Dean Malenko: The Iceman. The Shooter. The Man of 1,000 Holds. Pro Wrestling Illustrated's #1 of PWI 500 in 1997. A former WWE Light Heavyweight Champion, WCW United States Heavyweight Champion, WCW Cruiserweight Champion, WCW World Tag Team Champion, ECW World Tag Team Champion, and ECW World Television Champion. Arguably the single most underrated professional wrestler of all time. Quite possibly the greatest wrestler to never hold a major World Heavyweight Championship.

In the 1990s, Dean Malenko was quite possibly the best pure technical wrestler in the world. He was nicknamed "The Man of 1,000 Holds" for a reason: the number of different moves or variations of a move that Malenko had in his head was just plain ridiculous. Watching a Dean Malenko match was like playing a pro wrestling video game in the Create-A-Wrestler section where the player can view all of the different wrestling moves in the video game. Malenko literally had an infinite number of moves in his arsenal that he would use to systematically wear down his opponents.

Dean Malenko was also one of the most well-traveled wrestlers in the world during his time, as he had gained experience all across the globe, including Japan, Europe, Mexico, Canada, and all over the United States. Malenko, along with Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, and Rey Mysterio, were part of a tight unit of brothers that had traveled all over the world to master their craft. They competed in various promotions and picked up all the different international wrestling styles. They could do the Mexican Lucha Libre, the European chain grappling, the Japanese Puroresu, any-and-all styles of pro wrestling.

Perhaps the single most well-rounded out of all of them was Dean Malenko. Also nicknamed "The Shooter" for his legitimate shoot-style fighting skills, as well as "The Iceman" for his lack of emotion or facial expressions, Malenko developed a wrestling style which still has an effect on the business today, as Malenko was the innovator of several well-known wrestling holds and is still used as a trainer and road agent for World Wrestling Entertainment today. Dean Malenko had a very realistic and scientific wrestling style, not unlike modern-day mixed martial arts and Jiu-Jitsu submission grappling. In fact, UFC/MMA legend Ken Shamrock credits Dean Malenko for first introducing Shamrock to mixed martial arts fighting over in Japan back in the late 80s/early 90s. This was long before ultimate cagefighting ever became popular here in the United States and around the world.

Dean Malenko's matches were, quite simply, a work of art every time he stepped into the ring. And not only was Malenko a great technical wrestler, but many people who had the privilege of working with him often credited him for being a good teacher. Working with Dean Malenko often made his opponents better technical wrestlers. Dean Malenko's execution of moves was nothing short of brilliant.

The highlight of Dean Malenko's career was unquestionably his time in WCW: World Championship Wrestling. After spending years traveling around the world, WCW was the platform where Malenko could finally display his unique talents to a worldwide audience. He was one of the greatest and most dominant WCW Cruiserweight Champions of all time, and early 1997 he captured the prestigious WCW United States Heavyweight Championship, which was the second most coveted prize in the organization behind the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

In 1998, Dean Malenko had the honor of joining the most legendary wrestling stable of all time, Ric Flair's Four Horsemen group, which at that time consisted of Ric Flair, Chris Benoit, Steve "Mongo" McMichael, and "The Enforcer" Arn Anderson as the group's manager. Malenko and Benoit also captured the WCW World Tag Team Championship in 1999, just about a year before leaving WCW for WWE, known then as the WWF: World Wrestling Federation.

In early 2000, Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and Perry Saturn all left WCW at the same time and made their debuts in the WWF as The Radicals. The immediately made a huge impact in the company and soon became a part of Triple H's D-Generation X heel (villainous) stable.

The Radicals eventually split up and entered separate WWF Championship divisions. Chris Benoit became a main eventer and challenged the likes of Triple H, The Rock, and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin for the World Wrestling Federation Championship. Eddie Guerrero gained success as the WWF Intercontinental and European Champion. Perry Saturn enjoyed a reign with the European Championship as well. And Dean Malenko became one of the longest-reigning WWF Light Heavyweight Champions of all time.

However, it was in mid-2000 that WWF officials decided that Dean Malenko needed a new gimmick. Instead of being The Iceman, The Shooter, and The Man of 1,000 Holds, WWF officials gave Malenko a gimmick which was inspired by the 007 Agent James Bond character. Malenko would come out to the ring with women on his arms, and even his TitanTron entrance music video was inspired by the creative opening sequences of the 007 James Bond movies.

Malenko's final storyline in wrestling involved The Hardy Boyz: Matt & Jeff, and their valet Lita. Malenko became infatuated with Lita and became something of a stalker. He also briefly reunited with Perry Saturn as a tag team, but Malenko soon retired from wrestling in mid-2001.

Since his retirement in 2001, Malenko has only made a few rare appearances on WWE programming, and many fans of today are unaware of just how talented of a wrestler Dean Malenko was in the 1990s and early 2000s. There have been rumors for years that WWE has considered inducting him into their Hall of Fame, though this has not happened yet. Malenko considered coming out of retirement for one night at the 2006 WWE/ECW One Night Standpay-per-view to wrestle a match against Chris Benoit in memory of their friend Eddie Guerrero who had passed away about half a year earlier in November of 2005, but the Malenko-Benoit match ended up never happening.

Many people would argue that the greatest technical wrestlers of all time include Frank Gotch, George Hackenschmidt, Karl Gotch, Lou Thesz, Gene LeBell, Stu Hart, Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, The Dynamite Kid, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, William Regal, Daniel Bryan, C.M. Punk, Douglas Williams, Nigel McGuinness, Samoa Joe, Davey Richards, and many other great mat technicians. But people tend to forget about "The Man of 1,000 Holds" Dean Malenko. Few people seem to remember the man who was quite possibly the greatest technical wrestler of the 1990s, "The Iceman" Dean Malenko.

Many of the names listed have enjoyed success as World Champions in at least one promotion, whether it was WWE, WCW, ECW, TNA, ROH, or some other prominent promotion. But Dean Malenko, for whatever reason, was never given the opportunity to be a main eventer/World Champion in ECW, WCW, or WWE. Perhaps the most likely candidate to give Malenko a World Championship would have been ECW, as ECW promoter Paul Heyman usually tried to reward gifted wrestlers who were loyal to his promotion. If Dean Malenko would have stayed in ECW longer before moving on to WCW, then perhaps Malenko would have earned a place in history as a former ECW World Heavyweight Champion. The world will never know.

For any of you out there reading this who are unfamiliar with Dean Malenko, watch videos of his matches on YouTube, Dailymotion, other video sites, or some of WWE's DVD releases that feature Malenko. You'll see that Malenko's technical wrestling ability was absolutely flawless. Dean Malenko goes down in history as one of the greatest, most underrated, and most forgotten wrestlers of all time. The name Dean Malenko is one that should be remembered.

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