What it looks like right now is Hunter is telling the story of Melo as a cocky super rookie who belongs in the same ring is main eventers and former main eventers but he keeps on losing because he's too cocky. Now the part of the story is Melo getting wins by any means necessary, so he'll probably be a serious contender for the US title after Mania season.
It's dumb AF. Melo is a seasoned 10+ year vet at this point. He's getting crowd reactions. And in NXT he was on par with Bron. So this booking makes no sense. Why does Melo need to crawl, while his contemporaries on the same level, Bron and Tiffany, get handed title opportunities?
Oba needs at least a year long IC reign as a rookie or a Brock/Sheamus rookie year or the debate is over for Hunter.