Throughout the years there have been a number of amateur wrestlers who have successfully made the jump to professional wrestling such as Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin just to name a few.
Early on in his WWE career Shelton Benjamin was paired with Charlie Haas. Recently while speaking with Gabby LaSpisa, Shelton Benjamin reflected on shoot wrestling with Haas inside the ring. The former Intercontinental Champion then went on to explain that he got yelled at by Vince McMahon when Charlie Haas left the ring and former WWE Tough Enough contestant Daniel Puder took his place.
“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 s***. 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.”
H/T Fightful
