Carmelo Hayes wants to ‘bring back good, solid wrestling to this NXT show’

During a recent chat with the “After the Bell” podcast, current NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes was reminiscing on the Black & Gold Era of NXT. And then the pandemic happened and everything sort of declined before the brand underwent a major change in direction, focused more on young stars as a true developmental arm of WWE.

Hayes signed and decided there’s a lot more he can bring to the show. Later, he said (transcription via Post Wrestling):

“One of the things I noticed, there’s so many studs still left on the roster.

“So many good guys that, you know, can have that Black and Gold era type style that people always say that they miss and they want.

“So, I look forward to having those types of matches with the guys. There’s so many — you’ve got Dijak, Dragon Lee, Ilja Dragunov, Tyler Bate, Wes Lee still, you know. I know I’m forgetting names but there’s so many good guys on that roster.

“I just want to have great matches with all of them during this reign and see who’s willing or who can dethrone me at that point. But yeah, I just want to bring back good, solid wrestling to this NXT show — not that there’s not that but there’s a lot of people learning how to get their feet wet and then there’s a lot of guys who are willing to go out and kill it. And I think I’m one of those guys that want to go out and kill it.”

He’s not wrong in the sense that you don’t think of NXT as a factory of fantastic matches in nearly the same way as you did a few years ago. He’s also not wrong that the roster is deep enough now that he can have one hell of a run as champion tearing the house down at every event.

Now we wait to see if he actually does what he says.

Here’s to hoping.