Where Are They Now? Dean Malenko

“I had about a 30-minute window to get to the hospital or I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you.”

Dean Malenko was remembering the day in late November of last year when a heart attack nearly killed him. It happened suddenly early one morning when health problems were the furthest thing from his mind. He was only 50, active, had worked out for years. Things like that didn’t happen to guys like him.

But there he was, sweating profusely and losing consciousness as his friends rushed him to the hospital. Here, he would discover he had 100 percent blockage in his main artery — the kind of episode most men don’t come back from.

“They call it the ‘widow maker,’” Malenko said. “It’s actually what John Ritter died of.”

It nearly took Malenko's life, too. In fact, he went under for nearly three minutes before resuscitation and defibrillators pulled him back. For just a moment, he was dead. It’s a morbid thought, but Malenko looked at it like this: “I now get a second opportunity at life.”

If Dean’s second life started on that day then his first life began in Tampa, Florida, in 1960. The son of Boris Malenko, one of Florida’s most hated grapplers, he was guaranteed an out-of-the-ordinary childhood from the very beginning.

“It was hard to get friends to come over the house,” Malenko said with a laugh. “It was like, ‘Is your dad going to kill me?’”

As a boy, Malenko saw America from the backseat of his father’s station wagon as the family traveled around the country in search of Boris’ next payday. These formative years were spent in beer-soaked rafters and dingy locker rooms where the oddball characters his father battled in the ring confused and frightened him.

"Haystacks Calhoun I still remember to this day, because when I first met him I cried," Malenko said of the 650-pound wrestling icon. "I was so upset, because he was so big — bigger than life as a kid."

It was an uncommon lifestyle that Malenko had no plans of pursuing, but fate took its course. An exceptional amateur wrestler in high school, he had aspirations of succeeding in the sport, but an auto accident in his teenage years brought a sudden end to those dreams. Unsure of what to do with himself, Malenko began training at his father's Tampa wrestling school under renowned grappler Karl Gotch.

Gotch, a hard-nosed Hungarian Jew who survived the Holocaust, was known as the "God of Wrestling" in Japan for his unmatched influence on the craft. A legit tough guy, he had been all but blacklisted by American promoters after breaking former WWE Champion “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers’ hand in a scuffle. Still, he was a devastating technician and a consummate trainer and his guidance would be an invaluable asset in Malenko’s evolution into one of the masters of the mat. (PHOTOS)

But Malenko did not use his family name to immediately walk into a major North American promotion. Instead, he spent his early 20s in the rough rings of Japan where he competed in long, hard-hitting matches with legends like Dynamite Kid and Tiger Mask. It was a grueling way of life, but Malenko loved every minute of it.

“It was such a great experience for me, because I got to see a variety of different styles,” he said. “It gave me a real education of what the business is about.”

Working both as a single and a tag team with his brother, Joe, Malenko began to adapt and expand his style as he locked up with competitors from all over the globe. He learned the catch-as-catch-can technique from England's Marty Jones, brawling from Fit Finlay, lucha libre from an endless array of Mexican masters. These influences would all gel together to give Malenko a completely unique and effective ring style that would wow fans when he finally received his first major North American exposure.

That opportunity would present itself in 1994 when he debuted in ECW. Then known as Eastern Championship Wrestling, the promotion was gaining steam thanks to the dangerous hardcore matches that stars like Sabu and The Sandman had popularized. It should not have been Malenko’s scene, but “The Shooter’s” mat game was quickly embraced by the usually hostile Philly crowds.

"My work stood out, because it was so opposite from what was going down there at the time,” Malenko recalled. “I was un-extreme.”

Over the next year, Malenko captured both the ECW Tag Team Championship and ECW Television Championship, but the crowning achievement of his career would occur on August 26, 1995 when he battled Eddie Guerrero in a classic 2-out-of-3 Falls Match. By all accounts, the dramatic contest is one of the greatest matches in the promotion’s history and the bout that put both Malenko and Guerrero on the map. For Dean, it was not only a career highlight, but a cherished memory with a fallen friend.

"Every year on the anniversary of Eddie's death, I wake up and watch the match," he said.

It would be their last match in ECW, but not their last match together. Following their legendary encounter, Malenko and Guerrero both transitioned to World Championship Wrestling. The doomed promotion has long been the target of negative press, but WCW did showcase some of the most brilliant competitors of all time during a boom period in the mid-90s.

"[WCW] became a nightmare, but for the first two or three years it was good,” Malenko revealed. “That’s when they took a bunch of guys like Psicosis, Juventud [Guerrera] and Billy Kidman and put them in the cruiserweight division and it was fast-paced action. For the American audiences, it was like, ‘Wow.’”

Then known as "The Man of 1,000 Holds" for his technical prowess, Malenko continued to forge a reputation as the best grappler around thanks to amazing matches against the likes of Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio. In fact, the Florida native's ring skills were so respected at the time that he was voted as the No. 1 wrestler in the world by Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine in 1997. It was the first time the honor had been bestowed upon a technician and, in many ways, signaled the peak of The Iceman’s career.

There would be other highlights, of course, including a run as a member of a reenergized Four Horsemen, but things in WCW started to sour by '98.

“Once guys like Scott Hall and Kevin Nash ran roughshod over the business, it was not fun anymore,” Malenko revealed. “I saw myself and my comrades around me that loved this business more than anything become very disenchanted. It made it a struggle to go to work.”

Dean existed in this poisonous climate for the better part of a year. He won titles and had solid matches with talented opponents, but he was unhappy. His friends were unhappy, too, and together they were about to stage a walkout that would shake up sports-entertainment.

On Jan. 16, 2000, Dean Malenko was finally ready to quit World Championship Wrestling and he was not alone. According to Malenko, there were at least 20 competitors ready to join him in the mass exit. But the closer the group got to the management offices, the smaller the crowd became.

“Every time I looked over my shoulder, somebody darted into another room," Malenko laughed. "By the time I got to the door, there were about seven of us, but I didn’t care. It wasn’t about them — it was about me.”

The group, which included Eddie Guerrero and Perry Saturn, was tired of WCW’s corrupt politics and rampant mismanagement and together they demanded their releases from Senior Vice President Bill Busch. The executive balked at first, but eventually gave in. It was a huge move. Suddenly, a handful of WCW's brightest stars were free agents and it wasn't long before WWE signed them to contracts. Within two weeks, Malenko, Saturn and Guerrero debuted on Raw.

For Malenko, it was a homecoming of sorts. In the mid-80s, he had actually worked as an official on various WWE shows, including a Saturday Night’s Main Event where he kept order in a bout between “Macho Man” Randy Savage and George “The Animal” Steele. But what was more important to Malenko was the ability to work in a positive environment.

“I was making a lot more in WCW only because Eric [Bischoff] was nice enough to spend [Ted] Turner’s money,” Dean admitted. “But my biggest goal was to make sure I finished out my career with a company that took the business seriously.”

The Iceman competed in WWE for the better part of two years before retiring and had some memorable moments during this relatively brief run. He held the Light Heavyweight Championship for nearly a year, competed at WrestleMania 2000 and even had a series of unique intergender matches with Divas like Lita and Chyna.

“It was fun with the girls,” Malenko said. “It wasn’t fun trying to explain to my wife at home, but I had a good time with it.”

By no means a main-eventer during his time in WWE, Malenko was always a gifted performer who could steal a show against an opponent like Scotty 2 Hotty or Essa Rios. Still, he knew when it was time to walk away from the ring and in the summer of 2001 he did just that. Dean has not competed since.

“I never wanted to be one of those guys that had to go back to hear the roar of the crowd or collect another paycheck,” Malenko said. “In my mind, I did everything I wanted to accomplish.”

Truth be told, The Iceman did not get very far when he decided to walk away from the ring. Immediately upon his retirement, the veteran was hired by WWE as a producer. In this role, he's looked upon to draw from his life in sports-entertainment in order to educate and instruct the young Superstar of today. (PHOTOS)

“That was a little bit of an odd transition, because after 20 years of going to the arena with my tights and boots now I’m going with a pen and a notepad,” he admitted. “But I’m really happy I did it.”

Working alongside fellow greats like Arn Anderson and Mike Rotundo, Malenko keeps a close eye on blossoming Superstars like Evan Bourne and Yoshi Tatsu and gives them advice on how to improve. If there's a video in WWE's library that will help them, he'll recommend it. If there's a maneuver that would work well in their arsenal, he'll show them how to hook it on.

“There are a lot of young, talented guys with good heads on their shoulders,” Malenko told WWE.com. “It’s part of my responsibility to take these guys and guide them in the right direction.”

It's a responsibility the former United States Champion takes very seriously. For Malenko, it's not just a job. He sees it as his duty to carry on the legacy of the great sports-entertainers he's known in his life, from his father to his brother to his friends like Eddie Guerrero.

“I feel responsible to give back,” Dean said. “I need to know that 10 years from now that this business is still intact and that I didn’t work for 20 odd years for nothing.”

Outside of his current role with WWE, Malenko spend his free time with his wife of 15 years and their three children. Since his heart attack last November, his family is even more important to him than ever.

“I thank God that I was able to go home and see my kids,” he said.

Although his health problems were serious, Dean did not take much time off before returning to work and has been doing well ever since. He’s started on a healthier diet and checks in regularly with his doctor, but the biggest change to his lifestyle has simply been the way he approaches the day.

"I kind of look at things a little differently," he said. "I really appreciate life."