Carmelo Hayes comments on what could have made his match against Apollo Crews better

During an appearance on Busted Open Radio, Carmelo Hayes discussed his two-out-of-three falls match against Apollo Crews at the 2023 WWE NXT Vengeance Day PLE and what could have made it better…

“The experience was great. Maybe I’m a perfectionist in my work, but I feel like there were things I could’ve done better. Just the connection I felt with the crowd, there were certain things I could have done different or I could have done better. That was my takeaway, but I’m glad it was received well. There was a lot of pressure going into it because Shawn (Michaels) had said, ‘you’re gonna steal the show.’ The expectations were already high and I’m glad we met his expectations.”

“I feel we could have put the stipulation of the match over better. An issue, in my mind, is that a lot of people are so programmed to see one fall, one fall, and then go to a third. I don’t think people were expecting I was going to to get the two falls. As I’m listening to the crowd, I’m thinking, ‘they’re about ready for an Apollo fall at this point.’ I felt like there were those down moments where they weren’t coming because they were like, ‘when is Apollo going to get his falls so we can really get cooking here.’ That’s just from a professional standpoint as far as being in there and being involved. I was happy with it. Apollo and I worked hard, we definitely worked hard. I thought all of our stuff was good, but I’m ready to get back out, do it again, and go up that.” (quotes courtesy of Jeremy Lambert)