Melina Perez came into World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as a manager and has worked hard to become a professional wrestler that is a serious contender to any women’s championship title. Melina is the first woman of Mexican heritage to ever hold the WWE Women’s Championship Title and has one of the best ring entrances in the business.
Real Name : Melina Nava Perez
Alias(es) : Melina, Kyra, & Melina Little Deer
Date Of Birth : March 9, 1979 Height : 5′4 Weight : Approx. 120lbs
Pro Debut : April 2002
Wrestling Organization : World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
Trainer(s) : Lance Storm, Dave Finlay, Jesse Hernandez, Empire Wrestling Federation, & Ohio Valley Wrestling
Finisher(s) : The Primal Scream, The Last Call, & The Extreme Makeover
Early Pro Wrestling Promotions
Melina Perez became interested in professional wrestling after learning a bit about it from Mike Henderson, a superstar the of Empire Wrestling Federation (EWF). She began her training in year 2000 at Jesse Hernandez’ “School Of Hard Knocks” in California and debuted for EWF in April two years later. Melina was so well respected in the company that many officials stated that she was a natural, unlike any other to pass through their school. Later that year, Perez auditioned for the third annual WWE Tough Enough contest. Although she did not make the final cuts, she was encouraged by Al Snow to continue her pursuits in wrestling. She spent the next two years training in EWF before appearing in the Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) promotion in March of 2004. It was there, where she signed a developmental contract with WWE, helped form the successful tag team known as MNM, lead them to the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship belts, and developed her trademark ring entrance.
Melina Perez & MNM join WWE
At the end of 2004, Melina made appearances on Monday Night Raw, participating in a divas lingerie fashion show and a limbo contest. Approximately five months later, appearing on the April 14th, 2005 edition of Smackdown, Melina Perez, Johnny Nitro, and Joey Mercury (MNM) made their intentions known during the first Carlito’s Cabana show by interrupting the interview with Rey Mysterio and assaulting him. This lead to a WWE Tag Team Title match the following week on Smackdown in which MNM defeated Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio to become the new WWE Tag Team Champions. Melina went on to manage Nitro and Mercury through three WWE Tag Team Championship reigns until the team disbanded after Joey Mercury suffered a broken face and could no longer wrestle. Perez continued to manage Johnny Nitro during his two WWE Intercontinental Championship reigns.
Melina Perez “The Most-Dominant Diva In WWE“
Melina made her singles debut with World Wrestling Entertainment in 2005, while still managing MNM. She was egotistical, beautiful, and always appeared with f in tow. As Melina, Nitro, and Mercury (MNM) entered the ring, they were treated as celebrities by adoring paparazzi, given the ceremonial red carpet treatment, and Melina performed one of the hottest entrances to date in WWE as she did the splits and entered the ring underneath the bottom rope. On June 30th, 2005, Melina made her singles debut beating Michelle McCool in a singles match and at the Great American Bash, Melina participated in her first pay-per-view winning a bra and panties match against Torrie Wilson.
It was not until November 14th, 2005, during the Eddie Guerrero Raw Tribute Show that Melina Perez showed her true potential by eliminating, then Women’s Champion, Trish Stratus and winning an inter-promotional Divas Battle Royal. Stratus was promptly kidnapped the following week by MNM and challenged by Perez for her title belt. At Survivor Series, Melina and Trish fought for the women’s belt until Mickie James interfered and lost the match for Melina.
While competing in singles competition, she continued to manage MNM as they were booked to defend their titles against Rey Mysterio and Batista. Melina tried everything to get Nitro and Mercury out of having to put the Tag Team Championships including seducing Batista in his dressing room. After some “suggested” sexual acts, Batista thanked her for the warm up and proceeded to the ring where he and Mysterio beat MNM for their belts. Afterward, Melina accused Batista of sexual harassment and had Mark Henry act as her personal bodyguard before Nitro and Mercury invoked their re-match clause. The trio regained the Tag Team Championships after interference by Henry in the match.
Melina Perez, Johnny Nitro, & Joey Mercury (MNM) Split
At Judgement Day 2006, MNM lost their Tag Team Titles to Paul London and Brian Kendrick. Nitro and Melina blamed Joey Mercury for the loss and assaulted him. Her frustration was evident as the night progressed and she continued their losing streak in her match against Jillian Hall. This set Nitro and Melina over the edge and Melina wound up slapping General Manager Theodore Long in the face. Both Perez and Nitro were immediately fired from Smackdown breaking up their tag team forever. Melina Perez made her debut on Monday Night Raw, May 29th, 2006, exclusively managing Johnny Nitro’s career. She helped him win countless matches by interfering physically or psychologically with Nitro’s opponents. She continued to manage Nitro’s career, which lead him to two Intercontinental Championships, until she became a stand-alone main event.
Melina’s feud with Trish Stratus was renewed with her move to Raw and Mick Foley began appearing in her promo shoots. Their on-screen friendship turned into a nightmare at SummerSlam as Melina accompanied Foley to the ring to face Ric Flair in an I Quit match. Foley wound up losing the match because Ric Flair threatened to hit Melina with a barbed wire baseball bat if he did not quit. The following night on Raw, things got worse as Foley was then forced to kiss Vince McMahon’s bare buttocks on live television in order for her to keep her job. Melina pleaded with Foley not to do it, but he did, and once it was complete, Melina hit him square in the nuts and fired him for McMahon.
Melina Perez WWE Women’s Champion
Melina competed in a match on January 29th, 2007 that made her the number one contender for the Women’s Championship and performed the California Dream for the first time in WWE. She started competing weekly against Mickey James, first losing a title match on February 5th, then winning a mixed tag team match the following week on Monday Night Raw. On February 19th, Melina Perez pinned Mickie James to win the WWE Women’s Championship Title for the first time in her career. She went on to defend her newly won title the following week on Raw in a re-match for the title against Mickie James in the first ever woman’s Falls Count Anywhere match in WWE history.
While Melina Perez was Women’s Champion, she was far from happy with all the publicity Ashley Massaro, Torrie Wilson, and Candice Michelle received for their Playboy appearances. Melina began calling out the “divas” from the women wrestlers on the roster, claiming no Playboy cover-girls could beat her in a wrestling ring. This led to feuds with all three models and culminated at Wrestlemania 23 where Perez retained her title against Massaro in a Lumberjill match. The following week, Perez organized a photo shoot with Women’s Title, in the ring, that was interrupted by Mickie James. Once again, Melina and Mickie continued their tussles over the championship belt. On April 24th, Melina lost her belt in a Triple threat match when Mickie James pinned Victoria. The acting general manger, Jonathan Coachman, ordered a re-match that very night between Melina and Mickie. Perez regained her title becoming a two time WWE Women’s Champion.
Melina Perez’ Losing Streak
Beginning on May 7th, 2008, Perez began competing in a series of losing matches to Candice Michelle who eventually, at Vengence, took the Women’s Championship from her. She tried regaining the title again at The Great American Bash, but failed. So she aligned herself with Beth Phoenix to soundly defeat Ashley Massaro and Maria Kanellis at Wrestlemania 24. Although both Melina and Beth were a prime tag team on paper, they did not function well together. It all started in a Lumberjill match between Mickie James and Beth Phoenix (with Melina in her corner) for the Women’s Championship title where Melina tried to help Beth win, but wound up hitting her with a boot and costing her the title. The following week on Raw, Phoenix attacked Perez after abandoning her in a tag team match against James and Kanellis. Phoenix was accidentally knocked off the ring apron by Perez during a tag attempt and she certainly paid the price backstage, after the match. This led to the One Night Stand pay-per-view and the first ever WWE Women’s I Quit match that featured Phoenix as the winner. Melina Perez began teaming with James and on June 23rd, during a match featuring the two against Natalya Neidhart and Victoria, Perez was knocked off a top turnbuckle injuring her heel and sidelining her.
Melina Perez’ 3rd WWE Women’s Championship Reign
Perez’ in-ring return occurred on the November 24th, 2008 edition of Monday Night Raw where she teamed with Mickie James and Candice Michelle to beat Beth Phoenix, Katie Lea Burchill, and Jillian Hall. Melina’s losing streak ended with this new beginning as she scored the pin-fall on Burchill in the match. Her singles in-ring debut occurred a week later where she defeated Jillian Hall with her new finishing move “The Last Call”. Melina wasted no time in stating her intentions of taking the championship title from Beth Phoenix directly after the match. Approximately one month later, on December 29th, she won a Six-Diva Battle Royal to become number one contender to the title. Directly after the match, she was attacked by an over-zealous Beth Phoenix fan named Rosa Mendes who had continually berated her at ring-side. Things, eventually, became physical between the two and Phoenix wound up bringing in Mendes as a trainee. On January 25th, 2009, winning the Royal Rumble against Beth Phoenix, Melina began her third championship reign. She went on to successfully retain her title numerous times over Phoenix until on April 13th, Melina was drafted to Smackdown bringing the Women’s Championship with her. In May, she and Michelle McCool began a rivalry over the women’s title that led to Melina eventually losing her belt to McCool on June 28,2009 during the Bash. Perez and McCool continued their wrestling contests through Night Of Champions, where she failed once again to re-gain the belt.
In my opinion, Melina Perez is one of the most talented female wrestlers that World Wrestling Entertainment has. She is extremely flexible which allows her to perform matrix-like moves in the ring, has a genuine passion for the business, plays heel or hero well, and participates in the most unique WWE women’s events in history. Her beauty would be competition enough for any diva in wrestling, but together with her in-ring abilities, Melina looks fairly set to have her name grace the women’s hall of fame.