In Johnny Lawrence's (William Zabka) mind, he's the true hero of Cobra Kai, which is about to enter its third season on Netflix, and picks up The Karate Kid's story over 34 years after Lawrence lost the All Valley Karate Championship to LaRusso in 1984.
As Daniel's arch-rival, Johnny was the villain of The Karate Kid and he only appeared briefly at the beginning of Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue), at a beach party. Daniel clashed with Johnny numerous times during their senior year in high school, but LaRusso was always outnumbered by Johnny's Cobra Kai buddies. Finally, Daniel and Johnny had it out once-and-for-all in the finals of the All Valley Tournament, where LaRusso beat Lawrence with his signature crane kick. When Daniel won, Johnny actually congratulated him, handed his enemy the trophy, and said, "You're great!" but the truce between them didn't last after Kreese attacked Johnny in the parking lot following the tournament.
Although they didn't encounter each other again until decades later in Cobra Kai, Johnny continued to harbor a deep dislike for LaRusso — and to hear him tell the story, he's got every right to hold a grudge. In Cobra Kai season 1, Johnny reopened the Cobra Kai dojo and he told his first student, Miguel (Xolo Mariduena), what happened between himself and Daniel back in 1984. Essentially, Johnny retold the events of The Karate Kid with himself as the lead character, and, from Johnny's skewed point-of-view, everything that went wrong in his senior year of high school was all Daniel LaRusso's fault.
In a hilarious scene for fans of The Karate Kid, Johnny opened his tale by describing to Miguel how he met Ali at a screening of Rocky III in the summer of 1982. After dating for two years, they were "madly in love" and Ali gave Johnny the black headband he still owns today. But they got into a fight in the summer of 1984 and broke up — "Then Daniel LaRusso came to town." In Johnny's version of The Karate Kid, Daniel sucker-punched him at the beach and forced Lawrence to defend himself. Daniel then kept on harassing him, including dousing him with a water hose at the Halloween dance, before luring the Cobra Kai into a trap so they got pummeled by Daniel's personal "karate master," Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita). Miyagi even gave one of the Cobra Kai "brain damage," according to Johnny. Of course, Daniel beat Johnny at the All Valley Tournament. But worst of all, Johnny never got back together with Ali, the love of his life, all because of Daniel LaRusso.
Johnny's painting Daniel as The Karate Kid's true villain cleverly echoes a contingent of fans who agree that LaRusso was the real bully who caused all of the problems in the movie. By making Johnny the lead character, Cobra Kai reinforces that idea to a degree, as fans learned about Johnny's difficult childhood and what a disaster he turned out as an adult. Of course, Johnny really has his own inadequacies to blame for how his life turned out since he's perpetually stuck in his 1980s glory days, but Cobra Kai is also about Lawrence's struggle to better himself and actually become a good sensei to his students.
Still, Daniel remains a thorn in Johnny's side in present-day just as his arch-enemy haunts his memories of their senior year of high school. To its credit, Cobra Kai is more complex and fair-minded than The Karate Kid and it thoroughly explores the good and bad sides of both Johnny and Daniel. In fact, Daniel does behave poorly and does underhanded things to get back at Johnny in Cobra Kai. Ultimately, Johnny will never be convinced that Daniel isn't the bad guy in their mutual story and, to see things from the Cobra Kai sensei's point of view, Johnny has valid reasons for hating Daniel.