Dean Simon was born in
Tampa, Florida on August 4th, 1960. His father,
Boris Malenko (real name Larry Simon), was a professional wrestler in the 50s and 60s and trained Dean for wrestling from a young age. Dean made his wrestling debut in 1970 at the age of 19 in
Japan. He spent several years on both the Japanese and the
Mexican wrestling circuits.
In 1993, he was signed by Ted Turner's
World Championship Wrestling but continued wrestling in Japan. He developed a close relationship with fellow wrestler
Chris Benoit who convinced him to return to the
United States in early 1995.
Benoit and Malenko made quite a great tag-team when they debuted in the WCW. Wrestling legend
Rick Flair was impressed by the two young men and asked both to be a part of a long-running gimmick group called
The Four Horsemen. Malenko became part of the group along with Benoit, however both decided to stop tag-teaming. In this time, Malenko went on to win WCW's cruiser weight championship and had an on going feuds with
Ray Mysterio, Jr.,
Chris Jericho, and
Eddie Gurrero.
After WCW sold out to the
WWE, Dean Malenko took some time off to recover and wrestle in Japan again before returning to televised wrestling. He debuted in the
WWE in the summer of 2001 but was not happy with his storyline. He decided to step back from major matches and has not been in a title match for sometime.
Malenko stands 5'10'' and weighs 210 lbs. He has been nicknamed the Man of 1001 Holds because of his extensive knowledge of mat maneuvers. Many of his fellow wrestlers consider him to be the most masterful man with locks and holds. His wrestling style is odd for his weight class since many of his opponents (especially in Mexico and Japan) are high-flying, high-energy
wrestlers.
Dean continues to wrestle in the WWE but has also opened up a training school for new wrestlers. He has trained several current and up-and-coming WWE wrestlers, including
Molly Holly, Chad Collyer, Tony Mamaluke, and Nick Dinsmore.
Sources:
Wrestlinginformer.net
My Uncle Paul