Carmelo Hayes spoke with Denise Salcedo ahead of the WWE NXT Deadline on Saturday night.
Hayes was asked what it was like to win the North American Championship after winning the NXT 2021 breakout championship:
“It was a certain pressure I had on myself where it was like, oh, okay, they’re going with me, like, I can’t fail. I can’t let them down. Like that Melo don’t miss thing, like it was before even that. I can’t miss. You know, I mean, I truly can’t. At first there was a lot of pressure. It really was because like, I don’t know if you remember, but the guys I had to go against are just so much bigger than me. So like, those are just such difficult matches, you know, because there really wasn’t a lot to do. Then after that, it got a little bit smoother. I think it was just the pressure of okay, making sure that they know that they picked the right guy. I still to this day feel that type of pressure on myself. They know what they got, but I still want them to know that they got the right guy every time I go out there.”
Regarding working with Shawn Michaels:
“Sometimes I always say this, like, I have to step out of my shoes and realize that it’s Shawn Michaels, like Mr. WrestleMania, HBK, like, that’s Shawn Michaels. We see him so often now it’s kind of like, you know, you see him regularly and you talk to him and he doesn’t act like Shawn Michaels. He’s just like a regular guy. He’s just humble. But every time he talks to me, he says something, even by accident, that I’m like, whoa, like that hit me. So like, I try to listen very closely when he talks to me because he might say something in passing or something that sticks with me. So I’ve just learned so much from Shawn, and coming from a guy that has done everything, everything here, has made every mistake, has done everything from WrestleManias to first time matches to everything. He really is the perfect guy to have running something like this where you got all this new talent. So, yeah, I’m just a sponge when I’m around him.”
You can watch the complete interview below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
