Bryan Danielson Explains Why He Didn’t Resist the Creative Direction for His Match With Sheamus at WrestleMania 28

During a recent interview with Insight With Chris Van Vliet, Bryan Danielson recalled his infamous match against Sheamus at WrestleMania 28, where he lost the World Heavyweight Title in just 18 seconds. Danielson recalled the creative direction for the match and why he didn’t try to resist it or argue against it.

The match ended in less than 20 seconds after Sheamus hit Danielson with a Brogue Kick, but Danielson revealed he wasn’t at a point in his career where he could question his creative booking. Below are some highlights from Insight:

Bryan Danielson on His Creative Direction for WrestleMania 28

“What they said is, it’s one move. So yeah, that was the direction.”

On Why He Didn’t Resist the Creative or Ask Why It Was Just One Move

“No. I wasn’t at that point in my career. Also, I’ve never been somebody who’s been like, ‘Wait a second, why would you beat me in 18 seconds?’ Or ‘Why would you beat me with just one move?’ Or whatever it was. It’s like, okay, that’s the creative direction. I’m going to do the best that I can with it. I find that a lot of people put up stinks about a lot of things, or whatever it is, but I think, Okay, if you have an idea, it’s like, well, what if we do this? ‘Nope, we want to do that.’ I mean, you can put up a little resistance if you really don’t like something, but then if this is what the boss wants, you’re better off to do your absolute best at what the boss wants, and then try to get over from that. I think a great example in AEW is Swerve Strickland. He came in, and he lost a lot of matches, but it was always like, ‘Yeah, Tony, whatever you need. I’ll go out there and do it.’ Then now look at him. He’s main evented pay-per-views. He’s a world champion. He’s fantastic. There will be people who will take the other idea of, oh, I don’t want to do that, or I don’t even want to lose, or this or that, or whatever. Man, it’s not real [laughs]. I mean, there’s a couple guys in wrestling who would do well in MMA, there’s a couple, not many [laughs]. So it’s like, okay. I mean, if you want to win every match, you can go try MMA. You could even just try out the best guy at the local gym here in Houston in your weight class and see how it goes. Not to say that guys in wrestling couldn’t do it. It’s just we haven’t spent time training together. But yeah, I’ve always been a little bit perplexed by some of that kind of stuff.”

In many ways, Sheamus’ loss at WrestleMania 28 ultimately helped him get over even more, sparking the rise of the YES! Movement and eventually headlining and winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 30 two years later.

Currently, Bryan Danielson is still part of AEW and is a member of the Dynamite broadcast commentary team.