Carmelo Hayes has become the new WWE NXT North American Champion. This week’s episode of NXT 2.0 saw Hayes defeat Isaiah “Swerve” Scott to capture the belt. This happened right after Swerve retained over Legado del Fantasma leader Santos Escobar in the main event match in a Money in the Bank cash-in style. In this case, Hayes exercised his Breakout Tournament winning opportunity.
The main event of this week’s WWE NXT saw Hayes and Trick Williams come to ringside to help Swerve after Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde interfered to help out Escobar. Per the storyline, the other Hit Row members were abducted by Legado del Fantasma earlier, so Swerve was on his own during the match.
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Following the title retention, Hayes and Williams joined Swerve in the ring for a post-match celebration. But, Hayes turned on Swerve and then cashed-in his 2021 Breakout Tournament winning contract for a title match of his choosing. He then pinned Swerve to win the mid-card title of the NXT division.
This is Hayes’ maiden reign with WWE NXT North American Title or any championship in the WWE. Scott won the title back on the June 29 episode of NXT by defeating Bronson Reed. Last night’s main event with Escobar was Scott’s first title defense and he lost the belt. It was kind of expected as Hit Row was moved to Smackdown during this year’s WWE Draft.
Harland tried to make an impact on WWE NXT 2.0
In more news from this week’s WWE NXT, Harland (Brock Lesnar lookalike Parker Bordreaux) was shown on camera watching Tomasso Ciampa vs. Joe Gacy non-title match. The match ended with Ciampa winning clean in the middle of the ring, but after the match, he was attacked by Harland. Harland also grabbed Gacy by the throat who came to check in Ciampa.
is this conflict resolution?#WWENXT @harlandwwe @JoeGacy pic.twitter.com/8Tzx8Cg3K1
— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) October 13, 2021
Harland continued to pummel on Gacy while holding him away by the throat until Gacy began to caress Harland’s face. A disturbed Harland loosened him and ran away, allowing Gacy to check on Ciampa who was still lying. Ciampa shoved Gacy away and went to the back, with Gacy throwing a crazy smile on his face. There’s no update available on what WWE NXT plans to do next with these trio involved in a storyline.