Carmelo Hayes’ WrestleMania 42 Hopes Dashed After Sami Zayn Loss on SmackDown

It seems like Carmelo Hayes will watch this year's WrestleMania from the sidelines after blowing up a major opportunity on SmackDown.

Carmelo Hayes’ WrestleMania 42 Hopes Dashed After Sami Zayn Loss on SmackDown

Sami Zayn retained his US title against Carmelo Hayes on SmackDown [via- WWE]

It might be game over for Carmelo Hayes as far as his WrestleMania 42 participation is concerned. Last week, he lost the United States title to Sami Zayn in an ending that saw Trick Williams accidentally punch his former ally on SmackDown. The fans were absolutely upset with such a creative call from WWE to strip the title off Melo this close to WrestleMania.

Hayes got his rematch on this week’s SmackDown after telling Zayn to listen to the fans, who wanted Melo around that championship instead of the former ‘Honorary Uce’. The latter, however, brokered a deal with the Massachusetts-born wrestler that if he were to lose again, it’s going to be Zayn vs. Williams for the US title at WrestleMania without Melo having anything to do with it.

‘The A-Champion’ was fine with that proposition, and their match was set for the evening in St. Louis. Williams was ringside for it alongside his friend and rapper Lil Yachty. The in-ring action between Zayn and Melo was, as expected, top-notch. It started going south for Hayes the moment he tweaked his left ankle due to an abrupt landing at ringside while coming down off a high-risk maneuver on Zayn.

It ultimately cost Carmelo Hayes the match. The ending saw him exacerbating that leg injury after Sami Zayn got out of harm’s way when Melo missed a Nothing But Net attempt on the Canuck. ‘The Killanova’ grabbed his left leg and started writhing in pain after falling down on the ring canvas. The match referee kept checking on him and even advised Zayn to back off for a while.

‘The Underdog from the Underground’ did step back only to rev up the engine to land a Helluva kick on an injured Hayes. That made him retain the US title, and he’ll now defend it against Trick Williams at The Grandest Stage of Them All. Zayn got laid out by ‘Mr. Whoop That’ afterwards with the help of Lil Yachty. Williams hit the Trick Shot on the champ to stand tall and pose with the United States Championship.

Could Carmelo Hayes still make it to WrestleMania 42 despite costly loss on SmackDown?

The fans are dissatisfied with the outcome of Carmelo Hayes losing his rematch to Sami Zayn on SmackDown. They’re under the impression that it necessarily means that Hayes wouldn’t be making the cut for WrestleMania. And this might be true. It was reported on WrestleVotes Radio that WWE was aware of the online criticism of Melo being omitted from the US title picture leading to WrestleMania.

Carmelo Hayes and Sami Zayn going at it with Trick Williams and Lil Yachty watching
Carmelo Hayes and Sami Zayn going at it with Trick Williams and Lil Yachty watching [via- WWE]

Despite taking cognizance of the indignation of its audience about their stance on Carmelo Hayes, the latter’s WrestleMania direction was unknown as of Thursday. The storyline progression on SmackDown was going to be the key to Hayes’ WrestleMania participation, which is in real jeopardy now. After he lost to Zayn this week, there doesn’t appear to be a way out of it.

The only silver lining could be the fact that Zayn didn’t play fair by hitting his best shot on Hayes while the referee was checking on him and even told the ‘Great Liberator’ to stay off the 31-year-old for a brief while. This might be the ammo that Hayes could use to strengthen his case about being added to the Zayn vs. Williams WrestleMania match to make it a triple threat for the US title.

However, that seems far-fetched from reality. It was recently reported that Carmelo Hayes isn’t slated for time off heading into the Show of Shows, with him getting engaged to Kelani Jordan just a few days back. They’re engaged to be married, which some fans speculated as the reason why WWE decided to take the title off Melo and allow him to go on a break. But there is no truth to those rumors.

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