On last week’s episode of the black and gold brand, NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes was involved in a backstage segment with North American Champion Dominik Mysterio. The two got into an argument, which saw Melo challenge Dominik to a singles match. Their match was later confirmed to take place this week. And this time, there was no Judgment Day to back Dominik up in his match.
Following this, on this week’s NXT, Dominik Mysterio took on Carmelo Hayes in singles action. As entertaining as their match was, it had a pretty controversial finish, which saw utter chaos erupt after Ilja Dragunov attacked both champions.
Ilja Dragunov attacks Dominik Mysterio and Carmelo Hayes
On Tuesday night of NXT this week, Dominik Mysterio took on Carmelo Hayes in a Champion vs. Champion match. There was no Judgment Day or Rhea Ripley present on Dirty Dom’s side to back him up. This led to the belief that Melo would pick up an easy, clean win over the Judgment Day member.
Dominik Mysterio put up a pretty great fight against Carmelo Hayes even without Judgement Day, which proved his in-ring capabilities. However, during the match, Melo accidentally pushed Dom into Ilja Dragunov, who was present at ringside. Dom then returned the favor by pushing Melo into Dragunov once again before slapping the latter and getting back into the ring.
Carmelo Hayes and Dominik Mysterio were playing around too much and woke up the demon inside that boy Dragunov 😭 #WWENXT pic.twitter.com/0IU6yv6Qxi
— Public Enemies Podcast (@TheEnemiesPE3) September 20, 2023
This level of disrespect infuriated Ilja Dragunov, who got into the ring and attacked Dominik viciously. He completely laid out the Judgement Day member, which handed the Disqualification victory to him as he was attacked first. As The Mad Dragon was about to hit him with the Torpedo Moscow, Dominik moved out of the way, and the attack hit Carmelo instead, knocking him out.
As Dirty Dom raised his title to celebrate his DQ victory, Dragon Lee showed up and superkicked Dom. Lee sent a clear message to the North American Champion: He’s coming for the championship gold if Dom still remains the champion after No Mercy.
Ilja Dragunov faces Carmelo Hayes at NXT No Mercy
The rivalry between Carmelo Hayes and Ilja Dragunov has been going on since before The Great American Bash which took place in July, where Trick Williams helped Melo retain against The Mad Dragon.
It’s no doubt that Ilja Dragunov is a huge threat to Melo’s illustrious title reign, having credible victories over stars like Gunther in the past. He is one of the most dominant and physically imposing wrestlers in NXT. However, Carmelo Hayes is one of the top superstars as well, having defeated Bron Breakker to win the championship gold. The two men are now scheduled to square off against each other once again at the upcoming PLE, No Mercy, on September 30.
Stay tuned for the epic final clash between Carmelo Hayes and Ilja Dragunov at No Mercy a couple of weeks later.
