Carmelo Hayes On His NXT North American Title Win, Shifting His Focus to Promos, More

Carmelo Hayes is fresh into his NXT North American Championship reign, and he discussed the win as well as his focusing more on promos in WWE during a new interview. Hayes appeared on Busted Open Radio to discuss his NXT experience so far, and you can see some highlights below (per Wrestling Inc):

On shifting his attention to his promo work: “Before I got here, I always wanted to tell stories in the ring. I wanted to do it through my moves. Now that I’m here, I’ve realized you can get so much more out of (promos). I’m realizing now that the wrestling doesn’t matter as much (laughs). It truly doesn’t matter as much. They don’t tell you that (elsewhere), but when you get here, you realize that you can get more out of one live promo than three matches of 15 minutes each – in which you do all your high spots. I’ve really retrained my brain since I got here. So, 100% I rather just talk for a whole month and not defend my championship at all – before having a banger of a match with someone worthy.”

On winning the NXT North American Title: “It was a crazy feeling. I’ve just been trying to live in the moment because this is all happening pretty quickly; I don’t want to overlook these moments and things I’m experiencing right now. I was making sure I was present in that moment when I won. And when I looked at the title, I remembered all the hard work I’d put in to get to the WWE, and how much that meant to me.”

On the change to NXT 2.0: “A lot of the guys here are working real hard for opportunities. Over the years, I’ve heard stories of so many guys taking over a year or two just to get on TV. Now, there are guys who’ve gone (from the Performance Center) to TV in 4 or 5 weeks. It’s really a sink or swim situation, and I think that’s the best way, at least for me. I think that’s how guys are gonna get good and get those opportunities. The biggest positive for me is guys are getting more opportunities.”