10 Biggest Heat Magnets In WWE History

Pretty much everyone remembers that guy off the fourth series of Tough Enough that shot on Kurt Angle and nearly broke his arm. Daniel Puder was a legitimate mixed martial artist and no shrinking violet. When the Tough Enough contestants were offered out by Angle in the Smackdown ring, and the shooter quickly took down Chris Nawrocki and submitted him with a neck crank (breaking some of his ribs in the process), Puder was next to volunteer.

It’s not entirely clear whether the segment was intended to be a worked shoot or whether Angle had been instructed to teach the kids a lesson - however, what mattered was that the contestants thought it was legit and Puder entered the ring convinced that the match was a shoot. Angle took Puder down with a single leg, and Puder locked Angle’s arm in a kimura from his back.

The referee counted Puder’s shoulders down to call a pinfall and force a break, because Angle couldn’t be seen to submit, but most agree that Angle was in trouble. He’d either badly underestimated the kid or he’d been working and taken by surprise.

Puder ended up winning the competition in December 2004 and started working WWE house shows to gain experience while he trained in Ohio Valley Wrestling, the company’s feeder promotion. However, rumours persisted about his monumentally bad attitude; that he’d had his own merchandise made, which he used to give away to OVW fans; that he’d fallen asleep in training and wouldn’t stay off his laptop or his phone; that he’d been bragging to his friends about beating WWE guys in worked contests as if they were shoots.

The company were determined to put Puder in his place and teach him respect for the business and for the company he kept, and placed him with veteran ass-kicker Bob Holly on the loop. Holly loathed Puder, especially when he became one of the guys that the kid boasted he’d defeated. In their next match, he put him over again as planned, only for Puder to brag about the victory like it was real once again. The next time, Holly chopped Puder’s chest like his brother owed him money, leaving him black, blue and scarlet.

That wasn’t the end of it, oh no - WWE entered Puder in the 2005 Royal Rumble and had him cut an arrogant promo claiming that he’d be the first Tough Enough champ to win the Royal Rumble. They then fed him to Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero and - you guessed it - Bob Holly, who chopped his chest into hamburger meat.

Puder was released a few months later, having refused to accept the lower developmental contract he’d been offered to stay. Interviews since then have proven that the kid has learned nothing.