Top NXT Star Explains Parallels To Shawn Michaels

WWE

A top NXT star has explained the parallels between himself and Shawn Michaels.

In September 2021, the WWE NXT brand was revamped with a new logo, set and a litany of brand new stars.

The crop of talent featured Carmelo Hayes who has since become a two-time North American Champion and put a bevy of showstealing encounters.

During this time period, Shawn Michaels took over creative duties for the brand, while Triple H recovered from health issues. HBK has since become WWE’s senior vice president of talent development creative.

Speaking to Cameron Hawkins of The Ringer, Hayes discussed working with Shawn Michaels in NXT and the similarities between the two.

He said:

“You’d be surprised how often [Shawn] pulls me back. And there’s times where I have to be like, ‘Hey, don’t forget who you were.’ But he reminds me, like, ‘Hey, don’t do as I did. Do as I say.’ And he reminds me [that it] was a different point in his life. And if he could go back, I’m sure he probably would change a lot of those things.”

Melo continued on to discuss the parallels between Michaels’ relationship with Diesel to his with Trick Williams, saying:

“It’s like a cheat code. I got it on my own. But it’s like somebody that just makes you so much better, you know what I mean? He complements me so well. I complement him so well. And there’s so many different things that we can do as a duo in one match. There’s so many different backstage segments, promos; it’s endless with Trick and I, we’re just so creative individually. Then we put it together, and we just make what we do every week on TV. [Shawn] told us, ‘Hey, we need to get you guys doing something, but maybe we’ll throw you guys in a barber shop or something like that.’ OK, no problem. We get a couple of people, and we really just riff, man. We just sit in the barber chair and we just talk how we would talk. And obviously we still got to pull back on a lot of things that we would say we would do, but yeah, man. So smooth, man.”

Carmelo Hayes will compete in the North American Championship Ladder Match against Wes Lee, Oro Mensah, Von Wagner and Nathan Frazier at NXT Halloween Havoc on Saturday, October 22.

For the full lineup for the event, click here.

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• Carmelo Hayes
• wwe nxt
• shawn michaels
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