Carmelo Hayes Says He “Learned A Lot” From His Training Sessions With Cody Rhodes

In a recent interview with Cheap Heat, NXT’s Carmelo Hayes shared how he spent some time training with Cody Rhodes when the latter was recovering from his torn pectoral (per Fightful). Hayes explained that while he and Joe Gacy were ostensibly there to assist Rhodes in preparation training, he learned at least as much from Rhodes as Rhodes gained from his presence. You can find a highlight from Hayes and listen to the full podcast below.

On how the training arrangement with Rhodes came to pass: “They had mentioned to me, ‘Cody requested to train with you and Joe Gacy in the next week or so.’ ‘Oh shoot, cool.’ Cody had reached out to me two or three times before, just giving me critiques on my work and things like that. I had already had a back-and-forth relationship with him. I had met Cody in the past. I was like, ‘All the people that he knows, and he’s picking me and Joe Gacy? Okay.’ He showed up, and a lot of people are like, ‘We helped Cody,’ but I learned a lot from Cody in that time working with him. He was fine. He didn’t need my help. I just think he needed clearance from medical to go through. We worked for three or four days, we did matches on the fly and were just having fun and coming up with ideas like we have a match. He was helping me on my stuff. It was the little things. I credit Cody a lot. He’s like, ‘Melo and Joe Gacy helped me,’ No, he helped me a lot, actually.”