10 Wrestlers Who Won Despite Taking The Finish
3. Kurt Angle (SmackDown November 4th, 2004)
One for the worked shoot nuts this, as a SmackDown hazing/bullying/burial segment almost went horribly wrong for WWE and an an infuriated Kurt Angle.
Daniel Puder was presented as just another overmatched rookie forced to endure physical and mental degradation as part of another televised '"challenge", but actually attempting the task at hand wasn't exactly expected of the trainees.
Understandably thinking he should try and beat the Olympian in an amateur scuffle, Puder used his mixed martial arts nous trap Angle in a keylock. It took quick thinking and careful editing to make it seem as though Kurt had rolled Puder into a pinfall, and the event taking place on the taped show should have saved blushes Angle's blushes.
But he was red-faced for other reasons.
Angrily batting back a handshake, a knackered Angle tried to save face by verbally tearing into Puder before giving a speech to the rest of the bewildered class. The sense of chaos from the night wasn't really capitalised upon, and Puder's overall victory in the show was for naught other than one last pathetic humbling at the hands of Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and Hardcore Holly in 2006.