Former WWE NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes is the guest on the latest “INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet” show.
Carmelo was asked what it was like to be on the same show as The Undertaker and John Cena a few weeks ago on NXT:
“It was like a dream. It was like a fever dream. It’s funny, a lot of people kept, you know, hitting me up the day after and you know, that night. It was like I almost couldn’t believe that it happened, but there was that moment where you’re like, look, I’m a pro and I’m gonna be in this moment and I understand the assignment, and then there was a moment where I was a little kid. I’m like, shoot, this is pretty cool, man, this is really cool. The whole thing with Taker at the end, I didn’t know that was gonna happen. I didn’t know what to do. I just kind of was like, let me just walk back with him and he walked me through the whole thing with the pose and everything. I was just sitting there like a kid. I remember walking back through, I was like, that was so freakin cool. He just patted me on the back. But it was a great moment, just a cool experience, and something I’ll never forget.”
If he got any advice from The Undertaker:
“I actually talked to the Taker a bunch of times before that. He actually sat down with me one time for like an hour and we just talked. Same thing with Cena. So I mean, it wasn’t my first interaction with these guys, which is probably better because now they’re familiar with me. I’m familiar with them. But yeah, I mean, any opportunity I get to talk to Taker, any opportunity I get to talk to Paul Heyman and John Cena, I take every single one. Those guys are more than generous with their time, especially with young talent that wants to learn, and we all want to learn at NXT so you know, they were very, very gracious with their time for sure.”
On how he got his name in NXT:
“It was just understanding that evolution is required in wrestling in general in this business. Me as a person like, the best part about it was I was a kid in the business and I grew up through wrestling and I had to evolve because of my circumstances and then my experiences and you know, I was just seeing my evolution as a human being as well as a wrestler and, you know, transformed the whole Carmelo thing. Obviously, you know how that works. You get signed to NXT. You’re not going to have the same name. So I’m thinking of names that are relatable that people know, but that’s not like an overused name. I’m thinking sports and I’m thinking music and pop culture. I just remember Carmelo was just one of many names I threw. The Haze name was like Purple Haze, like H-a-z-e. I remember, the conversation was like, Hunter, maybe he thought it might have been a little bit too, you know, gimmicky with Haze, so they changed it to like Michael Hayes, H-a-y-e-s. You know how that works. You give them a couple of names and then they kind of put them together in a name generator. It’s true, but I love my name now.”
On what he and Ilja Dragunov talk about going into their matches:
“There’s no conversation. It’s just understood. He’s so fantastic at what he does that it’s like you almost have that expectation of hey, I’m gonna get in the ring. It’s not going to be a night off, not like anybody has nights off in wrestling, but you’re going to fight for your life and in a good way because those are the matches that are most highly regarded, you know, my matches especially. People love those matches so to me, it’s like whatever we got to do, let’s go all out.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. Also, be sure to subscribe to “Insight with Chris Van Vliet” on your mobile device by clicking here if you have an iOS device or here on your Android device.
