Betrayal incoming: How bringing Carmelo Hayes into The 946 on WWE Raw could backfire massively on Royce Keys

WWE

Royce Keys welcomed Carmelo Hayes into The 946 on this week’s episode of WWE Raw, but it might not have been the smartest move.

Hayes assisted Keys, Bronco Nima and Lucien Price in their fight against The Bloodline’s Solo Sikoa, Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso, making The 946 a group of five made up of Hayes, Keys, Nima, Price and Jaida Parker.

Keys remains the leader of the group, having taken the credit for bringing Hayes in, but the question now is: how much longer will he be in that position?

Why it makes sense

Hayes, despite being the newest member of The 946, is by far the most tenured and accomplished name in the group as far as everyone’s careers to this point in WWE.

Hayes is a two-time NXT North American Champion, a former Cruiserweight Champion, NXT Champion, the 2025 Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner and most notably a former United States Champion.

He signed with WWE in early 2021, so he’s had a place in the company for almost six years now.

Meanwhile, Keys only joined WWE at the start of this year, though he did win this year’s Andre Battle Royal, so he has one accomplishment to match up with Hayes, but he’s yet to hold a championship.

He is, of course, a former AEW World Trios Champion and TNT Champion, but WWE has never and will never mention that.

Carmelo Hayes should be more than just a member of The 946

The point is, by this stage in Hayes’ WWE career, he would have hoped to have been the man at the forefront of a group like The 946 – not just one of its several members behind the main leader – and a lot of fans feel the same way too.

It’s great that he at least has a spot on WWE TV, but that’s the absolute bare minimum that should be expected for someone of his skill level and popularity.

However, the positive angle on this is that there may be a long term plan at play here.

Perhaps, in however many months or even beyond a year from now, the plan is for Hayes to overthrow Keys as the leader of The 946 and take over the group as its leader – perhaps revealing he was really calling the shots among the other members the whole time, and they were all just waiting for the right time to strike on Keys.

It’s a tale as old as time in wrestling, but it really would make sense here, and hopefully this is the case rather than it just being a temporary slot for Hayes where he becomes a background player in someone else’s story with no real long-term direction of his own.

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• wwe
• RAW
• Carmelo Hayes
• Royce Keys
• 946
• the 946

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