10 Worst WWE Moments Of 2004

10. Tough Enough Goes Wrong!

The fourth season of faux-reality show Tough Enough was still ongoing when rookie Daniel Puder took Olympic gold winner Kurt Angle down and almost broke his arm on the 4 November 2004 SmackDown. WWE had tasked the cast with running steps at Savvis Center in St. Louis for most of the day before the show was taped, and they'd also been put through their paces with regular in-ring training too.

None of that mattered when Puder got the eye of the tiger and accepted Kurt's challenge to enter the ring in a bid to take the WWE stalwart down. Dan took Angle to the mat with a Kimura Lock, and he might've snapped the pro's arm like a twig had officials not thought to quickly count Puder's shoulders for a 3 count. This was a legitimate bit of shooting from the rookie, one that likely didn't sit well behind the scenes.

On camera, a visibly embarrassed Kurt warned Daniel not to be "stupid", then grabbed the mic and chewed the rest of the Tough Enough entrants out anyway. This was supposed to be easy pickings for Angle. He was working, but Puder certainly wasn't. Whilst fascinating to viewers at home, it'd be hard to call this anything but one of 2004's worst moments in execution.

After all, things weren't supposed to play out that way, and it wasn't a great look for an ex-WWE Champ when he was almost tapped out by Puder. Kurt knew he couldn't tap/submit though, because that would've looked even worse for him and WWE.

To top it all off, fans around ringside chanted "UFC! UFC! UFC!" throughout. That wouldn't bother TKO now, but the landscape was different 21 years ago.