Melina was one of the most underrated female performers in WWE history. Both the in-ring work and the managing skills of Melina landed her success during her time in WWE. The call-up with Johnny Nitro and Joey Mercury led to the MNM trio dominating the tag team division for Smackdown in the time of the brand split.
WWE moving Melina on her own into a singles role landed her the ideal scenario of becoming a top talent for the women’s division. Unfortunately, Melina found her way into quite a few controversial stories from behind the scenes. Find out more about her career outside of what we saw in the ring.
10 Was To Get Paired With Robert Stone For Return
There were rumors circulating about Melina making her return to WWE in 2020. The talks seemingly ended out of nowhere until reality show star Johnny Fairplay shared a story about his time with friend Robert Stone.
Fairplay claimed that Stone was scheduled to manage Melina in NXT to add a credible top name from the past to the women’s division. Melina suffering from an injury ended the plans according to Fairplay. Time will tell if we ever see Melina back in a WWE ring.
9 Turned Down For Tough Enough Season 3
WWE used to treat Tough Enough like one of its biggest assets over the first few seasons. Many aspiring wrestlers from all over the globe tried out to become part of the reality series with a WWE contract as the prize.
Melina was shown in the casting process for the third season, but she was not selected to be part of the cast. WWE clearly saw enough potential in Melina to offer her a developmental contract as she was signed shortly after.
8 Lita Kicked Her Out Of Locker Room
Melina had a lot of reports of heat backstage when stories leaked online from her early years of run-ins with other talents. The first major story featured Lita being the veteran to kick Melina out of the locker room for having an attitude.
WWE used to have common scenarios of veterans kicking a newcomer out of the locker room if they felt someone deserved it. Lita clearly had the veteran spot as one of the biggest stars in the women’s locker room and humbled Melina.
7 Got In Trouble For Having Too Good Of A Match
The women’s division did not have the same opportunities in past eras that they have these days. Michelle McCool and Melina were actually receiving heat backstage for having too good of a match at the Night of Champions 2009 event.
Both ladies have shared their accounts of WWE management getting upset at them doing too much at a time when they didn’t want the women’s matches to take away from the men. Chris Jericho went out of their way to commend both ladies and told them that the criticism was unfair.
6 Backstage Drama With Other Wrestlers Started From Blog Posts
WWE started to let the wrestlers write blogs in the late 2000s when trying to implement the internet in productive ways. Melina wrote a few controversial blogs that led to her issues with other women on the roster becoming more public.
Mickie James and Candice Michelle were two of the women targeted by Melina in the blogs. The war of words with Candice featured Melina calling her out: “Candice Michelle, what wrestling school have you gone to? How did you get your job here with WWE?” after Michelle accused Melina of stealing her move.
5 John Morrison Refused To Hug Trish Stratus Due To Heat With Melina
The WrestleMania 27 intergender tag team saw reality show star Snooki teaming with Trish Stratus and John Morrison to defeat Dolph Ziggler, Michelle McCool and Layla in an attraction match. Rumors indicated that Melina was scheduled to be in the match until the bigger star Stratus returned.
The post-match celebration for the faces was more memorable than the match itself. Morrison refused to hug Trish assumingly due to her taking Melina’s spot. Stratus confirmed that Morrison stated that when she confronted him backstage. Both Melina and Morrison had heat with WWE afterwards.
4 Received Backstage Heat For Love Triangle
One of the most controversial real-life love triangles featured Batista, John Morrison and Melina. Various wrestlers like Paul London, Brian Kendrick and Maria Kanellis confirmed the rumors during their respective shoot interviews.
The story saw Melina dating Batista while still in a relationship with Morrison to put them all in hot water. Batista was the only one to survive it without any heat since he was already a top star. WWE reportedly slowed down on the pushes of Morrison and Melina due to the high-profile nature of the love triangle getting ugly.
3 Was Emotional About Bret Hart’s Praise
The all-around character of Melina was always one of the strongest women in WWE. Melina worked extremely hard to have good matches and received huge credit from a couple of all-time great wrestlers.
Bret Hart did not hold back when putting Melina over in his interviews calling her one of the best wrestlers in the world during her prime. Melina revealed that Bret complimented her even more in person when he returned to WWE and she got emotional hearing such praise from a childhood hero.
2 Mick Foley Went Out Of Way To Put Her Over
Mick Foley was another legend who loved the work of Melina and wanted to help her career. WWE saw Foley making the rare returns in his feuds with Edge, Randy Orton and Ric Flair as his retirement never completely stuck.
Melina could not wrestle Foley, so she got the next best thing in a segment with him and Vince McMahon. Foley joined the Kiss My Ass Club of Vince to protect Melina’s job when she was threatened. However, Melina revealed she was in on it all along and fired Foley on behalf of Vince to get more heat as a hated heel.
1 Broke Down During Wrestlers’ Court
The tradition of Wrestlers’ Court was polarizing for years when the locker room felt they needed to police someone stepping out of line. Melina’s case was the one that jumped the shark and made many wrestlers second guess the concept.
The veterans of the locker room put Melina “on trial” for various actions backstage that got her heat. Melina reportedly broke down in tears when confronted and insulted in front of everyone. WWE has since stopped the wrestlers from having such moments backstage that can get too personal and bordering on bullying.