Dean Malenko

Dean Malenko, born Dean Shelly Simon on 4 August 1960, is an American retired professional wrestler. He was born into a wrestling family, the son of Boris Malenko, started out as a referee around Tampa, Florida, and wrestled across Mexico, Japan and the United States, forming a tag team with his brother Joe Malenko from 1988 to 1992 and working for All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He is best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling and for his work as a wrestler and road agent in the World Wrestling Federation, now WWE, and in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Although he never became a world champion, he won 11 titles in total across ECW, WCW and the WWF. Pro Wrestling Illustrated named him the number one wrestler in the world in 1997, and he was inducted into the Hardcore Hall of Fame in 2015. After retiring from the ring he worked as a road agent for WWE from 2001 until 2019 and is now a senior producer with All Elite Wrestling.