Tournament arcs tend to be hit-or-miss. While they are an effective and relatively unbiased way to build a No.1 contender, they are susceptible to a sort of soullessness. Tournaments, by their nature, are quite clinical in their steps — Wrestler A wins against Wrestler B and progresses in the tournament, end of story. Unless there’s some sort of controversy or feud that comes out of a tournament match (and these moments are exceptions, rather than the rule) tournaments can feel meaningless, especially to the losing party.

Unfortunately, the United States Championship tournament felt meaningless. It brought underrated and new talent like Dragon Lee and Carmelo Hayes to a main roster ring, but by the time Santos Escobar and Kevin Owens were locking up in the finals, any intrigue the tournament had fizzled out. It’s disappointing; both Owens and Escobar are established talent with the capacity to deliver great matches. However, whatever energy both talented men could have brought to the match was snuffed out by the context in which they performed in (or lack thereof). Tournaments are, inherently, there to establish a No.1  contender, not to tell any particularly compelling story.

One of the few things that could have saved this tournament from being, regrettably, a bathroom break, was an active champion — one who invested himself into the tournament that would decide his own opponent. In his defense, Logan Paul is a businessman, a content creator, and many other things, and his chronic absence is understandable. It does not, however, excuse his poor title reign. Paul has held the United States Championship for 62 days and he has not defended it once. As of right now, his Guinness World Record for most expensive “Pokemon” card is more impressive than his US title reign. Moreover, Paul’s inactivity has been a detriment to anything related to the United States Championship.

Hopefully Owens and Paul have a great match at Royal Rumble and the United States Championship can go back to being presented as a full-time fighter’s championship. Friday night, though, the tournament finals were just a match I had to sit through to get to the rest of the show.

Written by Angeline Phu