Exactly How Good Was Dean Malenko?

Entering the wild west of Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1994, Malenko shored up the midcard as a Television Champion that earned respect through gritty and unflappable technical offence. Understanding that the misconception about ECW fans only having bloodlust was indeed just that, 'The Shooter' was in the company's in-ring elite from the second he debuted.

As something of a silent assassin in the heel Triple Threat group alongside Shane Douglas and Chris Benoit, Malenko's no-f*cks-given approach was a remarkably neat fit in an ECW as obsessed with credibility as it ever was with weapons-based violence. Not everybody needed to know the difference between a wrist lock and a wristwatch, but if you were one of the ones that did, you'd best use that knowledge to try and rip your opponent's arm off and choke them with it. Malenko duly obliged, with booker Paul Heyman dutifully - as always - obscuring a tempered public personality that may have scanned as drab or dry in the wrong hands.

Malenko was so good that his awesome days in ECW felt numbered from the day he arrived. A wrestling war was heating up in 1995, and he joined fellow Extreme technicians Benoit and Eddie Guerrero in being offered WCW deals none of the men could afford to refuse. The "small" guys were heading to the big leagues.

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