WWE SmackDown Spoiler: Former champion suffers first defeat on the blue brand against Kevin Owens

A former champion just suffered his first defeat on SmackDown against Kevin Owens.

Carmelo Hayes has been impressive ever since his NXT debut. He has proven himself to be an outstanding and reliable worker who has put on consistent performances on a weekly basis.

His work ethic saw him become the NXT North American Champion pretty early into his career. If that was not enough, he went on to win the NXT Championship earlier.

Hence, when Logan Paul announced the United States Championship Tournament, Hayes was the perfect candidate to represent NXT on SmackDown.

Hayes took part in the first-round match earlier tonight against Grayson Waller. He was able to pick up the win against his former nemesis. With this win, Hayes will face Kevin Owens in the next round of the tournament.

Since next week is the holiday season, WWE is pre-taping next week's episode of SmackDown after tonight's episode. Hence, the second round of the tournament took place tonight.

Hayes and Owens had a good match, but it was The Prizefighter who came out on top tonight. After the match, Owens showed some respect towards Hayes.

Screengrab of the result of Kevin Owens vs. Carmelo Hayes

With this win, Kevin Owens will now advance to face Santos Escobar in the finals of the United States Championship Tournament.

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