Ilja Dragunov retained his United States Championship for the third “WWE SmackDown” running as his weekly open challenge continued. 

Having beaten Sami Zayn for the title in an open challenge, Dragunov has since defended the title against Aleister Black and Nathan Frazer, all while under the watchful eye of Tama Tonga, and by extension, former United States Champion Solo Sikoa and the MFTs. Dragunov passed Tonga backstage prior to making his entrance for this week’s open challenge, answered instead by Tomasso Ciampa having taken issue with Dragunov shooting down his opportunity last week, demanding that he be given the respect he deserves and thus the title shot. 

Dragunov opted instead to give the title shot to Ciampa’s partner, Johnny Gargano, and thus defended the title against him. The champion had to put up with interference from Candice Lerae as Gargano connected with his signature Springboard DDT and One Final Beat to no avail, Dragunov kicking out of everything he had to offer. 

Ultimately, Dragunov endured and prevailed with an H-Bomb for the winning pinfall and title retention. Following the defeat, Ciampa was shown backstage to be joined by Gargano, with FrAxiom appearing and mocking Ciampa for getting shot down two weeks in a row only for Gargano to get his opportunity and lose.