WWE Tough Enough Winner Daniel Puder Says WWE Cheated Him Out of His Contract, Talks Kurt Angle Incident, Bill DeMott’s Training, More

October 11, 2016

Former WWE star Daniel Puder joined the Jordan Garber NOW podcast with Jordan Garber on Tuesday, October 4, 2016 to talk about his career in wrestling and the evolution of his persona for WWE. In the interview, Daniel talks about his time starting out in the business, his experience as a contestant and winning Tough Enough, his incident with Kurt Angle and Bill DeMott. To keep up on future episodes visit VOCNation.com and follow Jordan Garber on Twitter @JordanJGarber.

The program is available via vocnation.com by clicking on the “On Demand” or “2016 Archives” tab, and below are some interview highlights:

On WWE not owning up to the agreement on his contact:

I won the contract people talk about different amounts I got quarter million my first year. they gave me a crappy deal at the end of the first year. I looked at the situation about how they were treating me when I was busting my butt if they are just going to offer not what the agreement was than i’m not going to stick around and be a part of it.

Winning Tough Enough:

I was on the SmackDown show. The Miz was getting 75,000 unique hits on his website everyday and I was only getting like 50 or 60 K. I was like no way I’m done he won. So I went out there and they were like “You won” and I just went nuts. It was crazy.

On Bill DeMott:

One time he bent my finger backwards when I didn’t do a move right. DeMott held my finger back one day and I looked at him and I smiled and I said are you going to break it or are you gonna show me how to do the move, he never did it again and respected me for who I was. Very blessed to have him in my life. He’s a hard ass and I got good because of it.

Kurt Angle incident:

I kicked his butt back a little bit, and I showed him. I really pushed him he didn’t expect it coming like that and I just had a lot of fun with it.

Jordan Garber NOW airs Tuesday nights at 11:30 PM ET on the VOC Nation Radio Network (vocnation.com).

Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.

Nick attended New York University and graduated in 2001 with a degree in Drama.

Nick first entered the internet wrestling community back in 2004 when he became the co-host of The Voice of Wrestling Radio Show. From there, Nick made the transition from radio personality to editor when he began working with WrestleZone in 2008.

Nick is a member of two Off-Broadway theatre companies, Another Urban Riff, and the Drama Desk Award winning Godlight Theatre Company. Nick has appeared in over a dozen Off-Broadway plays since he moved to New York City, and has shot several short and feature length films. In 2010, he completed principle photography on a film titled "How to Score Your Life," which also features TNA Knockout ODB.

Inspiration in his life has come from many people including his family, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, Jack Nicholson, The Beatles, and of course, Lassie.