Carmelo Hayes Wants To Bring Storylines To His US Title Reign, Doesn’t Want To Rely Solely On Open Challenges

Carmelo Hayes wants storylines.

Since winning the United States Championship in December 2025, Hayes has mainly been focused on open challenges, defending the belt against names like Rey Fenix, Leon Slater, and Shinsuke Nakamura.

Speaking with Good Karma Wrestling for a new interview, Hayes noted that he wants to start bringing actual storylines into his title reign.

“As far as who wants to answer the open challenge, to be honest, I think the open challenge is becoming a little bit more — I do want to bring storylines back cause I do feel like there is a period where guys have to earn an opportunity to get a title shot, you know what I mean? I don’t think guys should just be able to pull up every Friday and just automatically get a title shot cause until the open challenge opened, I didn’t get one, I had to earn one. It took a lot. If you guys remember, I was battling Andrade freaking every week, killing ourselves to get an opportunity for an opportunity. I’d like to bring that back.“

Elsewhere in the interview, Hayes praised The Miz for giving him a sound piece of advice at a low point in his career. Check out his full comments by clicking here.

Hayes is set to compete in an Elimination Chamber Qualifying match on the February 20 episode of WWE SmackDown. Fans can check out the current lineup for the show by clicking here.

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