Vince McMahon Berated Ex-WWE Star: “Learn To Work”
The only time Vince McMahon ever yelled at a former WWE star was when they were rag dolling one of their colleagues in the ring.
Long-time wrestling fans will remember Tough Enough 2004 winner Daniel Puder and his infamous moment with Kurt Angle on SmackDown.
The 4th of November 2004 edition of SmackDown saw Angle put the Tough Enough contestants through their paces as part of a challenge where the winner would get a shoot match against the Olympic gold medallist. Chris Nawrocki won and was dispatched by Angle before the WWE Hall of Famer challenged any of the other contestants.
That prompted amateur wrestler Daniel Puder to enter the ring where he locked a Kimura on Kurt Angle with a referee counting Puder’s shoulders down so he would break the hold before breaking Angle’s arm on WWE television.
But AEW star Shelton Benjamin didn’t have the same trouble with Daniel Puder.
Vince McMahon Shuts Down Shoot Fight In WWE Ring
Speaking on Gabby AF, Shelton Benjamin recalled his own experience in the ring with Daniel Puder as he and his former tag team partner Charlie Haas had been messing around in the ring:
Wrestling fans know Daniel Puder. He had the infamous armlock on Kurt. He got the armlock on Kurt and they had to pin him real quick. Shortly after that, me and Charlie Haas were shooting around in the ring. This is something I used to do all the time. At one point, Daniel Puder got in there, this is after the infamous Kurt situation.
What happened with me and Charlie, Charlie faked that he took me down. To people that know amateur wrestling, they know it was neutral. The guys who don’t know, it might have looked like he took me down. Smart people know. Charlie gets this fake takedown and jumps out of the ring. He jumps out the ring and refuses to get back in. I’m steaming, ‘Get back here, Charlie.’ I’m mad.
Charlie knows, and I know, it wasn’t a takedown, but everyone else thinks it is. Perception is reality in the pro wrestling business. ‘You better get back in here Charlie.’ He wouldn’t get back in.
With Haas not getting back in the ring, Daniel Puder took the chance and was promptly thrown around by Shelton Benjamin to the extent that Vince McMahon angrily shut the whole thing down:
Puder gets in. When he gets in, my first thought was, a lot of people were intimidated by Puder because he almost tapped out Kurt. I’m fresh off Team Angle, ‘I want to know what you can do anyway.’ He gets in there, and I start rag dolling him. Boom, boom, boom. At one point, I threw him so hard, when he hit the mat, it sounded like a bomb went off.
Vince turns out, ‘That’s enough of that. That’s enough of that shoot sh*t. Learn to work, damnit.’ That was the only time he yelled at us. I don’t know what their plans were with Puder, I just know because of the situation with Kurt, his reputation had ballooned, and I pretty much popped that balloon. When I say I was ragdolling him, I’m saying there was zero he could do with me. We were shoot wrestling. Zero. Complete shutdown.
The WWE veterans took revenge on Daniel Puder as he entered the 2005 Royal Rumble as the third entrant. Puder was greeted by Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero who took turns chopping Puder’s chest to shreds. Puder might have hoped the fourth entrant would have given him some cover but things turned from bad to worse when that turned out to be Hardcore Holly who seemed to enjoy dishing out punishment to Puder before eliminating him from the match.