Lil Yachty and Trick Williams somehow turned calling Sami Zayn the “Gingerbread Man” into an actual WWE thing — and Yachty says none of it was supposed to work in the first place. What started as the two of them clowning around backstage turned into shirts, cookies, music and eventually a full-blown running gag.
While speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Yachty admitted he and Trick weren’t exactly convinced when they first started putting the idea together. Instead of overthinking it, they leaned all the way into how ridiculous it was.
“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.”
The crazier part is WWE didn’t even hand them the “Gingerbread Man” line. According to Yachty, that came straight from him and Trick because Sami is a redhead. Once they started saying it, Yachty went all-in with the shirt, song and even gingerbread cookies.
“When I got the gingerbread shirt printed and we did the song, and we were really clowning him. 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.”
Yachty said that kind of stuff doesn’t just get thrown together five minutes before they walk through the curtain either. He and Trick regularly spend hours kicking around jokes and figuring out exactly how they want to mess with whoever they’re working with.
“Me and Trick, we always get on the phone or text and sht, 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. It just stuck, and then it turned into a thing, and it was so fun.”*
And if anyone thought the whole thing was too goofy, Yachty doesn’t exactly care. He made it clear that wrestling is supposed to be entertainment, and not every segment needs to be treated like somebody is fighting for a five-star rating.
“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. Have fun, man. Don’t be so uptight.”
He then took a shot at fans who seem to want nothing except technically great wrestling from top to bottom.
“Sometimes I be thinking it’s like, ‘Damn, you just want a card full of five-star matches.’”
Yachty also broke down another one of his WWE moments — sitting straight up inside a coffin in an Undertaker-style spot. Turns out that one required a little more help than it looked like on television.
“I had to practice that, bro. 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, bro. That’s ab work, sitting up.”
So the “Gingerbread Man” wasn’t some giant WWE creative master plan. Lil Yachty and Trick Williams started roasting Sami Zayn, kept piling more ridiculous stuff onto the joke, and WWE ran with it because it worked. Sometimes the dumbest idea in the room is exactly the one fans remember.
Did the “Gingerbread Man” stuff work for you, or was Lil Yachty right that wrestling fans sometimes need to loosen up and just have fun? Let us know what you think in the comments.
