A former WWE champion squared off with Cody Rhodes on Friday Night SmackDown this week. While the 30-year-old superstar failed to win the match, he has made a bold statement after his defeat. Carmelo Hayes has claimed himself as a worthy man for the Undisputed WWE Championship.
Owing to his mind games last week, the former NXT Champion received a singles match against Cody Rhodes on SmackDown. Melo noted that Kevin Owens was telling the truth about Rhodes, that he was to blame for the injury-inducing attack on Randy Orton. This resulted in him almost getting into a backstage brawl with the Undisputed Champion.
During his entrance, Hayes had a mic and tried to further hammer on the men’s Crown Jewel Champion’s issues with Owens. Despite ‘Him’ emotionally impacting The American Nightmare, the latter still won the match. However, Melo also put up a great fight, pushing Rhodes over the edge.
While commentators Michael Cole and Corey Graves already praised his performance, Carmelo Hayes also praised himself on X. He claimed that his match equaled a 40-point performance in the NBA and that he was worthy of the Undisputed title.
“Didn’t win but still dropped 40 points on The WWE Undisputed Champion #MeloMentality #SmackDown,” Hayes wrote.
Recently, Hayes tried to capture the United States Championship, where he had hot feuds with the titleholder LA Knight and fellow challenger Andrade. It would be interesting to see if Melo enters another match with Cody Rhodes in the future with the Undisputed WWE Championship on the line.