BREAKING: 2-time Champion makes long-awaited return from injury after 382 days to answer Sami Zayn's US Title Open Challenge

Sami Zayn had to fight for the right to get a US Title open challenge on SmackDown after Nick Aldis shelved it for this week. Thank goodness it went through, because it directly resulted in the return of a 2-time Champion after 382 days, who was out with a bad injury.

This week on SmackDown, Sami Zayn had a tense segment with SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis. He had canceled the open challenge this week because of what happened last week, which was that MFT came out (with the returning Tama Tonga) and took out Sami as well as his challenger, the returning Shinsuke Nakamura. However, Aldis said that he wanted to give Shinsuke Nakamura a fair rematch, but he was still in Japan. Sami insisted on getting the open challenge come hell or high water, regardless of whether the MFT would come out or not.

While The Miz first came out for Sami Zayn's open challenge, he was taken out by Carmelo Hayes. This set up the return of former NXT Champion, Ilja Dragunov, who returned after 382 days following an ACL tear he suffered last year.

Dragunov's return is undeniably one of the most highly anticipated ones in all of wrestling. He has been considered a top-tier player for a few years now and a potential main event star.

When Gunther had his first major long reign as the NXT UK Champion, it was Ilja Dragunov who was the one to dethrone him. He also had a productive reign as NXT Champion, and many believe that, like Gunther, he is a main event player waiting for a breakthrough moment.

Now that he is back and is the US Champion, it's going to be interesting to see how WWE handles his run this time around. If he is going to be on SmackDown, it will be a much-needed injection into the brand.

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Edited by Rohit Nath