Former champion defeats Grayson Waller in SmackDown debut

Modified Dec 16, 2023 02:11 GMT

A former champion just debuted on SmackDown and defeated Grayson Waller.

Carmelo Hayes has been one of the most impressive WWE Superstars in NXT. Since his debut, he has turned heads with his mic and in-ring skills. His rise to the top came quickly when he captured the NXT North American Championship.

When it looked like it couldn't improve, Hayes won the NXT Championship earlier this year.

Given his impressive list of accolades, when Logan Paul announced a tournament for the United States Championship, Shawn Michaels named Hayes the person who will represent NXT.

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Hence, Hayes was set to take on Grayson Waller in the first round of the United States Championship Tournament. The match was pretty good, and Hayes proved why he was as good as everyone says he was when he defeated Waller after a stellar performance.

With this win, Carmelo Hayes will now face the winner of Austin Theory and Kevin Owens's match, which will occur later tonight. It will be interesting to see how far Hayes will progress in this tournament.

What do you make of this match? Sound off in the comments section.

About the author

Sunil is a pro wrestling journalist, covering AEW and WWE news stories at Sportskeeda. He holds an MBA degree in Marketing, and has nearly 7 years of experience. A wrestling aficionado since childhood, Sunil used to imitate his favorite wrestlers as a young kid, and started writing professionally about the sport via Sportskeeda’s revenue-sharing opportunity.

Sunil admires former world champions AJ Styles, Will Ospreay, and Kenny Omega for their ability to consistently deliver great matches as well as entertain crowds with their mic skills.

If ever given a chance to change a storyline, Sunil would have booked Roman Reigns to end The Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak instead of Brock Lesnar. According to him, The Tribal Chief needed the victory more than Brock Lesnar, as the latter was already an established performer when he defeated ‘Taker. He would’ve also made that as Taker’s final match.

Always focused on making his work accurate and reliable, Sunil thoroughly checks his facts before writing his articles. When not writing for pro wrestling, he spends his time watching cricket.

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Edited by Angana Roy