Top 20 worst world title changes in wrestling history

17. Sheamus def. Daniel Bryan: WrestleMania XXVIII

I’ve never been a fan of squash matches at WrestleMania in general, but this monstrosity at WrestleMania XXVIII was just awful. In the summer of 2011, Daniel Bryan won the Money in the Bank briefcase and promised that he would wait until WrestleMania to cash it in, saying it was a dream to be in the main event. Okay, I’m good with that. But he couldn’t wait that long and decided to cash in on an episode of SmackDown against Mark Henry, which he did successfully. However, seeing as Theodore Long said that Henry wasn’t cleared to compete, the match was nullified and Bryan’s celebration was cut short.

Bryan then said that he went back on what he had said about doing it at WrestleMania but since he could get injured at any time (pretty spooky foreshadowing when you think about it), his plans had changed and he eventually did cash in the briefcase on Big Show at TLC, winning his first World Heavyweight Championship. And he actually did hold the title for over 100 days, even overcoming the odds in true Daniel Bryan fashion by beating both Henry and Big Show in a Triple Threat Steel Cage Match at the Royal Rumble. That same night, Sheamus won the Royal Rumble match and seeing as how WWE still had two world titles at the time, he chose to go after Bryan and the Big Gold Belt for WrestleMania.

The whole “Yes!” thing had become popular by this time (not as popular as it would get) and the Miami crowd was jacked up as the Bryan-Sheamus match opened the biggest show of the year. The chants rang out as we prepared for a fun bout between the two but when the intros are longer than the match, especially a World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania, there’s a problem. Bryan was in a storyline relationship with AJ Lee at the time and before the match got underway, he kissed her (for good luck, I guess) and then turned around and ran right into a Brogue Kick and that was that. 18 seconds is the official time for the match and it’s 18 of the most disappointing seconds in WrestleMania history. Awful.