I don't know about all that but my unpopular opinion is that Melo had fine first year on the main roster and is still in position to be a major player in the future
did he come in wrecking shyt and winning titles like most of us probably wanted? nah lol
but I think he's established himself. Took Cody Rhodes, Damien Priest etc. (people positioned waaaaaay higher than him) to their limit, got enough ring time to establish that he's one of the best in-ring guys in the company, and also got enough screen time (promos/segs) to get his character over.. Managed to start getting cheered and even got "We Want Melo" chants in some cities. Right now his character is basically - exceptionally talented kid that gets in his own way by being too cocky. He's basically Shedeur Sanders lol.. I think the biggest disservice with melo is that people constantly compare him and Bron Breakker, but their trajectories are so different that Its pretty unfair to him. they occupy completely different spaces as wrestler. expecting a workhorse like Danielson or Finn Balor and a brute like Brock Lesnar to be booked the same in their rookie years is unrealistic.
Miz getting hurt kinda prolonged that shyt they're doing longer than it needed to go, but this idea that Melo is just dead in the water is not accurate to me. I think he still has a big future ahead.. but like I said, maybe I'm buggin by not overreacting lol
idk, he wrestled Cody twice and lost,, took the pin at the us title triple threat at crown jewel, and had a best of 7 with no payoff with a dude who's not in the e anymore.. also when miz turned on Melo 2 weeks ago,, no one booed miz, in fact miz was getting some cheers..
bron won the ic title on a big 4 PLE last year while Melo has been taking Ls on PLEs and I guess got an Andre Battle Royale win that historically don't mean nothing..
the Orton win last year to qualify for mitb was cool, but dude needs a solid PLE win and some character direction badly..