Dean Malenko Opens Up About His Battle With Parkinson’s

AEW Senior Producer and Coach Dean Malenko was on a recent episode of Talk Is Jericho. Malenko and Chris Jericho discussed Malenko's legendary career, but Malenko's main purpose of appearing on the podcast was to open up about his seven-year battle with Parkinson's. He recalled mentioning it during his appearance at Starrcast.

"What happened was I'm 60 years old. They say usually around 60 is the age when you start to get it," Malenko said. "I got it about six – seven years ago. About a year ago, I was at Starrcast in Chicago, and I was asked to do a Q&A session with Tony Schiavone. And I got a little nervous and a little scared because I was going to be out in front of people. I haven't really been in front of crowds a lot. Of course, at work, which is a different environment, but you get nervous sometimes because you don't want people to know what you got.

"You're like trying to hide it. Parkinson's is a very difficult thing to cover up. It looks like you're freezing cold. I don't want people to think that, and that's one of reasons why I asked you to do this. And that day, when I started talking, I realized the microphone was really light, and what I mean by that is things that are very light, like silverware, if there's no weight to it, I'll shake more. It's very interesting the way all that works.

"So I had Tony and the people there actually get me a stand and put the stand up and the microphone in there. I didn't have to use my hands. I almost felt like Stevie Wonder playing on the piano. I just kind of blurted out, 'Damn, Parkinson's,' and a couple of people caught it, and kind of got on social media and ran a little bit but nothing really big."

Malenko later described what it's like having Parkinson's. He also talked about how he and his family have learned to make light of the situation since there is currently no cure for Parkinson's yet.

"I compare having Parkinson's like having a roommate that never leaves because every morning, you wake up, you have this other person with you," Malenko described. "It's either not going to let you get out of bed really easy, going to make a shake and kind of takes over your body. So that could be a little crazy at times, but I'm kinda getting used to. I've really have tried to laugh things off.

"My 15-year-old, if I'm shaking, she'll come over and put her hand on me and then she starts shaking and just have fun with it. There's nothing you can do about it. I am not going to get rid of it. It's always going to be there. Hopefully, with modern medicine and going forward, they can slow this down at one point, and if not, I'll deal with it whenever."

WWE Superstar Rey Mysterio and Malenko have been good friends since their WCW days, and Mysterio has shared strong respect towards Mysterio. Malenko revealed how helpful Mysterio has been during his fight with Parkinson's.

"There's a couple guys in the business that know what I have, Rey Mysterio being one of them," Malenko revealed. "Rey's been just a great guy about it. In fact, he's always trying to find stuff for me and real good friend. He's been trying to get me literature on the stem cells because he's used it several times. He's gone several times and always calls me and says, 'Whenever you're ready, I've already talked to this doctor, and there's been a lot of success.' Problem is a lot of stuff has to be approved by the FDA. You got to be careful what you take too because you don't know what the side effects are or if there is any."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.