Context

Our fantasy wrestling profiles capitalize on the similarities between pro wrestling, comic books and role-playing games. They imagine a world where the wrestlers are their characters, have powers matching their persona and signature moves, and are important players in crime or crime-fighting.

Some profiles postulate a “pro wrestling universe” (like the Marvel or DC Universe), while some keep things generic enough to be plugged into existing fictional universes.

For more about tabletop role-playing games, see our relevant FAQ.


Background

  • Real Name: Dean Malenko.
  • Marital Status: Single.
  • Known Relatives: Prof. Boris Malenko (father – deceased), Joe Malenko (brother).
  • Group Affiliation: The Four Horsemen, formerly a member of Triple Threat.
  • Base Of Operations: Mobile.
  • Height: 5’9” Weight: 205lbs.
  • Eyes: Brown Hair: Black


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Powers and Abilities

Dean Malenko is known as “The Man of a Thousand Holds”. He is a superb martial artist.

One would be hard pressed to find a submission/limb grappling move which he does not know how to both perform and counter. He rarely uses strikes aside from Flailing attacks and dropkicks.

Malenko can reduce the temperature of his body to sub-zero. Contact with his skin then causes damage to living tissue. He frequently makes use of this by putting an opponent in a limb-crippling submission hold while engaging his Frostbite Power. Soon, most opponents will no longer capable of fighting back.


History

Dean Malenko is the son of a martial arts teacher and ex-soldier, Professor Boris Malenko. The Professor moved his family to Florida trained his sons Dean and Joe in numerous grappling-oriented fighting styles. By his 20s, Dean was better than his father had ever been.

While Joe entered athletic competition, Dean went to work as a bodyguard. His mutant ability to reduce his body temperature to super-freezing temperatures developed shortly after he moved from Florida to Japan to study fighting styles there.

Malenko split his time between Tōkyō and St. Petersburg, Florida. He alternated between bodyguarding for Japanese celebrities (and Yakuza bosses), learning new techniques, and teaching at his father’s school in the U.S.


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1990s

In the early 90s, he became friends with Chris Benoit and Eddy “Black Tiger II” Guerrero. They worked for anyone willing to hire them for a brief time. But family obligations took Guerrero back to North America.

Benoit and Malenko moved to the U.S., where they teamed with “The Franchise” Shane Douglas and formed “Triple Threat”. When that group disbanded, Benoit joined the Horsemen while Malenko retired to teach at his father’s academy.

The opening in the Horsemen left by Curt Hennig’s betrayal coincided with the death of Malenko’s father. Malenko jumped at the chance to join the Horsemen offered by Benoit, Anderson, and Flair. He turned the school over to his brother, Joe, and met up with the Horsemen immediately.

See the Four Horsemen History for additional information.


Description

Malenko is short, with clean cut black hair. He dresses in trunks and boots when fighting to allow him to make maximum skin contact when using his Frostbite power.


Personality

Malenko received his “Iceman” nickname before he developed his mutant ability. He shows no emotion when in combat.

He is friendly and has an intelligent and witty sense of humor when not in a fight.


DC Universe History

See suggestions in the Four Horsemen History.



Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG

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“The Iceman” Dean Malenko

Dex: 07 Str: 03 Bod: 05 Motivation: Mercenary
Int: 05 Wil: 07 Min: 06 Occupation: Mercenary
Inf: 05 Aur: 03 Spi: 05 Wealth: 08
Init: 21 HP: 55

Powers:
Frostbite: 06

Skills:
Martial Artist: 10, Thief: 06

Advantages:
Intensive Training, Lightning Reflexes.

Connections:
Chris Benoit (High), Four Horsemen (High).


Injury to a limb

On a trickshot (+2 CS to OV) to a specific limb, if the attacker does damage equal to ½ of the target’s body to that limb, the limb is disabled.

  1. If the damage is Killing Combat, the effect is a broken or severed limb, and may be permanent (possibly resulting in a permanent reduction in the target’s body). If the GM and/or player determine that the injury has long lasting impact, give the character a Physical Restriction drawback reflecting the nature of the problem (Minor: “My knee is a little tender” to Catastrophic: “My legs are missing”). This can provide a nice way to highlight a character’s Regeneration power.
  2. If the damage is bashing, the limb is disabled temporarily, but the damage is recovered normally. This covers the “I don’t care if you have a broken bone – you won’t die from it” kind of situation. It also lets the heroes who consciously take a “disable, rather than kill” approach. This part of the rule may be genre specific and can be eliminated if the GM feels that “any attacks to cripple automatically constitute killing combat.”
  3. If the target absorbs the damage using Last Ditch Defense, the limb is still “stunned” for the next phase (per stunning rules), allowing the target to act normally with the exception of actions affected by mobility of that limb. This addresses “smacked funny bone” situations.

For 1 and 2, the damage is cumulative towards achieving the “disabled” effect, provided that all attacks are made as trick shots against the same limb. #3 is NOT cumulative – all LDD-negated damage must be caused in a single round for the limb to be “stunned.”


Additional House Rules on Submission Holds

  • A) Defensive Reversal to Submission Hold: Similar to Defensive Throws. The martial artist using this technique must first win initiative, then hold his/her attack until his/her opponent attempts to strike. The opponent’s attack is rolled first, but before damage is applied to the martial artists’ Current Body Condition, the martial artist rolls using Dex/Str as AV/EV against and OV/RV equal to the attackers RAPs of damage +1 AP for each column shift.
    Positive RAPs indicate that either a submission hold has been applied as in the Sidekick Sourcebook description of the technique OR the martial artists’ opponent has taken damage to the limb (if the martial artist called the trickshot as above).
  • B) The trickshot to cripple an opponent’s limb is only at +1 CS to the OV if the opponent is already in a submission hold, instead of the standard +2 CS penalty. To attack the limb and do damage DURING the application of the submission hold, the standard +2 CS to OV applies. Simply resolve the application of the submission hold normally with the appropriate CS penalties, then apply RAPs as damage to the target’s limb.

By Andrew Lee.