melina perez

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." Melina would go on to add a high-pitched scream during matches when cheering on her team, which has been labeled the "primal scream."

Career

Melina was born in Los Angeles, California. Prior to Perez's career in pro wrestling she was a fashion model. In 2001, after talking to Mike Henderson, Perez decided to become a professional wrestler and enrolled in Jesse Hernandez's School of Hard Knocks to train. 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) and the now-defunct CRUSH All-Women's promotion, where she first worked with Mickie James. While working as Kyra in various Southern California Indy promotions, Perez received a WWE developmental contract in December 2003. She then appeared on WWE's reality program Tough Enough 3.

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

SmackDown! Diva

On the April 14, 2005 edition of SmackDown!, Melina, along with her tag team of Mercury and Nitro debuted as MNM. The team interrupted the first ever "Carlito's Cabana" on which one half of the-then 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 match for the WWE Tag Team Titles on the next weeks edition of SmackDown!. Melina would lead her men to victory over Mysterio and his tag team partner Eddie Guerrero to begin MNM's first title reign.

While managing the tag-team titles Melina would feud with and attack many of the Divas within WWE at this time, proclaiming herself to be "the most dominant diva in WWE". Melina's first WWE match was a victory against Michelle McCool on an episode of SmackDown!. Her first pay-per-view match, also a victory, was a Bra and Panties match against Torrie Wilson at the Great American Bash.

After losing their tag team title at The Great American Bash, Melina aligned MNM with a "fixer", Jillian Hall, who would assist Melina in feuds with other WWE Divas, including Sharmell and Christy Hemme manager of the new Tag Team Champions, Heidenreich and Road Warrior Animal.

MNM would regain the WWE Tag Team Championship on the October 28, 2005 edition of SmackDown!. On the Eddie Guerrero Tribute edition of RAW, Melina accompanied MNM to the ring for their match against RAW's then-World Tag Team Champions Kane and The Big Show before winning an interpromotional Diva battle royal, last eliminating RAW's WWE Women's Champion Trish Stratus. This match lead to an interpromotional feud that would see SmackDown!'s Melina get a chance to win 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, a Chick Kick and hitting her own spinning kneel-out facebuster, Melina's first WWE Women's Title shot resulted in a loss, due to a timely interference from Mickie James. This was Melina's first singles loss in the WWE. After this match the IWC recognized Melina as a star on the rise.

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" allowing MNM time to prepare for their title defence 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. Mysterio and Batista would win this match and take the titles from MNM.

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 would accompany Melina and aid the other members of MNM in matches involving Batista and his tag team partner, Mysterio. MNM and Mark Henry feuded with Kurt Angle and would soon be joined by Daivari. Melina would later give Henry's services to Daivari and both teams went separate ways.

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 2006, MNM would lose their WWE Tag Team Championship to London and Kendrick. The trio then imploded as Melina and Nitro attacked Mercury, blaming him for the loss, and later that night, Melina would lose her match to Jillian Hall by a controversial decision and, after slapping General Manager Theodore Long in anger, she and Johnny Nitro were (kayfabe) fired from SmackDown!.

RAW Diva

Melina and Johnny Nitro made their way to the RAW brand from their, debuting 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. During this feud, Melina was billed as having a more aggressive mat style.[1]. 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.

The next week, Melina and Johnny Nitro held a press conference in which they put themselves over as the "it" couple of RAW and stated that, as "Hollywood stars", that were above aligning with "regular people" such as Foley. The press conference, which was not received well, became the butt of jokes from Jeff Hardy, who compared it to "watching paint dry". This started a feud between Hardy and Nitro over Nitro's Intercontinental title. At Unforgiven, Nitro sucessfully defended his title when Melina interfered and hit Hardy with her boot. Hardy did, however, win a rematch on the October 2 RAW, promopting Melina to appear during a backstage interview he was holding and scream wildly, which led to Hardy covering her mouth to silence her.

Personal life

Perez has been dating John Hennigan, better known as Johnny Nitro, since early 2004. They met when she was part of the final cut on Tough Enough III. They lived together in Louisville, Kentucky for some time and recently moved back to California, where they live together. She also has one sibling, a brother.

Perez speaks both English and Spanish fluently.

In wrestling

• Finishing and signature moves

• As Melina

• Melina Buster (Kneeling spinning facebuster)
• Back mounted crossfaces
• Flying double axe handle
• Hair pulling mat slam
• High Pitched Screaming
• Modified Bow and Arrow
• Modified Camel clutch
• Neck scissors (on the apron, as interference when managing)
• Pendulum backbreaker
• Rear naked choke
• Shoulder block takedown
• Surfboard submission

• As Kyra

• KyraPractor (Sickle hold)
• Frog splash - in EWF
• Divastator (kicking combination)
• Kyranium Buster (Diving neckbreaker)

• Wrestlers Managed

• Mark Henry
• Joey Mercury
• Mick Foley
• Johnny Nitro
• Frankie Kazarian

Championships and accomplishments

• Melina was the second Diva to crack WWE.com's Power 25 (in a solo spot) at number 24, for the week starting November 26, 2005.
• Melina has also been mentioned in 'J.R.'s Superstar of the Week' for her in-ring talent.
• Melina has also been featured in the WWE's Best Managers DVD.

External links

• Official Site
• Premier-Melina.Net (fansite)
• WWE Profile