Milena Leticia Roucka (born October 25, 1979) is a Canadian professional wrestler, professional wrestling manager and model who is known for her time in WWE under the ring name Rosa Mendes.
In 2006, Roucka competed in WWE's Diva Search and reached the final eight. After she was eliminated on August, WWE signed her to a developmental contract, and she was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), WWE's developmental territory. After her stint there ended (and while she was still in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's new developmental territory,) Roucka debuted as Rosa Mendes on Raw in November 2008 as a planted fan, holding signs in which she proclaimed to be WWE Women's Champion Beth Phoenix's number one fan. Eventually she would go on to jump the guardrail and attack Melina, leading Mendes to be hired by Phoenix's boyfriend Santino Marella to be his and Phoenix's "intern."
Her association with Beth Phoenix quietly ended after Mendes was eliminated from a battle royal by Phoenix herself, and Mendes was traded from Raw to the ECW brand, where she began a personal and managerial relationship with Zack Ryder. On the final episode of ECW on February 16, 2010, Ryder and Mendes interfered in the main event match, where Mendes was speared by ECW General Manager Tiffany. Ryder and Mendes then moved to the Raw brand, but on April, Mendes was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the Draft, without Ryder. There she would have a more active wrestling career, eventually becoming the manager of WWE Tag Team Champions Primo and Epico.
Afterwards, she would go on to only appear on matches that required a large group of female wrestlers, such as a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match in Survivor Series 2013 in which her team took on the cast of Total Divas, and a 14-woman Invitational match for the WWE Divas Championship at WrestleMania XXX (in which the champion A.J. Lee retained the title), as well as forming partnerships with Fandango and Adam Rose, before departing from the company in February 2017. In OVW, under her real name, she was a one-time OVW Women's Champion
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Tropes related to Rosa Mendes:
- Be Careful What You Wish For: She, Primo and Epico were complaining about not getting enough TV time during their tag team title reign. Their next TV match...was the one where they lost the belts.
- Bilingual Bonus: She often speaks in Spanish. This was taken up to eleven when she managed Primo and Epico, when she would rant in Spanish during their matches, and often during interviews.
- Demoted to Extra: Was never an especially major player in the division, but all but disappeared in 2013 from a combination of being sent home and returning only to find that the tag team she had been managing had been repackaged.
- Evil Is Hammy: Definitely during her time as the Queen of FCW.
- Expy: Her cocky attitude, said cocky attitude being more interesting than her wrestling skills, being a Ms. Fanservice and cutting bilingual promos led to some calling her the Spanish version of Maryse. Diva Dirt called her 'Marosa'.
- Finishing Move: Averted! She has never won a singles match on WWE TV so she has no finisher. Notably during the Vickie Guerrero Invitational at WrestleMania XXX, in which there was a finishers rush (every participant of the match appplying their finishing moves on someone else in quick succession), Rosa gives Natalya a sidewalk slam that was usually only a Signature Move called La Peligrosa. She did use a swinging neckbreaker in FCW called Hell Makeover, however.
- Fleeting Demographic Rule: She was the third Diva to debut as an obsessed fan to the reigning Women's Champion - after Tori to Sable and Mickie James to Trish Stratus.
- Foreign-Language Tirade: She would rant in Spanish during Primo and Epico's matches when she managed them, and often during interviews.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: She was primarily a heel from her debut onwards. During her time on Smackdown, LayCool bullied her and that resulted in a face turn. She reverted to heel for the sake of one Halloween segment, then back to face. In 2011 she was back to being a heel regularly, until joining Total Divas turned her into a face. Note that she never had an actual turn. She just appeared on TV in the relevant role.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Her biggest accomplishment outside of Ohio Valley and WWE's FCW revival was probably helping retire Melina's paparazzi after she joined their ranks to ambush Melina. Rosa was quickly fought off but provided enough of a distraction for Beth Phoenix to do some real damage.
- Jobber: The role she serves in the majority of her one-on-one matches. In her whole WWE career (not counting FCW matches) she had only one win against Layla - and that was a disqualification.
- Kaleidoscope Hair: Her hair often changed from brown to blonde to black over the course of the years.
- Lethal Chef: During a 2010 Thanksgiving episode of Raw, she tries to cook a turkey and fails badly. In an Ask The Divas episode, Gail Kim named Rosa as the worst cook."She looks like she can't even boil water."
- Loony Fan: Towards Beth Phoenix. She debuted attacking Melina after Phoenix lost the Women's Championship. Phoenix was not very appreciative but then boyfriend Santino Marella suggested that they keep Rosa around because she could be useful to Phoenix. Mendes showed ambitions to do anything to help, but Phoenix beat her down immediately in their first battle royal together, then had the gall to act surprised when Mendes broke away from her and later announced her intentions to take her down the next time they met.
- Ms. Fanservice: Her whole point as the valet for Primo and Epico. Ditto with Fandango.
- One-Steve Limit: Her name change to Rosa was partly because her real name Milena was too similar to Melina. This has often led to the two being confused in backstage stories (Melina was accused of having an affair with Batista while she was with John Morrison, when it was actually Milena for instance).
- Paper Tiger: During their Diva Search, Layla voted for her to be removed based on this. "She can talk the talk but not walk the walk."
- Pet the Dog: She was sitting grumpily at ringside as part of the Lumberjills for an FCW Divas match. Ring announcer Aksana was high fiving all the Lumberjills. Rosa initially looked repulsed, but gave Aksana a five too.
- Phenotype Stereotype: As a darker-skinned Latina than some of the others - Eve, Melina, the Bella Twins - she was given a Spicy Latina persona and billed from Costa Rica. Her Latin ethnicity was played up far more than theirs.
- Put on a Bus:
- Was sent home from an European tour in April 2013 due to personal problems. Turns out those problems were of the alcohol-related variety.
- Went on maternity leave in mid-2015.
- Shout-Out: For WrestleMania 30 she had short platinum blonde hair modelled after Marilyn Monroe.
- Spicy Latina:
- Especially on FCW, where she had a permanent mad on due to an inexplicable loathing for Angela Fong.
- Slid back into it as the dance partner for the returning Fandango.
