After a wildly successful career on the indie circuit and becoming a Ring Of Honor legend, Bryan Danielson became Daniel Bryan and entered WWE. Though we'll look at WWE's treatment of Daniel Bryan in more recent times a little later on it's now the moment to focus on what happened (or didn't) at Wrestlemania 28. Cashing in his Money In The Bank briefcase on Big Show at the MITB event in December 2011, Bryan became World Heavyweight Champion for the first time. His heelish character grew during his reign, a great example of the arrogant champ with no time for the fans. At the same time he was putting on, as usual, masterclass matches left, right and centre. He even drew good showings from the likes of Mark Henry and Show himself. Internet fans have always adored Bryan. His work ethic, move set and speed in the ring only matched by his ability to make his opponents look amazing however poor they really are. When he was booked for a title defence at the biggest show of the year fans were excited despite him facing the king of bright white banality Sheamus. If anyone could carry him to a great match it would be Bryan. On the night the bell rang, Bryan's on-screen girlfriend AJ Lee distracted him with a kiss and he walked straight into Sheamus' big boot. Then Sheamus pinned him. 18 seconds was all it took to deflate millions of wrestling fans, plenty of whom had laid down their hard earned PPV pennies specifically to watch Bryan in action.
Originally from Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, now residing in East London with my wife and cat. I'm a member of Ghost Carriage Phantoms, co-owner of Marketstall Records, Editor of #flatoutfucked fanzine, a regular contributor to various music/culture websites and the co-author of a couple of scripts, mired in the endless hell of pre-production.
