Carmelo Hayes discusses working with two of WWE’s top stars, Seth Rollins and Finn Balor.
The current reigning NXT Champion spoke on this topic during a recent interview on The Bump, where he reflected on wrestling Balor on this past Monday’s Raw and how much respect he has for the Demon Prince and Rollins as they were two of the most respected NXT Champions in history. Hayes begins by talking about how the opportunity to to work with both men came out of nowhere.
It just feels like something that came out of nowhere. I expected to definitely Seth down the road. But because it’s happening now with me in NXT, I definitely expected, down the road, I was gonna see him at some point, work my way up the ranks. But to be able to associate myself with the World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins so soon has been an honor and a privilege. It’s been an honor more than anything to be able to work with Seth.
Hayes later says that he really aspires to be the type of performer that Rollins has become, adding that he has appreciated everything the Visionary has done for the business.
It was a cool co-sign, man. I’ve said in so many interviews how much I look up to a guy like Seth, and how I aspire to be a champion like Seth and to be a performer like Seth. He’s the workhorse of today’s generation, and to be in the same conversation as him, my name in the same conversation, it’s a huge upside for me and for my career. I appreciate Seth so much and everything that he’s done for us.
Regarding his matchup against Balor Hayes had this to say…
He might be one of the greatest NXT Champions of all time, and then Seth being the very first, so just the fact that I got to get in the ring, again, it’s wild because I assumed it was gonna be a lot further down the road that I was gonna be able to mix it up with these guys. So it really was, like you said earlier about getting thrown in the deep end, and to be in there with Finn Balor, incredible performer with so many accolades. People are talking about the loss and this and that, but at the end of the day, it’s Finn Balor. He’s got a World Heavyweight Championship shot in less than a week. I gave my best efforts, and give me a couple more years, give me a couple more months, and let’s crack at it again and we’ll see, maybe the outcome will be different. But as of right now, it was Finn Balor‘s night. It wasn’t my night, but I picked up the win last night, and everything is even.
Hayes may have lost to Balor but he successfully defended the NXT title against Baron Corbin on last night’s NXT Gold Rush. Full results to that show can be found here. Check out the full episode of The Bump below.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)