4 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (7 Nov - Results & Review)

2. Dragunov & Gargano Deliver The Goods

These Ilja Dragunov ‘Open Challenge’ segments are just fantastic.

Tommaso Ciampa said he wanted a crack at the United States Title for the second week in a row, but Ilja laughed him off and accepted the challenge from Johnny Gargano instead. Yep, it's true that everyone knew the outcome before this one even started, but it was still a good watch with plenty of silky moments. Ilja’s selling always stands out, and ‘Johnny Wrestling’ is the right kind of opponent for him.

The match vs. Ciampa will be fun when it finally happens. If nothing else, at least he and Dragunov have a story of sorts bubbling away here. It isn't much to go on, no, but it's better than them having a random one off match for the sake of it then WWE's writers having to think of something else straight away. It's kinda cool that they're building sub-plots within the 'Open Challenge' framework.

Being totally honest, this match wasn’t as good as Ilja’s bout vs. Nathan Frazer last week, but that didn’t make it bad by any means. The superplex into H-Bomb finish looked sweet, and there are sure signs that WWE crowds are starting to get onboard with Dragunov the more they see him wrestle on TV every week.

To date, he's beaten Aleister Black, Frazer and now Gargano. Add his title win over Sami Zayn into the equation and it's been an impressive return to action for Ilja. Triple H has to keep these regular matches going for as long as possible. It's tough to see them getting boring any time soon.