Carmelo Hayes

On February 12, 2021, Hayes signed a contract with WWE and was assigned to the WWE Performance Center. He would make his in-ring debut on the June 1 episode of *NXT*, where he accepted Kushida's open challenge for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship, but was defeated. On the June 22 episode of *NXT*, Hayes had his second match on television, confronting and then facing Adam Cole in a losing effort. On July 6, Hayes was announced to be apart of the 2021 *NXT* Breakout Tournament. On the July 27 episode of *NXT*, Hayes defeated Josh Briggs in the first round. On the August 24 episode of *NXT*, Hayes defeated Odyssey Jones to win the 2021 *NXT* Breakout Tournament. On the September 14 episode of *NXT*, Hayes and a debuting Trick Williams maliciously attacked Duke Hudson before his match, turning heel in the process.

On October 12 episode of *NXT 2.0*, Hayes successfully cashed in his Breakout Tournament contract on Isaiah "Swerve" Scott to win the NXT North American Championship. Hayes successfully defended his title against Johnny Gargano and Pete Dunne in a triple threat match on the November 23 episode. On January 4, 2022, at the special New Year's Evil episode of *NXT 2.0*, Hayes defeated NXT Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong to unify the North American Championship and Cruiserweight Championship. The Cruiserweight Championship was immediately retired, with Hayes recognized as the final Cruiserweight Champion and continuing as North American Champion. He successfully retained his championship against Cameron Grimes at the Vengeance Day special episode on February 15, 2022. On the March 1 edition of *NXT*, Hayes retained title against Pete Dunne. He would lose the title on April 2, at NXT Stand and Deliver, in a fatal five-way ladder match involving Santos Escobar, Solo Sikoa, Grayson Waller, and Cameron Grimes, who won the title. Hayes would get his rematch in a triple threat match at NXT Spring Breakin' against Cameron Grimes and Solo Sikoa in a losing effort. At NXT In Your House, Hayes defeated Cameron Grimes to regain the North American Championship. On the September 13 episode of *NXT*, Hayes was defeated by Solo Sikoa, losing the championship and ending his second reign at 101 days. After Sikoa was stripped of the title the following week, Hayes was announced as the first of five men to compete in a ladder match for the vacant title at Halloween Havoc. At the event on October 22, Hayes failed to regain the championship as the match was won by Wes Lee. Hayes competed in the inaugural Iron Survivor Challenge at NXT Deadline on December 10, which was won by Grayson Waller. Following this, Hayes would begin a feud with Apollo Crews, where they would trade victories with each other, leading to a two-out-of-three falls match at NXT Vengeance Day, where Hayes defeated Crews in two straight falls. Later that night, Hayes and Williams confronted NXT Champion Bron Breakker following the latter's victory over Grayson Waller, teasing a future match between the two.

After weeks of teasing, the match between Hayes and Breakker for the NXT Championship was confirmed for NXT Stand & Deliver. With an assist from Trick Williams, Hayes defeated Breakker on April 1 to win the NXT Championship in the main event. During the build up to the match, Hayes would begin to slowly turn face. Hayes' face turn was solidified on the April 4 episode of *NXT*, after he was attacked by Breakker after a show of respect, turning Breakker heel. At NXT Battleground on May 28, Hayes successfully defended the NXT Championship against Breakker. On May 30 episode of *NXT*, Hayes successfully defended the NXT Championship against Noam Dar, when he was attacked by Baron Corbin. Hayes made his main roster debut on the June 27 episode of *Raw*, where he lost a non-title match against Finn Bálor. On June 27 at Gold Rush, Hayes successfully defended the NXT Championship against Baron Corbin. At the Great American Bash on July 30, Hayes successfully defended the title against Ilja Dragunov. On the following episode of *NXT*, Williams told Hayes that he needed to leave and shine on his own, breaking up the duo. At NXT No Mercy on September 30, Hayes lost the NXT Championship to Dragunov, ending his reign at 182 days. Earlier that night, Williams defeated "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio to become the new NXT North American Champion.

On the October 17 episode of *NXT*, Williams was slotted into the triple threat match between Hayes, Dijak and Baron Corbin to make it a fatal four-way match for an NXT Championship opportunity against Dragunov at NXT Halloween Havoc. This announcement caused a rift between Hayes and Williams. Before the match started, Williams was found attacked backstage and had to be taken to a hospital; Hayes went on to defeat Dijak and Corbin for the title opportunity. On night two of Halloween Havoc, Williams returned during the NXT Championship match and cost Hayes the title, with Williams staring Hayes down after the match. On the November 21 episode of *NXT*, Hayes lost to Josh Briggs to qualify for the Iron Suvivor Challenge at NXT Deadline after interference from Lexis King. This led to a match made between Hayes and King at NXT Deadline, which Hayes won. After the match, King said that he did not attack Williams back in October and thanked Hayes for the premium live event spotlight. The following day, *NXT* head Shawn Michaels announced that Hayes would represent *NXT* in *SmackDown*'s United States Championship number one contender tournament. On the December 12 episode of *NXT*, Hayes accused Ilja Dragunov of attacking Williams in October and himself early that night, which Dragunov denied. In his *SmackDown* debut on December 15, Hayes defeated Grayson Waller to advance in the United States Championship tournament. However, Hayes would lose to Kevin Owens in the second round on the December 22 episode of *SmackDown*.

On the January 17, 2024 episode of *NXT*, Hayes and Williams defeated Edris Enofé and Malik Blade in the first round of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.