Carmelo Hayes Reacts to Dropping Men's U.S. Title and Missing WrestleMania 42

Carmelo Hayes appeared to have a clear path toward WrestleMania 42, but he lost his Men's United States Championship — and his spot on the card — just weeks before the event took place inside Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Melo issued one of his open challenges on the March 27 edition of SmackDown, and wound up dropping the title to Sami Zayn due to outside interference from his old buddy Trick Williams.

Given his history with Trick, and the way he lost championship to Sami, it would have made sense to feature Hayes as part of a triple threat match for the Men's U.S. Title at the 'Showcase of the Immortals'. For unknown reasons, WWE decided not to go in that direction.

Trick Williams went on to defeat Sami Zayn last weekend in a singles contest to capture his first championship on the main roster, while Carmelo Hayes was left to wait another year to make his WrestleMania debut.

Hayes was made available to members of the media in the days leading up to the event, and during a conversation with Michael Fairman, Melo gave his honest thoughts on losing the Men's United States Championship so close to the biggest show of the year.

Carmelo Hayes said it sucked missing WrestleMania, but all he can do is move forward

“It sucked, it definitely sucked and it was heartbreaking," Melo said. "It felt like I ran the race. I was so close to just throwing my arms up and crossing the finish line, and then I got kind of sidestepped a little bit."

Melo won the title from Ilja Dragunov back in December and had a tremendous 98-day reign. His matches against the likes of Johnny Gargano, Shinsuke Nakamura, Leon Slater, Rey Fenix, and his multiple rematches against the Mad Dragon, were among the very best in WWE on a weekly basis.

The WWE Universe had also fully gotten behind HIM, and the online reaction to his WrestleMania snub was not kind.

"At the end of the day, I’m a pro. I show up to work, what they need from me, I do it and I go above and beyond no matter what every time. It’s one of those things, you got to charge it to the game. It wasn’t a personal thing. It wasn’t a me thing.... It’s not something that I’m gonna sit here and go, ‘Oh, woe is me.’ I don’t move like that. I had a day or two where I was like, ‘What the hell?” Then after that I was like, ‘You know what? Back to work man.’ There’s just a chip on my shoulder, and watch what’s going to happen now.”

Carmelo Hayes was far from the only head scratching omission from this year's WrestleMania card. Tiffany Stratton, who walked into WrestleMania 41 last year as the WWE Women's Champion, recently shared similar sentiments to Melo when it came to missing out of the show this past weekend.

Stratton's road to WrestleMania 43 next year in Saudi Arabia got off to a really strong start on Friday, when she defeated Giulia to become the new Women's United States Champion.

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