In all my experience of swept wing jet transport aircraft I have never heard of anyone thrashing the rudders around to recover from an upset, including wake turbulence. The only time I might advocate rudder is if I have full aileron in to oppose roll and the aircraft is still departing.
When American Airlines decided to train their pilots this way, did they ask the aeroplane manufacturers (Airbus) first for their advice and opinion?
This almost sounds like a training induced accident. I would suggest that if these pilots had had no formal training in recovering from a wake turbulence encounter the outcome would have been very different.