{"id":152573,"date":"2026-02-11T07:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=152573"},"modified":"2026-02-10T20:58:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T01:58:25","slug":"the-three-biggest-threats-to-carmelo-hayes-on-the-road-to-wrestlemania-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/02\/11\/the-three-biggest-threats-to-carmelo-hayes-on-the-road-to-wrestlemania-42\/","title":{"rendered":"Carmelo Hayes\u2019 Biggest Roadblocks to WWE WrestleMania 42"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carmelo Hayes won the U.S. Championship from Ilja Dragunov on the Christmas episode of SmackDown. Ever since that title change, Hayes has been a fighting champion with open challenges, retaining the title against the likes of Johnny Gargano, Rey Fenix, Leon Slater, Shinsuke Nakamura, and The Miz. As WWE approaches <\/span>WrestleMania 42<\/a>, here are three major threats to Hayes’ title reign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trick Williams<\/h2>\n

Trick Williams<\/a> is the ideal candidate to dethrone Carmelo Hayes for the U.S. Title due to the history he has with Hayes. They were originally known as Trick Melo Gang in NXT and soon became the best rivals since the days of DIY and Bayley and Sasha Banks. Since he just got called up to the main roster, he would make a major statement with a U.S. Title victory to kick off his trajectory to the top.<\/p>\n

Since Hayes is not involved in a personal feud with anyone and has been battling the entire mid-card in open challenges, Hayes will likely defend the title in a ladder match at Mania. Williams will have to use those Lemon Pepper Steppers to add more pep to his step when he is climbing the ladder to grab the U.S. Title. It’ll also be easy for him to gloat in front of his former pal’s face for the heel heat.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Aleister Black<\/h2>\n

Aleister Black has not redeemed himself since returning from AEW to WWE. He lost his first big feud with Damian Priest in an ambulance match. It was implied that the feud would help elevate him to a title shot, but all it did was put him back where he started when he got released from the WWE. However, Black still has one more shot for a consolation prize, and that would be the U.S. Title.<\/p>\n

Black never won a singles title in the WWE, and the U.S. Title would be a good first step. When he had his first U.S. Title match against Ilja Dragunov back in October, Damian Priest cost him the match. Now that Priest is out of his hair, there is a window for him to continue his heel run and answer Hayes’ U.S. Title Open Challenge. Hopefully, the title will be his ticket to regaining momentum.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Miz<\/h2>\n

The Miz<\/a> is the last person to be considered for a title shot due to his lackluster momentum. He basically loses a match every single week. He has been buried on SmackDown more than the New England Patriots were in the Super Bowl. However, like the Patriots, he is an established veteran of the game and has a personal vendetta against Hayes ever since their team of Melo, Don’t Miz broke up.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo Credit: By Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff<\/a> from Washington D.C, United States – This image has been extracted from another file, CC BY 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=65558817<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hayes was supposed to benefit from Miz’s tutelage, but Miz decided to go into business for himself selfishly. The last time Miz won the U.S. Title was in 2010. It has been a long time since he won that title, as his career was mostly focused on the IC Title. It would not be too far-fetched to see Miz bring some prestige to the U.S. Title and put another talent over in what would be a transitional reign.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not down with just that and would like even more WWE SmackDown Coverage<\/span>\u00a0from\u00a0<\/span>Mark Justice<\/a>, check out more of his articles right here on LWOS and subscribe to his popular YouTube channel by clicking\u00a0<\/span>HERE<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n

Header photo \u2013 WikiMedia Creative Commons<\/a> \u2013 Stay tuned to the <\/i><\/em>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for more on Carmelo Hayes and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the significant news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/amp-ad><\/p>\n

You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>A&E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Main Event, as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carmelo Hayes won the U.S. Championship from Ilja Dragunov on the Christmas episode of SmackDown. Ever since that title change, Hayes has been a fighting champion with open challenges, retaining the title against the likes of Johnny Gargano, Rey Fenix, Leon Slater, Shinsuke Nakamura, and The Miz. As WWE approaches WrestleMania 42, here are three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5747,"featured_media":152962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,4,3],"tags":[7740],"class_list":["post-152573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-carmelo-hayes"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5747"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152573"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152965,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152573\/revisions\/152965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}