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Today there was an article on this very website that recapped an interview with former WWE Tough Enough winner, Daniel Puder. One of the topics Puder discussed during the course of this interview was the incident between himself and Kurt Angle during a Tough Enough segment on an episode of Smackdown back in 2004.

Now Puder seems to be getting a lot a flack for what is said, which includes calling Angle a "wimp" and a lot of that criticism is that he took advantage of the situation by shooting on Kurt when he wasn't expecting it, but the problem with that criticism is it just isn't true because it was an unscripted environment and Kurt Angle knew exactly what he was doing; what he was doing was trying to be a big shot because he was a master Olympic wrestler and knew he could embarrass these guys while looking tough at the same time.

I don't necessarily agree with Kurt Angle being a "wimp", but there is no question he was being a bully in that situation by legitimately beating the crap out of Chris Nawrocki, the first contestant that got to face Angle, and in fact he broke some of the poor guy's ribs before making him tap out to a "neck crank". I understand that in the wrestling business all guys who are just starting almost always go through something like that so they can make sure you're tough enough (clever of me eh?) but in front of thousands of people and on national television was neither the time nor the place.

Angle even had the audacity to laugh about it while acting like some sort of tough guy for beating up a man with virtually no fighting experience before asking all the other contestants if they wanted to step in the ring with him, which is when Daniel Puder accepted.

Puder ended up getting Angle in a Kimura Lock and he couldn't tap for obvious reasons, so the referees counted Puder's shoulders down even though they weren't.anggle puder.jpg

The simple fact is that Kurt Angle was seconds away from suffering a broken arm and was a victim of that old saying, "What goes around come around."

In conclusion I would like to say that I am not giving Daniel Puder a free pass on his involvement because he wasn't squeaky clean either as this wasn't an MMA fight and he should have known better than to try and brake the arm of one of the biggest stars in the company no matter how much of a bully he was being or even though he might have deserved, though he did technically follow the rules as the only thing banned were strikes.

The bottom line is Kurt Angle should have acted more professionally and Daniel Puder should have just been the bigger man.