What These Famous '90s Wrestlers Are Doing Today

The 1990s was one of the hottest times to be a wrestling fan. There were sellout crowds and larger than life characters throughout World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). The 1990s brought on a whole new concept of two major wrestling companies, WCW and WWF, feuding on Monday Nights to see whose show could bring in better ratings, eventually forcing the WWF to have a more edgy product known as the Attitude Era. This era saw the rise of The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Edge and Christian, The Hardy Boys, and many more. 

Some of these '90s wrestling superstars are still currently in the ring, doing what they do best, in a variety of wrestling companies. However, not all the wrestling stars that made '90s wrestling so great decided to stay in the ring. Some decided to help from the sidelines, while others decided to start a whole new career path that doesn't involve four turnbuckles, four sets of ropes, and a 20 foot long canvas below their feet.

Rick Steiner is most famously known for barking like a dog and winning tag team titles all over the world alongside his brother Scott Steiner in the mid to late 1990s. Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner were known as the Steiner Brothers, and were one of the most decorated tag teams of their time. The Steiner Brothers scooped up gold in World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, and even New Japan Pro-Wrestling. 

Despite being seen recently on NXT 2.0 to help progress a storyline involving his son, Bron Breaker, Rick Steiner no longer competes in the ring. Steiner received his real estate license in 1995 along with Big Boss Man, Curt Henning, and Rick Rude, and has been buying and selling properties ever since. According to an interview with Slam Wrestling, Rick Steiner also felt he had to give back to his community which he has lived in for over 25 years. This led to Rick Steiner joining the Cherokee County School District Board of Education, where he has held a seat for over a decade.

Nothing quite sums up the Attitude Era like the character of Val Venis, who is most known for his work in the ring in the late 1990s. Val Venis would come to the ring with a towel wrapped around his waist and perform gyrations for all the women in the audience. In addition, he had theme music and an introduction video that was full of sexual innuendos where very little was left to the imagination. As the WWE started to steer away from the edgy Attitude Era product, the Val Venis character became less and less desirable to have on screen. 

After semi-retiring in 2009 (he still takes independent bookings from time to time), Val Venis became a vocal advocate for marijuana. In 2008, he had shoulder surgery where he was prescribed prescriptions drugs to help ease the post-surgery pain. Venis told The Inquisitr that smoking marijuana was the only thing that helped him with this pain and he stopped using the prescription drugs altogether. Due to this realization, in 2014, he opened his own medical marijuana business called, Purple Haze. His hopes with this business adventure is to teach people the benefits of medical marijuana and how it has helped him throughout his life.

Nora Greenwald, better known as Molly Holly, made her wrestling debut in 1997 before making her way through WCW and WWE/F later in her career. Molly Holly's career took place at a time when women's wrestling is nothing like it is today. However, Holly was a trailblazer in the women's division, with her Mighty Molly character that showed the fans the tough side of women's wrestling. This tough attitude inside the ring won her multiple titles, including the WWF Hardcore Championship, and later in her career, the WWE Women's Championship.

Shortly after her 2005 retirement, Molly Holly became a counselor for drug addicted teens, where she met her husband Geno Benshoof (via White Bear Press). Like many former wrestlers who hung up their boots, that wrestling itch came back to Holly during her tenure as a counselor. Molly Holly had to satisfy that itch somehow and she decided to go the route of a wrestling trainer. According to Last Word on Sports, she is currently a trainer at The Academy: Professional Wrestling School along with Ken Anderson (formerly WWE's Mr. Kennedy) and former WWE superstar Shawn Daivari. She also works as a producer on WWE programming.

Pete Gas (real last name Gasparino), best known for his run with the Mean Street Posse, has a crazy story of how he entered the wrestling business in 1999. Gas was on the Greenwich High School football team with Shane McMahon, who just so happened to be the son of the man who ran the biggest wrestling company in the world. Shane asked Pete, along with one other friend, if they wanted to play backup for him at his upcoming WrestleMania XV match against X-Pac. Pete Gas, who was 29 at the time was up for this unique opportunity. In an interview with the Greenwich Times, he talks about this experience: "They literally took two guys from Greenwich, who were Shane's buddies, who had no experience at all and put us in the ring with the best in the business". 

The rest is history, this moment launch padded the three year career of Pete Gas and the Mean Street Posse. Pete Gas semi-retired in 2001, but technically had one more match in 2003. However, after that match he was done for good and instead pursued a career for the WB Mason Paper Company as a salesman. Gasparino has worked at WB Mason since 2003 and says he still loves watching wrestling and attending live wrestling events whenever he can.

Al Snow rose up the ranks in the late 1990s by making friends with inanimate objects and wrestling in whacky hardcore matches in both ECW and the WWF. Snow's most infamous look involves him carrying a mannequin head to the ring named of "Head." Head always had "HELP" written in smudged sharpie across the forehead, giving Al Snow a unique and somewhat mentally unstable look to his character. Snow was able to capture many championships across numerous wrestling promotions, most notably winning the WWF Hardcore Championship six times. Although Al Snow was always a mid-card wrestler throughout his career, he was always a steady and reliable performer. 

Since leaving the ring in 2008, Al Snow has passed on his skills by opening the Al Snow Academy and purchasing WWE's former developmental company Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) (via Al Snow Academy). With the combination of his wrestling academy and OVW, Al Snow continues to train aspiring new wrestlers. Despite already having a lot on his plate, he also created a clothing brand for wrestling fans called COLLARxELBOW, where wrestling fans can purchase unique merchandise you can't find anywhere else.

Dennis Knight, better known to wrestling fans as Mideon, went through a drastic character change in his career. In the mid 1990s, fans saw him debut as the farmer boy Phineas I. Goodwinn (purposely spelling out P.I.G) along with his tag team partner Henry O. Godwinn (also purposely spelling out H.O.G). The Godwinns secured two WWF Tag Team Championship reigns. In the late 1990s, when WWF was looking to create more grounded characters, a major switch was done to Knight's persona. He became Mideon, a gloomier character featured in Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness faction. 

After these two major character changes, Dennis Knight decided to change his career as drastically as WWF did with his character. Knight discovered that he had a passion for cooking. According to WWE.com, Dennis "Mideon" Knight turned this passion into a new career by becoming a chef at Café Ponte and later the Sandpearl Resort in Clearwater Beach, Florida. After getting his feet wet in the cooking business, Dennis Knight started his own catering company called, Dennis Knight Catering, and he continues to fuel his passion by entering cooking competitions on the side. 

Extreme Championship Wrestling rose to fame for many different reasons, but one major reason was the Dudley Boyz. The tag team were known for the colorful language in their promos, putting people through tables, and lighting things on fire. Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley were the two main Dudley Boyz, but Spike Dudley played a massive role in the team as well. Spike was the little brother, not in age, but stature. Spike Dudley was often the sacrificial lamb of the team, being put through the most amount of tables, hit with the most amount of chairs, and thrown into the crowd more than any of them. 

It can't be said for sure, but it is possible that these big numbers steered Spike Dudley toward a career of working with large numbers as a financial advisor. In 2005, Spike Dudley was released from WWE and that devastated him. Shortly after his release, he found work at MassMutual helping people budget for college, taxes, retirement, and many more financial scenarios. Spike Dudley commented on this career switch in an interview with WWE.com saying, "I'm helping people live a better life and take care of their families ... it's beyond rewarding." Maybe one day Spike Dudley can help a small wrestling company, similar to ECW, budget for all the broken tables they will need in the future.

Alex Wright found his stride in WCW in the late 1990s by dancing his way to the ring in his leather jacket. However, he was always slightly out of step when it came to progressing in his career. As a midcarder of WCW, Wright managed to win himself a WCW TV Championship, Cruiserweight Championship, and Tag Team Championship during his time in the ring. When World Championship Wrestling went out of business in 2001, Alex Wright found himself at a crossroads and decided to take a break from wrestling altogether. 

After a much needed break, Wright started his own wrestling school known as The Wright Stuff. This wrestling school specializes in training European wrestlers, with a specific focus on German wrestlers. After opening The Wright Stuff, he started his own company known as New European Championship Wrestling (NECW). NECW promotes the talent trained at the Wright Stuff, and alongside Alex Wright, the combination is helping expand the wrestling presence in Germany. 

The history of women's wrestling cannot be told in full without the mention of Deborah Miceli, better known to wrestling fans as Medusa. Miceli started as Alundra Blayze in the WWF in the mid-1990s. Her character was a trailblazing woman who stopped at nothing in her pursuit for championship gold. Unfortunately, at this time, the WWF did not really have a women's division, which left Blayze on an island of her own. The most infamous part of her career was when she held the WWF Women's Championship in 1995. Alundra Blayze was frustrated with the WWF's vision of women's wrestling and she jumped ship to WWF's direct competitor, WCW. Deborah Miceli showed up as a new character, Madusa, on "WCW Monday Nitro" with the WWF Women's Championship and threw it in the garbage on live television. 

This launched the Madusa character into full swing and got her blacklisted from WWF for a long time (via Ring The Damn Bell). Miceli left wrestling in 2001 after WCW closed its doors and pursued a career in monster truck driving, where she drove a monster truck aptly named "Madusa." After her monster truck career, she started her own fitness program called Feminine, Intelligent, and Tough (FIT). Miceli runs the FIT program today, where she helps women chose a healthy mindset and lifestyle on their way to achieving their own life goals.

Norman Smiley made his way through the wrestling ranks in the 1990s, jumping between promotions all around the world before landing himself in ECW and more notably WCW in the late 1990s. Smiley was known for his smiley (pun intended) and happy-go-lucky character that would bust out a dance move called "The Big Wiggle." Despite largely being an enhancement talent at the time, fans took a liking to Smiley. Norman Smiley found his niche as a technical wrestler and over-the-top entertainer. In an interview with WWE.com, William Regal said, "He was a technical wrestler who found out that you're far better off being an entertainer". 

After WCW closed its doors in 2001, Smiley was wrestling in a few other promotions before realizing he had a knack for training future entertainers in wrestling. Since leaving the ring, he has settled down as a trainer for WWE's NXT program. Norman Smiley has helped develop and train many talents on the developmental brand, but some of his most notable trainees are Kofi Kingston and Drew McIntyre.

Ivory is another women's wrestler that did not fit the mold in late 1990s. Ivory was tough in the ring and was known for hitting her opponents with her patented Widow's Peak finishing move. She ended up winning her three Women's Championships and later got her into the WWE Hall of Fame. In 2005, after a long and successful career, she began hosting a wrestling talk show called WWE Experience. However, the show was eventually canceled and Ivory decided not to renew her WWE contract. 

Instead, she went to work for Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah. According to the San Juan Update, this is a no-kill, volunteer animal shelter with over 150 cats and dogs. While volunteering for Best Friends Animal Society, Ivory found her next passion outside of the ring, caring for animals. This led her to open Downtown Dog in 2007, located in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Washington. Since opening Downtown Dog, Ivory has expanded her business, including purchasing a bus called the Bow Wow Bus, where she drives her furry friends around town for people to met them and potentially adopt them.

Marc Mero is a wrestler from the '90s that fans either know a lot about or nothing about. Mero made his splash on the wrestling scene for World Championship Wrestling. Later in his career, Mero found himself wrestling for the World Wrestling Federation. Often parading down to the ring with streamer clad boots and a confetti cannon, Mero was able to secure himself mid-card titles in both major promotions. 

According to the Orange Observer, in the early 2000s, Mero lost a lot of family, including his brother. This made him fall into a depression. In 2003, Mero contemplated suicide until he realized that he had a choice to be happy, and he chose happy. This traumatic experience caused Marc Mero to retire from wrestling in 2006 to pursue a career in motivational speaking. His speeches are supposed to reach many different young audiences, but his main goal is to educate teens about the dangers of drugs and alcohol abuse along with the feelings of depression. Mero often pulls from real life problems he had with drugs, alcohol, and depression early in his career to strike a chord with the his young audience. Wrestling fans know that Marc Mero has no problem performing in front of a crowd, and Mero travels to schools around the country in front of hundreds of kids to spread his motivational message. 

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

Dean Malenko, known in wrestling as "The Man of 1,000 Holds," was a unique technical wrestler of his time in the mid 1990s. Wrestling fans are most familiar with Malenko for his technical masterpieces against the likes of Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio during their time in World Championship Wrestling. Malenko was trapping opponents in holds and submission that wrestling fans had never seen at the time. His understanding on mat based wrestling did not go to waste when he decided to hang up his boots for good. 

In 2001, Malenko became a road agent with WWE and had a great working relationship with them for years (via Sports Illustrated). In 2019, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) announced that they had hired Malenko as a backstage producer and coach. When joining AEW, Malenko mentioned in a press release (via EWrestling) that it is a rare opportunity to be able to build something from the ground up this late in a career, but he was up for the challenge. Malenko helps produce "AEW Dynamite" weekly along with AEW's major Pay-Per-Views each year.