Major Concern Over Ex-Champion’s WWE Future

A WWE star’s future with the promotion appears bleak.

Carmelo Hayes had been teaming up with The Miz, much to the annoyance of wrestling fans.

For weeks, the veteran had been stealing victories from his mentee by tagging himself in after Hayes had done all the hard work.

During the September 26 taping of SmackDown, the duo faced The Street Profits to determine the #1 Contenders for the tag team titles. With The Miz pinned down, Melo jumped into the ring to break the final count, but stopped and took the L, turning babyface.

Across subsequent weeks, both The Miz and Carmelo Hayes attacked each other at different points in the storyline.

On the October 24 taping of WWE SmackDown, Hayes cut a babyface promo, promising to take back what was taken away from him.

However, he was interrupted by Kit Wilson of Pretty Deadly, with a match set up between the two for next week.

WWE Criticized For Treatment Of Carmelo Hayes

On a recent Wrestling Observer Radio episode, Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzales discussed the Carmelo Hayes segment on WWE SmackDown.

The duo sympathized with Hayes for being booked against Kit Wilson, who hasn’t wrestled on the main roster since May.

Gonzales called their match suited for WWE Main Event rather than the main roster.

This next segment was not a good example of what you’re talking about because Carmelo Hayes came out to do a babyface promo about getting back whatever he lost, I guess, with the Miz situation. And who is he interrupted by? None other than Kit Wilson. And they’re going to have a match on SmackDown, which is probably better suited for Main Event. But that told me where Carmelo is when Kit Wilson of all people is challenging him.

Meltzer called Hayes a big match wrestler, while also comparing how WWE treats small-sized wrestlers now to when Vince McMahon was in charge.

Yeah, and Carmelo is another one of those guys who could be that, you know, challenger for them for the month, you know, and be built up for a big match. He’s got the talent and he can talk and everything like that. I mean, obviously, the height works against him. But I think that that mentality—which is less there than obviously under Vince McMahon—is still something that they need to kind of forget about. Because I really sense that the fans don’t care at all. They don’t care about giants much anymore. And I don’t think that, you know, they… if a guy’s charismatic—I mean, like Hayes—he’s got the potential to be higher.

Reports of SmackDown ratings being adversely affected have done the rounds of late, and storylines such as this are the main reason why.

This is WWE’s opportunity to not only promote a talented wrestler like Carmelo Hayes, but also win back the audiences’ trust by featuring popular stars in competitive angles.

Make TJR Wrestling your choice for news by clicking here.