WWE Star Recalls Important Advice From Shawn Michaels
A rising WWE superstar has described how some wise words from Shawn Michaels will play a major factor in his career success.
When the NXT 2.0 rebrand happened about three years ago in September 2021, several young WWE superstars were given the opportunity to grow as featured stars on the brand. On the men’s side, the two men who ultimately became the biggest stars on the brand were former NXT Champions Bron Breakker and Carmelo Hayes.
Earlier this year, the two men who were groomed by Shawn Michaels and the NXT brand to be big stars were assigned to the main roster. Bron Breakker has thrived on Raw as the Intercontinental Champion while Carmelo Hayes has put on several great matches on Smackdown.
On the night of the WWE Draft, Hayes was a top pick of Smackdown and was also put in a match with the WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. Hayes lost that match, but it’s obvious that he is a guy who WWE wants to build around.
While talking to Sports Illustrated, Carmelo Hayes mentioned that NXT’s boss man Shawn Michaels gave him great advice since Hayes is under six-feet tall, so he would have to stand out by performing at a high level in the ring.
“He told me straight up. He said, ‘Look, because of your size, you can never take a day off. You have to be a little bit better at everything. You have to be’.”
“I know I have a lot to work on. I won’t come in here and say, ‘I’m the top-notch’.
“I still have a lot to work on. I’m just getting to work with the guys at the highest levels, like Randy, Cody, and even Andrade. Andrade is great. I’ve learned from working with Andrade, but there’s still more I have to learn.”
Carmelo Hayes Using Shawn Michaels’ Advice To Keep Building WWE Career
As he continued, Hayes said that the way he approaches his WWE career is by thinking about the advice given to him by two-time WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels, who has been a coach and mentor for Melo.
“A lot of my mindset is from Shawn. I always tell this analogy. He said, ‘You guys want to put your roof on so quickly without building the foundation, like the bricks and stuff.’”
“I always think about that. I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m still laying down the bricks. Why am I worried about putting up windows when the bricks aren’t laid? Everybody wants the freaking roof and a chimney and start decorating the outside and painting the outside of the house when there’s no foundation’.”
“This is a period of building my foundation on SmackDown, and then, eventually, we’ll get to that point. We’ll put up a door. We’ll put in some windows, and then we’ll start working on a roof, and then we’ll have a storied career.”
On the September 13th edition of WWE Smackdown, Carmelo Hayes had his fifth match against Andrade. The rivalry was at 2-2 going into the match, but it was Andrade who picked up the win. The reward for Andrade is a shot att he US Title held by LA Knight while Hayes will try to bounce back from that loss.