10 Wrestlers Who Benefited From Looking Incredibly Stupid

9. 18 Seconds?!

Let's talk about the now infamous World Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestlemania 28. Daniel Bryan, once downtrodden hero of the internet, now delusional champion, was set to defend his belt against Sheamus. From a pure wrestling fan's perspective, this match had the potential to steal the show. The bell rang. A kiss, a kick and 18 seconds later, the bell rang again. Sheamus was crowned the victor in one of the most embarrassing championship squash matches in the history of the business. For any wrestler other than Daniel Bryan, this abject humiliation could have been the death knell of an entire career. But the fans leapt to his aid, partly out of respect for his wrestling acumen, and partly because of how amusing Bryan became as 18 seconds forced him into a near-psychosis. The fans began chanting his name, they began chanting "18 seconds" and then, fatefully, began chanting "Yes!" Bryan had previous over-chanted "Yes!" in a bid to irritate the fans and highlight the fluke nature of his 'impressive' victories. The fans began to use this chant against him, to add to his humiliation, hounding him with 'Yes' chants at every available opportunity. Then Daniel Bryan began chanting "No!" and, incredibly basic though it is, this Yes vs No, Fans vs Bryan story took off in a huge way. As a babyface, Bryan had run the risk of appearing too vanilla, but this unfolding dialogue with the fans opened up entirely new aspects of his personality; delusion, frustration, anger management, his reliance on diagrams. Couple this with one of the best in-ring wrestling minds in the industry, and how could a star NOT be born? Ironically, the 18 seconds squash was designed to put over Sheamus, who languished as a stale babyface, until he suddenly re-emerged as delusional, fan-baiting heel. Funny, that.