Carmelo Hayes has opened up on losing the WWE United States Championship.
On the March 27th edition of SmackDown, Carmelo Hayes put the US Title on the line against Sami Zayn. The end of the match came after Trick Williams decided to get involved by jumping on the apron and trying to hit Zayn. He missed, catching Hayes instead. This allowed Zayn to hit the Helluva Kick and win the gold.
In his first interview since the loss on the Battleground Podcast, Hayes admitted that he was “heartbroken” that he was no longer a champion.
“This is probably not the platform for that. I mean, we got SmackDown on Friday. I think that’ll be a more appropriate platform to kind of address what is going on.
“I mean, you know, I’m heartbroken that I’m not champ anymore. That was something that I took a lot of pride in. We’ll see what’s on the table for WrestleMania but, as far as that goes, I think SmackDown’s probably the appropriate platform for that…
“Please don’t believe everything you read on the internet, bro. Please don’t believe it.”
The star said there were still more WWE stars he had wanted to defend the title against, including Kofi Kingston and Rey Mysterio.
“There was definitely names. I wish I could have worked with a lot of people from Raw. I wish I could have worked with Kofi (Kingston). There’s guys high up that obviously, yeah… Kofi was one of ‘em. Rey Mysterio was another one of them. I think that was on the table at one point. Guys like that. There’s a ton of guys.
Carmelo Hayes Learned From His WWE United States Championship Reign
Despite the reign being cut short, Melo said he had learned a lot from the experience and has become a better pro wrestler as a result.
“I went out there every week, different styles, different companies, different opponent levels all over the place and I had to adjust and that was a great learning experience for me–that whole process.
“I don’t know how many weeks it was… Somebody said it was like three months, and it was like eight defenses or something like that so, I learned a lot from that, from that open challenge and I feel like I got so much better being a part of that.”
Fans have been divided on Sami Zayn’s title win, and the news that he will defend the title against Trick Williams at WrestleMania 42 rather than Carmelo Hayes has not gone down well. However, with the Showcase of the Immortals still two weeks away, things could easily change again.
H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.
