Tom Prichard talks Shane McMahon's athleticism and training ahead of WrestleMania XV

Shane McMahon's WrestleMania debut took place twenty-one years ago. At Mania XV, McMahon defended his European Championship against X-Pac.

In the middle of the Corporation's feud with D-Generation X, Shane O'Mac managed to steal the belt away from X-Pac in a tag team match thanks to Kane and Chyna. In his "debut", McMahon became the 10th European Champion in the company's history.

McMahon continued to interrupt and interfere in X-Pac's matches ahead of the event, all the while claiming to be a "fighting champion." All the while, Dr. Tom Prichard was assisting him with his in-ring training.

According to Dr. Tom, Shane McMahon was incredibly dedicated and willing to put in the work.

Dr. Tom on Shane McMahon's preparation for WrestleMania XV

When it came to the actual training, Dr. Tom implied that Shane O'Mac understood ring psychology pretty well, knowing not to go straight from high spot to high spot.

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. 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 it but he was always a professional.

"He always knew that people wanted spectacular moves (and they do) so you have to set the table for it first, and then you go to the top turnbuckle and jump on the table. You can't do that in the first two minutes of a match. Well you can, it just wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. So Shane understood that we were going to lock up and we were going to do some pulling around, takeovers and wrestling first before he wanted to do his high spots."

When it came to cardio, Shane had it but wanted to get into "ring shape".

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.

Comparing Shane's athleticism to Vince McMahon

At this point, we've seen Vince McMahon's entire immediate family in the ring in some form or another. And though Vince, Stephanie, and Shane have all captured gold in WWE, the prodigal son has always been the best competitor out of the bunch. When it came to his athleticism, Dr. Tom said he picked up the sport pretty quickly.

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 to the ring, when he locked up it wasn't surprising. It felt pretty natural and it felt like he had the natural ability.

In that sense, Dr. Tom Prichard compared Shane to Linda McMahon, crediting that personality as the reason that he's still so passionate about whatever he's involved with.

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 has 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.

(Credit to The TMPT Empire for this transcription)

Shane McMahon hasn't wrestled as much as regular competitors, but he always seemed to have a knack for the sport. Even his latest run has shown that he's as capable and great a hand as you could ask for, both inside and outside of the ring.

Be sure to listen to the full episode of Taking You to School with Dr. Tom right here!