Carmelo Hayes Wins WWE United States Title On SmackDown (WWE News)
WWE pre-taped this Carmelo Hayes title win; Ilja Dragunov's reign is OVER.
Carmelo Hayes won his first piece of gold on WWE's main roster by beating Ilja Dragunov to become United States Champion during the final SmackDown of 2025. Their match was set up earlier in the night when Ilja expressed frustrations with how their first match transpired on the 5 December episode.
There, Tommaso Ciampa actually helped Dragunov retain over Hayes because he wanted a one-on-one match with the babyface instead. As a fighting champ, Ilja then agreed to give Melo another shot out of fairness. Narrator's voice: That was his first mistake!
Friday's pre-taped show saw both men go close to 21 minutes before Carmelo shockingly scored the win. That ends Ilja's own US Title reign at just over 2 full months - he beat Sami Zayn to win the belt on the 17 October SmackDown, then proceeded to carry on the 'Open Challenge' legacy started by John Cena and continued by Zayn.
It remains to be seen whether or not Hayes will do the same. Some on social media don't think the recast baby will have a long stint as champ. That could be something to look out for when WWE takes SmackDown 3 hours again starting with the 2 January edition.
More of these 'Open Challenge' segments (which have been a blast; Dragunov routinely worked the blue brand's best match for months) would come in handy to the creative team though. There are worse ideas than having Melo sustain the format every week.
Some character development on Ilja's side wouldn't go amiss either. He already has the workhorse thing down to a fine art, but could use the feud with Ciampa to deepen his popularity with fans.