Kurt Angle Details Why Daniel Puder Suffered WWE Royal Rumble Beating
Puder was harshly 'welcomed' to WWE in the 2005 Rumble match
WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle has commented on the rough welcome $1,000,000 Tough Enough winner Daniel Puder received in the 2005 Royal Rumble match.
The Olympic Hero famously had his own run-in with the MMA fighter on the November 4, 2004 episode of SmackDown when Puder almost broke Angle's arm with a kimura lock during an impromptu amateur wrestling contest.
During a recent interview with Bubba The Love Sponge, Kurt claimed that Puder's Rumble beating came about because the rookie became cocky backstage.
"What happened was, he started getting really arrogant and like, telling people he was in the main event of the Royal Rumble. Because he was going to be in the Rumble [match], he thought he was in the main event. Meanwhile, he's not even a wrestler yet. And guys heard about that and went, 'Okay, this guy's an assh*le'.
"So at the Royal Rumble, they made sure the first four entrants were Puder, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and Bob Holly. So when Puder went in, Eddie went in and started chopping the sh*t out of him. Benoit came in, started chopping the sh*t out of him. Holly went in, started chopping the sh*t out of him. They beat the crap out of this kid and threw him over the top rope. And it was done. And you know what, his career never got better after that".
Puder was released from his contract while training at WWE developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling in September of 2005.
Outside of a boxing match with Tough Enough runner-up The Miz at Armageddon 2004, the Rumble was his lone main roster WWE bout.
H/T 411mania.com
Written by Lewis Howse
Features journalist for Cultaholic.com and script writer for the Cultaholic YouTube Channel.
