Carmelo Hayes Recalls Conversation With Shawn Michaels About Wanting To Be A Top Star

"WWE NXT" Superstar Carmelo Hayes was a guest on Ten Count with Steve Fall and spoke about his past conversation with WWE's Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative Shawn Michaels about his wanting to be a "top star" and not be typecasted because of his size. Hayes had this conversation right after his debut match in WWE, which was in June 2021 and was an "NXT" Cruiserweight Championship match against then "NXT" Cruiserweight Champion Kushida. 

"We had like a small little conversation, just mentioned to him my goals and aspirations and it just came to me," said Hayes. "It wasn't something I had planned. I just was like you know, 'I really want this for myself.' Again everyone thinks at '205,' I was like saying maybe this is degrading to be on '205.' It wasn't like that at all, it was just that I knew how easily you can get typecasted for being undersized and not being taken seriously. I just knew I was like, 'No, I'm not, you know, I'm Championship material, and I'm top guy material.' Pretty much on how I said that and I was like, 'Hey, I want to be a top guy,' and he goes, "Yeah, I see that for you too.' That was day one and our first conversation.

Hayes is set to defend the "NXT" World Championship against Bron Breakker next weekend at NXT Battleground. Hayes had defeated Breakker in April at Stand & Deliver to become the champion. After losing the championship, Breakker turned heel and since then has been feuding with Hayes and Trick Williams.