WWE NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes has become one of the company’s fastest rising stars over the past year and a half.
Hayes captured the NXT North American Champion twice before moving on to capture the NXT Championship from Bron Breakker at NXT Stand & Deliver last month.
Hayes has always been looked at as a breakout star, as evidenced by him winning the NXT Breakout Tournament back in 2021, but it wasn’t until discussions with a certain WWE icon that he believes it all started to click.
Speaking to Alistair McGeorge of the Metro, Hayes detailed conversations he had with the Undertaker that he believes made things click for him.
He said:
“The cool thing is, he knew who I was. That was the thing where I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ I was like, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I know who are you.’ Inside, I’m like, ‘Holy…’
“The cool thing is, he was so chilled. Not like he wouldn’t be chilled, but you just never know. But he’s just so cool, he was just so relaxed and broke it down in a way – sometimes you’ll hear the same thing said a different way from somebody else, and it clicks.
“He had told me one or two things that I was like, ‘Oh Shoot! Yeah, that’s pretty much what they’ve been telling me but not like that!’ Taker was cool, man, and I’ve seen him a couple times since and he’s always being very cool.”
Hayes is set for an NXT Championship rematch against Bron Breakker at next weekend’s NXT Battleground premium live event.
He teamed with Trick Williams to defeat Charlie Dempsey and Drew Gulak in a tag team match on this week’s episode of NXT.
Here are full results from the May 16 episode of WWE NXT:
Cora Jade def. Fallon Henley in the NXT Women’s Championship tournament
Brutus & Julius Creed def. The Dyad
At a restaurant, Tony D’Angelo was taken away by police for “questioning”
Noam Dar hosted Supernova Sessions with guest Dragon Lee, which set up Dar defending the NXT Heritage Cup against Lee at NXT Battleground
Dijak kidnapped Ilja Dragunov and tortured him
Carmelo Hayes & Trick Williams def. Charlie Dempsey & Drew Gulak
Kiana James def. Thea Hail
Wes Lee and Joe Gacy set up an NXT North American Title match for Battleground, before Tyler Bate came out and added himself to make it a three-way – Lee and Bate were both attacked together backstage by Gacy’s teammates The Dyad earlier in the show
Roxanne Perez def. Jacy Jayne in the NXT Women’s Championship tournament
Carmelo Hayes and Bron Breakker brawled and the show went off the air with both men down in the ring
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