WWE: Baron Corbin vs. Carmelo Hayes Set for Fri’s SmackDown Show, Kevin Patrick on Reason for Leaving WWE, Carmelo Hayes on Trick Williams NXT Title Victory

Baron Corbin vs. Carmelo Hayes King of the Ring 2024 Tournament Match Announced for Friday’s WWE SmackDown Show

WWE announced one new match for the card of tonight’s WWE SmackDown show in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

This new match announced was a King of the Ring 2024 Tournament First Round match of Baron Corbin vs. Carmelo Hayes.

TONIGHT on #SmackDown: @BaronCorbinWWE takes on @Carmelo_WWE in ROUND 1 of the #WWEKingAndQueen Tournament presented by @streamonmax. #TheIronClaw #MaxGetsMovies

📺 8/7c on @FOXTV pic.twitter.com/85hd2MbaOa

— WWE (@WWE) May 10, 2024

Current card for May 10th WWE SmackDown show:

• King of the Ring 2024 Tournament First Round match – Randy Orton vs. AJ Styles
• King of the Ring 2024 Tournament First Round match – Tama Tonga vs. Angelo Dawkins
• King of the Ring 2024 Tournament First Round match – Baron Corbin vs. Carmelo Hayes
• Queen of the Ring 2024 First Round match – Bianca Belair vs. Candice LeRae
• Queen of the Ring 2024 First Round match – Jade Cargill vs. Piper Niven
• Queen of the Ring 2024 First Round match – Naomi vs. Nia Jax

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Kevin Patrick Comments on His Reasons for Leaving WWE

As noted before, WWE commentator Kevin Patrick, real name Kevin Egan, was released from WWE this past January. Prior to his release, Patrick had been the lead commentator for WWE’s SmackDown brand.

A recent episode of the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast featured Patrick as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Patrick’s thoughts about his reasons why he wanted to leave WWE.

“Football was always gonna win, if there was ever a collision and there was one on the horizon, very clearly on the horizon. If I’m in Boise, Idaho on a Friday night, for example, doing SmackDown, how am I gonna be in a studio in New York at 1 o’clock on a Saturday? And this was coming. I also wasn’t their long-term guy. They need someone who’s all in. Michael Cole has missed two shows in 27 years.

And they (the fans) deserve more. That chair deserves more. So for me, it was time. I wanted to leave. I got to a place where, like, I had a chat with Michael Cole weeks before and I said, ‘Look, if there’s a thinking here that I move on, fine, I’m good. Let’s hug it out, let’s be on our way.’ I still talk to Michael Cole on the phone. When we went through with the release and everything else, I told him he’s the best boss I ever had and I stand by that. He’s a tremendous guy and everyone I worked with was great. It’s a chapter in your life. I wasn’t overly upset about it at all, I don’t think they were. I think it worked out best for the product on TV and for me. I’m all in on what I’m doing now and I love it, but when WWE’s in Atlanta, I’ll pop down and I’ll say hello to some friends.

Patrick also stated that his mother had told him that his traveling schedule for his WWE and soccer commitments did not make sense for him to continue for the well-being of his health.

“She’s (Becky Lynch) a lovely person. Deep down, a lovely, lovely human being and so is Colby (Seth Rollins). But so many are in there and Becky actually wasn’t around. She had-had her baby Roux and she wasn’t around for like the first six, seven months or so when I was there and then, when I first went over to say hello to her for the first time, she said, ‘Ah! I’ve been dying to meet you’ and she was just so welcoming and friendly. Sheamus has become a friend, Finn (Bálor) obviously has become a friend too and others too like Cody Rhodes is wonderful. They all reached out afterwards, after I left the company and I think a lot of them were relieved. Becky certainly was when I said, ‘No, it’s a good thing. It’s a good thing for me, it’s a good thing for WWE.’ This is just a smart move. It makes sense all around and for me, it was a relief because I’ll tell ya, when I was back in Ireland over Christmas, my mother sat me down and she said, ‘Kevin, this doesn’t make sense. How are you going to be in the middle of somewhere — you name it, in Canada or in the U.S. — on a Friday night and what if there’s no red-eye and then you’re gonna kill yourself physically and then you’ve got the prep for 14 M.L.S. games or whatever. It doesn’t add up’ so, beautiful chapter in my life. I’ve become a better person for it and a better broadcaster for it but I’m also better for not being there right now as well.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

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Carmelo Hayes Comments on Trick Williams’ NXT Title Victory & NXT’s Eras Transitions During His Time in NXT

A recent episode of The Ringer’s The Masked Man Show podcast featured Carmelo Hayes as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Hayes thoughts about Trick Williams’ recent NXT Championship victory feeling like an accomplishment for him as well.

“Yeah, I think him (Trick Williams), the culmination of it all and him winning the NXT Title, it feels like an accomplishment for me as well. Just bringing him in early on and getting his feet wet and kind of helping him along the way and seeing him reach the top, you know what I mean? It was a very kind of proud moment in a way. Despite all the in-between and the this or that. It was a proud moment. It was just like, wow, who — not who would’ve thought… you can’t predict that it would’ve went that smooth. We both reached the pinnacle. Just us two dudes. We had got just kind of thrown together and I’ve said it before, that’s what that was. It was kind of like, boom! Hey, let’s get these guys TV time and see what happens and you know, along the way, creatively, we were able to make things happen to sway ‘em that way and thankfully with my skill and the wrestling-wise, I was able to make things happen and reach the top and then, you know, help him up as well so I mean, like I said, it was just a very kind of poetic justice type moment of like, wow, who would’ve thought us two dudes dapping up, ‘Oh, you bout it-bout it?’ The beginning of the rainbow NXT, where everyone wanted to see us fail and here we go. These two dudes made history.”

Hayes also gave his thoughts about NXT’s transition from the Black & Gold era to the 2.0 era to the current era during his time in WWE’s NXT brand.

“Yeah, absolutely (I think we elevated the NXT brand). Shawn (Michaels) has told me straight up, like, he couldn’t have done it without Bron (Breakker), myself and a couple of other guys. I mean, I came in right on the tail end of Black and Gold and I just remember those guys kind of looking at us — I came in a class of 20. That class was crazy, you know what I mean? With all the guys that are pretty much doing it right now and I remember all those guys looking at us like, man, who are these freaking guys? It’s half indie people, a bunch of athletes and I remember that. Like you said, it was that Black and Gold kind of stigma and then they switched everything around. They brought that whole rainbow era in there into NXT and that’s when people were like, ‘Bro, this is gonna suck! Wow.’ They hated that. We were ridiculed so bad. But I do remember just getting through that and wanting to be different. I had the same game plan even before, when it was Black and Gold and I looked at the landscape, I’m like, dude, what’s missing? Me. I need to do something different and I brought it into 2.0 and we got out the mud with 2.0 and then with the new White and Gold and that’s when we started taking off, bringing main roster talent up and down, back and forth and showcasing us on main roster and things like that and now it’s bigger than it’s ever been I think.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com