On November 4, 2004, episode of
SmackDown!, taped in
St. Louis, Missouri, during an
unscripted segment of
Tough Enough,
Kurt Angle, a former American amateur wrestler and
1996 Olympic gold medalist, challenged the finalists through a
squat thrust competition.
[13][14] Chris Nawrocki won the competition, and the prize Nawrocki won was a
shoot match against Angle.
[15] Angle quickly took Nawrocki down, breaking his ribs, then made him
submit with a
neck crank.
[15] After Angle defeated Nawrocki, Angle challenged the other finalists.
[15] Puder accepted Angle's challenge.
[15] Angle and Puder wrestled for position, with Angle taking Puder down, however, in the process, Puder locked Angle in a
kimura lock.
[14][15][16] With Puder on his back and Angle's arm locked in the
kimura, Angle attempted a pin, one of two referees in the ring,
Jim Korderas, quickly counted three to end the bout, despite the fact that Puder's shoulders were not fully down on the mat, bridging up at two.
[14][15][16]Puder later claimed he would have snapped Angle's arm on national television, if Korderas had not ended the match.
[15] Dave Meltzer and Dave Scherer gave these following comments:
“ It was real. If you don't follow fighting, Puder had Angle locked in the Kimura, or keylock as Tazz called it, although Tazz didn't let on the move was fully executed. Not only was Angle not getting out of the move, but most MMA fighters would have tapped already. Angle couldn't tap for obvious reasons. The ref counted a three even though Puder's shoulders weren't fully down, trying to end the thing, because the reality was Angle would have been in surgery had it gone a few seconds longer or had Puder not given up the hold. ― Dave Meltzer
[14][16] ”
“ As you would expect, Kurt Angle was less than happy backstage at
Smackdown after almost being forced to tap out to Tough Enough contestant Daniel Puder. Downright ticked off would probably be the best way to describe his mood. The unscripted nature of the contest was the main reason that Angle was made to look so bad since Puder just reacted to the situation and could have forced Angle to submit had the referees not thought quickly and counted a pin that wasn't there on Puder. ― Dave Scherer
[14] ”
