Carmelo Hayes betrays Trick Williams at WWE NXT Vengeance Day

Carmelo Hayes attacked his longtime friend Trick Williams at WWE NXT Vengeance Day.

The end of the premium live event saw Trick Williams fail to take the NXT Championship from Ilja Dragunov. Hayes and Williams embraced to end the show, but as the credits were shown Hayes suddenly clipped Williams’ leg, which he injured earlier in the night. Hayes then proceeded to repeatedly attack Williams’ knee with a chair as referees eventually stopped him from doing any more damage.

Later, in a digital exclusive, Hayes had a one-word response after being asked why he attacked his friend: “whooped.”

For the last several months, Williams has been attempting to figure out who attacked him backstage back in October. In the weeks that followed, Williams suspected Hayes, but Hayes managed to turn the attention to Lexis King. Hayes and King had a match at NXT Deadline in December, but after Hayes won, King revealed he wasn’t behind the attack.

In recent weeks, Hayes tried to get Williams to put aside his NXT Championship aspirations by getting them a spot in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. Williams wanted to focus on winning the NXT Championship at Vengeance Day, but agreed to team with Hayes based on the idea of becoming a two-time champion. However, the team lost to Bron Breakker and Baron Corbin at the start of Vengeance Day.