Wikipedia

Melina Perez

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Haleth (talk | contribs) at 00:57, 29 March 2007 (Leave Mickie's and the other wrestlers' pages alone, and I'll leave your little Melina fan-worshipping shrine alone.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Melina Perez (born March 9, 1979) better known simply as Melina, is a Hispanic-American professional wrestler and manager, currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment working and wrestling on its RAW brand, where she is the reigning WWE Women's Champion.

Melina Perez
BornMarch 9, 1979 (age 28)
Los Angeles, California
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Melina
Kyra
Melanie Little Deer
Billed height5 ft 4 in (1.63m)
Billed weight122 lb (55kg)
Trained byJesse Hernandez
Lance Storm
Dave Finlay
Ultimate Pro Wrestling
OVW
Debut2000

Melina is known for her ring entrance, which is a display of her flexibility. Standing beside the ring, she lifts her right leg onto the apron, then lifts her left leg, performing the splits, and then bends her upper body under the bottom rope. Michael Cole and Tazz were quick to label this "the greatest ring entrance in the history of sports entertainment." On RAW, she added another variation to this entrance where she stands on the apron before performing the splits and sliding under the bottom rope.

Career

Prior to her professional wrestling career, Perez was a fashion model. In 2000, after talking to Mike Henderson, she decided to become a professional wrestler and enrolled in Jesse Hernandez's School of Hard Knocks to train [1]. Perez's pro-wrestling debut came in 2002 on a tour of the independent wrestling scene. She joined a number of California-based promotions, such as the Empire Wrestling Federation (EWF), where she wrestled for four years under the name Kyra. Melina Perez tried out for the WWE's reality show Tough Enough III, but was eliminated from competition in the final cut of the first episode.

World Wrestling Entertainment

Perez debuted in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) "farm territory" Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in March 2004 when Matt Cappotelli (kayfabe) brought her in as a way to taunt her ex-boyfriend Johnny Nitro. Melina, however, turned on Cappotelli and aligned herself with Nitro. Soon after, Nitro began teaming with Joey Matthews, later known as Joey Mercury. On November 10 the trio, now known as MNM, won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship.

While in OVW, Melina made occasional appearances on WWE television. One short appearance was on a Thanksgiving episode of SmackDown! in 2003 where Melina dressed up as a Native American. She was shown serving food and drinks, and as one of the girls that John Cena raps to.

Melina also made her first RAW appearance on November 24, 2004 when Randy Orton was a guest General Manager on RAW, and hosted a diva lingerie fashion show. Melina made more RAW appearances in late 2004, including a limbo contest in December 2004, but then she later returned to Ohio Valley Wrestling and MNM.

SmackDown!

MNM debuted on SmackDown! on the April 14, 2005 edition of the show. The team debuted by interrupting the first ever "Carlito's Cabana" interview segment, on which one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions Rey Mysterio was a guest. Melina insulted Mysterio and had Mercury and Nitro attack him, leading to MNM's in-ring debut being a title match on the next weeks SmackDown!. Melina lead the team to victory over Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero, beginning MNM's first title reign.

While managing the tag-team champions, Melina feuded with and attacked many of her fellow Divas, proclaiming herself to be "the most dominant diva in WWE". Her WWE in ring debut was a victory against Michelle McCool on an episode of SmackDown!, and her first pay-per-view match, also a victory, was a Bra and Panties match against Torrie Wilson at the Great American Bash. Also at the Bash, MNM lost their championship, prompting Melina to bring in Jillian Hall, a "fixer" to assist Melina in feuds with the other WWE Divas. Around October 2005, Melina went on to feud with Christy Hemme, even scoring a pinfall over Christy in a singles match. MNM were defeated by LOD & Christy Hemme after Christy nailed Melina with the Doomsday Device.

MNM regained the WWE Tag Team Championship on the October 28, 2005 edition of SmackDown!. On the Eddie Guerrero Tribute edition of RAW, Melina won an interpromotional Divas battle royal, last eliminating RAW's Women's Champion Trish Stratus. This match lead to an interpromotional feud with SmackDown!'s Melina getting a shot at the Women's Championship at Survivor Series in a match that would be proclaimed the "The Divas Match of the Year" by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Although Melina was very physical in this match, blocking two Stratusfaction attempts, and a Chick Kick before hitting her own spinning kneel-out facebuster, Melina's first WWE Women's Title match ended in her first singles WWE loss.

During this time MNM was set to defend their Tag Titles at Armageddon in a match against The Mexicools, but before the event would first have to defend the titles against the team of Rey Mysterio and the World Heavyweight Champion Batista. In an attempt to get Batista to call off the match Melina visited Batista in his locker room and seductively suggested that it would be "worth his while" to skip the match and allow MNM time to prepare for their match at Armageddon. Batista, who seemed very receptive to the idea, allowed Melina to (kayfabe) engage in sexual acts only to simply thank Melina for the "warmup" before leaving to take part in the match, where he and Mysterio won the tag titles.

After 'Armageddon; on the last SmackDown! of 2005, MNM envoked their rematch clause for a match against Batista and Rey Mysterio. However, before the match took place, Melina, accompanied by a lawyer, held a press conference in the ring where she claimed that Batista had sexually harassed her. During the tag team match, Mark Henry (making his WWE return) aided MNM in winning back their WWE Tag Team Champions.

On the first SmackDown! of 2006, Melina announced that Mark Henry was there for her personal protection against Batista. Henry accompanied Melina and aided the other members of MNM in matches involving Batista and his tag team partner, Mysterio. MNM and Henry feuded with Kurt Angle and were soon joined by Daivari, whom Melina later gave Henry's contract to.

On the April 28, 2006 edition of SmackDown!, Melina began a feud with Jillian Hall after getting into a catfight backstage. This led to a match between the two at Judgment Day. At Judgment Day MNM lost their WWE Tag Team Championships to Paul London and Brian Kendrick and the trio imploded, with Melina and Nitro attacking Mercury, blaming him for the loss. Later that night, Melina lost her match with Hall by a controversial decision and, after slapping General Manager Theodore Long in anger, she and Johnny Nitro were fired from SmackDown!.

RAW

Melina and Johnny Nitro made their way to the RAW brand from there, together on May 29, 2006, with a Nitro loss to WWE Champion John Cena. The following week, Melina faked a sprained ankle, allowing Nitro to roll up Charlie Haas for his first RAW win. Melina continued to manage Nitro during his successful hunt for the WWE Intercontinental Championship, while rekindling her feud with Trish Stratus — including a pinfall win over her in a singles bout on RAW.

With her arrival on RAW, came Mick Foley making mentions of her in promos (playing on the (real) friendship they'd forged and he'd talked about in his WWE.com columns) and they soon formed an on-screen friendship. At Summerslam, Melina caused Foley to lose an "I Quit" match when Flair was going to hit Melina with a barbed wired bat and Foley "quit" to prevent Flair's striking her. On the August 21, 2006 edition of RAW, her career was (kayfabe) endangered when Foley was offered the chance to either join Vince McMahon's 'Kiss My Ass club" or have Melina fired. 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, delivering a low blow and, "firing" him at the behest of McMahon.

Melina then became involved in the developing feud between Jeff Hardy and Johnny Nitro over Nitro's Intercontinental title (which would eventually involve Jeff's brother Matt and reforming MNM with Joey Mercury.). At the same time she entered a tournament to crown a new Women's Champion, defeating Torrie Wilson in the opening round in a lumberjill match on the October 9, 2006 edition of RAW before losing to Mickie James in the semi-finals two weeks later.

In early 2007, Melina would begin a small feud with Maria. Melina would also form an alliance with Victoria, defeating the team of Mickie James and Maria in their first match as a tag team when she hit Maria with a new finisher known as Extreme Makeover.

On the January 26 episode of SmackDown!, Melina wrestled in her first SmackDown! match since May 2006, which resulted in a win for MNM over London, Kendrick and Ashley in a mixed tag team match.

Following the Royal Rumble, Melina would become the #1 contender for the WWE Women's Championship, as well as introducing her KyraPractor finisher to WWE fans, under the new name California Dream. On February 5, Melina lost a Women's Championship match against Women's Champion Mickie James. The following week on RAW, Melina pinned the Women's Champion in a mixed tag team match and then challenged James for the title for the next week on RAW. In a back and forth battle, Melina eventually pinned Mickie James to capture her first WWE Women's Championship. In continuation of their feud, Melina won the first ever Women's Falls Count Anywhere Match in WWE history, by pinning James after a blocked hurricanrana to retain her WWE Women's Championship.

In wrestling

File:CaliforniaDream.jpg
Melina preparing to apply her California Dream on Maria during an episode of RAW

Championships and accomplishments

Personal life

Trivia

  • Melina was featured in the WWE's World Greatest Managers DVD.
  • Melina is the last person to be frogsplashed by the late Eddie Guerrero.
  • Melina is the first contestant from Tough Enough to capture the WWE Women's Championship.[3]
  • Many EWF officials stated that Melina had the most natural ability of any woman who came through their school.[4]
  • Melina has had her teeth knocked out by female wrestlers, and dislocated her kneecap. [5]
  • She has recently been nicknamed "The Barracuda" by Jim Ross for her very aggressive in-ring style.

References

  1. ^ a b Melina (WWE) (February 24, 2007). "Internet Confessions of a True Diva, No. 2". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ Zerr, Scott (2005-05-29). "Melina wants to do it all". SLAM! Sports. Retrieved January 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Melina's WWE.com Profile
  4. ^ SoCal Uncensored article on Melina signing with WWE
  5. ^ Melina's WWE.com Blog
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Melina_Perez&oldid=118662824"