{"id":159641,"date":"2026-04-21T06:00:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T10:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=159641"},"modified":"2026-04-21T01:37:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T05:37:23","slug":"carmelo-hayes-vs-trick-williams-for-the-united-states-title-isnt-just-likely-its-necessary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/04\/21\/carmelo-hayes-vs-trick-williams-for-the-united-states-title-isnt-just-likely-its-necessary\/","title":{"rendered":"Carmelo Hayes vs. Trick Williams for the United States Title Isn\u2019t Just Likely \u2014 It\u2019s Necessary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams started in NXT as best friends. They were inseparable, having fun both inside and outside the ring. Hayes was instantly successful, but after Williams started having success of his own, he got jealous. That led to a betrayal and a huge rivalry between them. Hayes was then sent to the main roster, winning the United States Championship after nearly two years in December.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, he lost it to Sami Zayn in March, who immediately began a program with Williams. Zayn himself lost the title<\/a> to Williams on night 2\u00a0of WrestleMania: Vegas. That leaves WWE with\u00a0a golden opportunity. Hayes is still mad about losing his title, while Williams is the current champion<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even though they\u00a0tagged at\u00a0NXT Homecoming\u00a0last\u00a0September, there\u2019s still animosity between them. A United States Championship\u00a0showdown should happen\u00a0in\u00a0order to\u00a0continue their story.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hayes Would Be a Perfect First\u00a0Opponent<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Fans who have watched NXT certainly know the story of Hayes and Williams. They started like brothers, but as time went on, jealousy started creeping in. <\/span><\/p>\n

The two feuded, then Hayes was defeated in a steel cage match in his final NXT match. From there, Williams became a star in NXT, and Hayes floundered. It\u2019s no coincidence that Williams arrived right when Hayes started to gain traction. <\/span><\/p>\n

The former doesn\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to be unsuccessful, as he\u2019s been in the Elimination Chamber match and a WrestleMania match in his first three months on the main roster. That would be a great starting point for their feud. Once again, Hayes sees how good Williams has it and wants to take his joy away. Adding in the title aspirations, and it seems like these two will be able to tell another great story.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Williams Will Have to Work Hard to Keep the US Title<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Williams\u2019 main roster run has been nothing short of impressive. Many wrestlers only get an Elimination Chamber match or a WrestleMania match in their careers. Williams competed in both within his first three months on the main roster. <\/span><\/p>\n

WWE is clearly high on him<\/a>, but he now has more responsibility than ever as WWE United States Champion. He\u2019s been NXT Champion, NXT North American Champion, and TNA Champion, so he has a lot of championship experience. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, the main roster is nothing like NXT in terms of crowd size and pressure. The NXT men\u2019s division\u2019s main goal is to move up to the main roster. Now that he\u2019s there, tons of guys want his title for the first time or want it back, like Hayes and Zayn. If he\u2019s not careful, he might lose it as quickly as he won it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This Would Be a Great Showdown for the Fans<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

A main roster match between Hayes and Williams is exciting for many reasons. People who are familiar with their NXT runs will get to see another match between two friends turned rivals. Fans who only know them on the main roster will get to see a former champion<\/a> face off against someone who\u2019s had a very successful main roster run. No matter which category a fan falls into, this should be made official as soon as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
A photo of WWE star Carmelo Hayes during his entrance at the 2025 WWE Royal Rumble. (Photo Credit: By Diego Serrano – WWE Royal Rumble 2025, CC BY 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=159687822)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hayes will get a chance to reclaim his title against someone he knows extremely well. Williams gets to defend his first main roster title for the first time. An open challenge could be issued, but Williams probably knows who\u2019s going to confront him on Friday. Hayes, being his first challenger, will be a great decision, as it\u2019ll extend a years-long story between two former friends.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams started in NXT as best friends. They were inseparable, having fun both inside and outside the ring. Hayes was instantly successful, but after Williams started having success of his own, he got jealous. That led to a betrayal and a huge rivalry between them. Hayes was then sent to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5338,"featured_media":159752,"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":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2192,26,4,3],"tags":[7740,7988],"class_list":["post-159641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-carmelo-hayes","tag-trick-williams"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159641","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\/5338"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159641"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159754,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159641\/revisions\/159754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}