Bryan Danielson Explains Why He Wasn't Bothered By WWE WrestleMania 28 Loss

It's hard to believe that the moment that arguably kickstarted Bryan Danielson to WWE, and later AEW superstardom, wasn't when he won the Undisputed Championship at WrestleMania 30, but was a moment that left fans in the uproar. Indeed, Danielson's success story can be traced back to a WrestleMania 28 match with Sheamus, where the latter defeated Danielson to win the World Heavyweight Championship in 18 seconds. It was a booking decision seemingly made to get Sheamus over, only it instead rallied the fans around the heel Danielson, leading to a groundswell of support that has arguably continued to this day.

Appearing on "Insight with Chris Van Vliet," Danielson reminisced on the moment, even sharing a funny interaction with a co-worker backstage after the loss. He also explained why the months that followed led to him not being all that upset with how things turned out.

"When they had Sheamus beat me in 18 seconds at WrestleMania...28 maybe...the fans were just 'Yesing!' like crazy when I went out there," Danielson said. "You could tell they were bummed when the match was so short. Then I walked to the back and The Great Khali of all people was like 'That was f*****g b******t!' And I was like 'Oh! Khali, I didn't know you cared. Thank you!' But then, like, the next night I was like 'Okay, well, there's a lot of people 'Yesing!” But it just kept going. That was kind of...when after a couple of months after that, and it was still happening, I was like 'Okay. This is going to be here for a bit.'"

Even if it hadn't worked out that way, Danielson still seemed to indicate that the loss wouldn't have bothered him too much. Though he admitted that he was confused by WWE's decision at the time, he also admitted he didn't fight the decision, partially because it wasn't in his nature to begin with, and also because he feels that isn't the best course. He then pointed to an AEW star and former rival of his as an example of how to handle situations like that.

"I've never been somebody who's like 'Wait a second, why would you beat me in 18 seconds?'" Danielson said. "Or 'Why would you just beat me with one move?' or whatever. I was like 'Okay, that's the creative direction. I'm going to do the best I can with it.' I find that a lot of people put up stinks about a lot of things, whatever it is...You could 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 'Yes sir Tony. Whatever you need, I'll go out there and do.' And now look at him. He's main evented PPV's. He's a World Champion. He's fantastic."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Insight with Chris Van Vliet" and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription