On last week’s episode of SmackDown, Carmelo Hayes was drafted to the blue brand as part of the 2024 WWE Draft.
Hayes battled Cody Rhodes in a losing effort in the main event of the show.
During a recent appearance on WWE’s “The Bump,” Hayes hyped up his main roster arrival and addressed his performance against Rhodes.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On being beyond dream matches: “I’m so far past dream matches and fantasy matches. I think now that I’m on SmackDown, I’m everybody’s fantasy match, and I’m everybody’s dream match. They should be wanting to get into the ring with me. I just wrestled Cody Rhodes, the WWE Champion. If that doesn’t put me at the top of the pecking order, I don’t know what does.”
On holding his own against Cody Rhodes: “It’s from delivering. All the times that I’ve delivered, all the times that I’ve been put in a high-pressure situation and I’ve delivered, things like that. I know that going against Cody Rhodes was shooting from the logo, but I had no doubt in my mind that, match my skills up against his skills, I might not be WWE Champion, but I believe him and I skill-wise are similar. I do have a lot more I need to learn, but hey, I can get in the ring with Cody Rhodes, and I can get down to the wire. He just barely beat me. He didn’t beat me by a landslide. I hung until the final rounds, the championship rounds with Cody Rhodes. I think that says more about me than people expect.”