At Elimination Chamber, Sheamus attacked World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan after the latter retained his title in the Elimination Chamber match; confirming he would face Bryan at WrestleMania. At WrestleMania XXVIII, Sheamus defeated Bryan in eighteen seconds to win his first World Heavyweight Championship. On the 6 April episode of "Smackdown", Sheamus was defeated by Alberto Del Rio via disqualification, thus earning Del Rio a future title match. At Extreme Rules, Sheamus successfully defended the World Heavyweight Championship against Bryan in a two out of three falls match. At Over the Limit, Sheamus defeated Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, and Alberto Del Rio in a fatal-four-way match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. At No Way Out, Sheamus defeated Dolph Ziggler to again retain the World Heavyweight Championship.