JGlass and Naitch - y'all on crack. Straight up CRACK. And it pains me, as your ICE-mate. And JGlass, after I done had you all up in my home...


You're like the Beetle Juice of the IWC. Say Yokozuna three times in a post and IC25 comes a knocking.

But I have good news... after considerable thought (inspired but not influenced by IC) I have changed my mind. Yoko should be in the Hall first, but that doesn't mean I think he's a better wrestler, or even like him.

If Dean's size prevented him from being a main eventer, explain Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, and Shawn Michaels to me.


Dean's lack of size didn't prevent him from being a main eventer, it was his lack of charisma. On the other hand, Yokozuna's size was one of, if not the chief reason he was a main eventer. The other major reason was the fact he was foreign.

Dean's wooden demeanor and total lack of any form of charisma or character is what prevented him from the main event. He was a great worker - that's it. His best work was jerking the curtain with heels who carried their feuds with him. Chris Jericho? Carried the feud with Dean.


I'm not going to debate that his partners carried many a feud, but Dean helped carry many a match, and no feud is complete without a classic match to go with it. Dean could make any wrestler look stellar in the ring, and he did so on many occasion. I won't say Jericho isn't a very good wrestler, but Dean Malenko made him look like one of the best ever. Same with Eddie.

You're nuts. He was excellent in the ring, especially for (not despite) his size. He sold the moves of smaller men at appropriate times, and was largely responsible for one of the career highlights of Hacksaw Jim Duggan simply by falling to the ground! He made me fear for America in a way few others have, and harkened back to the likes of Nikoli Volkoff and Iron Sheik with how he attacked us and our heroes with such fervor.


The excellent in the ring part is bologna. His entire game was running into people/being run into by people, lifting them up and then putting them down, and the occasional suplex so the announcers can say how agile he is in addition to being fucking fat as hell. Especially excellent for his size? Bam Bam Bigelow, Vader, Big Show, even Taker are all excellent for their size. Yoko was average for his size. Yes, he sold at the appropriate times, yes he helped make careers, but he was fairly dull in the ring. You can't say the same about Malenko.

He had some impressive matches, sure, but the vast majority of his matches were him tanking over his opponents

More smarky bull shit. You want a superheavyweight to chain wrestle, is that what you want?


Come now Christopher, you've watched wrestling with me twice now and you know I don't have those ridiculous expectations. I just don't see what makes him any more impressive than some of his fellow big men.

And don't the best pro wrestling matches ever rely on emotion!? The fucker didn't even really speak English and he got more emotion out of ONE crowd than Malenko got out of EVERY CROWD HE WORKED IN FRONT OF. And he wasn't rumored to be agile - the dude could move! I watched it. I was like 11-15 when he was in his heyday (which makes you 4 and means D-Man was buying me beer at the time) and he was scary because he was agile.


I agree on the emotion part, but he wasn't agile. I have seen his matches, and he does not strike me as an agile competitor. You can blame his size if you want, but you already said that he was exceptional for, not in spite, of his size.

You're right. Yoko was a top-level draw whereas Malenko was a footnote curtain jerker. Yoko was a frightening man who created amazing feuds with Lex Luger, Jim Duggan, Tatanka, the Steiner Brothers, and even Virgil. Malenko was a peice of wood with a wrestling trophy who depended on people with a pulse to get his feuds over. Yoko sold out the deck of the Intrepid with fans who wanted to just see him BODYSLAMMED, let alone actually lose a match. Malenko couldn't get a personality when he was riding the coattails of the FOUR HORSEMEN.


This kind of sums up why I ultimately change my theoretical vote from Malenko to Yokozuna. Yoko was blessed with a few things Malenko wasn't, namely size and appearance. You can say that it isn't Malenko's fault he wasn't born with the genetics to make him a 6'3" bruiser with more muscles than a Greek God, but it nonetheless hurt his ability to ever get anywhere serious. Fact of the matter is, for most guys anyway, you have to have a great look to get over. Terry Bollea could have had all the charisma in the world and the wrestling ability of Shawn Michaels, but he would never have been Hulk Hogan if he didn't have muscles growing out of his muscles and the ability to rip off his shirt as if it was made of tissues.

The other part of the equation is that Yokozuna just did more than Malenko. I still maintain that it was based on character, size, and look, but like I said, it doesn't matter what got him to the top, what matters is that when he was at the top, he made the most of it. People hated Yokozuna, and he's probably one of the top 10 heels to ever make their way through professional wrestling. Hell, I can't really think of too many people that were universally hated like he was apart from maybe Randy Savage, Ted DiBiase, Bobby Heenan, and Vince McMahon. At times I'm sure The Rock, Stone Cold, Shawn Michaels, or Bret Hart attracted serious heat, but never as much as the career heels I mentioned.

Yokozuna sold PPVs. He sold out arenas. He was a part of American history when Lex Luger body slammed him on a war ship. Malenko can claim none of that. All he can claim was a bunch of great matches that will be long forgotten because of how little they meant to the shows they were in. History will smile on the evil Japanese foreigner that made little IC25 wet the bed in fear that Yokozuna's fat ass might crush his face. History will forget Dean Malenko, whose biggest claim to fame will most likely be the inspiration of Chris Jericho's legendary Man of 1004 Holds promo.

In conclusion, while I'd prefer to watch Dean Malenko vs. Eddie Guerrero over Yokozuna vs. It doesn't really matter 9 times out of 10, there's no denying that Yokozuna had the greater impact on professional wrestling. Additionally, I hope you let me back in your home again one day, especially if your wife makes more dessert.