After failing to win the United States Championship from Shinsuke Nakamura at Crown Jewel, Rusev finally managed to capture the United States Championship for a third time in his career on the December 25 episode of "SmackDown Live". On January 27, 2019, he lost the title back to Nakamura on the Royal Rumble pre-show. Two days later on "SmackDown Live", Rusev confronted R-Truth, who had just defeated Nakamura for the United States Championship, and pushed him into defending his newly-won title against him, but Truth retained his title. After the match, Nakamura attacked Truth, and Rusev joined him in attacking Truth, thus turning heel again in the process and later forming a tag team with Nakamura. On the Fastlane pre-show, Rusev and Nakamura were defeated by The New Day. At WrestleMania 35, Nakamura and Rusev would compete in a fatal four-way tag team match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, but were unsuccessful. Rusev competed in a 51-man battle royal at Super ShowDown, but failed to win. Following Super ShowDown, Rusev began a sabbatical from WWE.