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A lot of the WWE Diva’s Era of women’s wrestling rarely gets the respect it deserves. While it is true that there were a lot of bad moments in the Diva’s Era, there are a lot of hidden gems during that time in women’s wrestling. One of them was a surprisingly long term, history making feud between Beth Phoenix and Melina.

Beth Phoenix bends Melina in half

RELATED: 10 Things WWE Women Can Do Now That They Couldn't In The Divas Era

Beth Phoenix And Melina Split As A Tag Team

In 2007, Beth Phoenix became the WWE Women’s Champion at No Mercy. She was Raw’s top female heel in the women’s division and Melina was right behind her as the number two heel. The two would often team together in feuds, terrorizing the babyface women’s roster. They would compete in some big events together, including a heavily promoted WrestleMania XXIV tag match which had celebrity involvement from Snoop Dog. In early 2008, Beth Phoenix and Melina shared their disdain for Playboy and would antagonize that year’s Playboy Cover Star, Maria Kanellis. At WrestleMania, Maria would team with Ashley Massaro, with Snoop Dog in their corner, against Beth Phoenix and Melina and surprisingly, heels Beth Phoenix and Melina would win the match.

Beth Phoenix & Melina v Ashley & Maria WrestleMania 24

The partnership started to break down after WrestleMania, however, as Melina accidently cost Phoenix the Woman's Championship in a match against Mickie James. A week later, during a tag match, Melina accidentally struck Phoenix, causing her to leave Melina high and dry in the match. Later that night, Beth Phoenix viciously attacked Melina backstage, throwing her into the lockers, ending their partnership for good.

This caused an interesting alignment switch. Melina, who had been heel since her WWE debut in 2005, was now babyface for the first time in her WWE career. Beth would attack Melina week after week, and as a result, Melina was getting more and more over with the fans. This was when Melina and Phoenix made history in the women’s division. Melina wanted to settle this rivalry once and for all and challenged Beth Phoenix to a historic first ever women’s “I Quit” Match at One Night Stand 2008.

RELATED: Is Melina WWE's Most Underrated Women's Wrestler Ever?

Beth Phoenix Battles Melina In An "I Quit" Match

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The match at One Night Stand was absolutely brutal, easily one of the best women’s matches of this era and one you should definitely go out of you way to see. The I Quit stipulation, along with Melina's flexibility, gave the match a unique feel. Phoenix was stretching, contorting and manipulating Melina’s body in ways that have never been seen before. Beth Phoenix won the match by applying a Glam Slam style submission hold, bending Melina’s body backwards at a sick angle.

Beth Phoenix was the perfect heel that night and Melina was a perfect babyface. It was truly one of the best matches of the Divas era.

Beth Phoenix vs. Melina (One Night Stand, 2008) Cropped

Speaking to Ring The Belle, Melina discussed the historic match, "To have the opportunity in an era where people were ridiculing Divas, that's when I knew that I worked hard for this moment. I knew that they trusted us that we were that good to be handed a moment like this and make history like that. You can't take that away. I'm proud of what we did."

Melina Returns From Injury To Face Beth Phoenix Again

Not long after the match, Melina suffered an ankle injury and was out for four months. In Melina’s absence, Beth Phoenix won the Women’s Championship back and dominated the Women’s division. She was the sole survivor for her team at that year's Survivor Series and would start a very popular storyline with Santino Marella.

The night after Survivor Series 2008, Melina made her shocking return and vowed to take the Women’s Championship from one of her most hated rivals. A week later, Melina won a Battle Royale to become the Number One Contender to Beth Phoenix’s title and the rematch was on at Royal Rumble 2009. However, as a sign of the times, the match at Royal Rumble was just five minutes long, showing that the women’s were under heavy restrictions at the time. The feud had been building for well over a year at that point, and it should have been a longer match. Melina won the match and become a three time Women’s Champion. In another sign of the times, Beth Phoenix and Melina would have a rematch on the following PPV No Way Out…in a dark match.

Two months later, Melina was drafted to SmackDown, but would defeat one of her biggest rivals on the way out, defeating Beth Phoenix for a third time in a row.

Melina Women's Champion

Melina and Beth Phoenix worked hard to create a long term, unique storyline within the restriction of WWE’s divas division at the time. The storyline lasted almost two years, and they were able to get some iconic moments and matches out of the feud.