Carmelo Hayes ‘Heartbroken’ About WWE United States Title Loss, Says He Learned A Lot During Title Reign

Hayes opens up about the loss.

Carmelo Hayes’ reign as WWE United States Champion clocked out at 98 days. He lost the belt to Sami Zayn on the 3/27 Friday Night SmackDown after Trick Williams accidentally struck Melo, which Zayn capitalized on.

For the first time since the loss, Carmelo made a media appearance, and he was interviewed for the Battleground Podcast. He was asked to address rumors surrounding his title loss, and one of the rumors that the host mentioned was that Hayes lost the belt so he and Kelani Jordan could get married. The couple’s wedding is not until the end of 2026.

Hayes stated that SmackDown is the more appropriate platform to address his feelings about the title loss, but he is heartbroken about it.

“This is probably not the platform for that. I mean, we got SmackDown on Friday. I think that’ll be a more appropriate platform to kind of address what is going on. I mean, you know, I’m heartbroken that I’m not champ anymore. That was something that I took a lot of pride in. We’ll see what’s on the table for WrestleMania but, as far as that goes, I think SmackDown’s probably the appropriate platform for that… Please don’t believe everything you read on the internet, bro. Please don’t believe it.”

Further speaking about the title reign, Hayes said there are names he wishes he could have worked with during his open challenges. He learned a lot during the run.

“There was definitely names. I wish I could have worked with a lot of people from Raw. I wish I could have worked with Kofi (Kingston). There’s guys high up that obviously, yeah… Kofi was one of ‘em. Rey Mysterio was another one of them. I think that was on the table at one point. Guys like that. There’s a ton of guys. I went out there every week, different styles, different companies, different opponent levels all over the place and I had to adjust and that was a great learning experience for me–that whole process. I don’t know how many weeks it was… Somebody said it was like three months, and it was like eight defenses or something like that so, I learned a lot from that, from that open challenge and I feel like I got so much better being a part of that.”

As for the forthcoming U.S. Title plans, the new champion Sami Zayn will be defending against Trick Williams at WrestleMania 42.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the Battleground Podcast with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.