Carmelo Hayes' SmackDown win won't help his career, veteran questions WWE: "We're supposed to forget all the losses?" (Exclusive)

By Prityush Haldar

Modified Apr 19, 2025 11:02 GMT

Carmelo Hayes won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal [Image: WWE.com]

Former WWE head writer Vince Russo recently shared his thoughts on Carmelo Hayes winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. The prestigious match was scheduled for the go-home episode of SmackDown before WrestleMania.

Several stars lined up in the ring this week for the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Andrade, The Miz, Karrion Kross, Shinsuke Nakamura, Rey Fenix, and many more tried to win the Battle Royal.

This week on BroDown, Russo explained that the Andre the Giant Battle Royal should have been won by somebody new trying to get established as a major star. He noted that Hayes had lost several matches leading up to the event, and the win didn't mean anything.

"This means something when the winner of this Battle Royal is somebody that came in new and is on a roll. When they're on a roll, and now, oh my God, they've won the Battle Royal. They've beat Carmelo Hayes to death. So the guy goes over in a Battle Royal and he's supposed to be over now? We're supposed to forget all the losses this guy has taken since he's come into the company?" [From 10:55 onwards]

Carmelo Hayes came into the blue brand as a first-round draft pick. However, he has been in the midcard since then. It will be interesting to see if this win infuses some momentum into his WWE career.

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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