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Remembering the Past: Boris ‘The Great’ Malenko was master heel

Posted: May 16th 2021 By: Mike Mooneyham

EDITOR’S NOTE: With pro wrestling/sports entertainment anxiously awaiting a green light to reconnect with live audiences at venues across the country, it’s an ideal time to take a look back at some of the greats of yesteryear who helped paved the way for those who followed.

His name was Larry Simon. But to thousands of wrestling fans across the country, “The Great” Malenko was one of the most notorious “bad guys” to ever step inside the squared circle.

Known as the “King of the Russian chain match,” Boris Malenko personified the Cold War image of the Soviet menace during the 1960s and drew sellout crowds in the Carolinas and Florida as fans packed arenas to see their local favorites attempt to stop him. His bouts with the late Eddie Graham throughout the Sunshine State during the ’60s are legendary, and many of the angles involving Malenko are among the most remembered in wrestling history.

Malenko, who died on Sept. 1, 1994, after a battle with leukemia, was a multi-dimensional star and trainer of such performers as Bill Eadie (The Masked Superstar), Bob Orton Jr., Sean Waltman (1-2-3 Kid), Mark Mero (Johnny B. Badd), Fred Ottman (Typhoon) and Buddy Landel. Chemotherapy had weakened Malenko’s immune system, and he died of a viral infection four months after he was diagnosed with leukemia. He had turned 61 two months before his death.

‘Father figure’

During his ring career, Malenko, who was billed as being from Moscow, represented the “red threat” from the north. Outside the squared circle, though, Malenko was a New Jersey native and Florida resident who was soft-spoken, well-versed and respected by his peers throughout the industry.

“He was probably the most giving person I’ve ever met,” son Dean Malenko (Simon) told The Wrestling Observer newsletter. “Sometimes he was too good-hearted. My dad was like a father figure to a lot of kids in the school. He not only trained them, he was a father-figure type to them. He liked helping others, and he wasn’t into material things.”

Boris Malenko was a longtime advocate of a more realistic approach to wrestling known as “shooting” and “hooking,” and along with fellow “shooter” Karl Gotch, trained many young grapplers for action in the more demanding Japanese wrestling promotions. Having hung up his tights in 1980, Malenko spent the last 15 years of his life training aspiring young grapplers at his wrestling school in Tampa. Sons Dean and Joe, both highly regarded scientific wrestlers, learned the ropes from their father, as did Paul Diamond, Al and Lou Perez, Barry Horowitz, Bob Cook, Jumbo Baretta and a host of other Florida locals.

‘Great performer’

Malenko was a top draw in the Carolinas and Virginia for the late Jim Crockett Sr. in the mid- ’60s and was a major attraction for longtime Charleston promoter Henry Marcus. His brutal chain matches with local favorites George and Sandy Scott drew sellout crowds at the former County Hall.

“He was a great performer,” recalled NWA promoter Jim Crockett Jr., who passed away earlier this year. “I can remember the days when he hung out with The Mauler and Homer O’Dell. Now that was quite a trio. But he was as polished as they come.”

“Boris was from the old school,” said Marcus, who passed away in 2004 at the age of 93. “He was a big draw here. Everyone remembers the time when Wahoo McDaniel knocked his false teeth out. He was a real star. Those guys were wrestlers back then.”

Malenko, one of the top interviews in the business who was noted for ranting with one eye shut, held the Southern tag-team title with Bob Orton Sr. and The Missouri Mauler (Larry “Rocky” Hamilton) during his stint in the Carolinas. The fact that Orton was from Kansas and Hamilton was from Missouri put further heat on the red-hot Malenko.

“I was a hayseed from Kansas with a blond crewcut as Southern heavyweight champion,” Orton told The Observer. “I was teaming up with a Russian. You talk about heat. The fans thought I was a traitor teaming with a Russian. We went into Raleigh. George Becker was the booker. They were running a building and doing one-quarter houses. He (Malenko) got on television one time and all he did was smash a chain onto a chair. We almost sold out. But we had too much heat. Tom Renesto wanted us to hold it down. We tried to calm things down but the more we tried, the hotter it got.”

Malenko was eventually stabbed by a knife-wielding fan in Richmond, Va., and took 33 stitches in his abdomen. Orton, who was knocked out by a chair and trampled on by fans, quickly left the area and returned to Florida as a good guy. Malenko stayed and continued to terrorize the territory as its top heel.

“Back in his day he was one of the first ‘Mad Russians,’ and he personified the image of the Russian bad guy,” recalled former NWA star and WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Brisco. “When you went into the ring with him, you knew you had a battle. He and Eddie Graham were just unbelievable down here in Florida. The man’s psychology in the ring was second to no one. He did a lot of good things around this area.”

Malenko also left behind many vivid memories: his grueling chain matches with such grapplers as Graham, The Scotts, Joe Scarpa (Chief Jay Strongbow), Wahoo McDaniel, Johnny Valentine, Dusty Rhodes, Ronnie Garvin, Danny Miller and Jose Lothario; a match with Sam Steamboat in which he tried to bite his opponent’s ear off, only to have Graham jump into the ring and smash his dentures; and his classic interviews with announcer Gordon Solie.

‘Professor’ Malenko

Malenko, in the twilight of his active ring career, returned to the Carolinas in the late ’70s as Professor Boris Maximilianovich Malenko (he claimed he was a professor of “hard knocks”) and managed The Masked Superstar (Bill Eadie) and Kim Duk. A money-making feud between The Superstar (who was later to become Demolition Ax) and area favorite The Mighty Igor was ignited when Eadie temporarily “blinded” Igor by smashing Malenko’s lit cigar into the Polish strongman’s eyes. A year-long program with Igor (the late Dick Garza) not only spurred one of the top money-making programs in the territory, but it also led to a long, lucrative run in Japan for Eadie.

“The angle was so successful that I took it to Japan and got a 13-year career out of (Antonio) Inoki from it,” Eadie said. “I was the first guy to ever do anything like that to Inoki. We were supposed to have a blowoff match after about the first six weeks at the Tokyo Dome, and there was so much heat they had to send me home. They finally brought me back, and I rode 14 years out of that thing.”

Eadie recalled originally coming up with the idea as a rib.

“We needed some kind of victory celebration. Boris didn’t smoke. We got these big, stinky cigars, and every time we got a victory, Boris would have to light up a cigar. Boris would actually almost throw up every time. In this case a rib turned out to be a good thing. Once fans saw him light up that cigar, they thought it (the match) was over. And then when I had the best of Igor at (Charlotte’s) Park Center, Boris jumped the gun and lit the cigar, stood up on the apron and turned around with a big smile, and there I was with a bear hug on me. I just grabbed the cigar and stuck it right in Igor’s eye. It did get him a little bit in the eyebrow, but he sold the heck out of it.”

Getting heat

A New Jersey native, born to a Polish immigrant father and American mother, Malenko began his career under his real name for the late Vince McMahon Sr. in the early ’50s before going to Texas under the moniker Crusher Duggan and claiming the state title. He later became a top heel in Nebraska under the name Otto Von Krupp – this time as a post-World War II German villain even though Malenko was actually Jewish.

Larry Simon adopted adopted the persona of Boris “The Great” Malenko in 1962 in Florida, where over the next decade he became perhaps the most hated heel in the territory, holding a number of titles along the way. His array of straps included the Florida heavyweight crown on two occasions, the NWA Southern heavyweight title, the Brass Knuckles title and the Southern tag-team title.

“If getting heat was the standard by which Kayfabe Era heels are judged, The Great Malenko did it better than any I ever saw,” said veteran sportswriter Larry Hamel. “As an adolescent hooked on Florida wrestling in the late 1960s in Florida, I despised The Great Malenko.”

“I remember him doing an ‘interview’ with Gordon Solie on CWF (Championship Wrestling From Florida) where Gordon asked a question and Malenko just stared at the camera, his one eye closed; the other glaring. Every question, same response. It was chillingly effective. Couldn’t wait to go to matches,” recalled longtime fan Rich Greene.

“He was No. 15 in our Heels book for a reason,” said Steve Johnson, who co-authored “Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Heels” with Greg Oliver in 2007. “One of the greatest psychologists ever.”

His bloodbaths with Florida’s top babyface, Eddie Graham, who also was owner of Florida Championship Wrestling, were legendary.

“I loved watching and working with him,” Ricky Steamboat said of Malenko in “The Heels” book. “The way that guy could sell, bleeding all over the mat. I was in high school when I was watching some of that – and at the same time, he’d entertain you. He had that one eye open and the other one closed, selling his ass off and he and Eddie (Graham) literally beat the living hell out of each other.”
Unforgettable performer

Malenko would become a good guy inside the ring in 1971 after being turned on by partners Dick Murdoch and Rene Goulet. Malenko drew more sellouts when he offered longtime rival Graham $5,000 to be his partner in a feud with Murdoch and Goulet.

Malenko and Graham bitterly parted ways in 1974, with Malenko promoting his own shows opposite Graham’s Championship Wrestling from Florida group. Malenko was eventually blacklisted by Graham and other NWA promoters, even though it was widely acknowledged in the business that Malenko had played a major role in the success of Graham’s Florida promotion.

Malenko retired in 1979 and opened a training school in Florida with sons Dean and Joe.

The health-conscious Malenko, who didn’t drink or smoke, was stricken with leukemia in 1994. He developed a severe infection before a second round of chemotherapy, and died of complications on Sept. 1 at the age of 61.

“He had a way of taking a day you were having a miserable time and turning it into a positive,” Bob Cook said of his teacher in “The Heels” volume. “Even the last time I talked to him, a couple days before he died, I called him to see how he was doing. He said, ‘I’m not doing too good, kid, but the hell with that. How are you doing? How’s WCW treating you?’ And he’s cussing them – ‘Ah, they wouldn’t know talent if they saw it.’ He never did anything but positive things in my life and I’ll never forget him.”

Malenko was inducted into the Legacy Wing of the WWE Hall of Fame in 2018. Jody Simon, who wrestled as Joe Malenko during his ring career, accepted the posthumous honor and said his dad “was always a heel, but he was beloved as a heel.”

Simon recounted an incident when an elderly female fan in Miami Beach got in his father’s face and told him she knew Boris Malenko was really Larry Simon, a Jew from New Jersey.

“My dad gets in the ring and I’m out there watching. Before long, this lady is standing on her feet, saying, ‘Kill that SOB Russian; kill him!’” Simon laughed.

Among the several hundred people who attended Boris Malenko’s funeral were Don Curtis, Gordon Solie, Hiro Matsuda, George Scott, Cyclone Negro, Randy Savage (Poffo), Lanny and Angelo Poffo, Karl Gotch and Sean Waltman. Hans “The Great” Mortier (Jacob Grobbe) had flown in from Holland to spend several weeks with his longtime friend during his first round of chemotherapy.