In a recent interview with Gabby AF (via Fightful), Shelton Benjamin reflected on the time he engaged in shoot wrestling with Daniel Puder before a WWE event. He recounted how Vince McMahon reacted strongly, yelling at him about the incident. Puder, who gained fame for nearly tapping out Kurt Angle, won the Tough Enough competition in 2004 but was released from WWE the following year.
Shelton Benjamin said:
Wrestling fans know Daniel Puder. He had the infamous armlock on Kurt. He got the armlock on Kurt and they had to pin him real quick. Shortly after that, me and Charlie Haas were shooting around in the ring. This is something I used to do all the time. At one point, Daniel Puder got in there, this is after the infamous Kurt situation. What happened with me and Charlie, Charlie faked that he took me down. To people that know amatuer wrestling, they know it was neutral. The guys who don’t know, it might have looked like he took me down. Smart people know. Charlie gets this fake takedown and jumps out the ring. He jumps out the ring and refuses to get back in. I’m steaming, ‘Get back here, Charlie.’ I’m mad. Charlie knows, and I know, it wasn’t a takedown, but everyone else thinks it is. Perception is reality in the pro wrestling business. ‘You better get back in here Charlie.’ He wouldn’t get back in. Puder gets in. When he gets in, my first thought was, a lot of people were intimidated by Puder because he almost tapped out Kurt. I’m fresh off Team Angle, ‘I want to know what you can do anyway.’ He gets in there, and I start ragdolling him. Boom, boom, boom. At one point, I threw him so hard, when he hit the mat, it sounded like a bomb went off. Vince turns out, ‘That’s enough of that. That’s enough of that shoot shit. Learn to work, damnit.’ That was the only time he yelled at us. I don’t know what their plans were with Puder, I just know because of the situation with Kurt, his reputation had ballooned, and I pretty much popped that balloon. When I say I was ragdolling him, I’m saying there was zero he could do with me. We were shoot wrestling. Zero. Complete shutdown.“
I would have loved to see this.