Carmelo Hayes

Christian Brigham (born August 1, 1994) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Carmelo Hayes. He is a former one-time NXT Champion, a two-time and longest combined reigning NXT North American Champion, and a one-time and the final NXT Cruiserweight Champion, having unified it with the NXT North American Championship.

Prior to signing with WWE, Brigham wrestled on the independent circuit primarily in the New England region under the ring name Christian Casanova.

Independent circuit (2014–2021)
After being trained by Brian Fury, on April 12, 2014, Brigham made his professional wrestling debut for independent promotion Chaotic Wrestling, losing to Mikey Webb. Over the next few years, he worked for various promotions including Beyond Wrestling, where he won the Pride of New England Tournament for Tomorrow. On March 17, 2016, Brigham won the Chaotic Wrestling New England Championship. On March 16, 2018, Casanova won the Chaotic Wrestling Tag Team Championship alongside Tripilicious. On March 29, 2019, Casanova won the Chaotic Wrestling Heavyweight Championship for the first time, and on August 30, won it a second time, thus making him the Twelfth Triple Crown Champion in Chaotic Wrestling. On December 19, 2020, he won the Vacationland Cup while working for Limitless Wrestling.

NXT debut and championship reigns (2021–2023)
On February 12, 2021, Brigham signed a contract with WWE and was assigned to the WWE Performance Center. He made his in-ring debut on the June 1 episode of NXT under the name Carmelo Hayes, accepting Kushida's open challenge for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship, but was defeated. On the June 22 episode of NXT, Hayes had his second match, reminiscent of John Cena's SmackDown debut in 2002 against Kurt Angle, confronting and facing Adam Cole in a losing effort. In July, Hayes took part in the 2021 NXT Breakout Tournament, defeating Josh Briggs, Duke Hudson, and Odyssey Jones to win the tournament. On the September 14 episode of NXT, Hayes and a debuting Trick Williams maliciously attacked Hudson before his match, establishing themselves as a heel duo and forming the Trick Melo Gang.

On the October 12 episode of NXT, Hayes successfully cashed in his Breakout Tournament contract on Isaiah "Swerve" Scott to win the NXT North American Championship. He made his first successful title defense on the November 23 episode of NXT against Johnny Gargano and Pete Dunne. After the match, Hayes, Tony D'Angelo, Bron Breakker and Grayson Waller brawled with Gargano, Dunne, Tommaso Ciampa and LA Knight, leading to a WarGames match at NXT WarGames on December 5, where Team 2.0 defeated Team Black and Gold. At NXT: New Year's Evil on January 4, 2022, Hayes defeated NXT Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong to unify the North American Championship and the Cruiserweight Championship. Hayes was recognized as the final Cruiserweight Champion, which was then retired, and continued as North American Champion. He retained the title against Cameron Grimes on February 15 at NXT: Vengeance Day and on the March 1 episode of NXT against Dunne. After the match, Hayes announced that he would be defending the title in a five-way ladder match at NXT Stand & Deliver on April 2, where Grimes won the championship, ending his reign at 172 days. At Spring Breakin' on May 3, he failed to regain the title from Grimes in a triple threat match involving Solo Sikoa.

At NXT In Your House on June 4, Hayes defeated Grimes to regain the North American Championship. He then retained the title against Tony D'Angelo, Grayson Waller on July 5 at NXT: The Great American Bash, Giovanni Vinci on August 16 at NXT: Heatwave, and Ricochet on September 4 at Worlds Collide. On the September 13 episode of NXT, Hayes lost the championship to Sikoa, ending his second reign at 101 days. On the October 11 episode of Main Event, Hayes made his main roster debut, defeating Cedric Alexander. At NXT Halloween Havoc on October 22, he failed to regain the North American Championship in a ladder match. On the November 22 episode of NXT, he challenged new champion Wes Lee for the title in a losing effort. Hayes competed in the inaugural Iron Survivor Challenge at NXT Deadline on December 10, which was won by 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 Williams, Hayes defeated Breakker on April 1, 2023 to win the NXT Championship in the main event of Stand & Deliver. This made Hayes the first man to have held the North American, Cruiserweight, and NXT championships. 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 when Breakker, enraged over having lost the title, turned heel by attacking him when Breakker faked a show of respect prior to the attack. At NXT Battleground on May 28, Hayes successfully defended the NXT Championship against Breakker. On the May 30 episode of NXT, Hayes successfully defended the NXT Championship against Noam Dar, after which, he was attacked by Baron Corbin. Hayes wrestled his Raw debut match on June 26, where he was defeated by Finn Bálor in a non-title match. The following night at NXT: Gold Rush, Hayes successfully defended the NXT Championship against Corbin. On the August 2 episode of NXT, Williams told Hayes that he needs to leave and shine on his own, separating the Trick Melo Gang. At NXT No Mercy on September 30, Hayes lost the NXT Championship to Ilja Dragunov, ending his reign at 182 days. Earlier that night, Williams defeated "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio to become the new NXT North American Champion, but lost the title back to Mysterio on NXT three days later.

Feud with Trick Williams (2023–2024)
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 a NXT Championship opportunity against Dragunov at NXT: Halloween Havoc. This caused a rift between Hayes and Williams as Hayes was blindsided by the announcement. 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 2 of NXT: Halloween Havoc, Hayes failed to regain the title from Dragunov after being distracted by the returning Williams, who stared Hayes down after the match. On the November 21 episode of NXT, Josh Briggs defeated Hayes to qualify for the Iron Survivor 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. Later that night, Williams won the Iron Survivor Challenge. On the December 12 episode of NXT, Hayes accused Dragunov of attacking Williams in October and himself earlier that night, which Dragunov denied. In his SmackDown debut match on December 15, Hayes, who was chosen by Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative Shawn Michaels to represent NXT in SmackDown's WWE United States Championship #1 Contender Tournament, defeated former rival Grayson Waller in the first round of the tournament but lost to Kevin Owens in the semifinals the following week.

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. Hayes made his Royal Rumble match debut at the titular event a day later as the fifth entrant as one of two representatives (the other being Bron Breakker) from NXT. Hayes eliminated Grayson Waller and was eliminated by Finn Bálor. On the January 30 episode of NXT, Hayes and Williams defeated Latino World Order's Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro to advance to the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. At NXT Vengeance Day on February 4, Hayes and Williams failed to win the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, which was won by Baron Corbin and Bron Breakker. Later that night, after Williams failed to win the NXT Championship from Dragunov, Hayes attacked Williams with a steel chair, ending their partnership and turning heel in the process. On the following episode of NXT, Hayes revealed that he was the one who attacked Williams back in October 2023. At NXT: Roadblock on March 5, Hayes was defeated by The D'Angelo Family leader Tony D'Angelo to determine the #1 contender to the NXT Championship at NXT Stand & Deliver after D'Angelo distracted Hayes using Williams' entrance music. After the match, Hayes was attacked by a returning Williams in the ring. The following week on NXT, Williams challenged Hayes to a match at NXT Stand & Deliver on April 6 where Hayes lost. Prior to the event, Shawn Michaels announced that the match will be the main event, making Hayes and Williams the first two black men to main event NXT Stand & Deliver and a NXT PLE, and the first two black men to main event a WWE PLE since The Rock and Booker T at SummerSlam in 2001. In a rematch on the April 16 episode of NXT, Hayes lost to Williams in a steel cage match despite assistance from his security team to end their feud in his final match for NXT.

SmackDown (2024–present)
At Night 1 of the WWE Draft on the April 26, 2024 episode of SmackDown, he was promoted to the SmackDown brand as the third overall draft pick. He then challenged Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes to a match as his first opponent as a main roster wrestler, which he lost. Hayes entered the King of the Ring tournament, where he defeated Baron Corbin in the first round but lost to Randy Orton in the quarterfinals. On the June 21 episode of SmackDown, he qualified for the men's Money in the Bank ladder match by defeating Orton and The Bloodline's Tama Tonga in a triple threat match. At Money in the Bank on July 6, Hayes lost the Money in the Bank ladder match after Drew McIntyre grabbed the Money in the Bank briefcase. On the July 17 episode of Speed, Hayes and Ilja Dragunov fought to the first time limit draw in their Speed Championship #1 Contender's Tournament semifinal match. It was decided that both men were eliminated from the tournament and the winner of the other semifinal, Baron Corbin, will have a bye to the tournament final to face Speed Champion Andrade for the title.

Other media
Carmelo Hayes made his video game debut in WWE 2K23, and later appeared in WWE 2K24.

Personal life
Brigham is currently in a relationship with fellow professional wrestler Lea Mitchell, professionally known as Kelani Jordan.

Championships and accomplishments

 * Beyond Wrestling
 * Pride of New England Tournament for Tomorrow (2019)
 * Chaotic Wrestling
 * Chaotic Wrestling Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
 * Chaotic Wrestling New England Championship (1 time)
 * Chaotic Wrestling Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Tripilicious
 * Twelfth Triple Crown Champion
 * ESPN
 * Ranked No. 7 of the 30 best Pro Wrestlers Under 30 in 2023
 * Liberty States Pro Wrestling
 * Liberty States Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * Limitless Wrestling
 * Limitless Wrestling World Championship (1 time)
 * Vacationland Cup (2020)
 * Lucky Pro Wrestling
 * LPW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Elia Markopoulos
 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * Ranked No. 13 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2023
 * Northeast Championship Wrestling
 * NCW New England Championship (1 time)
 * Northeast Wrestling
 * NEW Live Championship (1 time)
 * WWE
 * NXT Championship (1 time)
 * NXT North American Championship (2 times)
 * NXT Cruiserweight Championship (1 time, final)
 * NXT Breakout Tournament (2021)
 * NXT Year-End Award
 * Match of the Year (2023) vs. Ilja Dragunov at NXT No Mercy