Carmelo Hayes and The Miz have portrayed a rocky relationship on WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown. Once a tag team known as Melo Don’t Miz, Hayes and Miz are now rivals on the blue brand.
However, their bond behind the scenes couldn’t be any more different from what the cameras show. Hayes said in a recent interview that The Miz has helped him early in his career, providing veteran insight as he continues to settle into WWE’s main roster.
Hayes is just coming up on the two-year mark of his call-up to the WWE main roster, joining Smackdown after wrestling on NXT. While he’s current in a big position, appearing weekly as part of the show’s U.S. Open Challenge series, he wasn’t always getting featured as prominently.
Hayes recently told Good Karma Wrestling that The Miz has helped him cope with the ups and downs of being in the WWE, as the multi-decade WWE talent has experienced it all through the years.
“He’s a necessary person to have around,” Hayes said about The Miz. “I remember at one point, despite whatever we had going on storyline-wise, I just said, ‘Thank you, bro, for being here.’ I’m like, ‘I’m so happy that you’re here.’ I just had to tell him that, I was like. ‘I’m just so happy that you’re here, and I’m here at the same time, and I get to learn from you.’ There’s a lot of times where I was feeling low, I was like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on,’ and the only person that’s ever been able to explain it to me is The Miz, because he’s been high, he’s been low, he’s been in the middle. He’s done it so many times. He gave me a great quote, some advice, he told me: ‘When you’re at the top it’s gonna be easy because you figured out how to manage at the bottom.’ I was like dang, that’s so true. He was like, ‘Just wait, everybody gets a turn.’ Ain’t no way everybody gets a turn, but when you’re good, you’re gonna get chosen at some point, right?”
The Miz and Hayes last crossed paths just earlier this month, when they faced off in a one-on-one battle. It was Hayes who prevailed in that showing, beating The Miz in just under 10 minutes.
