{"id":144244,"date":"2025-10-17T21:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T01:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=144244"},"modified":"2025-10-17T21:33:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T01:33:28","slug":"ilja-dragunov-returns-to-wwe-on-smackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/10\/17\/ilja-dragunov-returns-to-wwe-on-smackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilja Dragunov Returns to WWE on SmackDown After a Year On the Shelf"},"content":{"rendered":"

A defiant Sami Zayn pleaded his case to WWE SmackDown<\/a> General Manager Nick Aldis, regarding why he isn’t on the show to continue his U.S. Open Challenge. Aldis stated that he respects Zayn and is a big advocate of the U.S. Open Challenge. However, Aldis’ pegged opponent for Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura, who deserves a proper rematch after the attack of MFT, was still in Japan performing on the overseas WWE tour.<\/p>\n

Zayn would make an impassioned speech, saying that he’s doing this for the WWE Universe, proceeding to come out in the SAP Center in San Jose, California, anyway. Zayn would await his opponent, only for The Miz to come out to answer it. Before Miz could speak any further, Carmelo Hayes would batter him, gaining revenge for what The Miz did, which is precisely the same thing to him, a couple of weeks ago, leading to Hayes losing his U.S. Title opportunity.<\/p>\n

\"A
Photo Credit: By Photos N Effect from Germany<\/a> – wXw 16 Carat Gold 2020 – Night 3, CC BY-SA 2.0,<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fortunately for Zayn, the “Czar,” the “Mad Dragon” himself, Ilja Dragunov, would take him up on the challenge. After a year away, Ilja Dragunov is back, recovered, and better than ever from a right knee injury. The former NXT U.K. Champion look absolutely amazing, and he was clearly out for gold on SmackDown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Header photo \u2013 WWE\u2013 Stay tuned to the <\/i><\/em>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a> for more on the WWE SmackDown, Ilja Dragunov, and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>A&E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a> (WWE Main Event, as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A defiant Sami Zayn pleaded his case to WWE SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis, regarding why he isn’t on the show to continue his U.S. Open Challenge. Aldis stated that he respects Zayn and is a big advocate of the U.S. Open Challenge. However, Aldis’ pegged opponent for Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura, who deserves a proper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":144247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2192,26,4,3],"tags":[2514,106],"class_list":["post-144244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-ilja-dragunov","tag-sami-zayn"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144244"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144263,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144244\/revisions\/144263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}