Wrestlemania 28 Review: Determining Why WWE Wanted 18-Second Sheamus Win

The biggest shocker of WrestleMania 28 wasn’t The Rock beating John Cena; it was that one of the biggest matches of the night lasted less than 20 seconds.

Sheamus hit Daniel Bryan with the Brouge Kick and that was all she wrote—now he is the World Heavyweight champion.

Bryan’s arrogance ended up being his downfall after he kissed AJ on the side of the ring only to be blindsided by the kick. With the crowd seemingly in favor of Bryan before the match, it’s a head-scratcher.

To me, it seemed like a clear slap in the face to two parties: Daniel Bryan and WCW.

There is a strong lack of faith in Bryan with the creative team behind the scenes. They made him look like one big punk.

WWE knows exactly what he is, and it’s nothing more than a hard worker who is a maestro in the ring but lacks the personality to truly take the next step in the hierarchy of the WWE world. Wrestling is only a part of being a WWE superstar.

Bryan is a second-tier star and will have to deal with the backlash from this for the rest of his life. This is going to stick with him. Something like this would never happen to CM Punk.

It’s also a slap in the face to WCW, years after the organization disbanded, that a prestigious title like World Heavyweight champion would be decided in the blink of an eye. I’m not sure if the creative team was deliberately sending a message of not, but that’s the feeling after watching it.

As for Sheamus, he is now jumping up the proverbial totem pole. His future appears to be very bright. What better way to really grab the attention of causal fans than having the most dominating performance of the night?

It created a strong buzz and now it should be very interesting to see where he goes from here…and that’s ultimately why the match was so short. Will Bryan be back? Is Sheamus the next wrestler to take on super-star status? What’s AJ’s role in all of this?

This match didn’t settle anything. It was a set up for the future of these two careers and while I was angry at the time of the match, it’s easy to understand the thought process behind it.

The WWE creative team knows what they are doing. 

Follow Eric Ball on Twitter.