We’re going to change it up for this “Mic Battle” with two wrestlers known to be charismatic and humorous only for it to not translate as much as it could’ve on the mic: Dean Malenko vs. Lance Storm! It’s a mic battle with technical wrestling maestros!
Dean Malenko
Recently, I reviewed the episode of ECW Hardcore TV featuring the NWA World title tournament where Shane Douglas throws down the belt. Dean Malenko was the first person to speak and it was…a babyface promo.
At times it was bad and overall, ECW let him run long when he should’ve been given one or two minutes to hype himself.
Of course, Malenko would improve a bit but during most of his career, he was never really given the time to express himself on the mic or in segments. He was just the Ice Man and let his wrestling talk for him.
It was a little cheap but it worked because Malenko was a tremendous technician and his wrestling spoke loudly. He could wrestle on pillows in a library and the librarian would shush Dean Malenko.
The Ice Man would get to do a little more personality-wise in WWE as a ladies’ man which was comedic in the notion of this serious, short shooter who knows 1,000 holds was macking the honeydews. It worked but it was extremely short-term. There was no way Malenko was going to keep that up.
Lance Storm
Unlike Malenko, Storm had a lot of time to brush up on his mic work in ECW and WCW as part of the Impact Players and Team Canada respectively. Like Malenko, he was a serious shooter who also had a submission hold that tried to collect limbs. However, he was able to get what he needed to say out with a dry, direct delivery that actually worked.
If anything, Malenko was the proto-Lance Storm on the mic, or Lance Storm was Malenko’s potential on the microphone.
Also like Malenko, when he arrived in WWE, he also got to do some comedic work on television and smashed as the straight man to Goldust’s more charismatic comedic weirdo during the early 2000s.
Again, this wasn’t a gimmick that could be long-term…unless Goldstorm or Gold Leaf because a regular tag team.
Verdict: Lance Storm
I’m thinking Storm gets this mainly because of timing. There are a couple of similarities between these two. Neither was just setting the world on fire with their mic work but Malenko was the mic at a time when he should’ve had a manager or given tight bullet points to hit in under 2 minutes.
When Storm reached ECW, Paul Heyman already knew how to present him on the mic and who would complement him. His time in ECW allowed him to hold his own in WCW’s midcard when the stick was given to him.
Malenko who had just left WCW sometime prior was never really given that chance to improve on the mic.
Perhaps it was because the improvement wouldn’t have been that much or WCW creative didn’t know how to go about it while keeping the segment interesting. However, his wrestling was loud as hell, so that’s good enough?
Both were pretty even with their WWE mic work but even then Storm got time to promote himself and his group–and it wasn’t bad. The mic experience is what got this showdown for Storm.
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