5. Daniel Bryan Loses In 18 Seconds (WrestleMania 28)
I'd toyed with putting this number one, but decided against it, just because it's something you could easily see somebody higher up in WWE doing, isn't it? Despite his hard-earned status as a cult favorite among a growing number of wrestling fans, World Heavyweight Champion Bryan was given the Honky Tonk Man treatment, summarily dispatched in the opening match by Sheamus. The crowd didn't exactly view this as an Ultimate Warrior-esque triumph. Pretty much everyone watching figured it was Bryan's time to drop the belt to pet-project Sheamus, but nobody had expected the flash finish that we got. If anything, it marked Sheamus with a scarlet letter that he's yet to wash off. Shortsightedness for the sake of a shock stunted a perfectly-good wrestler.
Justin Henry
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Justin has been a wrestling fan since 1989, and has been writing about it since 2009. Since 2014, Justin has been a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine. Justin also writes for History of Wrestling, and is a contributing author to James Dixon's Titan series.
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