WWE Superstar Carmelo Hayes has had an impressive year thus far. However, there is an uncertainity regarding his place on the WrestleMania 42 card.
On December 19, 2025, Hayes defeated Ilja Dragunov to become the new WWE United States Champion. It was his first title win on the main roster. He carried forward The Mad Dragon’s legacy of being a fighting champion as he continued to have open challenges on Friday Night SmackDown.
Thanks for the submission!
Unfortunately for the 31-year-old, he finally lost the United States Championship last week to Sami Zayn. Adding insult to injury, Nick Aldis announced that The Great Liberator would defend the title at The Show of Shows against Trick Williams. As things stand, Hayes is likely to miss out on a WrestleMania appearance again. He has yet to wrestle on The Grandest Stage of Them All.
Earlier today, Carmelo Hayes posted multiple pictures of himself holding the WWE United States Championship belt. He also mentioned the impressive statistics from his title reign in the caption.
“98 Days 9 Defenses 9 Match of the nights 5 Countries Numbers Don’t Lie and Melo Don’t Miss All Star run, Follow that. 🎯 US A Champion Of The World,” Hayes wrote.
You can check out his Instagram post below:
Popular star opened up about sharing the WWE ring with Carmelo Hayes
On the January 16 edition of Friday Night SmackDown, TNA X-Division Champion Leon Slater showed up to answer Carmelo Hayes’ United States Championship open challenge. The two stars put forth an engaging contest that ended with Hayes retaining his gold.
During a recent interview with SunSport, Leon Slater spoke about the match. The 21-year-old claimed that it was the most comfortable he had ever felt in a WWE ring. Slater added that they had great in-ring chemistry, and the crowd also enjoyed the bout.
“I’ll be honest, that’s probably the most comfortable I ever felt in a WWE ring because I felt like I was with my people, you know what I’m saying, like I remember. There was one point where Carmelo [Hayes] was punching me in the face or something, like, I was getting battered, but I remember hearing, ‘He’s one of our own, he’s one of our own.’ Then I was like, ‘OK, right, we’re really at home. We’ve got the chants going and everything!’ Me and Melo hit it off, man. I feel like our chemistry [in the] ring was on a different level. I’m glad we got to deliver that night in Wembley,” Slater said. [H/T: Fightful]
It will be interesting to see what plans Triple H and the creative team have for Carmelo Hayes with WrestleMania 42 less than three weeks away.
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Edited by Ankit Verma
