After winning the North American Championship twice, Carmelo Hayes is about to enter his second full year as a member of WWE’s NXT, and many fans believe he has earned a spot on the main roster.
When the subject of a main roster call-up came up during his conversation with Stephanie Chase, Hayes said that he would be prepared for it:
“It’s weird [hearing all the main roster talk] because I feel like I want people to enjoy what I’m doing. I don’t want people to try and fast-track me, you know what I mean? Because that’s gonna be there when — it’s not going anywhere, main roster isn’t going anywhere but it’s great, people are excited, people want to see these certain matchups with me and guys on the main and I want ‘em. Trust me, if they said tomorrow, Melo, go to Raw, go to SmackDown, I’d be truly ready I feel. Like, hey, okay, let’s go. But I feel like I have unfinished business in NXT which is that NXT Championship. Just based off what I said earlier with that claim that I am the ‘A’ champion. I want to prove it. Give me that title so I can prove everything that I’ve been saying for the last year is true. So I’m not in a rush to get there but if they call me up tomorrow then that’s what it is and we’ll deal with that.”
Hayes stated that he discussed the idea with Shawn Michaels, the brand’s creative director:
“I just stay focused with what’s coming up, with what’s going on here. I had that [main roster] conversation with Shawn [Michaels] where I pretty much said, ‘Hey, just so you know, my head is here, my heart is here. I’m not getting carried away’ because yeah, like you said, I see it every day. ‘Oh Melo, go to the main roster, go to the main roster’ but I wanted to reassure Shawn that, ‘Hey, my head is here. I’m not thinking, oh! Main roster. I’m thinking what are we doing here? What are we doing on NXT?’ Because I take pride in putting on for NXT. I take pride in being one of the top names in NXT so like I said, my heart, my feet, my everything is here right now in NXT.”
On Tuesday’s WWE NXT episode, Carmelo is slated to compete against Apollo Crews in a singles match.
You can watch the complete interview below:
(H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription)
