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On the 4th installment of Taking You To School with Dr. Tom Prichard, Dr. Tom taught us all what it was like to work with and train Shane McMahon as he prepared for his in ring debut at WrestleMania 15 in Philadelphia, PA back in 1999. But of course, we get even more backstory into Shane’s history in the company, we find out what WWE Hall of Famer and World Champion worked with Shane to prepare him years earlier and how Shane’s level of commitment was no surprise to those working in the company. The full episode can be downloaded at this link.
Tom Prichard On Macho Man Working In Ring w/ Young Shane McMahon
Why Did Shane McMahon Quit The WWF in the Early 90s?
Randy Savage helping train a young Shane McMahon:
“Randy coming from a wrestling family too, Randy had the fundamentals and basics down and he definitely was old school obviously. He got trained by one of the greatest even it was just before the matches.”
“I believe that Shane was a pretty popular guy with all the boys because he did have respect and he was enthusiastic and he did have that fire in his eyes, so it wouldn’t be hard for someone like Macho Man to want to do it and want to go out and help somebody like Shane because he legitimately liked Shane and he liked Vince.”
Preparing Shane For His Match with X-Pac At WrestleMania 15:
“The basics and fundamentals never go out of style and that is a great way to warm up and a great way to keep yourself sharp and Shane had no problem doing that. We would work on things like the coast-to-coast and I got to holding the trash can so he could smash me in the face with the trash can but he was always a professional. He always knew that he was going to do it at the right time in the match and he knew that people wanted spectacular moves (and they do) so you have to set the table for it first and than you go to the top turnbuckle and jump on to the table. You can’t do that in the first two minuets of a match but you can, it just wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense. So Shane understood that we were gong to lock up and we were going to do some pulling around, takeovers and wrestling first before he wanted to do his high spots”
Shane’s level of preparation:
“Cardio shape is completely different than ring shape and that’s what he was after. Getting in ring shape and just so he wouldn’t blow up I’m sure with X-Pac or anybody else he got in the ring with because he was training with us for most of the time he was active back then. When he was off the road, he would come over to the studio and we would get into the ring after workouts too. The same thing applied for whenever Shane wanted to workout, we were going to workout we were going to get into the ring.”
Was Shane more athletic than Vince?:
“I don’t know that I was surprised. Shane always gave off this vibe that he had a little more skill and even when he was doing the bumps and doing his rolling and when he did back bumps. Just in the way he moved and his body language, when he walked in the ring, when he locked up it wasn’t surprising. It felt pretty natural and it felt like he had that natural ability.”
“A lot of people say that Shane takes after his Mom’s personality more-so than his Dad so maybe that has something to do with it. The one thing that I really don’t believe anyone can think or manipulate is passion and Shane had passion. He still does to this day. He is a straight up guy and so anytime he got in the ring you knew that it was going to be a great workout and we were going to try something new.”
Creating Shane’s memorable spots:
“Something either he came up with or something I came up with to put into the match. Right now, I know it was the coast-to-coast, the elbow from the top rope (top turnbuckle) and I remember was it Big Show or whoever he took the bump off the stage with, we went as high as we could in the studio with that and were like “oh my gosh” I hope everything comes out okay and it did. But those were his ideas and that is where he was at. He wanted to make sure that he went out there and gave the everyone who came more than what they paid for.”
Since debuting in January 2015 and named one of RollingStone.com’s “18 Pro Wrestling Podcasts To Follow”, The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling has become a strong content provider in the podcast medium. Hosts John and Chad conduct the most in-depth interviews in the entire genre of Professional Wrestling. TMPT also co-hosts podcasts with ECW Legends, “The Franchise” Shane Douglas: Triple Threat Podcast and “The Queen of Extreme Francine’s “Eyes Up Here”, ” Taking You To School With Dr. Tom” as well as “JJ: The JJ Dillon Podcast”. Follow @TwoManPowerTrip @ChadIanB & @The3ThreatPod on Twitter for Episode Previews and Show Coverage. Subscribe on YouTube for Interview Highlights and BEST OF Clips.
