10 Brutal Times Wrestlers Worked Stiff
3. Everyone Vs. Daniel Puder - Royal Rumble 2005
Changing gears somewhat, we go from an instant classic of a physical encounter, to just straight up bullying on PPV.
Pretty much everyone will be clued up on the events which saw Tough Enough's Daniel Puder getting the better of Olympic Gold medalist and WWE legend Kurt Angle during a shoot-style SmackDown scrap by now. With this being the wrestling industry in the early 2000's, however, you just knew "the boys" in the back weren't going to allow this level of "disrespect" to slide.
Sure enough, in the wake of Puder also reportedly bragging about getting the better of Hardcore Holly on the house show circuit, the Tough Enough winner was shockingly dismantled in front of the world during the 2005 Royal Rumble match. Here, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, and the aforementioned Holly took turns chopping the hell out of the newcomer, clearly relishing the chance to teach the mixed martial artist a lesson.
As you'd expect, this incident has aged horrifically, feeling more like three middle-aged bullies beating up an inexperienced potential star of tomorrow for the hell of it than a learning curve.