The WWE SmackDown booking around Sami Zayn, Carmelo Hayes, and Trick Williams is exactly why fans keep losing faith in creative. On the March 27 episode of SmackDown, Sami Zayn defeated Carmelo Hayes to win the United States Championship in a finish that felt forced, messy, and completely unnecessary.
And now instead of a natural, high-stakes WrestleMania match between Hayes and Trick Williams, we’re getting a watered-down version of something that should have been a showcase moment.
This isn’t just bad booking. This is WWE overthinking something that was already working.
Let’s be clear about what actually happened. Carmelo Hayes issued an open challenge. Sami Zayn inserted himself after being told he wasn’t even on the WrestleMania card. Then Trick Williams interfered, tried to help Hayes, accidentally hit him instead, and Zayn capitalized. That’s not storytelling. That’s a shortcut dressed up as a swerve.
The frustrating part is how obvious the right call was. There is built-in history between Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams going back to NXT — and not just history, but one of the most emotionally resonant stories the brand produced. Trick helped elevate Hayes during his NXT North American Championship run, stood beside him every step of the way. Over time he started to outgrow that role. The tension built naturally. When they finally clashed it felt earned because it was earned. The crowd was invested because they’d watched that relationship evolve over months.
WWE had the chance to bring that story to the main roster on the biggest stage possible. Hayes the polished, confident veteran. Trick the raw, charismatic breakout star. Former partners settling it at WrestleMania. You don’t get built-in stories like that often.
Instead WWE decided to ignore all of it.
Now we’re headed toward Sami Zayn versus Trick Williams at WrestleMania. And the outcome feels obvious — Trick wins the title on the big stage. Which only raises the question: if that was always the plan, why not have Trick beat Carmelo directly? That match would have had the emotional weight, the storytelling continuity, the real payoff to a long-term rivalry. Instead WWE inserted Zayn as a middle step that adds nothing.
Sami Zayn wasn’t even supposed to be on the WrestleMania card. WWE literally told that story on TV. So the solution was to give him a championship. That’s backwards logic. Instead of building new stars or committing to Trick Williams’ rise, creative defaulted to a familiar name who doesn’t elevate this specific story. Zayn has zero history with either of these guys. There’s no emotional weight there.
Hayes was building momentum. He was consistently defending the title, being positioned as part of the future. And WWE cut that at the worst possible time.
This is SmackDown creative being reactive instead of proactive. They had the emotional core. They had the audience invested. They had a story building for over a year. And instead of trusting it, they reset everything for a quick title change.
The Hayes versus Trick story didn’t need fixing. It needed continuation.
WWE didn’t trust it. And now we’re getting a WrestleMania match that’s a downgrade in every direction from what it could have been.
