Bryan Danielson Recalls Grappling Training, Learning From Gene LeBell’s Student

Bryan Danielson looked back on his grappling training in a recent interview, and how the lineage of his training extends back to Gene LeBell and Ed “Strangler” Lewis. Daniel spoke about his learning the art of grappling during his recent interview with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp and you can see a couple highlights below:

On training with Neil Melanson: “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.”