Carmelo Hayes claims major WWE rivalry wasn't fully planned

Carmelo Hayes recently shared that his rivalry with a major WWE star was not fully planned out, and he would like for it to continue. Hayes was selected in the first round of this year's WWE Draft by SmackDown.

In an interview with Steve Muehlhausen for The Takedown on Sports Illustrated, Hayes was asked if his feud with Andrade had culminated on WWE SmackDown. Hayes stated that maybe Andrade felt that way and admitted that the rivalry wasn't fully planned out. Carmelo Hayes also suggested that the two stars extend the series to seven matches.

"It feels like an opportunity to get guys who are hungry and didn't have a direction at the time. It was like, ‘Hey, we know we got these two studs. Let's see what we make out of it. I don't know if it was fully planned, and who knows how far we will take it. But personally, I'm not okay with losing in five when I know there can be seven. I've seen all these other guys go to seven. What makes this different? Why does this only go to five? He didn't sweep me. He's just barely beating me every time," said Hayes. [H/T: Fightful]

Andrade defeated Carmelo Hayes this past Friday night on WWE SmackDown in a singles match. It was the fifth match in the series, and Andrade currently leads 3-2. The former AEW star will be squaring off against LA Knight for the United States Championship tonight on SmackDown.

Carmelo Hayes praises WWE SmackDown star

Carmelo Hayes recently praised Baron Corbin for helping him as a performer during his time in NXT.

In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda Wrestling's Bill Apter earlier this year, Hayes noted that he learned a lot from Corbin in NXT. The 30-year-old noted that The Lone Wolf helped a lot of younger talent in NXT and prepared them for the main roster. Corbin has since returned to the main roster and currently competes on SmackDown.

"Actually, I appreciate Baron Corbin a lot. He's one of those guys that, he came in, you know, he took a lot of us younger guys under his wing in a way, and kind of just smartened us up on the game. There is a lot of stuff that we don't know on the other side, that we aren't privy to because we haven't got to experience that yet." [3:04 onwards]

You can check out the video below:

Carmelo Hayes is a former NXT Champion but has not won a title on the main roster so far. It will be interesting to see what WWE has planned for Hayes in the weeks ahead on SmackDown.