JONAH has trained under some of the best coaches in the pro wrestling business.
JONAH (formerly Bronson Reed) signed with WWE in early 2019, then reported to the Performance Center. During his time at the PC, he trained with the likes of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Norman Smiley, and Scotty 2 Hotty. In speaking with NBC Sports Boston, JONAH detailed his time learning from the PC coaches.
“I was lucky enough not only to learn from Hunter, but from Shawn Michaels as well,” JONAH admitted. “At the PC, you have classes and there’s different coaches. When I first got there, I started with Norman Smiley, a great coach. I then moved on to Scotty 2 Hotty and then to Terry Taylor and then Shawn Michales is sort of that coach for the champions and guys that are on top.”
“I was really lucky I got to spend about a year there with Shawn, learning from him,” he continued. “That stuff is invaluable. This business is such a crazy thing where you can be doing it like I had been doing it before I got to WWE for over ten years, but you’re constantly learning. When you think you know everything, someone else would still have some knowledge where you’re like ‘oh wow’.” Shawn was one of those guys that I benefited from. From that, there’s just things that he’s done or the way he sees things wrestling wise that changed my perspective.”
For JONAH personally, he identified training with Shawn Michaels to be “surreal at times”.
“For me, I was such a huge fan of Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart as a kid. The boyhood dream, the WrestleMania 12 match when he finally wins the championship, and is kneeling there with the title was something I used to recreate as a kid in my lounge room. So then all these years later, to not only meet him, but to be coached by him and then become almost like work friends, and be able to text with him and stuff like that is surreal at times. ”
JONAH frequently wrestles with NJPW nowadays, but he still carries on his knowledge from the Performance Center.
“I’m very happy that I got to have that from him and Hunter. Now being in New Japan Pro Wrestling, even though I had wrestled in Japan before and done that style, I get to go back there, wrestle in Japan, wrestle their style. But [I] also implement some of those things I learned from those guys.” he explained.
The former NXT North American Champion continued on to explain the importance of listening to coaches. Moreover, he emphasized his focus on not being outwardly dismissive of their advice, which he had seen some other trainees do.
“It’s a big thing for guys coming up or even guys that have been wrestling for a long time, to keep their minds open and to listen to these people. Unfortunately sometimes at the PC you would have people be like ‘ah, I don’t want to listen to that coach’ or ‘I don’t think what he’s saying is right’.” It’s true, sometimes things don’t work for you, but I always just try to take in as much information as possible and then pick and choose what is right for me. But to blatantly not listen or not pay attention, you’re just doing more harm than good.”
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