20 Greatest Moments Of Daniel Bryan's Career

6. That Loss

One of the very biggest moments of Daniel Bryan€™s career came during a loss. With Bryan defending his World Heavyweight Championship against Sheamus in WrestleMania XXVIII€™s opening match, the former American Dragon would famously get pinned in just 18 brief seconds. And with that, the astronomical rise of Daniel Bryan really started to take shape. As the fans at Miami€™s Sun Life Stadium spent the rest of the night making their thoughts known and chanting Bryan€™s name, it was this famous loss that got the fans firmly behind Bryan despite his on-air character being that of a heel. Many felt that D-Bry had been slighted by losing the World Heavyweight Championship in such disappointing fashion, and so the unflinching fan backing was amped up to a whole new level as Bryan would feud with CM Punk before becoming one half of Team Hell No and then eventually going on to become a talent that the WWE recognised as a true main event superstar.
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Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.