A former champion made a plea for a title match on WWE SmackDown. However, an unexpected twist happened moments later.When Sami Zayn won the United States Championship, he opted to kickstart the US Open Challenge, which was originally started by John Cena several years ago. After Sami Zayn lost the title to Ilja Dragunov on the October 17 episode of the blue brand, Dragunov continued the open challenge. Last week on SmackDown, the challenge was first answered by Nathan Frazer and then by Tommaso Ciampa. However, Dragunov offered the title shot to Frazer, since he was the first to answer the challenge.Tonight on WWE SmackDown, Ilja Dragunov issued another open challenge. This time, Tommaso Ciampa came out with Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae to answer the challenge. The former NXT Champion said that Ilja denied him last week, but he said he was going to win the US Title tonight. Ilja accepted the challenge, but in a shocking turn of events, he told Ciampa that he would accept the challenge from Johnny Gargano. Despite being put in the match at the last minute, Gargano was able to bring the fight to Dragunov. However, The Mad Dragon managed to retain his title with an H-Bomb.Vince Russo feels that WWE made a mistake by pushing Ilja DragunovSince returning from his injury, WWE has been hellbent on pushing Ilja Dragunov. As a result, he won the United States Championship in his first match back. Since then, he has done a good job in the ring.During an episode of Writing with Russo, the former WWE writer pointed out that Ilja Dragunov is not a big draw. He compared him to Otis, whom he claimed that fans would choose over The Mad Dragon. He also mentioned that, despite being a fan favorite, Otis hasn't been on TV for a while."We got our hardcore marks, sing-alongs, whatever you want to call them, and you got our casual audience. If you take Ilja Dragunov and put him next to Otis, and you say, 'Okay, guys, here's the first thing you do. Cut a promo. Okay, no problem. Let me see a five-minute match. Okay, now you've got to decide which one of these guys you've got to pick that's going to draw more.' It's hands down Otis. And look at how they treated him. He's gone for so long, and then he's in that freaking Royal Rumble. This guy is so entertaining. He could have been Ivan Putski circa 2025 if booked correctly. But bro, they keep going for the Aleister Blacks, the Dragunovs, and Sami Zayns."It will be interesting to see who will be able to dethrone Ilja Dragunov.