Kevin Owens Congratulates Carmelo Hayes On Winning The WWE US Title: Special Moment, Well-Deserved Moment

Kevin Owens has reacted to Carmelo Hayes ascending and winning his first championship on the WWE main roster.

On the December 26th edition of WWE Friday Night SmackDown, Carmelo Hayes would answer Ilja Dragunov’s latest WWE United States Championship open challenge, coming away with the victory over his old NXT rival, capturing his first championship on the WWE main roster since his callup last year. Many fans have been thrilled by the championship victory for Hayes after a slow start to his time on the WWE main roster, and now a fellow former United States Champion has congratulated Melo in the wake of his victory.

In a new social media post on December 27th, Kevin Owens briefly returned to social media to make several posts, one of which was a quote tweet of a post Hayes made celebrating his victory, with Owens labeling the win a ‘special, well-deserved moment’.

Special moment.

Well-deserved moment.

Congrats, man! https://t.co/0SkeN22RPR

— Kevin (@FightOwensFight) December 28, 2025

Owens has been out of action with a neck injury he revealed in the build up to WrestleMania 41, with WWE forced to substitute Joe Hendry in for Owens at the Showcase of The Immortals.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Owens would be featuring as part of then coaching team for WWE LFG season three. You can read more about that here.