5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (14 Aug - Results & Review)

3. Melo’s US Title Challenge Is Mediocre

Things got off to a hot start with Carmelo's dive, but then his match vs. Baron Corbin never really felt like it got going. Corbin’s heat section was painfully dull, and it's fair to say by now that him as United States Champ? Yeah, just isn’t working. It isn’t helping that he’s still carrying around that goofy fur-lined belt that Lil Yachty had made for Trick Williams. Baron said he was going to change that ASAP after winning big at SummerSlam, but...he hasn't bothered.

Listen, this match wasn’t awful by any means (Hayes bumped around like a pro throughout), but no-one actually believed that Melo was winning the strap, and people are over Corbin’s heel comeback already. He's almost deliberately slow when putting the boots to an opponent. Slowing things down here or there isn't a problem, but some of Baron's heat sections just drag on and on and on like he's Nia Jax circa 2019.

That's not meant as a compliment, obviously.

All in all, yours truly was a tad disappointed by this match. He believed going in that Carmelo's speed and movement would offset the worst tropes of Corbin's matches, but that didn't end up happening. Then, almost impossibly, WWE took things from bad to worse by turning the clock back on something that flat out isn't clicking for Trick. In the process, they absolutely made Hayes look like a total afterthought who won't really be involved in things going forwards.

It's tough to see where Melo goes from here, it really is.