10 Fascinating WWE Royal Rumble 2005 Facts
7. The Daniel Puder Beating Was Allegedly Retribution
The 2005 Rumble match started off rather memorably, as Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and Hardcore Holly took to teeing off on Tough Enough winner Daniel Puder with a barrage of stinging chops. Puder didn't get one offensive move in, before being the first elimination of the match.
It was pretty clear that it was a case of veterans having a little bit of fun with "the new guy", but it apparently extended beyond just rookie hazing. According to Holly, Puder was traveling with Jimmy Yang at that point, and Yang told Holly that Puder was calling his own buddies to brag about "beating" Holly in house show matches, acting like the wins were legitimate. Holly felt that Puder needed a bit of deflating.
At a house show match in Chicago four weeks before the Rumble, Holly claims he chopped Puder "black and bloody", as a means of putting him in his place. The Rumble confrontation was more of the same, with Benoit and Guerrero more than happy to assist in breaking the rookie's purported ego.