YMMV / Melina

• Alternate Character Interpretation: The Kick the Dog example on the main page. Maybe she was sincerely offering Jillian a job, in her own narcissistic way.
• Base-Breaking Character: Has almost always been one since the first time one of her matches was presented on a website with a comment section (Ebony Princess should be getting her push! No, Kyra is great!) and possibly even before then with responses from established wrestlers toward the eager beauty queen ranging from "she's too small" to "she's got the most natural ability of any student here". She's divisive within the Smart Mark community. Depending on who you ask, she's either a talented wrestler or an overrated, obnoxious slut. Upon leaving WWE Melina called herself the most controversial women in the business.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: Her ring entrance^note which consisted of her doing splits on the ring apron and then seductively crawling under the rope into the ring, resulting in a panty shot back when she wore skirts. seems to be more popular than Melina herself. For a while, fans forgot that she had actually trained to wrestle on the indies and assumed she was a Diva Search girl because of the Fanservice.
• Broken Base: A minor example, but is Melina better as a heel or a face? She became famous as a heel and is beloved by many as the screaming Alpha Bitch of MNM and her first Women's Championship push. But she also has just as many fans who love her work as a Face, finding her surprisingly good at it - without being too bland or too bitchy. She's booked alternately as a face and heel on the indies - and WSU brought her in as a face.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Surprisingly enough after she turned face. In 2009 her pops were rivalling those of Mickie James, the most popular Diva in WWE at the time.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • When she attacked Beth Phoenix as part of her Heel–Face Turn she used her shoe as a weapon. Beth had turned on her for accidentally hitting her with a shoe during a Women's Championship match. And when they faced each other at the Royal Rumble - Beth bent Melina's leg back to kick herself in the head with her own shoe. Effectively reminding Melina of the screw-up that turned the Glamazon into her enemy.
  • Her Face–Heel Turn on Natalya at the end of 2010. In the Lumberjill match to unify the titles, Natalya got up on the apron to have it out with Michelle McCool (who had just taunted her). Melina at this point had Michelle rolled up for three, and Natalya's distraction prevented her from unifying the titles. And then Natalya won the #1 contender's battle royal (that Melina was the first one eliminated from).
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Very popular in Puerto Rico in general.
  • The UK since the end of her 10-Minute Retirement, due to her being one of the biggest names used by Southside Wrestling. She practically considers the UK her second home now due to this.
• Growing the Beard: The 2007 match at Backlash with Mickie James is pin-pointed as the moment where Melina really established herself as a wrestler.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Her return in 2009 was compared favorably to Candice Michelle's - who had been rushed back before she was ready, and the matches suffered as a result. Melina meanwhile enjoyed a much better reception, and had well-received matches against Beth Phoenix. Sadly this would not be the case with her 2010 return - where she too was rushed to the top of the division and the matches suffered.
  • All the Slut-Shaming comments from fans have become even harsher once Melina revealed that she had been raped during her time in WWE.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Seeing her and Mickie James become Fire-Forged Friends thanks to Melina's face turn, culminating in the match where Melina injured her ankle. Mickie shielded her from an attack by Victoria and Natalya, making it clear they would not get anywhere close to her.
  • Melina and Mickie as the survivors of a Survivor Series match, beating Mickie's newest nemesis Michelle McCool (who Melina had been used to feuding with). The end of the match had the two hugging and standing tall together, as the top faces of their era. With Melina's ACL injury and Mickie's released a few months later, it was the last time they shared the ring.
  • In this interview, she's shown a clip of Naomi naming her as a dream opponent. Melina Squees and immediately says she would love to, also putting Naomi over as a person and a wrestler.
  "I know we could make magic together."
• Hilarious in Hindsight
  • Kyra used to be praised for not being slutty, something she made a conscious effort not to be since the large majority of the contemporary heels at the time already were. Then came an angle on Smackdown with Dave Batista, whom she tried to subdue in a very slutty way. Ignoring the Three Month Rule, Melina's failure makes sense from a continuity standpoint; she never had any practice.
  • Melina also failing to seduce someone becomes amusing once her reputation among smarks is known.
  • Melina was cut from the finalists for Tough Enough in favour of Lisa. Melina went back to Empire and Hernandez before traveling around to find work on the indies and outside the 48 states- later making it big in WWE. Then Lisa would end up removed from the competition after she had a psychotic breakdown (though the show only said she left because "she decided wrestling wasn't the right career for her").
  • She and MNM kidnapped Trish Stratus to challenge her to a Women's Championship match. She said to Trish that if she won, "wouldn't that be a kick in the head?" - fast forward to 2010 where Beth Phoenix exploits Melina's own flexibility to make her kick herself in the head.
  • Melina (then a heel) made her in-ring WWE debut against Michelle McCool (a face), who then gets put away with MNM's Snap Shot to be Put on a Bus. Three years later, it's Michelle as the heel going after face Melina's Women's Championship.
• Ho Yay: Her and Lana Austin in Southside. Also crossed into The Knights Who Say "Squee!" on Austin's end of things.
• LGBT Fanbase: Melina has always had a huge LBGT following, due to her dressed-to-the-nines image and primadonna behaviour.
• Love to Hate: She's held up these days as one of the most effective heels of the post Lita and Trish era of women's wrestling (even though she was in the company for two years before they left).
• Mis-blamed: Melina got a lot of heat her way from smarks over John Morrison's snubbing of Trish Stratus in 2011 - based off the gossip that John felt Trish was stealing Melina's WrestleMania spot. Never mind that John was the one who did the snubbing, and Trish said that was only a theory as opposed to fact.
• Most Wonderful Sound: As a Heel, her primal screams were meant to be annoying. As a Face however, they usually signalled that the opposing woman was going to get her ass royally kicked.
• Narm Charm: Her over-the-top tantrums. Rather silly but still hilarious and perfectly in character.
• Never Live It Down: Make no mistake, there are a lot of fans who legitimately like Melina for her wrestling ability, her character, and her overall contributions to women's professional wrestling. But over the years, a certain stigmata has been attached to her for being an allegedly scheming shrew who turned her (now ex-)boyfriend John Morrison into an Emasculated Cuckold who allows her to sleep with other men like Batista and turned him into a drooling idiot who does some incredibly stupid and career-suicidal things like snub Trish Stratus. And it's a reputation she hasn't fully been able to cast off even years after she and Morrison went their separate ways despite Melina denying the cuckold charges, Batista officially stating in his book that he only slept with Melina after she and Morrison broke up, and Trish saying it was only a theory that Morrison snubbed her for Melina's sake.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: If she's mentioned, expect someone to bring up the various news stories about her backstage heat and tumultuous relationship with John Morrison.
• Smurfette Breakout: Joey Mercury got released and eventually became a trainer for WWE only recently returning as security for Seth Rollins, John Morrison floundered on the midcard while Melina became popular and held both women's titles. However, Johnny Mundo not only became champion of Lucha Underground but also became a triple crown champion of AAA and even got a new girlfriend to make controversial decisions over. Still, poor Mercury.
• Tear Jerker: Hearing her put up a podcast after being released from WWE was quite sad. Although she left a short message, it's clear that she was devastated.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Melina made her return after her ACL injury while Alicia Fox was Divas' Champion. As Alicia was an up and coming rookie with lots of potential, just growing into her role as the top heel, the Older Hero Versus Younger Villain trope could have been brought into play (as it's not often done in the women's division). Instead, Melina wins the title back within two weeks and she herself loses it in a unification match against LayCool. This buried Alicia completely, and to this day she has never regained that kind of prominence. What's more it also robbed Melina of a meaningful return storyline, and killed any momentum she may have enjoyed.
  • Melina's heel turn on Natalya was also poorly thought out. It consisted of a slap at the end of a #1 contender's match, and suddenly Melina was teaming with heels again. She never got a promo or interview to explain herself, and her push was killed by having the title match on Raw. Rumour had it that Melina was punished for breaking Kayfabe on Twitter and saying her feud with Natalya was just a storyline. As noted above, under Fridge Brilliance, there was a definite logical material there to build a feud upon, but none of it was tapped into.
  • Two years earlier, WWE had gone to a bit of effort to portray Melina and Jillian Hall as friends and allies. When Beth attacked Melina to kick off the latter's face turn, Jillian initially seemed to be on Melina's side. But she disappeared from TV until right before the I Quit match, announcing she was no longer Melina's friend and then getting beaten very easily via submission. Diva Dirt lamented that Jillian/Melina could have been a good feud too. Of course, Melina went down with an ankle injury not long after, so any feud they could have had would have been cut short.
  • The 2010 Smackdown women's division was extremely depleted with the injury of Beth Phoenix, the suspension of Tiffany and the releases of Mickie James and Katie Lea (who was going to be moved to Smackdown). Since Raw had several rising stars in Eve Torres and Alicia Fox, and Gail Kim and Natalya could have feuded with Alicia - it might have made more sense for Melina to return from her injury on Smackdown instead.
  • There was also fan speculation that Melina would return at the 2010 Money in the Bank PPV, since Maryse was at ringside as manager for Ted DiBiase Jr. Maryse even climbed the ladder to try and get the briefcase for him, specifically stopping John Morrison (who in turn was the one who pulled her down). If Melina had returned then, it could have set her up nicely in a mixed tag feud that would a) be continuing a storyline that had been started when Maryse was gunning for her title, b) ease Melina back into the ring without rushing, which was the main problem with her Divas' Championship push.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously:
  • The Playboy storyline against Ashley Massaro, and subsequent match at WrestleMania 23 were quite lacklustre at best. Melina however (and it has to be said Ashley, despite her limited skills) attempted to make something out of it. Melina at one point in the match screams a Big "NO!" when Ashley kicks out of a pin, treating it like it's a balls to the wall encounter, rather than the Anti-Climax it was.
  • She and Michelle McCool likewise in the mediocre title unification match in 2010. Diva Dirt criticised the booking and build-up for being lacklustre - as well as the titles not needing to be unified at all. But it was noted that Melina and Michelle tried to make the match meaningful - with Call Backs to their previous encounters and a lot of intensity.
• Vindicated by History: While beloved by Diva fans and (as a face in 2009) receiving great reactions from crowds, wrestling columnists and smart marks weren't wild about her (as seen under Base-Breaking Character above). Bret Hart was met with a lot of mocking when he called Melina the best worker in WWE at the time. Years later, she's remembered extremely fondly, and many of the next generation of women wrestlers cite Melina as one of their role models.

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