After a few years of questionable booking in many fans’ minds, including a tag team alongside The Miz, former NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes seems to have found his footing on the main roster. Following his 2024 selection as the first pick in the WWE Draft, Hayes is now United States Champion, and continuing the weekly open challenge with the gold on “WWE SmackDown.” He recently appeared on “Good Karma Wrestling” to talk about his success, as well as the successes of others he came up from developmental alongside.

“Every 10 years you see a group of guys that come in and change the game,” he explained. “I was comparing at one point to when Roman and when Seth and when Big E and that whole crop of guys came through and changed the game in that era, Daniel Bryan. And then 10 years before that when it was Randy, Cena, Lesnar, Shelton, that whole class and that boom era of that Ruthless Aggression era. Every 10 years or so you have a crop of guys, and I like to believe we’re that crop of guys for this modern era.”

As for his own career, Hayes said there had been a lot of ups and downs over the years, but he figured it out. He explained it was all about staying consistent and learning from his mistakes, all while moving forward and waiting for the right time to strike.

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