A container for transporting, storing, and/or paying-out welding wire from a contained wire coil without tangling, and having flexible straps each extending between the lowermost and upper parts of the container wall passing through a second opening of an anti-entangling device and along a path between said wire coil and said wall. The anti-entangling device rests on the top of the wire coil and descends by gravity as the welding wire is paid-out. The anti-entangling device has a first opening through which said wire passes and respective second openings through each of which a flexible strap passes. The second openings are opposingly located in the anti-entangling device loop about the device's first central opening so that the flexible straps are positioned by the second openings to contact the top surface of the wire coil.