Carmelo Hayes clutches his newly won WWE Men’s United States Championship after securing it on “WWE SmackDown” – WWE<\/p>\n
Just passing his fifth year anniversary since joining WWE on February 12, 2021, it appears that way before Carmelo Hayes proved to be an alpha who doesn’t miss the shots he takes, WWE Hall of Famer and showrunner of “WWE NXT,” Shawn Michaels, knew he had acquired gold in “HIM.” In an interview with “Beyond The Bell”<\/a> podcast, the current and\u00a0aerodynamic\u00a0WWE Men’s United States Champion<\/a> described what an asset it is to have Michaels in his corner, and how he received that notoriety from “The Heartbreak Kid.”<\/p>\n “Shawn’s the one that took a chance on me,” the former NXT Champion<\/a> said. “I’ll never forget the first time we had these little matches in front of the PC where I just got to WWE, and I was still, like, indie, you know? And Shawn…I never forget, he was sitting there. It was the first time we performed in front of Shawn, and I had never really even talked to him or nothing. He’s sitting there, he’s watching, and I guess he says to somebody like, ‘Oh, we got a couple of winners here…’ So then, he goes to Hunter and was like, ‘Hey. You gotta watch this kid.'”<\/p>\n Later in his interview, Hayes recounted his first professional conversation he had with Michaels, which was in an unlikely place.<\/p>\n “He put me in a match against Kushida for the Cruiserweight Title, for my debut<\/a>…I get to the back, Shawn’s coming out, and I hadn’t really talked to Shawn for real. He’s coming out of the bathroom, and I bumped into him,” he recalled. “He’s like, ‘Oh, you know, I just want to say good job. You have, I don’t know, whatever they call it…’It.’ I told him straight up, ‘Look, I don’t want to be one of these ‘205 Live’ guys. I want to be a main eventer here…’ and he said, ‘I see that for you, too.'”<\/p>\n And as history showed, it was that incontestable\u00a0sparkle that caught Michaels’ eye, which led Hayes down a first-ever feat in “NXT,” as he became the only star in company history to have carried the now defunct Cruiserweight, Men’s North American (two times) and NXT Championship. Although it was on a tape delay, Hayes received what some might call the best unwrapped present under the WWE tree, when he went bell-to-bell with Ilja Dragunov and toppled the former champion from his United States Title reign this past December.<\/p>\n If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Beyond The Bell Podcast,” with a h\/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.<\/em><\/p>\n Read more: What Shawn Michaels Really Did During His Four-Year Retirement From WWE<\/a><\/p>\n Don’t miss any of the major wrestling headlines. Sign up to our free newsletter<\/a> for the biggest stories, sent straight to your inbox. You can also add us as a preferred search source<\/a> on Google.<\/p>\n