Melina Perez
Born	(1979-03-09) March 9, 1979 (age 45)[1] Los Angeles, California[2]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Melina Kyra Melanie Little Deer[3]
Billed height	5 ft 4 in (1.63 m)[2]
Billed weight	[undue weight? – discuss][2]
Billed from	Los Angeles, California[4]
Trained by	Jesse Hernandez Lance Storm Dave Finlay Ultimate Pro Wrestling[5] OVW
Debut	April 2002

Melina Perez (born March 9 1979), better known simply as Melina, is an American professional wrestler and manager, currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestling on its RAW brand.

After becoming interested in wrestling, Melina joined the independent professional wrestling circuit before ultimately joining WWE in 2004.^[3][2][6] Initially, she was pushed as a manager for the tag team of MNM.^[7] She managed them to a record three reigns as WWE Tag Team Champions,^[8] as well as managed boyfriend and former MNM member Johnny Nitro to two reigns as WWE Intercontinental Champion.^[9][10]

Melina made her WWE singles debut in 2005. She is a two-time former WWE Women's Champion, winning the belt twice in 2007.^[11]

Career

Early career

Perez began her career as a model. She won a Miss California beauty contest and also modeled athletic wear for Nike.^[10] She decided to become a professional wrestler after talking to Empire Wrestling Federation (EWF) superstar Mike Henderson in 2000.^[3][6][12] Perez started training at Jesse Hernandez's School of Hard Knocks in San Bernardino, California and made her professional debut in April 2002.^[13][14] She joined a number of California-based promotions such as the EWF, where she wrestled under the ring name Kyra, and CRUSH, as Melanie Little Deer.^[2] Many EWF officials stated that she had the most natural ability of any woman who came through their school.^[15] In late 2002 Perez auditioned for World Wrestling Entertainment's reality show Tough Enough III, making it through to the final 21 before being eliminated from the competition in the final cut of the first episode.^{[4][15][16][17]}

World Wrestling Entertainment

Perez debuted in WWE's developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in March 2004, being placed in an angle as John Hennigan's ex-girlfriend. The storyline had Matt Cappotelli introduce her to the ring as a way to taunt Hennigan.^[5] Melina, however, turned on Cappotelli and aligned herself with Hennigan, who later changed his ring name to Johnny Nitro.^[5] Soon after, Melina and Nitro began teaming with Joey Matthews, later known as Joey Mercury.^[5] The trio became known as MNM and on November 10, Melina managed Mercury and Nitro to win the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship.^[7] During her time in OVW, Melina, Nitro, and Steven Adkins came up with Melina's trademark split ring entrance.^[18]

While in OVW, Melina made occasional appearances on WWE television. On a Thanksgiving episode of SmackDown! in 2003, she dressed up as a Native American and was shown serving food and drinks.^[19] Melina made her first RAW appearance on November 29 2004 when Randy Orton was the guest General Manager and hosted a diva lingerie fashion show.^[20] She made another RAW appearance in December, participating in a limbo contest when Chris Jericho was General Manager for the night.^[21]

2005

MNM made their debut in WWE as a heel tag team on the April 14 2005 edition of SmackDown!.^[22] The team interrupted the first ever Carlito's Cabana interview segment, where one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions, Rey Mysterio, was a guest.^[22] Melina insulted Mysterio and had Mercury and Nitro attack him, leading to MNM's in-ring debut the next week on SmackDown! in a title match. The team was booked to win the match against Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero, starting their first WWE Tag Team Title reign.^[23][24]

While managing the Tag Team Champions, Melina's character was developed to be more egotistical as she declared herself "the most-dominant Diva in WWE".^[4] She made her official WWE in-ring debut on June 30 against Michelle McCool and had her first pay-per-view match—a Bra and Panties match—at The Great American Bash against Torrie Wilson, winning both matches.^[25][26] Also at The Great American Bash, MNM dropped their championship to the Legion of Doom, prompting a new storyline where Melina hired Jillian Hall, a "fixer", to assist them.^[26][27] MNM regained the title on October 28 in a Fatal Four Way tag team match.^[28]

On the Eddie Guerrero Tribute Show Melina won an interpromotional Divas battle royal by eliminating Women's Champion Trish Stratus.^[29] The next week, MNM kayfabe kidnapped Stratus and Melina challenged her to a match for the Women's Championship.^[30] The two fought at Survivor Series, with Melina losing to Stratus after interference from Mickie James.^[31]

During this time, MNM was booked to defend their title against Rey Mysterio and the World Heavyweight Champion Batista. Melina was placed in an angle with her trying to make Batista call off the match by visiting him in his locker room and attempting to seduce him. The storyline had the two engage in sexual acts, after which he simply thanked her for the "warm-up" before leaving to take part in the match, where he and Mysterio defeated MNM for the title.^[32] The storyline played over to the next episode of SmackDown! when, before MNM evoked their rematch clause, Melina held a press conference in the ring where she claimed that Batista had sexually harassed her. During the tag team match, Mark Henry aided MNM in winning back the WWE Tag Team Championship.^[33]

2006

The angle with Mark Henry continued into the next year. On the first SmackDown! of 2006, Melina announced that Henry was her personal protection against Batista. He accompanied her and aided the other members of MNM in matches against Batista and Mysterio.^[34]

At Judgment Day on May 21, 2006, MNM were booked to lose their Tag Team Championship to Paul London and Brian Kendrick.^[35] After the match, Melina and Nitro, as part of the storyline, attacked Mercury, blaming him for the loss.^[35] Later that night, Melina lost a singles match against Jillian Hall and after slapping General Manager Theodore Long in anger, she and Nitro were kayfabe fired from the SmackDown! brand.^[36] Off-screen, Nitro and Mercury did not get along, and WWE management decided to split the tag team and send Nitro and Melina to the RAW brand.^[37]

Melina and Nitro made their way to RAW on May 29, with Nitro losing to WWE Champion John Cena.^[38][39] The following week, Melina faked a sprained ankle, allowing Nitro to roll-up Charlie Haas for his first RAW victory.^[40] Melina continued to manage Nitro during his successful hunt for the WWE Intercontinental Championship, while being involved in another storyline with Trish Stratus.^[41][42] The angle turned into a tag team feud when Carlito joined forces with Stratus to take on Melina and Nitro.^[43] At Saturday Night's Main Event on July 15, Melina and Nitro lost to Carlito and Stratus in a mixed tag team match.^[44]

After Melina's arrival on RAW, Mick Foley began to mention her in promos, playing on the real friendship they had forged that he talked about in his WWE.com columns, and they soon formed an on-screen friendship.^[45][46] At SummerSlam, Melina was involved in Foley's "I Quit" match against Ric Flair when Flair threatened to hit her with a barbed wired baseball bat, causing Foley to quit the match to save her.^[47] On the August 21 edition of RAW, the storyline called for her career to be endangered when Foley was offered the choice to either join Vince McMahon's Kiss My Ass club or have Melina fired.^[48] After begging Foley not to go through with it, Foley "joined the club" to save Melina's job, only to have her suddenly turn on him by delivering a low blow and kayfabe firing him at the behest of McMahon.^[48] This storyline was concocted by Foley to refresh the idea of the Kiss My Ass club.^[48][49][50] It was also around this time that Melina added another characteristic to her gimmick: screaming loudly at ringside while managing or in tag team action, which became known as the "primal scream".^[51]

2007

On January 29, 2007, Melina became the number 1 contender for the WWE Women's Championship, as well as introduced her finisher from the independent circuit, the Kyrapractor, to WWE under the new name California Dream.^[52] On February 5 Melina lost a title match against Mickie James.^[53] The following week on RAW, Melina pinned James in a mixed tag team match and then challenged James again for the title.^[54] On February 19, as part of her first major singles push, Melina won the Women's Championship from James and, in continuation of their storyline feud, retained the title in a rematch during the first ever Women's Falls Count Anywhere match in WWE history.^[55][56]

In March, Melina was placed in an angle where she became jealous of SmackDown! Diva Ashley Massaro, who was receiving attention because of her appearance in Playboy.^[57] The angle had Melina claim in her blogs that no Playboy cover models were capable of fighting her.^[58] This resulted in scheduled matches against former Playboy cover girls Torrie Wilson and Candice Michelle, with both women losing to Melina.^[59][60] The storyline came to a close at WrestleMania 23, where Melina pinned Ashley in a Lumberjill match to retain her Women's Championship.^[61]

After WrestleMania, Melina organized a photo op with the Women's Title belt in the ring but was interrupted by Mickie James, resulting in another storyline feud between the two Divas.^[62] On April 24 at a house show in Paris, France, Melina lost the Women's Championship in a Triple Threat match to James when James pinned Victoria, but on the orders of Jonathan Coachman she was entitled to a rematch on the same night, where she pinned James to regain the title and become a two-time WWE Women's Champion.^[63]

On May 7 Melina was defeated in a tag team match when she was pinned by Candice Michelle.^[64] Melina was scripted to lose to Candice in various tag team matches, as well as in non-title bouts over the next few weeks.^[65][66][67] At Vengeance, Melina dropped the Women's Championship to Candice, and failed to recapture the title at The Great American Bash.^[68][69]

In wrestling

• Finishing moves
  • Inverted split-leg drop bulldog into a split-legged pin
  • California Dream / Kyrapractor (Grapevine bridging reverse STF)^[13][6]
  • Extreme Makeover (Springboard or Charging 180° spinning facebuster)
  • Divastator (Kicking combination) – Independent circuit^[6]
  • Kyranium Buster (Flying neckbreaker slam) – Independent circuit^[6]
  • Frog splash – Independent circuit

• Signature moves
  • Reverse DDT
  • Top rope rear naked choke into a flying seated senton from the corner
  • Modified rope hung inverted double knee gutbuster
  • Japanese stranglehold into a split leg rear mat slam
  • Split-legged / Kneeling hangman's neckbreaker
  • Top rope neck scissors choke into a headscissor takedown / Grounded wrenching neck scissors
  • Leg scissors full nelson
  • Single leg Boston crab / Modified rope hung Boston crab
  • Reverse Indian deathlock into a hair-pull surfboard stomp
  • Pendulum backbreaker submission
  • Snapmare into various armbars
  • Corner axe kick / Rope aided leg strike to the face
  • Modified Bite of the Dragon
  • Leg hook camel clutch / Camel clutch
  • Giant swing

• Wrestlers managed:
  • Joey Mercury
  • Johnny Nitro
  • Mick Foley
  • Mark Henry

• Nicknames:
  • The Barracuda (from WWE announcer Jim Ross)
  • The Most Dominant Diva in WWE
  • The A-List Diva
  • The Paparazzi Princess
  • The Queen of Entrances ^[70]

• Entrance Themes
  • Melina has used the WWE-produced theme "Paparazzi" throughout her entire run with the WWE. The theme was previously used by the entire MNM stable, as well as both Johnny Nitro and Melina even after Nitro was drafted to ECW. However, following Nitro's name and character change to John Morrison, Melina became the sole user of the theme. It is available on Raw Greatest Hits: The Music.

Championships and accomplishments

• World Wrestling Entertainment
  • WWE Women's Championship (2 times)

Personal life

Perez is of American and Mexican heritage. She is also bilingual, as she can speak both English and Spanish fluently.^[1]

She was in a long term relationship with John Hennigan, who wrestles under the ring name John Morrison on ECW.^[10][38] The two met during their auditions for Tough Enough III.^[71] After the break up, Melina began dating SmackDown! wrestler Batista.^[72] Batista claims that the duo began their physical relationship after the divorce from his wife in 2006.^[73]

Unlike some of the fellow Divas, Perez has expressed a disinterest in posing for Playboy.^[74]

Notes

References

• Dave Bautista and Jeremy Roberts (October 2007). Batista Unleashed. World Wrestling Entertainment. ISBN 1416544100.
• Mick Foley (2007). Hardcore Diaries. Pocket Books. p. 384. ISBN 1416531572.
• Scott Zerr (2005-05-29). "Melina wants to do it all". Edmonton Sun. Retrieved 2007-01-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Tim Baines (2006-08-20). "Nitro making impact in WWE". Ottawa Sun. Retrieved 2007-08-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• PWI Staff (2007). "Pro Wrestling Illustrated presents: 2007 Wrestling almanac & book of facts". "Wrestling’s historical cards". Kappa Publishing.

External links

• Official website
• WWE profile
• G.L.O.R.Y. profile

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