Hayes opens up about his spot on the card.
It is coming up on a full year since Carmelo Hayes was formally called up to WWE’s main roster from NXT. As a part of the 2024 Draft, Hayes was selected third overall to the SmackDown brand.
A discussion about the last year of his run and his position on SmackDown was discussed during his appearance on Huge Pop Radio. Hayes expressed that he’s excited and looking forward to what is ahead.
He recounted an analogy that Paul Heyman told him and it’s that Hayes is batting a thousand, but the only thing is-is Hayes is batting eighth. Carmelo does not think him being drafted where he was meant that he was projected to be a world champion immediately, but thinks it was more of a projection that he’d be making big plays on the main roster in the coming years.
Yeah, it’s definitely a learning experience and a growing pain (transitioning to WWE main roster) and I’m super excited and happy about my future and my position and I’ll put it like this, Paul Heyman kind of smartened me up a couple of weeks ago and he said to me, he goes, ‘Look –’ he’s like, ‘You’re batting a thousand. The only problem is you’re batting eighth.’ He says, ‘If you look at the landscape –’ if you look at the landscape and — Shawn (Michaels), everybody’s told me the same thing. It’s stacked! There’s so many top guys right now, there’s so many big stories and elements and things that are happening right now. Just for me to be even to be able to mix it up with those guys in between is a huge honor and a pleasure and something that I look forward to as well. A lot of people, and Jimmy (Korderas), you know we’ve talked about it with the win and loss thing, we’ve seen it. A lot of people are questioning that and at the end of the day, I’m going out there and I’m having hella performances with former world champs and former WrestleMania main eventers and my stock is growing little by little and even being drafted first round, I think that projection wasn’t so much so, hey, he’s gonna be world champ tomorrow. I think that projection was, hey, this is gonna be a player in a couple of years that’s gonna be making big plays for us. So, you know, everything that’s happened since I got to main roster has been right on time and timing is everything and it’s inevitable that, you know, championships and big moments but, you got those core eight, those big top eight right now, top nine, 10 even, you know what I mean? That are in position but, I’m right there on the sideline ready to go. Give me that push and I’m in there and I’m right in the mix so… I’m ready to play.
The conversation then shifted to wins and losses on television. Hayes has the mindset that if he loses, he’s going to find a way to get over with the audience in the process. He understands his position right now and added that when his check clears, he’s not too worried about the win-loss conversation.
I have that mentality too. It’s like, if I lose, I’m gonna find a way to win, somehow. You know that phrase, where someone goes over, someone gets over? It’s that. So I think that every time I have a match, it’s like, alright, well, let’s see. I’m gonna make sure that people don’t really think too much about the loss. They’re gonna be thinking about how cool that match was or whatever but, I understand my position right now and getting deeper into things. Like I said, I understand where I’m at. I understand what I need to be doing so it’s not — I don’t allow the smart marks and the people talking about this and that to affect where I’m at. I’m in a great place. I’m freaking mixing it up, I’m learning, I’m getting better. Every time I get to work with these guys, I’m coming out of it better. Win or loss. I don’t know what to say (he laughed). When the check clears, we’re not too worried about all that.
On the pre-Elimination Chamber edition of Friday Night SmackDown, Hayes was in action twice. There was a one-night tournament to determine the next challenger to the United States Championship.
Hayes made it out of the first round, but lost in the final Triple Threat to the new number one contender L.A. Knight.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Huge Pop Radio with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
