The movie Iron Eagle (1986) is seen as a source of inspiration for William Zabka's character, Johnny Lawrence. Zabka's father, Stan Zabka, served as the second assistant director for that movie.
In How I Met Your Mother (2005), Barney Stinson details the events of The Karate Kid from Johnny Lawrence's point of view. This is the same perspective that Johnny recounts to Miguel in this episode.
Randee Heller reprises her role from The Karate Kid movies as Lucille Larusso.
The episode title is a term for animals - especially snakes - shedding their old skin, which is what Johnny and his students metaphorically do throughout the series.
Johnny says to Daniel, "You couldn't leave well enough alone". In Karate Kid, after the Halloween dance scene when Johnny catches up to Daniel outside the apartment building, he also tells him "You couldn't leave well enough alone".