[8.0] "I really like both wrestlers individually, so I could only enjoy this match. Between the speed of Carmelo Hayes, which is a real asset in every one of his matches, and the technical mastery of Johnny Gargano, it was bound to be excellent. And it was. The only thing missing to make it truly outstanding was genuine storytelling between the two men, a real build to their rivalry. That's the downside of the Open Challenge format : it doesn't allow for deep narrative construction, even though that's exactly what would have elevated a match between two brillant wrestlers like them."
[10.0] "Premier open challenge pour Carmelo Hayes et premier classique. Si il nous sert des matchs comme ça toutes les semaines ça va être très bon SmackDown. C'est bien d'avoir choisi Johnny Gargano comme premier adversaire, un bon worker."
[8.0] "Maybe im being too much of a star slut by going 4.25 on this...but I grew up on Black & Gold man. What else am I supposed to do with a TakeOver-esque epic where Gargano gets his nose all busted. Heavily recommend watching a full barely-commercial interruptepd version I found because they were doing great stuff there too. Great chemistry and even turned this fed-sheep crowd up too with their magic. Just a delightful match. Keep em coming weekly Triple K this is the only good thing you have going! ****1/4"
[8.0] "Well. This was the absolute best performance from Gargano in a long time. His whole offense looked good. I loved how aggressive he was in trying to win a great little thing of the match. Hayes was great but this was the Gargano show. ****"
[8.0] "One of the best parts of smackdown being 3 hours is that we can get long matches. Carmelo can easily get even more over this way and this was a great start."
[7.0] "It's an entertaining match, quite good, and very much in the style of great moments. Honestly, I feel like they perhaps tried too hard for a WWE-style match, focusing on big moments rather than sequences, and sometimes with little storytelling."
[4.0] "[2.0*] Ew I mean that kinda of stinky right ? Lolll. No seriously, that wasn't really good to be honest for the typical reasons; they're doing moves for the sake of doing it, and that's just it! They are NOT effective at all because of their selling and the way they treat those impactful moves is so awful and actually more worse than that. That's obviously an enough reason to make any match a bad match."
[7.0] "We continiung the tradition of banger matches for US championship on SmackDown. Carmelo and Johnny showed a very good match, with high-speed activity and rasining of energy. I love this type of matches, but I hope that Melo's reign will be not with only great matches."
[5.0] "This was decent, but it was no Sami/Ilja classic. A lot of filler through the advert breaks, no genuinely close falls or big counters, and a lack of intensity/determination relative to what we've seen throughout recent open challenge reigns. Both men absolutely have the capacity to put on an amazing match, but I struggle to see how this can be deemed top-tier wrestling. It was quite good, but giving this all the superlatives sets an incredibly low bar; a half decent match on TV shouldn't be a rarity."
[8.0] "Oh man this was awesome in so many ways, SD's saving grace truly has been the US Men's title scene & I really have Sami to thank for that & they got the right champs since with Ilja & now Melo. Gargano & Melo had fantastic chemistry tonight & the white hot crowd bite a ton of times for some of there great near falls. I might even go as far to say that's the US men's title is the best booed title in all of wrestling what a match"
[3.0] "Is it fair to say that the most interesting worker and character in this one is Candice LeRae? At least her cheating brings some semblance of an engaging dynamic to a match that otherwise seems like going through moves for the sake of it. Not much set up or delivered upon. Not much character work or dynamic to fall back to. Just a competent mechanical exchange of moves where the momentum shifts without any impact or sense of change. Hayes is very athletic but his footwork is all over the placeand his intensity doesn't go beyond doing faces (not that good at it either). Gargano's control segments are as dull as they come and they do not really impact anything on Hayes' comeback."
[8.0] "Last week Hayes won the title and Gargano attacked him, which led to this match. Before the match, Gargano tried to attack Hayes again. The crowd reacted well, chanting "This is awesome! " Candice Q did a classic heel job (getting in front of Gargano, distracting Hayes, or even attacking him), but it worked well here. I'm glad the open challenge is continuing because it has clearly reignited interest in this title, and that's one of the best things about it each week, so I hope it doesn't end."
[6.0] "This had all the makings of a good match but it struggled to get out of first gear. My enjoyment, certainly, was impacted by the timing around the commercial breaks as this ended up feeling like a series of high spots without a ton of connective tissue."
[8.0] "He's H1M for a reason. This was Carnelo Hayes' first title defense since winning the WWE United States Title from the hands of Ilja Dragunov last week on SmackDown. Johnny Gargano attacked Carmelo Hayes, cutting his celebration short, and is aiming to become the WWE United States Champion. This was a very fun first title defense. The back-and-forth chemistry was evident. Carmelo Hayes is wrestling with so much confidence and swagger, which is why the fans are starting to pull for him now. This match got the crowd alive as they were chanting, "This is Awesome." Something I enjoy is seeing how much growth Carmelo Hayes has made. He was stuck in the Mid-Card and Lower Card. Now he's treated as an Upper-Card Act and put together a fun performance with Johnny Gargano, who is now officially a Solo Act, as Tommaso Ciampa is departing from the WWE. But this was a lot of fun, and Carmelo Hayes is continuing the WWE US Open Challenge. I wonder who'll answer him in Berlin, Germany, next week?"
[7.0] "Good match for the US title. Melo makes his first defense against Gargano, with whom he has been feuding with recently. They worked well together, though when it seemed like they were building momentum there would be a commercial break and they'd have to slow way down then start up again. In the last few minutes this picked up with a couple of Gargano near falls before Melo retains. It's a nice start to his reign. 7/10"
[8.0] "This was a very fun match to watch. Two of the most underrated wrestlers WWE has on Smackdown just having a cracking match with good sequences and really good chemistry. Great start to Carmelo's title reign and a great start to a possible Gargano singles run"
[7.0] "Fun match, love that Gargano got the spotlight, but sad that Ciampa's time with the company is ultimately up. Absolutely love that they are going to continue the tradition of the open challenge, always will be something to look forward to every week."
[8.0] "Carmelo Hayes enters. Melo vs Gargano: starts fast, ad break. SO MANY AD BREAKS. It was constant. LUCKILY this match was great enough that it survived it, and this match was really good. So glad that Melo can continues this run for the best hooked belt in the company. Entertaining people on purpose, turns out to be entertaining. 8/10"
[8.0] "This was an excellent first defense for Carmelo, but also a strong showing for Gargano, who got to show a more aggressive, physical side to his personality. Great pace, lots of decent near falls, what more do you want?"
[9.0] "The US title match once again was one of the top performances on SmackDown. A very good match from both competitors. I really hope their next match takes place on a PLE. Melo's popularity is starting to grow with the crowd, and I really like that - he deserves it."
[7.0] "Stunned me that this was the first singles match they ever had. Feels like that should have happened in NXT, even as a one off return for Gargano, but I guess it didn't. I love Gargano and it was great to see him back in a high quality singles affair. Result never in doubt but both men did a good job of selling the crowd on all the nearfalls anyway. I wish Candice LeRae had ever been booked well in this company in her eight years there, as she deserves more than being a glorified manager half of the time. Hayes is hit or miss for me but this US title should be exactly what he needs. Finish was a bit rushed for time but they paced the rest of it excellently."
[8.0] "Man was this good, and the moves here were crazy, you could see how they literally battled it out just by looking at Gargano because he got busted in the first 5 minutes of this match, and they did surprisingly well and i would love to see this in the future"
[8.0] "I need these United States championship matches to keep coming because they have been cooking. They also teased Hayes vs Dragunov in the future, which is a must have. A solid first defense for Carmelo Hayes and the U.S. title scene is looking a lot better recently."
[8.0] "Carmelo Hayes vs Johnny Gargano sounds great just by looking at it and it's a guarantee of a good fight and that's what we got. There was a moment when I believed that Johnny could beat Carmelo but that didn't happen. The last action in the fight was great. I'm glad that Carmelo flew so high."
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