Carmelo Hayes defeated former champion Ilja Dragunov to retain the United States Championship in the latest open challenge on "WWE SmackDown."
Hayes had defended the title three times before this week, having knocked off another former champion in Shinsuke Nakamura, Johnny Gargano, and TNA X-Division Champion Leon Slater in recent weeks. Hayes defeated Dragunov for the title in December, answering the open challenge on that night and similarly promising to keep the challenge going.
Prior to the match, Hayes checked on Dragunov backstage following his defeat to Sami Zayn while vying for number one contendership to the WWE Championship. Hayes once more extended the invite for Dragunov to answer the open challenge, which the former champion accepted verbally before making his entrance to officially confirm the contest.
The contest was as hard-hitting as their initial bout in December, with Dragunov calling on Hayes to get stuck into striking exchanges with him to prompt an audible, "What is wrong with you?" from the champion. Towards the closing stretch, Dragunov got the better of such an exchange and went to the top rope. However, The Miz had appeared at ringside for the contest following his long-standing issue with Hayes from their Miz & Melo partnership and pushed Dragunov from the top while the referee had their back turned.
Not seeing the interference, Hayes connected with First 48 to get the winning pinfall as Miz watched on smiling. Hayes didn't appear to be impressed with the interference as replays showed the interference after the fact.
