Carmelo Hayes

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

WWE

North American Champion (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.

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 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, which was retired. Hayes was recognized as the final Cruiserweight Champion and continued as North American Champion. He retained the title against Cameron Grimes on February 15 at 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 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 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 The Great American Bash, Giovanni Vinci on August 16 at 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 WWE Main Event, Hayes made his main roster debut, defeating Cedric Alexander. At 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 Deadline on December 10, which was won by Waller.

The HIM Era and NXT Champion (2023–present)

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 made his main roster debut on the June 26 episode of Raw, 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. At the NXT 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 needs to leave and shine on his own, breaking up the Trick Melo Gang. Later that night, Hayes teamed with Wes Lee against The Meta-Four's Noam Dar and Oro Mensah in a losing effort, with Lee accidentally taking out Hayes. This led to Hayes and Lee arguing after the match.

Carmelo Hayes made his video game debut in WWE 2K23.

• 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)
  • Twelfth Triple Crown Champion
• 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. 77 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2022
• Northeast Championship Wrestling
  • NCW New England Championship (1 time)
• Northeast Wrestling
  • NEW Live Championship (1 time)
• WWE
  • NXT Championship (1 time, current)
  • NXT North American Championship (2 times)
  • NXT Cruiserweight Championship (1 time, final)
  • NXT Breakout Tournament (2021)