Daniel Bryan's 7 Most Memorable Moments.

#4: 18 Seconds to immortality

Sheamus with a Brogue-Kick on Daniel!

After his heel turn, Bryan held an interesting role with WWE fans. Despite his best efforts to fight it, the WWE universe still loved him. Sure, at times they loved to antagonize him, but he never really felt like much of a heel.

Whenever they chanted “YES,” Bryan would chant “NO,” and they would follow suit, going back and forth, with Bryan garnering bigger and bigger reactions, whether positive or negative.

Meanwhile, Sheamus won the 2012 Royal Rumble and set his sights on Bryan’s World Heavyweight Title. Sheamus was still relatively fresh as a face at this point, and the match had the potential to be a show-stealing classic, even on a card featuring CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho, Triple H vs. The Undertaker in Hell in a Cell, and John Cena vs. The Rock in the once in a lifetime (give or take) main event.

Bryan and Sheamus opened the show but were never given the opportunity to show what they could do, as Sheamus Brogue Kicked a distracted Bryan after he kissed then-girlfriend AJ Lee, ending the match and Bryan’s title reign in only 18 seconds.

The crowd, with hundreds of visible “YES” signs, was shocked. The rest of the show they would make their displeasure known, chanting for Daniel Bryan hours after his match had ended.

For as bad of a night as it seemed to be for Daniel Bryan, this was the beginning of the trend that would take him from being a top talent to being a transcendent superstar; the WWE Universe’s stubborn refusal to accept anything less than the best for their chosen hero.

Bryan would go on to feud with Sheamus for a few more months, showcasing great chemistry and the ability to deliver the match that fans were hoping for at Wrestlemania. With long-term plans for Sheamus as champion, Bryan continually came up just short, but would not find himself out of the main event for long.

Immediately after his feud with Sheamus ended, Bryan began a feud with WWE Champion CM Punk. The match-up was a dream match for fans, as both men had risen through the independent wrestling scenes, wrestled in gymnasiums for years, and now found themselves feuding for the top prize in the industry.

Punk at the time was claiming to be the Best in the World, and few were in a position to argue that point, but if there was a better man in the ring than Punk in 2012, it was Bryan.

The two shared in a series of classics, with both of their one-on-one PPV matches being rated over four stars by Dave Meltzer, including a 4.5 star classic at Over The Limit. Eventually, Bryan fell out of the Heavyweight Title picture, but he used it as an opportunity to showcase more of the personality that so greatly endeared him to the WWE Universe