{"id":645023,"date":"2025-12-06T04:02:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T03:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/?p=645023"},"modified":"2025-12-06T04:03:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T03:03:59","slug":"ilja-dragunov-defeats-carmelo-hayes-with-the-help-of-tommaso-ciampa-retains-the-united-states-championship-on-smackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/ilja-dragunov-defeats-carmelo-hayes-with-the-help-of-tommaso-ciampa-retains-the-united-states-championship-on-smackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilja Dragunov Defeats Carmelo Hayes With The Help of Tommaso Ciampa, Retains The United States Championship on SmackDown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ilja Dragunov defended his WWE United States Championship against Carmelo Hayes, although the victory was not entirely clean. He received an unexpected assist from Tommaso Ciampa during the match. The help that he knew nothing about. Ilja Dragunov left the ring fuming after knowing that Tommaso Ciampa stole his victory against Carmelo Hayes.<\/p><p>Ilja Dragunov extended his title reign to 49 days and has been throwing the United States Open Challenge every week after defeating Sami Zayn to become the champion. The open challenge was started by John Cena and then reinstated by Sami Zayn, and Ilja Dragunov has been carrying forward the legacy of the open challenge ever since.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">AND STILL!<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UNBESIEGBAR_ZAR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>@UNBESIEGBAR_ZAR<\/a> retains &#127942; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tPIeAkHOmE\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>pic.twitter.com\/tPIeAkHOmE<\/a><\/p>&mdash; WWE (@WWE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE\/status\/1997117484818731367?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>December 6, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Furious Ilja Dragunov to Face Tommaso Ciampa Next Week<\/h2><p>Mad Dragon left the ring, infuriated, and asked Nick Aldis for a match against Tommaso Ciampa. Nick Aldis was quick to give him the match. These two will now face each other on Friday Night SmackDown next week. <\/p><p>Initially, Carmelo Hayes and Ilja Dragunov faced each other in a hard-fought match and traded some brutal blows. The momentum shifted during the entire match. It was Carmelo Hayes who was dominating Ilja Dragunov in the final moments of the match was stolen of the sure shot victory when Tomasso Ciampa interrupted and made him lose his balance while performing a Frog Splash.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Carmelo Hayes is ROLLING! &#128293; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HMc5mpqt4g\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>pic.twitter.com\/HMc5mpqt4g<\/a><\/p>&mdash; WWE (@WWE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE\/status\/1997115927704277102?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>December 6, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure><p>Carmelo Hayes delivered a DDT to Ilja Dragunov on the apron and was about to deliver a Frog Splash when Tommaso Ciampa pulled his leg. Carmelo Hayes lost his balance, and Ilja Dragunov, not knowing about the interruption, delivered a Torpedo Moskau followed by an H-Bomb to secure victory.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Come on, Ciampa! &#128545; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/frHVoXU1CY\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>pic.twitter.com\/frHVoXU1CY<\/a><\/p>&mdash; WWE (@WWE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE\/status\/1997117012544311598?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>December 6, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure><p>Image Credit: WWE.com<\/p>\n<div class=\"mm-layout mm-layout-type-post mm-layout-slot4\">\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ilja Dragunov defended his WWE United States Championship against Carmelo Hayes, although the victory was not entirely clean. He received an unexpected assist from Tommaso Ciampa during the match. The help that he knew nothing about. Ilja Dragunov left the ring fuming after knowing that Tommaso Ciampa stole his victory against Carmelo Hayes. Ilja Dragunov [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":645028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mux_skip_reasons":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[438],"tags":[1129,1484,10345,807,4300],"class_list":["post-645023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe","tag-carmelo-hayes","tag-friday-night-smackdown","tag-ilja-dragunov","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-smackdown"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ilja Dragunov Defeats Carmelo Hayes With The Help of Tommaso Ciampa, Retains The United States Championship on SmackDown - The Playoffs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ilja Dragunov retains his title against Carmelo Hayes with an unwanted assist from Tommaso Ciampa, will face him on SmackDown next week.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/ilja-dragunov-defeats-carmelo-hayes-with-the-help-of-tommaso-ciampa-retains-the-united-states-championship-on-smackdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ilja Dragunov Defeats Carmelo Hayes With The Help of Tommaso Ciampa, Retains The United States Championship on SmackDown - The Playoffs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ilja Dragunov retains his title against Carmelo Hayes with an unwanted assist from Tommaso Ciampa, will face him on SmackDown next week.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/ilja-dragunov-defeats-carmelo-hayes-with-the-help-of-tommaso-ciampa-retains-the-united-states-championship-on-smackdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Playoffs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-06T04:03:59+01:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/021_SD_10172025CM_58554_0.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"506\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ashish Negi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ThePlayoffsEN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ThePlayoffsEN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ashish Negi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/ilja-dragunov-defeats-carmelo-hayes-with-the-help-of-tommaso-ciampa-retains-the-united-states-championship-on-smackdown\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/ilja-dragunov-defeats-carmelo-hayes-with-the-help-of-tommaso-ciampa-retains-the-united-states-championship-on-smackdown\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ashish Negi\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/c51972d52c24108ed51586bcaaaa7762\"},\"headline\":\"Ilja Dragunov Defeats Carmelo Hayes With The Help of Tommaso Ciampa, Retains The United States Championship on SmackDown\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-06T03:02:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-06T03:03:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/ilja-dragunov-defeats-carmelo-hayes-with-the-help-of-tommaso-ciampa-retains-the-united-states-championship-on-smackdown\/\"},\"wordCount\":305,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/ilja-dragunov-defeats-carmelo-hayes-with-the-help-of-tommaso-ciampa-retains-the-united-states-championship-on-smackdown\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.theplayoffs.news\/en\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/021_SD_10172025CM_58554_0.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"Carmelo Hayes\",\"Friday Night SmackDown\",\"Ilja Dragunov\",\"WWE\",\"WWE SmackDown\"],\"articleSection\":[\"WWE\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2025\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/ilja-dragunov-defeats-carmelo-hayes-with-the-help-of-tommaso-ciampa-retains-the-united-states-championship-on-smackdown\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/ilja-dragunov-defeats-carmelo-hayes-with-the-help-of-tommaso-ciampa-retains-the-united-states-championship-on-smackdown\/\",\"name\":\"Ilja Dragunov Defeats Carmelo Hayes With The Help of Tommaso Ciampa, Retains The United States Championship on SmackDown - 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