Jimmy Korderas has plenty of experience officiating in the wrestling ring, but the former WWE official had to do some necessary improv when Daniel Puder took liberties with Kurt Angle.
A 2004 episode of WWE SmackDown played host to the cast members of Tough Enough and in a particular show segment, Angle happened to challenge any of the contestants to grapple up with him. Puder stepped up to the pedestal after Kurt went off-script and a legit amateur wrestling match commenced that had Angle in a tough predicament.
Korderas, in an interview with Michael Morales Torres, spoke about having to correct course when matters appeared to go off the rails.
“Kurt (Angle) was supposed to wrestle with whoever won that challenge. But then he went kind of on his own (out of script) and said: ‘Does anybody else wants to challenge me?’ That’s when Daniel Puder put up his hand. He got in. They started on a more amateur style of wrestling contest. I didn’t knew it at the time because I wasn’t versed in MMA, (but) a Kimura Lock, that he has placed on Kurt that I just knew was not good. I kinda looked back at Al Snow who was standing in the corner and looked at me and went (mimics a worried look). We looked at each other. When they fell and Daniel Puder fell on his back, I said: ‘I’m counting. I don’t care’”.
“I started counting and he may roll up his shoulder after two but I didn’t care. I counted three anyways. Thinking back, I should’ve thought: ‘This is amateur’. So I could’ve counted one and ended it like that. It was just a reactionary thing. I was thinking myself: ‘We had to end that somehow. What do I do?’ That’s what came to mind. Kurt was very upset at Puder. You saw that afterwards they got into each other’s face”.
“He gave him a near fall. When I walked to the back, I walked through Gorilla (Position) and Gerald Brisco gave me a thumbs up. I was kind of avoiding everybody. Then Fit Finlay came to me. He asked me: ‘Who told you to count?’ I said: ‘No one. I just reacted’. He said: ‘You probably saved his arm’”.
You can watch the full conversation between Korderas and Torres below:
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