Career
In the early 1980s, Dean Malenko began his career as a referee in the Tampa region and for a while in mid 1980s, also worked for the WWF in the same capacity.
Between 1988 and 1992, he travelled to Japan and wrestled under the name of Dean Sockoff. The two brothers—Joe and Dean—created a tag team (Malenko Brothers) and wrestled, both together and against each other to regale the audience with some wonderful matches. He later changed his ring name from Dean Sockoff to Dean Malenko.
In 1992, he recorded a win in the ‘Suncoast Pro Wrestling’ (SPW) southern championship in Florida and the ‘ICWA Light Heavyweight’ championship in Tampa.
In August 1994, he joined the ECW as a heel (villain) and competed in the ‘NWA World Heavyweight Championship’ along with other wrestlers like 2 Cold Scorpio, Shane Douglas, Osamu Nishimura and Chris Benoit. In the semifinal match, Malenko, then popularly known as ‘the Shooter’ lost to Shane Douglas who finally won the title.
In November 1994, he beat 2 Cold Scorpio to claim his first ever ‘ECW World Television’ title. He later lost the title back to same opponent in March 1995.
In 1995, he teamed up with Chris Benoit and Shane Douglas to form ‘Triple Threat’. Together with Chris Benoit, he wrestled against Sabu and Tazmaniac for the ‘ECW Tag Team Championship’ in February. The duo emerged winner and Malenko became a double champion. In April, they lost the title back to another tag team, ‘The Public Enemy’.
In 1995, he bagged his second ‘ECW Television Championship’ after a battle with Eddie Guerrero, only to lose it back to the latter in a week’s time. The two wrestled in a series of television matches after this and their skills made these matches very popular during that time.
In 1995 itself, he, along with Benoit, Sabu and Guerrero became associated with WCW. In the following years, he wrestled in various professional wrestling television programme and pay-per-view (PPV) event like ‘Nitro’, ‘Halloween Havoc’, ‘Starrcade’, ‘Clash of the Champions XXXIV’, ‘SuperBrawl VII’, ‘Slamboree’, ‘Raw is War’ and ‘Smackdown’.
He continued in his role as a heel and owing to his villainous persona, was nicknamed ‘the Iceman’. He also became popular as the ‘The Man of 1,000 Holds’ while in WCW.
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In May 1996, he marked his first win in ‘WCW Cruiserweight Championship’ by gaining victory over Shinjiro Otani. He successfully retained the title for a couple of months after which he lost it to Rey Misterio Jr.
In October 1996, he recorded his second triumph in the ‘WCW Cruiserweight Championship’ by defeating Rey Misterio Jr at ‘Halloween Havoc’. He lost the title, in December 1996, to Ultimate Dragon at ‘Starrcade’.
His third ‘WCW Cruiserweight Championship’ victory came in January 1997 when he beat Ultimate Dragon in a ‘Clash of the Champions XXXIV’. The title stayed with him for a very short time and within a month, another challenger, Syxx claimed it in ‘SuperBrawl VII’.
In March 1997, Dean Malenko won his first ‘United States Championship’ by beating Eddie Guerrero at ‘Uncensored’. In June the same year, though, he lost the title to Jeff Jarrett in ‘Nitro’.
He lost the Cruiserweight title to Guerrero at ‘Starrcade 1997’ and to Chris Jericho at ‘Uncensored 1998’. Disappointed, he disappeared from WCW TV for a while and after a hiatus of two months, marked a return at ‘Slamboree 1998’. He faced his opponent as a masked wrestler Ciclope and defeated Juventud Guerrera to win his fourth and final ‘WCW Cruiserweight Championship’. However, he was stripped of the title, as he did not wrestle as himself.
In September 1998, along with Chris Benoit, Arn Anderson, Steve McMichael, Dean Malenko joined Ric Flair's professional wrestling stable ‘Four Horsemen’. They battled with another professional wrestling stable ‘Rednecks’ at ‘Uncensored 1999’ to win the ‘WCW World Tag Team Championship’, however just a fortnight later, lost it to Rey Mysterio, Jr. and Billy Kidman.
In July 1999, he and Benoit joined Shane Douglas and Perry Saturn to set up another professional wrestling stable, ‘Revolution’ after the previously created ‘Four Horsemen’ got disbanded. The new group, too, did not last long and fell apart soon.
In January 2000, he signed up with WWF and together with Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, and Perry Saturn, established another wrestling stable called the ‘Radicalz’.
With this group, he achieved success to some extent. He beat Essa Rios to bag his first ‘Light Heavyweight Championship’ at ‘Raw is War’ in March 2000.
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He claimed his second ‘Light Heavyweight Championship’ a month later by defeating Scotty 2 Hotty in ‘Smackdown’. He retained the title for about a year before conceding defeat to Crash Holly in March 2001.
In May 2000, he suffered a defeat at the hands of Guerrero at the WWF ‘European Championship’.
For a short period of time, he vanished from television and reappeared after sometime to improve the ‘Radicalz’. He battled with Lita and her tag team ‘the Hardy Boyz’ and won the initial matches. However, he eventually lost in February 2001 at the ‘Raw Is War’.
In 2001, Dean Malenko retired and began to work as a road agent for WWE. As an agent, for the next 18 years, he booked tag matches and endeavoured to promote shorter talents. His technical skills as a wrestler also enabled him to set up matches that were different from WWE style of wrestling.
In April 2019, he quit WWE and joined ‘All Elite Wrestling’ as a senior producer and coach. He cited health reasons and a desire for an easier schedule and more time for family as the reasons for quitting WWE.
