paul Heyman. I want to be the second-best manager ever. Wrestling was not in my cards. It’s not one match, not two matches. I was like, I’m gonna come manage and have fun. Maybe even try to be one of the brand managers, like be a SmackDown or Raw manager.”
So, if you didn’t want to ever have a match, how did this match come together?
“I think Triple H just wanted to see it. I really do. I would love to know actually. If I had to guess, I’m sure someone just threw it out there in the writers’ room, and I could just imagine Triple H just being wanting to see me get my ass beat or something, because I don’t even know how we got here.”
How did all this come about?
“So, eventually, I met Neil [who is in charge of the music for WWE]. I don’t know if I asked him if there was ever an opportunity somehow for me to do something, anything. Y’all need the floor scrubbing? Anything, I’d love to do it. He’s like, I’ll let you know. That went on for a long time, and then WrestleMania was coming around. He was like, ‘How would you like to walk out Trick for the entrance?’ I was like, ‘F*ck yeah!’ Then I was like, I’m so invested. I know what it’s like when a celebrity walks out or does something randomly with WWE; IWC does not f*ck with it. So I said to them, ‘Hey, man, this opportunity is amazing. I would love to do it, but is there any way, I’m down to cover all my cost, whatever, if I could somehow make it make sense that I’m walking him out?’ I didn’t want to just pop up on WrestleMania. I was like, a couple SmackDowns before, could I come to a SmackDown and introduce our friendship? At the time, I didn’t know Trick. I had met him twice at a couple shows, but we didn’t have a relationship. I was like, is there some way? I wasn’t trying to insert myself in the story, but I was just like, can we make it make sense for me to walk him? Then it started with me and Trick on the phone and we talked for almost two hours.”
“I guess the idea came to him, he DM’d me and we got on the phone and we just instantly clicked. We talked up a million storylines, a million ideas, and then it started with the Instagram post. He invited me. I came, and I paid for my own flights on all that stuff. It was a few months before they ever started paying for the flights and stuff. But I was investing. I wanted to show them, hey, I really want to do this. Did the first one. I think they were like oh man, he can kind of talk on the mic. Did the second one. Okay, he’s kind of good at this. I was on time. I was there. I was diligent. Had no problems. WrestleMania came, and Bruce Prichard sat me down. The f*cking goat. I feel like it really is a dream for me because all these guys are just absolute legends. Bruce sat me down in rehearsals, first I thought I was in trouble. He pulled me aside and he was like, ‘You’re here more than I am. What would you say if you come on down and you be with the family?’ I was like, what? He offered me a contract, and I was just like, I actually did it. I can’t believe I actually did it. The goal you set, to achieve the goal is the goal. When he offered me a contract, I was like, wow, this is f*cking awesome.”
So at what point did you start actually training?
“About three months ago. I do everything to the extreme. I was damn near the process of buying a house in Orlando. I’m just that extreme, of just getting an opportunity, and really committing to it. But I also went to Orlando and kind of fell in love with that. I love it down there, and in this journey, I’ve met so many awesome people just long-term friendships that have elevated me and just pushed me in the direction I want to go in my life at this point.”
It seems like you’ve built a real friendship now with Trick Williams. When we pulled up to the house here, Trick drove you here.
“That is like my brother. That relationship, I couldn’t have paid for it. I couldn’t have asked for it. That was like dropped down from God. I couldn’t have asked for that friendship, man. That guy, he’s been the most positive influence on my life I’ve ever had, and I’ve always wanted an older brother like that. He’s really helped change my life for the better. Not only with the wrestling stuff and the opportunity, I’m grateful for that too. But off camera, just my health and training, and just the way he lives his life. I come from rap. It’s dark. We live a different life. I’m up all night. It’s a lot of drugs and women, and it’s just a different lifestyle. With Trick it is really routine, schedule, really healthy, really clean, on point, just a structured guy. Just being around him has really reshifted my brain in so many ways of life that he would never even know or understand because it’s just an image I haven’t had around being in studios with rappers and in the club or whatever. Just the way he lives has shifted me.”
If you were aware of how wrestling fans would feel about you going to wrestling, how did you think about your music fans? How did they feel about you being part of wrestling?
“Well, first off, I think wrestling fans in the beginning absolutely hated the fact that I joined at first.”
Yeah, you’ve really won them over.
“Oh man, I was just with Trick talking in the car. I was like, man, I can’t go anywhere. I have to stick around, bro. I’m just getting some love.”
Think you got another match in you?
“I think I got tons of matches.”
So you go from ‘I don’t want to wrestle ever’ to ‘give me more matches?’
“I didn’t want to wrestle. I just had no intentions of it. I’m the most unathletic person ever. Last night I can’t believe I did that, but that’s really three months of pure training. I had two-a-days, man. I was doing strength training and wrestling training two-a-days, man. I was really dedicated.”
How much have you had to dial back music?
“Almost all the way. I’m still recording. I would try to record after, but it was so tough because two-a-day wrestling training was really tough.”
How have your music fans reacted to this career shift in the wrestling?
“I think they’re just like, what? I think I’ve become this anomaly that could just do anything at this point, but I mean, from seeing the reaction from last night and this morning waking up, it’s everywhere.”
There’s a lot of people relying on you for work. Is there any fear if you go out there and break something and maybe you can’t perform?
“I wouldn’t say it’s a fear, but it’s a thought. I thought last night. I pray I didn’t break anything because injuries happen. I am the most unathletic person ever, and I’ve never injured myself ever because I don’t do anything. I’ve never done anything, so it’s like f*ck. I’m not Logan. Logan, if he breaks something, he’s gonna train every day.”
You love fashion, so you know a lot of eyes are going to be on you for your debut WWE match. How did you decide what you were going to wrestle in?
“So I have a deal with Nike, and my connection with Nike is airtight. I feel like WWE, and I feel like I know they don’t let a lot of logos, if any logos on TV. So Roman gets away with wearing Jordans. That’s it. Obviously, he’s the star. I got a Nike deal, a real one. So I’m like, I need to utilize it. That’s a sports company, this is my first sporty thing. I reached out to my rep, shout out Dylan Foster. When I had been training, when I first I went into Dicks or somewhere in Orlando, and I found these wrestling shoes, and they were Nike wrestling shoes, but they were just regular white, and I beat them to the ground. I was like, man, I was so comfortable in those shoes because I was training in them every day. I was like, these are the shoes I want to wrestle in, I was like, can I customize them? Yeah. So I made like a couple different cool pairs. I just settled on gold because Trick is gold and white, and I was like, I want to be aligned with him.”
I think the first one of the first moves we saw you do in the ring was the People’s Elbow. How did the People’s Elbow on Ricky Saints come together?
“Shout out to Ricky, man. I got nothing but love for Ricky. I’m not gonna lie. Ricky is a music head, I’m a music head, so we kind of bonded over our love for music, and he’s just dope, man. He’s a cool guy, but I don’t even remember how that [happened]. I was so nervous to do that because I really did not have any prep on that, and it looks so sh*t. But that was fun. All these moments, bro. I don’t have one moment I’m like, man, that sucked. Every time I go there, it is just like I look for all week to either leaving Thursday night or flying in Friday morning for SmackDown, bro. It is like the highlight. It’s just more fun than anything else I’m doing, and it only be a five-minute spot or ten minute or I’m only on TV for like two seconds, but all week I’m waiting for Friday. It’s just fun, bro. Those people are so great. Everyone there is just like this is family. So man, they’ve been with each other for years. I’m new, but they welcomed me. All the women, all the guys in the locker room. Then whenever we double tape and everyone is just so inviting and like it’s not like, oh, this rapper here. They don’t treat me like sh*t. Everyone, all the camera ops, just security. Everyone in Gorilla. Everyone, all the doctors, catering. Everyone is so nice, and everyone’s so cool, I’m so grateful to be a part of this thing.”
Who was your guy growing up?
“CM Punk. In high school, I used to draw the X’s on my hand, and I was going to tattoo them, and I just never did it. But I got so many pictures for me with these 2 X’s on my hand, and I was sober because of CM Punk for a long time until I became an adult. I didn’t do any drugs in high school. I didn’t drink. I didn’t do drugs. I was sober. You couldn’t influence me to do anything because of CM Punk. Punk was sober. I was sober. Punk is still sober, but man, he was my guy. Love Jeff Hardy, obviously. I loved Shad and JTG. I loved Cryme Tyme.”
When did you find out that Eminem had this line about you in a song?
“The second it came out. I wouldn’t call that a beef, cause I honestly was so grateful. He could have used anyone, but he said my name, and I really thought that was dope. I got love for Eminem. If I saw Eminem, I’d be like, ‘Thank you.'”
We have to talk about the gingerbread man. How did this idea get pitched to you?
“So funny, it was not supposed to work. I remember when me and Trick got in, we were like, man, y’all sure? But then we just tried to make the most of it. When I got the gingerbread shirt printed and we did the song, and we were really clowning him [Sami Zayn]. Funny enough, they didn’t actually pitch Gingerbread Man. That was something we said, because he was ginger. Just me and Trick clowning and calling him Gingerbread Man. Then I got the gingerbread cookies and we just had fun with it. Me and Trick, we always get on the phone or text and sh*t, be together and we just think of ideas. How we gonna say this? What we gonna do? We’ll spend the whole day in my dressing room just trying to figure out what, how we gonna clown, or what jokes we gonna make, and it just stuck, and then it turned into a thing, and it was so fun.”
I thought the Gingerbread Man funeral was so funny, and the fact that the face of the Gingerbread Man looks completely different now that he was gone.
“It was so silly. It was so silly. I mean, again, people forget it’s entertainment, and it’s supposed to be funny. It’s supposed to be fun, and yeah, it’s good wrestling, but it’s entertainment and fun and have fun, man. Don’t be so uptight. Sometimes I be thinking it’s like, damn, you just want a card full of five-star matches.”
The sit-up in the coffin, the Undertaker. It was perfect!
“I had to practice that. They had to pad my feet up so I could push. I don’t have the abs for that. That’s ab work, man. Shout out to the Undertaker. That’s ab work, sitting up.”
It feels like because this is the way wrestling works that we’re gonna build up to Trick Williams versus Lil Yachty at some point.
“I don’t know. On a serious note, they haven’t said that, but I don’t know. But he’s becoming one of my best friends, so I would love nothing more.”
Do you have an end goal of how far you want to go with wrestling?
“Nah, but I mean, sh*t, I would love to get in the Hall of Fame.”
What is Lil Yachty grateful for?
“My daughter, my mother and my manager.”
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