WWE has removed a new Trick Williams T-shirt from its U.S. online store less than 24 hours after the merchandise drew immediate backlash from wrestling fans.
The shirt was built around Williams’ “Lemon Pepper Steppers” catchphrase, but the execution created a much different conversation than WWE likely intended. The design featured Williams’ white shoe surrounded by — and in some depictions interacting with — lemon pepper chicken wings. Fans quickly criticized the imagery as racially insensitive because Williams is Black and fried chicken has historically been used as a racist stereotype. Fightful
WWE Shop released the merchandise on Monday, Sept. 21. By Tuesday morning, the shirt had disappeared from the U.S. store. Fightful reported that the item was pulled less than 24 hours after its release.
Why WWE Made the Trick Williams Shirt
There was at least a clear connection between the merchandise and Williams’ WWE character.
“Lemon Pepper Steppers” is a phrase Williams has used to describe his shoes, with the idea that his footwear is fashionable and “dripping with sauce.” The original WWE Shop description encouraged fans to show they were about “two-stepping in Lemon Pepper steppers and talking that talk.”
The problem was the decision to turn the wordplay into literal chicken-wing imagery.
The backlash began almost immediately after images of the shirt circulated online. Some fans simply criticized the design itself, while others accused WWE of invoking a racial stereotype with merchandise created for one of its prominent Black Superstars. Cageside Seats
As of Tuesday, Williams had not publicly commented on the controversy, according to Fightful. WWE also had not issued a public statement explaining the decision to remove the merchandise.
The removal can be independently seen in WWE’s current U.S. store listings. As of Tuesday afternoon, the company’s Trick Williams merchandise page carried 27 items, including eight other T-shirts, a tank top, a hoodie and a range of collectibles. The Lemon Pepper Steppers design was not among them.
WWE Has Faced Similar Merchandise Criticism Before
The situation has drawn comparisons to WWE’s 2019 merchandise controversy involving Jordan Myles, who later returned to performing under the name ACH.
Myles publicly objected to a WWE T-shirt design that he said evoked racist imagery. The dispute escalated well beyond the merchandise itself, with Myles publicly criticizing WWE before eventually leaving the company. Wrestling Inc.
There is an important distinction between the two situations at this point. Williams has not publicly criticized WWE or indicated that he objected to the Lemon Pepper Steppers design before it was released. Any suggestion about what role Williams had in approving the merchandise would therefore be speculation.
What is confirmed is that WWE put the shirt on sale Monday, fans immediately pushed back against the imagery, and the product was gone from the company’s U.S. store by Tuesday morning.
The controversy arrives while Williams is in a prominent position on WWE television. He is the current United States Champion and recently qualified for the men’s Money in the Bank ladder match.
That makes the timing of the merchandise misstep particularly notable. Instead of promoting one of WWE’s rising stars during a significant stretch of his main-roster run, the Lemon Pepper Steppers shirt lasted less than a day before the company removed it from sale.
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