40-year-old veteran star gets the first singles title shot on WWE main roster against Sami Zayn

(Picture Courtesy: WWE on Twitter/X)
Sami Zayn is the current WWE United States Champion. (Picture Courtesy: WWE on Twitter/X)

In a huge moment on SmackDown, a veteran superstar got his first singles title shot in WWE against Sami Zayn, despite being with the company for many years overall. This was his first match in six years.

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This week on SmackDown, the Sami Zayn US Title open challenge continued, and in the spirit of John Cena, who made the challenge great, he welcomed all challengers. This week, it looked like Carmelo Hayes was going to answer the challenge. For context, only minutes earlier, Hayes had decided to amicably part ways with The Miz following last week's loss on SmackDown.

As Carmelo was making a statement, getting ready for the big title match, he was suddenly hit from behind with a skull-crushing finale. To take full advantage of that, Aleister Black quickly came in to answer the open challenge. Michael Cole then pointed out a shocking fact - that this was Aleister Black's first singles title shot on the WWE main roster.

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This might come as a bit of a surprise, but that's because when he was released a few years ago, he was on the cusp of an Intercontinental Title feud with Big E, who was the champion at the time.

The 40-year-old had success as a singles star in NXT, being the one to dethrone Andrade. However, he somehow hadn't received a singles title shot since joining the WWE main roster.

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Of course, he wasn't the one to dethrone Sami Zayn because interference cost him the match, allowing the United States Champion to retain his title.

It looks like this was a setup for another rivalry involving Aleister Black to continue to play out, as it has been brewing in the background on SmackDown for some time. As always, it was a fantastic open challenge.

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Edited by Rohit Nath
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