{"id":221347,"date":"2025-10-18T03:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T03:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/221347\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T03:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T03:58:07","slug":"returning-wwe-superstar-wins-united-states-championship-on-smackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/221347\/","title":{"rendered":"Returning WWE Superstar Wins United States Championship On SmackDown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlezone.com\/tag\/ilja-dragunov\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ilja Dragunov<\/a> is back, and he\u2019s the new WWE United States Champion! <\/p>\n<p>Dragunov answered Sami Zayn\u2019s United States Championship Open Challenge on Friday night\u2019s episode of SmackDown. It looked like The Miz would answer the challenge, and he came to the ring and cut a promo on Zayn. However, Carmelo Hayes ran out and attacked Miz from behind. <\/p>\n<p>Melo slammed Miz\u2019s head into the entrance screen and brawled as they made their way backstage. Zayn still had an opponent, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlezone.com\/news\/1585432-ilja-dragunov-returns-on-wwe-smackdown\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dragunov\u2019s music cued up<\/a>. Zayn and Dragunov went back and forth in an impressive contest, with Dragunov kicking out of a Blue Thunder Bomb. The match ended after a distraction from Solo Sikoa, which allowed Dragunov to hit Torpedo Moscow and the H-Bomb for the win.<\/p>\n<p>The celebration was cut short, however, as the MFTs attacked both Dragunov and Zayn after the match. Sikoa then came to the entranceway and said he was taking back everything that his family had lost. The Wyatt Sicks\u2019 then interrupted him and sent a warning that they would answer the door if they knocked on it. <\/p>\n<p>This is Dragunov\u2019s first title since being called up to the WWE main roster. Sami Zayn\u2019s WWE United States Championship reign ends at 50 days, as he won the title from Solo Sikoa on the August 29, 2025, episode of SmackDown. <\/p>\n<p>The \u201cMad Dragon\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlezone.com\/news\/1536893-report-update-on-ilja-dragunovs-recovery-from-acl-injury\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">had been out since September 2024 with an ACL injury<\/a>. His last match was a live event loss to Gunther on September 28, 2024. <a href=\"https:\/\/pwinsider.com\/article\/201436\/backstage-at-smackdown-is-spoiler.html?p=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PWInsider<\/a> had reported that Dragunov was spotted backstage at SmackDown in San Jose. Fightful (via\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/posts\/possible-spoiler-141468076\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Fightful Select<\/a>) and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/posts\/smackdown-notes-141452541\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Bodyslam.net<\/a>\u00a0later reported that Dragunov was expected to have a match on the show. <\/p>\n<p>Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlezone.com\/news\/1585410-wwe-smackdown-results-review-grades-card-for-oct-17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WWE SmackDown Results: Review, Grades, Card For Oct 17<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0Ilja Dragunov is back, and he\u2019s the new WWE United States Champion! Dragunov answered Sami Zayn\u2019s United States&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,106370,30285,13015,38036],"class_list":["post-221347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-ilja-dragunov","tag-sami-zayn","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-smackdown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}