WWE: 15 Greatest Technical Wrestlers – Number 10

Sometimes, being one of the best technical wrestlers in the world doesn’t guarantee you success. Often times, the professional wrestling industry can be ruthless and unforgiving, and unless you appeal to the masses, and be exactly what the promoter looks for, no matter how good you are in the ring, you can never become successful. If you’re not in the mold of what the booker expects, or if you don’t have the ‘look’ a company searches for, you often find yourself in the independent circuit, and although you gain fame and acknowledgement from the wrestling fans, it won’t get you anywhere. Today, we look at a superstar who was one of the most gifted wrestlers, but didn’t find much success in the global promotions because of his looks, and ended up being ‘just another guy’. In our series of the greatest technical wrestlers in the WWE, we get to number 10, someone who is known as ‘The man of 1, 000 holds’ and ‘The Shooter’, Dean Malenko.

Malenko was born into a wrestling family, and being a second generation wrestler, he mastered the craft and art of professional wrestling. Malenko’s first big break came in ’94, when he joined the Eastern Championship Wrestling, which was later renamed as Extreme Championship Wrestling, where he won the ECW TV title on a couple of occasions, and it was here that Malenko had one of his greatest feuds against Eddie Guerrero for the TV title. These two put on series of matches which received rave reviews from the critics and fans alike. Due to their feud, both were offered contracts by WCW which was in the process of acquiring the best wrestlers in the world. In WCW, Malenko was immediately pushed as the WCW Cruiserweight champion, having matches against the likes of Rey Misterio Jr., Ultimo Dragon and Eddie Guerrero.

Malenko was then pushed as the WCW United States Heavyweight champion, before he was placed back in the Cruiserweight division. It was then that Malenko had one of the best feuds in WCW history, when he got into an angle with Chris Jericho. Jericho began referring to himself as ‘The man of 1, 004 holds’, mocking Malenko. Malenko then defeated Chris Jericho to win the WCW Cruiserweight title, and was later placed as a member of the Four Horsemen. For the rest of his stint in WCW, Malenko was involved in low profile feuds, before he jumped ships to the WWF, along with Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn, debuting in the WWF as a member of ‘The Radicalz’.

In the early part of his career in the WWF, Malenko won the WWF Light Heavyweight title on a couple of occasions, but wasn’t as successful as he was in WCW. He would later feud with his former partner, Eddie Guerrero, but ended up reforming The Radicalz once again. His later career saw him feuding with the likes of Lita to win her affection, and Jacqueline and Ivory. Malenko would later retire from professional wrestling, and signed up with WWE to become a road agent and to help the younger talent. Although Malenko didn’t achieve much success in WWF/E, he was named the ‘Best Technical Wrestler of the Year’ in ’96 and ’97 by Wrestling Observer, and was ranked at number 1 by PWI in ’97. Dean Malenko is considered to be one of the unfortunate few who couldn’t make it big in the business because of his looks and build, and is heralded as one of the greatest pure technical wrestlers in the history of the business. His credentials and technical expertise lands him at number 10 in our list of greatest technical wrestlers in the history of WWE.