Report: Sami Zayn Pitched To LOSE United States Title To Ilja Dragunov (WWE News)
Ilja Dragunov returned and won gold on last week's WWE SmackDown.
With Ilja Dragunov having made his long-awaited WWE return on last week's SmackDown, defeating Sami Zayn to become the new WWE United States Champion, it appears that this title switch was partly down to Zayn himself.
Per BodySlam.net, Sami pitched the idea for the Mad Dragon to dethrone him as the United States Champion, believing that the title win would elevate both Dragunov and the US Title, and would serve as a great way to reintroduce Ilja back into the fold as a significant player.
For Ilja Dragunov, that return match was his first action for over a year, with the former NXT Champion having suffered a torn ACL in September 2024 during a live event bout against his long-time rival Gunther. While Ilya had been medically cleared for the past couple of months, it'd been reported that WWE was waiting for the right creative plans to bring him back to TV. And now, not only is Dragunov back, but he's switched from Raw to SmackDown and is the new United States Champion.
That loss to Ilja brought Sami Zayn's first US Title reign to a halt at 49 days, with the veteran having defeated Solo Sikoa for that prize back in August, then defended the gold in open challenges against Rey Fenix, Carmelo Hayes, Je'Von Evans, Aleister Black, and Shinsuke Nakamura, not to mention Sami's first title defence being against John Cena. Given how Solo and his MFTs have gotten in Zayn's business in recent weeks, it looks like Sami and certain friends will continue to battle with Sikoa's group for the foreseeable future, with some fans even speculating that might involve WarGames next month.
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