Sami Zayn beat an injury-stricken Carmelo Hayes to retain the United States Championship in the main event of “WWE SmackDown.”

Zayn and Hayes established their rematch of last week’s title bout earlier in the show, with Zayn having won the title with the inadvertent help of Trick Williams. 

What was headed towards being another hotly contested title match turned out to be a nightmare for Hayes as he launched over the top ropes onto Zayn on the outside; Hayes tweaked his knee on the landing, clutching at it in pain as the show went to commercial break. From there, he continued to favor it and found himself limited from his usual high-flying offense, encapsulated in the closing stretch as Hayes flew from the top rope and tweaked his knee again. 

He got back to his feet in the corner as Zayn went to push his advantage, but the referee got between them and attempted to get a look at Hayes. Seeing the opportunity, Zayn hit the Helluva Kick over the referee and scored the winning pinfall to retain the title. 

After the match, Williams and Lil Yachty, having been sat at ringside for the bout, entered the ring for a confrontation. Yachty announced that theirs will be the United States title match at WrestleMania 42, calling Zayn “the gingerbread man” to draw his ire, thus allowing Williams to wipe him out from behind to close the show standing tall.