Did Carmelo Hayes Retain His United States Championship on 1/2 WWE SmackDown?

The last Friday Night SmackDown of 2025 had a shocking title change happen. Ilja Dragunov lost his United States Championship, but Carmelo Hayes won the title. It was his first title on the main roster. In NXT, he had four separate title reigns with three different belts. He had one reign as NXT Champion, and he was the final NXT Cruiserweight Champion. In addition, he was the NXT North American Champion twice.

If there’s one wrestler who knows some things about being champion, it’s Carmelo Hayes. But things are a lot different on the main roster than they are in NXT. How would he fare in his first main roster championship defense?

Carmelo Hayes Successfully Defends US Title

With any championship defense, there’s going to be some risk involved. Losing the title would be disastrous for Hayes. However, he’s always ready for a fight. When his opponent came out, it was clear that’s what was going to happen.

Johnny Gargano came out accompanied by his wife, Candice LeRae. But he didn’t come out to his usual Rebel Heart theme. Instead, he came out to the heel theme he used with The Way in NXT. He and Tommaso Ciampa had a lot of problems with Dragunov and Hayes in the past weeks.

He was in no mood to play nice. The match started, and they instantly traded right hands and started kicking each other. Hayes bounced Gargano’s head off the ropes, then he slammed him to the mat as he jumped to the outside. However, that wasn’t enough to stop Gargano.

He rolled out of a Nothing But Net attempt and maneuvered around a facebuster when he got back in the ring, before catching Hayes with a DDT. But Hayes kicked out, delaying an incredible victory.

They went back and forth from that point on, with each of them kicking out numerous times. Gargano thought he had the match won once more, as he stopped another Nothing But Net attempt.

He sent Hayes and himself crashing to the floor, but wasn’t able to get the pinfall. Furious, he attempted a double underhook but got countered with a backdrop. After a back-and-forth failed pinfall, Hayes hit the First 48. Doing so allowed him to hit Nothing But Net in his third attempt of the night. That finally put Gargano away, keeping him the United States Champion.