Trivia / Melina

• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Although she had wrestling experience from the indies, she opted to tone her athleticism down when she started wrestling on Smackdown, since she was working with a lot of Diva Search contestants and felt that would make them look better - with the intention to develop her character into a more confident wrestler as the years went on.
  • For her match against Beth Phoenix at the 2009 Royal Rumble, she suggested that Beth bend her leg back so far she kicked her in the head with her own foot.
• Career Resurrection: On the independent circuit since the end of her 10-Minute Retirement.
• Corpsing: At Survivor Series 2007 she slipped and fell off the apron while trying to do the splits. Despite playing a heel, she burst out laughing and was still giggling to herself when she did them properly a second time.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: It was widely reported, and still well believed, that she cheated on John Morrison with Batista. However, it was actually Rosa Mendes, formerly known as Milena Roucka and single at the time, who had a fling with him. It doesn't help for the perception to many people that Melina did have a relationship with Batista after breaking up with Morrison (and before reuniting with him).
• Creator Backlash: She's joked that she didn't like the angle of the Playboy storyline with Ashley Massaro - specifically the commentators trying to frame her as jealous ("why would I be jealous of anyone when I have the title?"). She did however say she liked working with Ashley, despite the poor reception to those matches.
• Creator Breakdown: Admits that she suffered this early on in her career due to playing a heel all the time. This caused fans to believe she was like her character, and even some of her co-workers.
  "I wanted my fans to be family and hug them and thank them, but you have kayfabe and kayfabe is like, ‘No, you can’t be nice to people’."
• Discredited Meme: The 'Melina vs Alicia Fox' joke that came about when Cameron was eliminated from WWE Tough Enough after she said that was her favourite match. Melina says the joke needs to die, it was never funny and has always been annoying.
• Dye Hard: Naturally brown haired but had blonde highlights early in her career, eventually swapped for the black people are more familiar with. In 2011 she also had blue in her hair. As of late 2015, she has blond highlights once again.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • When she slapped Maria backstage, they had her do multiple takes because she wasn't giving the reaction they wanted, and then forced them to do the segment live. An exhausted Melina then slapped Maria full force.
  • She would be on the other end of that later when Linda McMahon's slaps to her weren't deemed effective enough, forcing her to be slapped full force on live TV.
• Fan Community Nickname: "Kyra's Fight Klub" or later "Melinquents".
• Follow the Leader: Many women wrestlers began doing the splits on the ring apron as a Shout-Out to her. Summer Rae used her Sunset Split finisher, Sasha Banks would use a double knee drop to an opponent straddling the turnbuckle as she did, and Alexa Bliss used her Last Call.
• Friendship on the Set:
  • The on-screen friendship between her and Jillian Hall was essentially a reflection of their real-life relationship. They are still good friends years later.
  • The Bella Twins were good friends of Melina, who they said was a locker room leader for them. They wanted to work together more actually (see below).
  • Despite their on-screen rivalry, Melina was friends with the late Ashley Massaro. Despite their lacklustre match at WrestleMania, she has praised Ashley for her work ethic and say she tried harder than people realise.
• Funny Character, Boring Actor: Describes herself as such. Melina in the ring is a Large Ham Screaming Warrior as well as The Fashionista, while outside the ring she claims to be as a Shrinking Violet (although her out-of-character appearances seem to contradict this, as she's always smiling and laughing - but that could just be another form of performing for her).
• Hostility on the Set:
  • Maria Kanellis says of Melina "I used to get along with her but then she drove me crazy". However, after both their releases from WWE, they appeared on After Buzz TV together a couple of times seemingly on good terms again. Melina would praise Maria for their chemistry in the ring in a 2023 interview with Ring the Belle.
  • In her early days in the company, Melina's shyness didn't endear her to the locker room, with many mistaking it for arrogance (this happened to the 2004 Diva Search contestants too, who were told not to speak to the wrestlers and were in turn assumed to be ignorant). She ended up being taken to Wrestler's Court over it and yelled at until she cried.
  • Candice Michelle admitted that the animosity between them in their feud was very real, and Melina disapproved of her not having a wrestling background; she especially took offence to Candice accusing Melina of stealing one of her moves on a WWE.com blog. They did however eventually earn each other's respect.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Melina the character is known for being a Girly Bruiser and always looking fabulous. However Melina the person says she's more of a tomboy in real life.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: "Metro" with Johnny Nitro. Whenever she teamed with Gail Kim, fans nicknamed them "Gailina".
• Promoted Fanboy: She wrestled in Ireland for Over The Top Wrestling in 2016 and had a match against Katey Harvey - who had been a fan of her for years.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Her feud with Maryse was cut short by a torn ACL in 2010 - so the Divas' Championship had to be immediately vacated, and Maryse won the belt in a tournament. This led to Eve Torres getting a push as the top face.
• Reality Subtext: Melina's on-screen Go Seduce My Archnemesis moment where she was sent by Johnny Nitro to seduce Batista in an unsuccessful attempt to wear him out before a tag team match can certainly be viewed in a much more different light when one reads all the rumors and dirt-sheets of Batista and Melina engaging in a sexual relationship in real life with Morrison being the supposed Emasculated Cuckold, though Batista officially stated in his autobiography that he did sleep with Melina but it was during a period of time when she and Morrison had broken up.
• Romance on the Set: With John Morrison, on-and-off for well over a decade (during one of those "off" periods, she had a short relationship with Batista, which was referenced in a segment on SmackDown!); The couple have been airing their dirty laundry on social media for a while now. Melina seems the type to boil his rabbit if he ever left her.
• Screwed by the Network:
  • When she and Michelle McCool were feuding, they put on two very well-received PPV matches. Apparently after their second match they were yelled at for a spot they did^note Michelle gave Melina a DDT while they were on the security wall being "too good" or looking "better than some of the guys". Melina and Michelle never made it to another PPV despite their feud continuing (and Melina proving to be surprisingly over with fans). The feud was abruptly ended with a short Lumberjill match on Smackdown and Melina quickly traded to Raw.
  • A different kind of screwing happened when she returned from her ACL injury. Alicia Fox was the new champion and a blossoming top heel. Melina's return could have made for a good veteran vs rookie storyline (that isn't often seen with Divas) and helped Alicia's credibility. But Melina was immediately jumped straight to the top of the line when she returned and put into a PPV match only two weeks in. She retweaked her leg in the match and yet still won the title, burying Alicia completely and depriving Melina of a meaningful return story. Then they rushed a feud with LayCool to unify the titles and then shunt Melina aside.
• Throw It In!
  • Her WrestleMania 23 match with Ashley Massaro apparently. They were left in doubt as to whether or not it would happen as Ashley had broken her foot the week prior. They and the rest of the Divas^note Who would be acting as Lumberjills at ringside had to wait in the Gorilla Position on the offchance they would be on the card. Finally they were told by a producer "yeah we can squeeze you guys in".
  • Doing the splits for her entrance was another. When she was with MNM in developmental someone suggested she do something sexy during their entrance. So she just did the splits on the apron and the rest is history.
  • When she and Beth Phoenix had a backstage brawl that kicked off Melina's face turn, Beth accidentally punched her head into the concrete. Melina didn't even notice until she got back to the locker room and found that her reflection showed a huge bruise on her forehead.
  • For their title unification match, Michelle McCool wanted to attack her while she was doing the splits again. As she had already done it twice, Melina came up with a Call-Back where Michelle went for it but Melina moved up at the last minute.
• What Could Have Been
  • Her sister was going to release a Kyra DVD but went back on it when Melina was called up to the Smackdown main roster and became a heel.
  • Her match with Velvet Sky at WWC's 39th Aniversario was originally planned to be against Mickie James.
  • She was cut from the finalists on Tough Enough in favour of Lisa - who ended up removed from the competition later after suffering a Creator Breakdown^note Though the show only said she decided wrestling wasn't the right career for her. One does wonder what would have happened if Melina had been chosen instead.
  • The Bella Twins lobbied really hard for the three of them to become a stable called Latina Heat. In 2011 they both ended up as heels at the same time and got to team together for a couple of matches, but nothing ever came of it.

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