10 Horrible Decisions That Gave Us Great Wrestling

4. Daniel Bryan loses In 18 Seconds At WrestleMania XXVIII

Daniel Bryan€™s inexplicable loss to Sheamus in the opening €˜match€™ of WrestleMania XXVIII was, after the schmoz ending to their intended WrestleMania match the previous year, the last straw for the crowd, who had at least assumed that this year they would get a proper match. This wasn€™t an unreasonable assumption, given that this was supposed to be babyface hero Sheamus€™ Royal Rumble-awarded World Championship match. However, instead of a hard-hitting technical masterclass to kick things off at the start of the card, what they got was even more of an anti-climax than the match-without-an-end that they had the year before. Turning away for a good luck kiss from his girlfriend AJ Lee (good grief, how times change), Bryan went back to face his opponent at the bell and received a thunderous Brogue Kick, going down like your mum at Christmas. Sheamus covered for the pin, and that was all she wrote. Eighteen seconds. What WWE weren€™t expecting was that this insulting garbage would have the unforeseen effect of turning Daniel Bryan into a massive star. The company actually managed to make the arrogant heel look sympathetic and the heroic babyface look like a sneaky heel. And the crowd certainly sympathised with Daniel Bryan. The booking of that 'match' continued the running theme of Bryan being perceived by the WWE as less important and less talented than he really was. The fans had had enough. This was the moment that the YES! chants properly began, and the moment that the snowball began slowly tumbling downhill.