WWE's Carmelo Hayes has detailed how the United States Championship win has given him some direction and a footing in the promotion.
After coming into the main roster with much promise, Hayes had an up-and-down 2025, which began with an underwhelming run with The Miz, before he branched out on his own. However, he capped the year with the US title win, which he believes has given him a sense of security and confidence.
"Yeah, it feels good now [after winning the title], just to kind of have that sort of like stamp of, 'Okay, I'm here now. I've got my footing.' Especially being a babyface, it'ssomething that I was a little bit worried about at first. I was like, 'Oh, man. Here we go.' It's so much harder to try to be liked than it is for people to hate you. But the truth is that especially in the fans' eyes they want to like somebody that everybody else likes. They see what everybody else is [seeing], they don't know right away, especially casuals and things like that," he discussed in his appearance on "Toronto Sun."
He hopes that the fans who have backed him during his heel run will continue to love him as a good guy, which could convince others to like him too.
"The people that have liked me throughout my heel run and you know now they can kind of like me a little bit more loud and a little bit more proud, and they feel okay liking me, and other people are going, 'Oh yeah, we like him too.'"
The WWE star's first main roster title win came on the December 26, 2025, edition of "SmackDown," where he defeated Ilja Dragunov to become US Champion. Hayes is pleased to have some direction now that he has a title, and he said it's been great since he won it.
