Kurt Angle Talks Fight With Daniel Puder, Why Puder Was Released By WWE

Kurt Angle had countless memorable moments on WWE television. Sometimes, it’s the not so memorable that people want to talk about most. On the November 4, 2004 episode of WWE SmackDown, Kurt Angle was involved in a segment with the cast of that year’s edition of WWE Tough Enough. Kurt’s interaction with Daniel Puder, though a bit rough on TV, still gets asked about to this day.

On a recent appearance with Dos and D, Kurt Angle talked about his meeting with Puder and events that followed later on, including a tough time for Puder in the 2005 Royal Rumble. You can view the entire interview below.

On Wrestling Daniel Puder on SmackDown

Daniel Puder, uh nice kid. What happened was I just got over a neck surgery and me physically I could do about five push-ups. My upper body was completely weak. There was nothing because of my nerve problems in my neck going down my arms. I had no circulation. So that means my circulation was cut off. My arms started getting smaller. They were atrophying. I was getting weaker and weaker so Vince wants me to do this shoot thing with the Tough Enough kids and Daniel Puder was part of it and they kept telling me don’t pick Daniel Puder because he’s an MMA fighter. I was like, why I’m not afraid of him, you know?

“So, what happened was I went out there and I picked Daniel and we got in the ring, we started wrestling and I’m wrestling, but this kid didn’t understand that it wasn’t submission. It was pinfall. So, he gets me in a key lock and I take him down. He’s cranking my arm. Now, he was this close to breaking it, but I was like, “You’re a dumbass, dude. This isn’t submission. This is pinfall. Okay. So, uh when he got up, I actually pinned him because he was on his back. I pinned him and we got up and I said, “You know what? You’re a dumbass.” He said, “What are you talking about?” I said, “This was pinfall. This isn’t submission.” And um so he, you know, he laughed it off. And what happened was my writer, Brian Gewritz, said, “Hey, you want to do a program with him?” I said, “Yeah, once he learns how to wrestle.”

On Daniel Puder’s Royal Rumble Appearance

“Then what happened is at the Royal Rumble that night, somebody went up to Daniel Puder and said, “Hey, are you wrestling tonight?” He goes, “Yeah, I’m in the main event.” And they’re like, “What are you talking about? You’re in the main event?” He said, “Well, I’m in the Royal Rumble. I’m the main event.” And they were like, “This kid’s got a ******* bad attitude, man.” So what happened was when he got in the ring, Eddie Guerrero, I think Chris Benoit and Bob Holly were chopping the **** out of him. And it wasn’t because of me. Everybody thinks it was me. And also they claimed that I got him fired. No, I didn’t. I wanted to wrestle him at a Wrestlemania eventually because of the storyline.”

On Why Daniel Puder Got Let Go By WWE

“He was getting paid 250 grand a year because he won Tough Enough, but they wanted to give him 75 grand. They thought he wasn’t worth 250 because he wasn’t improving quick enough. So he turned it down. So they said, “Okay, we’ll let you go.” So it wasn’t like he got fired. He just wouldn’t take the $75,000 guarantee. And that that’s the reason. So I don’t know why he keeps saying that, you know, I got him fired. It’s not true. I don’t know if the kid’s mentally stable or not, but he just turned down the contract. And you know what? I had the same contract. What Daniel Peter’s talking about, I got a multi-million dollar deal offered to me in 1996. I turned it down. Then two years later, I got 75 grand and that’s it. That was my guarantee.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Dos and D with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.