Carmelo Hayes: Off-Air Moment With Undertaker At NXT Was Not Planned, It Took A Few Days To Soak In

Carmelo Hayes looks back on interacting with The Undertaker at WWE NXT.

Carmelo Hayes looks back on interacting with The Undertaker at WWE NXT.

The Undertaker, John Cena, Cody Rhodes, and other stars appeared on the October 10 episode of WWE NXT. At the end of the show, The Undertaker chokeslammed Bron Breakker and embraced Hayes. After NXT went off the air, Hayes and Undertaker raised their arms together as they walked backstage.

Speaking on the Black Rasslin’ Podcast, Hayes was asked about the star-studded show and his off-air moment with The Undertaker.

“It’s crazy. In the beginning, I’ve been around ‘Taker, I’ve been around Cena. I’ve been fortunate enough to have an hour conversation with Undertaker, an hour conversation with Cena before. So luckily, I wasn’t unfamiliar with these guys. But just being around them is always cool. You’d be surprised at how chill and laid back they really are. This was a day off, and they were kind of just chilling. You could see, they were so happy to be around the youth of it all. The coolest thing was probably seeing all of them interact, like Shawn and ‘Taker and John and Paul. Just seeming them all interact, I was just like kids, like this is freaking cool. But again, it was just business, and we was pros, and we had to handle it like that. Obviously, we had to let to let our inner human being kind of hold that down for a little bit,” Hayes said.

Hayes then recalled his moment with The Undertaker and stated that he didn’t know it was going to happen. He recalled how he was walking to the back with the legend, and the WWE Hall of Famer told him to throw up his arm. Hayes admitted that he let himself get excited once they were backstage, and The Undertaker gave him a pat on the back.

“I remember doing the whole thing with Taker, I didn’t know that was going to happen. I was just following him back. I didn’t know what we were doing. I’m just standing there like, ‘Undertaker,’ and we’re off-air, and I’m just kind of following him around like a lost puppy. Then he’s telling me, ‘Wait.’ I go, ‘Oh shoot.’ He’s like, ‘Alright, on three, turn back.’ I’m thinking, okay. Turn back. ‘Alright, back.’ Turn back. ‘Alright. When the music drops. Throw up the arm.’ I was like, ‘Oh shit.’ One, two, three, boom. Then he’s like, ‘Alright, let’s go.’ I got to the back, I was like, ‘That was so freaking cool.’ He just patted me on the back. That’s where I finally let go of all that professionalism and allowed myself to really take it in. It took me three or four days to really soak all that in. That was just amazing. But we gotta do a TV next Tuesday, so I’ll leave that be where that was and focus on what’s next,” Hayes said.

Click here to see what NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov had to say about his upcoming rematch with Carmelo Hayes.

Carmelo Hayes will challenge Ilja Dragunov for the NXT Championship on the October 31 episode of WWE NXT. Fightful will have live coverage of the show as it airs.

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