Dean Malenko has been one of the most decorated wrestlers in professional wrestling history. He has often been addressed as “The Man of Thousand Holds”. And this nickname is just not a normal name, he actually deserves every bit of it.
There are a lot of moves that Dean Malenko has created all by himself, Texas Cloverleaf being one of them, a very famous move and often used by various wrestlers.
Dean Malenko On His Relationship With Vince McMahon
Malenko has been praised by the critics a lot, but he did not achieve much from any professional wrestling company. He has been ranked #1 on PWI 500 in 1997. Dave Meltzer listed him as the most technical wrestler for two consecutive years, 1996 and 1997.
But Dean Malenko has never been treated as a main eventer in his whole career. He is mostly seen as a Cruiserweight or Light Heavyweight and sometimes as a mid-card. Malenko is currently working as a backstage All Elite Wrestling personnel, he is the senior of AEW right now. He joined the AEW in 2019, before that he worked in WWE for over 20 years. He trained a lot of big names.
Recently, he appeared on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast where he talked about his relationship with Vince McMahon and more other stuff. Some highlights are given below;
On his relationship with Vince McMahon:
“It was fine. We had a great relationship in the beginning and the middle. It really went bad at the end there and it was time for me to go. Vince is very stern and it’s his show and we get that. He didn’t expect anything less than perfection. He trusted me a lot to go out there to help the talent try to get the best match and camera angles and teach guys the business a little. There, you’re a producer/agent.”
He says that the role of agents turns to the producers and it causes a lot of stress in WWE:
“I remember at the Hammerstein Ballroom when Vince said, ‘there are no more agents. I don’t know what agents do. You’re now a producer and help produce matches. From this day forward, you’re a producer.’ I couldn’t help but raise my hand and go, ‘Do producers make more money than agents?’ He goes, ‘No, pretty much the same.’ You want to do the best you can and it’s his show.
“If he wants to scream and yell at you, it’s his business. It’s not the easiest environment to work in. A lot of guys could have been good producers and they’ve looked at me and gone, ‘There’s no way in hell I would take that job. I couldn’t do what you do.’ I used to hear that a lot.
“It’s a very taxing and stressful job because there’s expectations to succeed every night. One time there was a match and Vince goes, ‘Who is this? You wanna talk about the match?’ ‘Well, if you liked the match it was Dean’s, if you didn’t like the match it’s Steve Keirn’s’ Steve wasn’t working there. You have to be very selective and careful when you w”anted to play around with Vince. If he didn’t want to, you knew real quick. Back in the day, he liked to have fun with the boys, but there’s a time where you don’t do that.”
There is a saying in wrestling that if anyone gets touched by Dean Malenko will become a wrestler. We are pretty sure that he will produce great talents in AEW too like he always did in WWE.