Dean Malenko Knew In His Heart That Leaving WWE Was The Right Move
Dean Malenko just knew.
The wrestling world was stunned on April 26, 2019 when it was reported that Dean Malenko was leaving WWE after 18 years as a road agent/producer. Shortly after Malenko’s departure, he was scooped up by All Elite Wrestling to occupy a similar role.
At Starrcast III, Malenko sat down with Tony Schiavone at his “Malenko” stage show and discussed why he thought it was time to move on.
“There’s a little part in your head that says, ‘that’s enough. You’ve done your time.’ Not that AEW was the reason I left, there were just other things I wanted to do,” said Malenko. “One was to take care of my health. One was to spend time with my kids. AEW just happened to pop up at the same time with a different schedule and thought process. It was hard for me to turn it down. It was the same opportunity to let me keep doing what I was doing, just in a different environment. The right moves come from [the heart]. Is Dean Malenko doing the right thing for him? I think I am.”
Malenko went on to reveal that as an agent in AEW, he won’t be the type to hold anyone’s hand. Instead, he will let wrestlers succeed or fail and then tell them why they got the reaction they did.
You can find a full recap of Malenko’s entire stage show by clicking here.
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