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The Russian professional wrestler Ilja Dragunov made a grand return this week on SmackDown, and he had an amazing return. He remained out of action for over a year since he suffered a torn ACL injury during a live event of WWE. It was supposed to keep him out of action for 6 to 9 months.
Unfortunately, this deadly injury did not allow him to return to action for 13 long months. But finally, the former NXT UK Champion made a grand return and surprised everyone. Sami Zayn was issuing an Open challenge for the WWE United States Championship as usual on SmackDown last Friday.
Ilja Dragunov made his return to WWE last Friday on SmackDown
The Miz appeared to answer the call. As he was about to get awarded the match, he was attacked by his former on screen good friend, Carmelo Hayes, who returned the favor of getting attacked by The A-Lister previously during a similar situation. The Miz had to be taken out of the potential United States championship match.
Ilja Dragunov remained out of action for 13 months
Ilja Dragunov made a surprise appearance after this attack and answered the United States Open challenge. Clearly, the duo produced the best match of the night, and ultimately, the Russian professional wrestler ended up beating Sami Zayn and also won the WWE United States Championship. It was this first championship in the main roster, too.
Dragunov won the WWE United States Championship on his return
After the match, The MFT led by Solo Sikoa, attacked both Sami Zayn and Dragunov. The faction beat down both of them, and ultimately, they were confronted by The Wyatt Sicks. The MFT decided not to fight them and left the ring, keeping this rivalry really exciting. This is really difficult to predict at this moment, in which direction this rivalry is heading.
Ilja Dragunov is definitely one of the biggest projects of WWE, who had an amazing career in the NXT before joining the main roster last year. He could have already been an established star by now if he had not suffered the torn ACL injury last year. We can now witness him rise to on top and become one of the biggest stars of WWE in the near future.
