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Exclusive Biography
Early Years
Melina Nava Perez (born March 9, 1979) grew up in Southern California (Los Angeles), the daughter of a loving mother and father, who would encourage her to accomplish all she can in life and to never let her dreams pass her by. The examples set by her parents and the lessons they taught her, would help Melina excel through her adolescent years and would mold her into the woman of honor and integrity she is today. When Melina was in high school, she ran track and cross country, continuing on the athleticism that ran in her blood, thanks to her father, who was a professional boxer. Despite her athletic abilities, Melina’s soft-spoken personality garnered her many friends through high school. Never one to turn her back on a friend, Melina was a loyal and generous soul, doing whatever it took to help someone when they were down and out.
Prior to becoming a professional wrestler, Melina was a model. She was in numerous beauty contests/pageants, some of which she won, including a Miss California contest. It wasn’t all glitz and glamour though, as she once again showed off her athletic side by modelling athletic wear for Nike. In 2000, after talking to family friend and professional wrestler, Mike Henderson, Melina decided that she was going to become a professional wrestler. With that, she enrolled into Jesse Hernandez’s “School of Hard Knocks” and started training to perfect her craft. Melina made her professional debut in 2002 and immediately took the California independent scene by storm. She joined a number of California-based promotions such as the Empire Wrestling Federation (EWF), where she wrestled under the ring name “Kyra”, and CRUSH, as “Melanie Little Deer”. Melina was only at the beginning of her journey, the journey that would take her all over the world and straight to our hearts.
I never thought I’d be doing it. I never thought I’d be on TV doing this, but I found the love and it just stole my heart.
- Melina Perez
OVW and WWE Days
Melina would go on to tryout for WWE’s Tough Enough III. She made it to the final 21, but got cut on the first episode. Down but not out, Melina returned to the independent scene to keep working on her in-ring abilities. It would not be the last time we heard of her, she was going to make sure of that. Long behold, Melina signed a contract with WWE in 2004 and was sent to their developmental territory in Ohio, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). Ohio Valley Wrestling would not only introduce us to the Diva in Melina, but it would also have us witness the birth of a piece of history. No, we aren’t talking about Melina’s famous splits (although, that is where she perfected the splits), we are talking about MNM (Melina, Johnny Nitro, and Joey Mercury), the IT team on the scene.
Despite making appearances on WWE Television in 2004, Melina made her official WWE debut with MNM on SmackDown! in 2005. A week after they debuted, Melina led her boys to their very first Tag Team Championship reign. MNM was on fire and there was no stopping them. Two title reigns later, MNM started to show cracks in their foundation. The fire was not as strong and MNM wasn’t strong enough to hold it all together. At Judgement Day in 2006, Melina and Nitro attacked Mercury after a loss. This led to Melina and Nitro being fired from SmackDown!. Of course, they would later show up on RAW and (without Joey Mercury) began dominating the flagship brand. Melina proved again and again that she is the manager of champions, as she led Nitro to an Intercontinental Championship reign. Melina and Nitro were once again on fire. It wouldn’t be long before MNM resurfaced, this time taking on the team of the newly reunited Hardy Boyz. The feud lasted a little while, but MNM once again fizzled out, never to be seen together again.
People call me a Diva because they see me as a temperamental, impatient and conceited woman. Say what you will, but I am a True Diva in every sense of the word.
- Melina Perez
Melina was ready to take herself to new heights. She was going to prove that she was the most dominant Diva in WWE, once and for all. She did just that when she won her first WWE Women’s Championship from Mickie James in 2007. Melina was on top and she wasn’t looking to go anywhere, anytime soon. She successfully defended her championship against Ashley, who Melina thought was trying to take her spotlight by posing for Playboy, at WrestleMania 23. Melina was taking the Divas division by storm, no one was going to take her glory without putting up one hell of a fight. A two-time champion now, Melina found a new challenger in Candice Michelle. After a number of victories over Melina, Candice took the championship from Melina at Night of Champions in 2007. Melina kind of faded into the background a little, playing second fiddle to Beth Phoenix, who would go on to take the title from Candice Michelle. Melina and Beth became good friends, but all good things must come to an end. The two started to show faults in their friendship after WrestleMania 24, where they teamed up to take out Ashley and Maria, and it wasn’t soon after that the two were at each other’s throats. They went onto fight in the first ever Diva’s “I Quit” match at Extreme Rules in 2008. Melina would be the one uttering those horrible words, but she did say Beth Phoenix would not break her and even though she tried, Beth certainly did not break Melina.
Melina became a fan favorite and had the fans in the palm of her hand, but tragedy struck and Melina was seriously injured at the 2008 WWE Draft, putting her out of action for 5 months. During that time, Beth would once again win the championship, making herself the target of a returning Melina. When Melina returned, she knew what she wanted and she was going to do everything in her power to get that title off of Beth. Despite having all the odds against her, Melina did just that at the 2009 Royal Rumble, making herself a 3-time WWE Women’s Champion. Melina would return to her roots in 2009, thanks to the 2009 WWE Draft, where she was drafted to SmackDown!. There, she met a strong competitor in Michelle McCool, who would go on to beat Melina for the WWE Women’s Championship at the Bash in 2009. Melina would try to capture the title for a fourth time at Night of Champions, but Michelle was too strong. Melina would be once again drafted, this time back to RAW, in a Divas draft. On her returning night, she would beat former ally Jillian Hall for the WWE Divas’ Champion. Sadly, Melina would get injured again in December of 2009, forcing her to forfeit her title.
Melina would return in 2010 to become a 2-time Divas’ Champion, by defeating Alicia Fox at SummerSlam. She would then get into a feud with co-Women’s Champions, Lay-Cool (Michelle McCool and Layla), which would lead to title unification at Night of Champions. Thanks to a distraction by all the Divas, Melina would lose to Michelle. Melina would fade back into the background, until late 2010/early 2011. After becoming #1 contender for the Divas’ Champion, which was held by Natalya, Melina returned to her bad girl ways by slapping Natalya across the face. Melina would face Natalya for the title, but she unfortunately lost the match as Natalya would re-enter into a feud with Lay-Cool.
In August of 2011, Melina was released from her WWE contract. She was no longer a WWE Diva.
New Beginnings
With a new lease on life, Melina had no plans on slowing down. A whole new world of opportunities opened up to Melina. Without the chains of WWE holding her down, Melina was now able to explore new horizons. Melina has proven that she is a strong individual, with a good head on her shoulders. Nothing was (or is ever) going to slow her down. On November 19, 2011, Melina debuted for Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU), competing in her first post-WWE match with Alexxis “Lexxus” Nevaeh, a match in which she won. After staying quiet for a few months, news of Melina’s next match began to surface in January of 2012. The match, set for February 4th of 2012, would take place all the way in Manila (the capitol of the Philippines) for World Wrestling Fan Xperience (WWFX) as part of their Champions Showcase 2012 Tour. The tour, which was only 1 night, featured a ton of former WWE Talent. On February 4th, 2012, Melina defeated fellow former WWE Diva, Jillian in front of a jam packed arena, who were chanting Melina’s name as she competed. Before Melina would travel to Manila, however, she joined the cast of AfterBuzz TV’s Bad Girls Club Season 8 after-show analysis group, analyzing the show every week on Monday.
