Dean Malenko

Dean Simon
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Dean Malenko
Billed height	ft in ( m)
Billed weight	212 lb (96 kg)
Born	August 4 1960 (1960--) (age 47) Irvington, New Jersey
Resides	Lutz, Florida
Billed from	Tampa, Florida
Trained by	Boris Malenko
Debut	1979
Retired	2001

Dean Simon (born August 4, 1960) is a retired professional wrestler best known by the ring name Dean Malenko. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment working on its ECW brand as the senior road agent.

Career

Malenko was born into a wrestling family, and his father Boris Malenko was a prominent wrestling figure in his own right. He has wrestled all over the world and has spent much time wrestling in Mexico and Japan. He wrestled with his brother Joe from 1988 to 1992, forming a tag team, until his brother retired. On January 24 1992, Malenko defeated "the Superstar" for the Suncoast Pro Wrestling (SPW) Southern title in Palmetto, Florida. Malenko defeated Jimmy Backlund for the ICWA Light Heavyweight title on March 12 1992, in Tampa.

Extreme Championship Wrestling

In Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), Malenko was known as "The Shooter" Dean Malenko and was given a gimmick similar to an Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter (due to his uncanny resemblance to Royce Gracie). Malenko won the ECW World Television Championship on November 4, 1994. Chris Benoit and Malenko won the ECW tag team titles on February 25, 1995 from Sabu and the Tazmaniac in Philadelphia. Malenko, Benoit and Shane Douglas were the first Triple Threat faction in ECW. Malenko won the Television title for a second time on July 21 1995, by defeating Eddie Guerrero. He and Guerrero feuded over the Television Title and fought a series of matches that led to him being offered a WCW contract. His last ECW match was against Guerrero in a Two-out-of-Three Falls match, which ended with a draw as the last fall had both men's shoulders on the mat. This would be both men's last match in ECW and they both gave -- and received -- an emotional farewell to the fans.

World Championship Wrestling

In September 1995, Malenko and Benoit joined World Championship Wrestling. On May 2 1996, Malenko defeated Shinjiro Ohtani for the WCW Cruiserweight title in Orlando. Malenko came to be known in WCW as "The Iceman" Dean Malenko because of his cold, calculating demeanor and was also given the nickname of The Man Of 1,000 Holds. Malenko won his second Cruiserweight title on October 27 1996, beating Rey Mysterio, Jr.. Último Dragón relieved Malenko of the title two months later. Malenko won the Cruiserweight title back from the Último Dragón on January 22, 1997, in Milwaukee. Malenko won the WCW United States Championship on March 16 1997, defeating his former ECW foe Eddie Guerrero.

In 1998, Malenko engaged in a heated feud with Chris Jericho. During this period, Malenko became the first wrestler to win the WCW Cruiserweight title four times. To better Malenko's claims, Jericho boasted that he was "The Man of 1,004 Holds" and the two had a final showdown at 1998's pay-per-view, WCW/nWo Uncensored. After a long match, Jericho came out on top, leaving Malenko in an unusual fit of frustration.

Malenko took a break from WCW TV for a while in 1998, eventually returning at Slamboree '98, disguised as masked wrestler Ciclope, and won a Battle Royal for a #1 contender spot for the Cruiserweight Championship.

He also became a part of the latest incarnation of Ric Flair's Four Horsemen faction. After the Horsemen were finally disbanded in May 1999, Malenko joined up with Shane Douglas's faction "The Revolution." In 2000, Malenko had his last match in WCW, a "catch-as-catch-can" match with Billy Kidman at the WCW Souled Out pay-per-view event. Early on, Malenko instinctively left the ring to regroup and was disqualified under the match stipulations because his feet hit the arena floor.

World Wrestling Federation

After being granted his release from WCW the night after his last WCW match, Malenko signed with the WWF and debuted on WWF RAW on January 31 2000. Malenko first appeared in the crowd with the infamous "Radicalz" - himself, Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn and Eddie Guerrero - who all made exits from WCW at the same time. While not having as much success in the WWF, Malenko was a force in the promotion's light heavyweight division. Along with Benoit, Saturn and Guerrero, he had some measure of success as part of The Radicalz faction. On March 13 2000, Malenko pinned Essa Rios for the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship in East Rutherford, New Jersey. After dropping the Light Heavyweight title to Scotty Too Hotty, Malenko regained it on April 25 2000. Later that year, with Benoit having drifted away from the group, Malenko engaged in a feud with Guerrero and Saturn which stemmed from Guerrero's on-screen relationship with Chyna and a number of losses suffered when working as a tag team with Saturn. The feud led to a Triple Threat match at the 2000 Judgment Day PPV for Guerrero's European title which Guerrero won.

After a brief absence from TV, Malenko returned to reform the Radicalz with Benoit, Guerrero, and Perry Saturn. Around this time, Malenko briefly became known as Double Ho Seven, a parody of the fictional character James Bond. The gimmick was born out of a match with The Godfather, who offered one of his female escorts to Malenko instead of the two wrestling a match. Malenko gladly accepted his opponent's offer. As Double Ho Seven, Malenko competed for the affections of Lita and feuded with her tag team the Hardy Boyz. The feud culminated with Lita pinning Malenko (with some assistance from Matt Hardy) in a match on the February 19, 2001 edition of RAW.

After holding the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship for nearly twelve months, Malenko lost the title to Crash Holly on an edition of Sunday Night HEAT. After both Benoit and Guerrero drifted away from the Radicalz, Malenko teamed with Saturn for a few weeks before quietly disappearing off television as the WCW/ECW Invasion storyline began.

Retirement and WWE appearances

Malenko announced his retirement from the ring at the 2001 Brian Pillman Memorial show. Malenko appeared in the ring along with other legendary wrestlers during a segment of the WWE Homecoming edition of RAW on October 3rd, 2005. His friend Eddie Guerrero died on November 13, 2005 and Malenko made a special appearance on the November 14, 2005 edition of RAW alongside Chris Benoit, speaking about Eddie's death and talking about the memories they had shared together. The following Friday on SmackDown!, Malenko once again appeared after a match between Chris Benoit and Triple H, and the three embraced. After the Royal Rumble 2006, he was seen congratulating Rey Mysterio after Rey won the Royal Rumble. At WWE Vengeance 2007 he appeared in a backstage segment watching Chavo Guerrero. On the Chris Benoit memorial episode of Monday Night RAW he talked about the life of Chris Benoit. He was very sad since two of his close friends, Eddie and Benoit were both dead, but said that they were together again.

Personal life

On March 31, 1996, Dean married Julie Hittinger. They have two children, daughter Larissa (Christmas Day, 1997), and son Preston Dean (April, 2002). Larrisa was named after Dean's father, whose real name was Larry Simon.^[1]

In wrestling

Finishing and signature moves

Cloverleaf
Double underhook powerbomb, often immediately transitioned into the Cloverleaf
Figure four leglock
Brainbuster
Gutbuster, sometimes from the second rope
Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker
Spinning heel kick
Leg lariat

Managers

Debra

Nicknames

The Man of 1,000 Holds
The Shooter
The Iceman
Double Ho Seven

Moves he created

Heat with Marc Mero

Recently at the memorials of Nancy Benoit and Daniel Benoit, Dean Malenko (who helped to train Marc Mero) said training him would go down as the worst thing he ever did. Apparently this is all stemming from Marc Mero's attack on the WWE and the wrestling industry as a whole.[2]