The mystery surrounding Carmelo Hayes\u2019 open challenge didn\u2019t last long \u2014 because WWE has now locked in an opponent for tonight\u2019s SmackDown.<\/p>\n
According to PWInsider, Ilja Dragunov will be revealed as the man stepping up to face Hayes on the March 20 episode of Friday Night SmackDown. The match had originally been announced as a United States Championship Open Challenge, leaving fans wondering who would answer the call. That guessing game is now over.<\/p>\n
Now that the mystery has been solved, all eyes turn to what happens once the bell rings \u2014 because when Hayes and Dragunov collide, things usually don\u2019t stay calm for long.<\/p>\n
WWE SmackDown \u2014 March 20, 2026 Confirmed Card Randy Orton will explain his attack on Cody Rhodes WWE Women\u2019s Tag Team Championship: The Irresistible Forces (c) vs. The Bella Twins WWE Tag Team Championship: The MFTs (c) vs. Damian Priest & R-Truth Carmelo Hayes vs. Ilja Dragunov (opponent revealed via PWInsider update) Motor City Machine Guns vs. Fraxiom Drew McIntyre vs. Jacob Fatu Kit Wilson will call out Jelly Roll Trick Williams is scheduled to appear <\/p>\n
Be sure to tune in live and follow along with\u00a0Ringside News<\/a>\u00a0for full play-by-play coverage over in our\u00a0SmackDown results<\/a>\u00a0section.<\/p>\n Do you think Ilja Dragunov was the right choice to answer Carmelo Hayes\u2019 challenge, or were you expecting someone else to step into that spot? Let us know what you think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mystery surrounding Carmelo Hayes\u2019 open challenge didn\u2019t last long \u2014 because WWE has now locked in an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[60135,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-536639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-carmelo-hayes","9":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}