Carmelo Hayes’ Battle Royal victory criticized, WWE veteran details major name who should have won instead (Exclusive)

Modified Apr 19, 2025 11:20 GMT

Carmelo Hayes is the new Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner [Image: WWE.com]

Former WWE head writer Vince Russo disapproves of Carmelo Hayes winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. The rookie outlasted several other stars to win the prestigious matchup.

Carmelo and Andrade were the last two men in the Battle Royal. However, Hayes prevailed as he eliminated Andrade last for the win. The match featured several other stars, including Shinsuke Nakamura, Rey Fenix, Otis, Chad Gable, Karrion Kross, The Miz, and many more, all keen to win the Battle Royal.

On a recent episode of BroDown with Mac Davis, Russo detailed that WWE should have blocked the win for a returning star like Rusev or Aleister Black. He felt Carmelo Hayes had no momentum because of his bad booking heading into the match. He felt this win wouldn't do anything for Hayes.

"This is the stuff that I mean. My God, bro, if you want to put somebody over in this, you should've had Miro or you should've had Aleister Black. You should have had somebody new. But they do this all the time. They beat somebody to death, and then they give him what they think is a big win, and they think you forgot all the losses before that. Carmelo Hayes means nothing because of the way they booked him." [From 11:25 onwards]

It will be interesting to see if Carmelo can use the momentum from this win to push himself to the top of the WWE roster.

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About the author

Prityush is a WWE news writer for Sportskeeda Wrestling who started watching wrestling in the later part of The Attitude Era. Although he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Prityush was a creative writer for his college, and his flair for creativity and love of pro wrestling eventually led him to the journalism field. After an initial stint in 2016-2017, he has been writing regularly for Sportskeeda since 2021.

As someone who loves and respects the business, he prides himself on factual, clean, and ethical reporting, free of plagiarism and AI usage. One of the ways he ensures this is by transcribing videos that he reports on.

Prityush had the privilege of interviewing superstar Matt Hardy in his career so far. Although, his favorite wrestler is CM Punk, as he relates to his Straight Edge philosophy.

When he is not reporting news, he loves reading and collecting WWE action figures. He currently owns over 500 wrestling figures and merchandise.

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Edited by Prityush Haldar