10 Times WWE And WCW Screwed Over Their World Champions

3. Daniel Bryan's Match At Wrestlemania XXVIII

At Wrestlemania XXVIII, how did WWE treat their rising star Daniel Bryan? By making him lose his World Heavyweight Championship in a squash match against Sheamus, which was 18 seconds long. There was literally no reason behind this, other than WWE wanted to set a new record at Daniel Bryan's expense. Even the choice of opponent was a bad one, why bother giving Sheamus the World Heavyweight Championship, when both of his WWE Championship reigns were highly forgettable and went absolutely nowhere. The match was universally panned as a waste of our time, with critics commenting on both the match and the awful decision to make such a thing happen at such a high profile event. Many regarded it as a huge flaw in an otherwise fantastic Wrestlemania. Surprisingly, Bryan wasn't buried in the aftermath, although he certainly could have been. He was soon pushed towards the WWE title scene in an acclaimed feud with CM Punk. Regardless, that's no justification for making him look so weak, for virtually no reason, with no payoff or gain from that occurrence. There have been many huge mistakes made in the WWE career of Daniel Bryan, but none surpass this mammoth miscalculation which happened on the biggest stage of them all.