Well, even though I fixed the issue with the claws not being drawn immediately upon shifting forms, the issue with Brawl vs. Melee stumps me. I spent another solid hour trying to get these claws (and the Daimoinon Fiery Fists) weapons to use Brawl instead of Melee. It's very strange because they are already setup to use Brawl, not Melee, and the fact that the vanilla game set them up to use Brawl makes me think that there is a glitch with the game itself. It almost seems hardcoded that these items use melee instead.
I don't know where else to go with this, I've tried every possible combination that I can think of without success. Maybe someone will come along and read this and get the hankering to try something I haven't and find the solution. For now I'm going to make this issue "Unfixable".