AEW star Bryan Danielson spoke with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp on a number of topics related to pro wrestling, including training with Neil Melanson.
Danielson said, “I was training a lot at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. My grappling coach is Neil Melanson. He started catch wrestling, ended up training and grappling with Karo Parisyan and Judo Gene LeBell. He was the head grappling coach there. He brought in Billy (Robinson) and Jake Shannon. It was a really cool learning experience.”
On the lineage of his training:
“The ties to pro wrestling are awesome. When I think of lineages of people you learn through; I learned through Shawn Michaels where I first trained, but that was beginner training. Then I started training with William Regal and you think of his training and all the people in the UK and Blackpool and the people he’s learned from and that lineage. The shoot style grappling stuff, learning it from Neil, who learned it from Gene LeBell, who learned it from Lou Thesz, who learned it from Strangler Lewis. It’s all neat lineages.”
You can check out Danielson’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
