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Carmelo Hayes on working main roster, Shawn Michaels, Solo Sikoa reign

Added 2022-12-08 19:59:15 +0000 UTC

Fightful Select spoke with Carmelo Hayes ahead of his Iron Survival match at NXT Deadline.

He said that he's excited about the prospects of the match and thinks he has the rules down pretty well. He enjoys being trusted with the challenges and the things that WWE puts in front of him. Specifically, he was really excited to work in NXT Black and Gold when he got hired, because everyone there were primarily accomplished wrestlers, but he thinks that 2.0 helped him grow a lot as an all around performer.

When asked about Shawn Michaels taking to him so well, he said that it was the ultimate compliment. He mentioned Michaels has to rein him in sometimes on things, and is a "do as I say, not as I did" type of teacher, because Michaels often made career highlights of defying authority. Carmelo said that some of the things Michaels reins him in on are usually cultural stuff that Carmelo would need to explain to him due to the generation gap. Specifically, Michaels used to get things through on television that he probably shouldn't have been able to during the DX days, so he's well aware that younger talent will try to do that with him as well.

Carmelo said he was very happy about getting the call to work Main Event against Cedric Alexander. He didn't feel like it was indication of a call-up because he knows he has more to prove, but felt like it was a bit of a reward for his hard work. He wasn't very bothered by the Solo Sikoa title change and him relinquishing the title, because he said that was completely out of his control.