Carmelo Hayes On Who He Wanted To Defend WWE US Title Against, Andre The Giant Battle Royal Win

Carmelo Hayes got to defend the WWE United States Title against a number of stars, but he has a more names he wishes he could have faced. Hayes won the title on the December 26th episode of Smackdown. He kept the open challenge going and defended the title against the lik4es of Shinsuke Nakamura, Rey Fenix, Ilja Dragunov, El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. and more before finally losing it on last week’s show.

Hayes was asked about his reign on the Battleground Podcast and who he wishes he could have faced in a title defense. He named Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston as examples of Raw stars he wanted to defend it against. He also spoke about winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale last year on the Smackdown before WrestleMania. You can see highlights below:

On Winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale:

“I mean, I was always championship gold-oriented. I didn’t grow up saying I wanted to win the Andre the Giant Battle Royal. But it was cool, man. It did feel like it was a little bit of like, a reward for my hard work. But like I said, I was championship oriented regardless, so it wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t just like, ‘Yeah, I won the Battle [Royale]!’ It was like, ‘No, I want to be the freaking champ. This is cool, but like where’s my title? I’m looking for the gold.’

“But it was a cool moment. And the crowd reaction was really really cool to hear, that so many people were excited. I was finally getting some some momentum.”

On People He Wishes He Could Have Defended the US Title Against:

“There was definitely names. Like, I wish I could have worked with a lot of people from Raw. I wish I could have worked with like, Kofi. There’s a bunch of matches that — I mean, there’s guys high up that obviously, yeah. But Kofi was one of them. Rey Mysterio was another one of them, I think that was on the table at one point. Yeah, guys like that.

“I mean, there’s a there’s a ton of guys I — you know, I went out there every week. Different styles, different companies, different opponent levels, all over the place. And I had to adjust, and that was a great learning experience for me. Like, that whole process and I don’t know how many weeks it was, but I think it was somebody said it was like three months and it was like eight defenses or something like that. So I learned a lot from that from that open challenge, and I feel like I got so much better being a part of that.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the Battleground Podcast with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.