Carmelo Hayes didn’t miss when earlier today at WWE NXT Stand & Deliver he defeated Bron Breakker for the WWE NXT Championship.
Trick Williams kicked off the WWE NXT Stand & Deliver main event festivities with an impassioned promo about Hayes and how he has delivered “Banger after banger after banger” for WWE’s black and gold brand. As he spoke, LA Laker’s styled jerseys began to be dropped on the giant LED screen behind him with the names of NXT stars Hayes had overcome. Finally, Hayes’ music hit, and the crowd began to chant “Mel-O, Mel-O, Mel-O.”
As Hayes’ music settled, the crowd prepared for Breakker to make his way to the ring. Unlike previous, major NXT events, Breakker was not the fan favorite and was roundly booed as he barked his way to action. It is worth noting that the night before Stand & Deliver, Breakker’s father, WWE Hall of Famer Rick Steiner, was called out by rising pro wrestling star, Giselle Shaw, for using spewing homophobic and transphobic hate against her at WrestleCon. While it was definitely a pro-Hayes crowd in general, there were definitely murmurs about that in the section I was sitting in.
The match saw Trick Williams ejected earlier on only to return later and smash Breakker with the NXT Championship while the ref was down. After reviving the ref, Williams rolled Hayes onto Breakker but he was able to kick out at the last second. After a brief back and forth, Hayes hit Breakker with a scissor kick off the top rope for the victory, capturing the WWE NXT Championship.
Breakker’s reign lasted 362 days and saw him defend against names like Tommaso Ciampa, Joe Gacy, and Apollo Crews. Many fans are currently speculating that Breakker could be WWE main roster bound, potentially as early as Monday’s post-Mania Raw. Time will tell but for now, all focus seems to be on Carmelo Hayes.
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