Top NXT Star Recalls Cody Rhodes Choosing Him For Training Sessions

WWE

NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes has recalled his training sessions with Cody Rhodes ahead of the major star’s return to the ring.

Ahead of Cody Rhodes’ wrestling return in January’s Royal Rumble match, the American Nightmare trained with several Performance Center names to prepare for his comeback.

Speaking on Cheap Heat, Hayes noted that Rhodes had reached out to him shortly after he was told that the WWE Raw star had requested to train with him.

Discussing the training sessions, Hayes said:

“They had mentioned to me, ‘Cody requested to train with you and Joe Gacy in the next week or so.’ ‘Oh shoot, cool.’

“Cody had reached out to me two or three times before, just giving me critiques on my work and things like that. I had already had a back-and-forth relationship with him.

“I had met Cody in the past. I was like, ‘All the people that he knows, and he’s picking me and Joe Gacy? Okay.’ He showed up, and a lot of people are like, ‘We helped Cody,’ but I learned a lot from Cody in that time working with him.

“He was fine. He didn’t need my help. I just think he needed clearance from medical to go through. We worked for three or four days, we did matches on the fly and were just having fun and coming up with ideas like we have a match.

“He was helping me on my stuff. It was the little things. I credit Cody a lot. He’s like, ‘Melo and Joe Gacy helped me,’ No, he helped me a lot, actually,”

Rhodes will be in action at this weekend’s Night of Champions event, with the popular star set to face off against Brock Lesnar.

The next night, Carmelo Hayes will defend his NXT Championship against Bron Breakker at NXT Battleground.

The card for WWE Night of Champions 2023 on Saturday, May 27 is as follows:

World Heavyweight Championship – Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins vs. AJ Styles

Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship – Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn (c) vs. Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa

Raw Women’s Championship – Bianca Belair (c) vs. Asuka

SmackDown Women’s Championship – Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Natalya

Intercontinental Championship – Gunther (c) vs. Mustafa Ali

Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar

Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus

Transcription via Fightful. 

If you want to stay fully updated on all the latest wrestling news, click the red bell in the bottom right of your screen to receive notifications from WrestleTalk.com straight to your device!

• Carmelo Hayes
• Cody Rhodes
• Return
• wwe

Share this article with friends