Carmelo Hayes made an appearance on Instinct Culture by Denise Salcedo to discuss a wide range of topics.
During it, he recalled winning 2021 breakout tournament in NXT and then winning the North American Championship:
“It was a certain pressure I had on myself where it was like, oh, okay, they’re going with me, like, I can’t fail. I can’t let them down. Like that Melo don’t miss thing, like it was before even that. I can’t miss. You know, I mean, I truly can’t. At first there was a lot of pressure. It really was because like, I don’t know if you remember, but the guys I had to go against are just so much bigger than me. So like, those are just such difficult matches, you know, because there really wasn’t a lot to do. Then after that, it got a little bit smoother. I think it was just the pressure of okay, making sure that they know that they picked the right guy. I still to this day feel that type of pressure on myself. They know what they got, but I still want them to know that they got the right guy every time I go out there.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription