What Carmelo Hayes envisioned for himself is finally within his grasp and what stands in his way are four other competitors and a match never seen before.
The two-time NXT North American champion can earn hit first shot at the NXT championship by winning the inaugural Iron Survivor Challenge match at NXT Deadline on Saturday (8 p.m., Peacock). The 25-minute match with start with two wrestlers and a new one will enter every five minutes. The winner will be the one to score as many falls as possible within 25 minutes, but if you lose a fall you get put in the penalty box for a minute and a half.
Hayes, 28, took time before the big match for some Q&A with The Post’s Joseph Staszewski
(Edited for clarity and length)
Q: When you first heard about the details of this match, what were your thoughts on it?
A: It took me some time to wrap my head around it, just with the 25 minute time limit, but I think the thing I got out of it is if you don’t get pinned you don’t lose time to get pins. So I think the idea is don’t end up in the penalty box because that’s a minute, 30 seconds you’re gonna lose that someone’s gonna have. I still think this is going to be something that’s gonna be trial by error when we get out there and we’re gonna see how it works out. I’m looking forward to it. I’m truly looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to the responsibility to be the first to be part of a match that’s never been done and I expect we’re gonna set the bar really high.
Q: With some of the elements that could create drama and the timing of it, do you feel like this match has the potential to be the Royal Rumble or Elimination Chamber-type match where it anoints the next championship challenger going into the new year in NXT?
A: I do. And I think just looking at the landscape of the talent that is in this match, I think this is gonna be something that the best of the best compete in to get to that NXT championship as far as in-ring performers go. You look at the guys in it, Joey Gacy, Grayson, Waller, JD McDonagh, Axiom and myself, truly all good standout in-ring performers on NXT. Moving forward, I think that’s what the standard should be, based off your in-ring work.
Q: What would it mean for you to win and continue your rise in NXT and get a shot at the NXT championship?
A: I feel like that’s where my path was leading to anyway. I know that Apollo vs. Bron Breakker is gonna happen on the same show for the NXT championship and I said a couple of times I am rooting for Bron Breaker because I think the big money match is Bron vs. Melo for the NXT championship. If I’m gonna beat anybody for that championship, I’d like it to be Bron Breaker.
Q: Do you feel like you and Bron are on this collision course at some point because, as you said, when you think of the biggest matches you can make, it’s probably that one? Do you two have any fun, personal rivalry just growing up in the Performance Center together?
A: When I first got here, him and I were actually very, very close leading up. Obviously, we both became champions and we have a competitive rivalry in a sense because you don’t call yourself ‘The A champion’ and the NXT champ is not gonna sit back and be like, ‘no,’ It is a little bit competitive, but at the same time I’m rooting for Bron. I want Bron to be great. He’s killing it right now. But at the end of the day, he’s gonna have to see me.
Q: When did you and Trick Williams realize you had this natural on-screen chemistry? I know Road Dogg kind of threw you guys together and you had to figure out what this was gonna look like.
A: Really early on. It took a little while for us to get our groove because in a way Trick is very, very, charismatic and entertaining, even more so than me. He almost had to pull back a little bit and meet me in the middle. I’m pretty chill, I’m pretty cool. He’s very much big and larger than life in that sense, so we kind of meet each other in the middle to make sure it works perfectly. Because you have to remember too, as me being the champion a lot of the load was on me. So he understood his role and he’s been great at that, playing his part. I’m excited for him to start doing some stuff on his own and showcasing his talents because that man is extremely talented and I don’t think you’ve seen even 50 percent of what Trick Williams can really do.
Q: Was that hard for him to do at first, to kind of pull it back a little bit?
A: Probably, because he’s very much a character and he’s very big. It’s hard to kind of sit in the back and let me do my thing. And I had a vision of what I wanted to be and I had a vision for what I saw for us. I look at the landscape of wrestling right now, especially black wrestlers and I didn’t really want to be comedy. I wanted to be taken a little bit more seriously because we could easily go the comedy route. I just felt like it’s very overplayed for guys that look like us. So, I wanted it to be a little bit more serous, but we figured out a healthy medium.
Q: You talk about wanting to be taken seriously. There is the story out there that originally Shawn Michaels wanted to put you on 205 Live and you had the gumption to stand up and say I want to be taken as a top guy and not want to be looked at as a cruiserweight. Looking back on how things have gone down, what do you think that moment did for you?
A: That was my first-ever conversation with Shawn Michaels. I just wrestled Kushida for the (cruiserweight) title for my debut match and I’m leaving the building and he’s walking out of the bathroom and I walked up to him and I just said thank you for everything and I just shot my shot. I’ve never been afraid to kind of speak my mind. I’ve never been afraid to show you that I believe in myself, you should believe in me type of thing. It was the best thing I could have ever did. It really, really, truly was. I was so happy he received it the way he did and he remember it. Still to his day he says that to me. He says, ‘Hey you told me to give you the ball, so I gave I to you.’ Like a prove me right type of thing. I was the best thing I could have ever did. Some sort of confidence was over me that day. It was the right time. It was just meant to be.
Q: How do you look back on your time as North American champion and do you feel like the match you had with Wes Lee because of everything that went into was kind of like a passing of the torch to him? That he’s the guy for the North American championship?
A: I’m very proud of what I did with that championship. I had set the expectation really high for myself. I don’t think they had the expectation as high as I set it for myself. I really truly did want to make it the ‘A’ championship and I feel like I succeeded in that in some way.
Leading into the match with Wes Lee, for me it was a closing of a chapter or closing of a book. I mentioned on Twitter it was a closing of a book because of what I did with that title. Wes Lee is an amazing talent. Who better to be the North American champion than someone like a Wes Lee.
Q: You recently did a Main Event taping, you did a SmackDown dark match. What do you think you gained from that experience and did it give you a taste of what it’s like on the main roster?
A: It was just a taste. What it did was motive me. Coming back down to NXT you realize that is our light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes we train so hard and get so in the rhythm of things, we do TV on Tuesday but we’re in Orlando. So leaving, getting on a plane, experiencing that crowd, being backstage with all the main roster talent. It’s like OK, this is what we’re working for. This really truly what we’re working to.
Q: Did only grab you or pull you aside up there?
A: I talked to everybody. I talked to Seth (Rollins), I talked to A.J. (Styles), Finn (Balor), I talked to Roman (Reigns) quickly. MVP always looks for me. Everyone couldn’t be cooler. Everyone was, ‘Hey, we want you up here. Keep doing what you’re doing.’
Q: Do you have a dream main roster opponent?
A: Seth Rollins. I feel like just our trajectories right now, what I’m doing in NXT and what he’s doing on Raw. I just think it would be a cool clash. But I’ll wait for the day that I get up there. He’s gonna see me.