There has been a massive title change in a spoiler for next week’s episode of WWE SmackDown. A new champion has been crowned.
Ilja Dragunov loses WWE United States Championship in match against Carmelo Hayes
In a twist on the taping for the December 26 edition of WWE SmackDown, a new champion has now been crowned. Earlier in the night, Ilja Dragunov had made the unpopular announcement that he was bringing the United States Championship Open Challenge to an end on the show. This meant that the open challenge series that Sami Zayn had started was not going to continue. Although the stars had all been for the open challenge, it was coming to an end, even with the approaching three-hour shows for SmackDown.
Carmelo Hayes faced his former partner, Ilja Dragunov, and they met in a huge match on the show. The stars did battle on the show, with both having a lot of respect for the other but holding nothing back in a very hard-hitting match.
They went for each other, and it looked like Draguinov was going to be picking up the win as usual to close off the open challenge series, but it was not to be.
Carmelo Hayes came back into the match out of nowhere and got the win over Dragunov to become the new WWE United States Champion.
DECEMBER 26TH SMACKDOWN CARMELO HAYES DEFEATS ILJA DRAGUNOV VIA PINFALL TO WIN THE UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/gS35WeUFaE
— LevelUpReports (@LvlUpReports) December 20, 2025
After the match, Dragunov showed his usual good sportsmanship and spirit. He raised Carmelo Hayes’ hand to celebrate him as the new US Champion. He then even put the belt on him.
It seems that Dragunov’s very intense reign, which he started after defeating Sami Zayn, is now over. Unfortunately, this means that the star is done as the champion for now, but it remains to be seen if he gets a rematch in the near future.
Given that he is on good terms with Hayes, it could happen.
