Melina Perez (born March 9 1979), better known simply as Melina, is an American professional wrestler and manager, currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestling on its RAW brand.

After becoming interested in wrestling, Melina entered the independent circuit before joining WWE in 2004. Initially, she was pushed as a manager for the tag team of MNM. She managed them to a record three reigns as WWE Tag Team Champions, as well as boyfriend and former MNM member Johnny Nitro to two reigns as WWE Intercontinental Champion.

Melina made her WWE singles debut in 2005. She is also a two-time former WWE Women's Champion, winning the belt twice in 2007.

Perez began her career as a model. She won a Miss California beauty contest and also modeled athletic wear for Nike. In 2000, after talking to Mike Henderson, she decided to become a professional wrestler and enrolled in Jesse Hernandez's School of Hard Knocks to train. Perez's pro-wrestling debut was in 2002 on a tour of the independent wrestling scene. She joined a number of California-based promotions such as the Empire Wrestling Federation (EWF), where she wrestled for years under the ring name Kyra, and CRUSH, as Melanie Little Deer. Many EWF officials stated that she had the most natural ability of any woman who came through their school. Perez tried out for WWE's reality show Tough Enough III. She made the final 21, but was eliminated from the competition in the final cut of the first episode.

Perez debuted in World Wrestling Entertainment's "farm territory" Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in March 2004 when Matt Cappotelli kayfabe brought her in as a way to taunt her ex-boyfriend John Hennigan. Melina, however, turned on Cappotelli and aligned herself with Hennigan, who later changed his ring name to Johnny Nitro. Soon after, Nitro began teaming with Joey Matthews, later known as Joey Mercury. On November 10, the trio, now known as MNM, won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship.

While in OVW, Melina made occasional appearances on WWE television. On a Thanksgiving episode of SmackDown! in 2003, Melina dressed up as a Native American and was shown serving food and drinks. Melina made her first RAW appearance on November 29 2004 when Randy Orton was the guest General Manager and hosted a diva lingerie fashion show. She made another RAW appearance in December, in a limbo contest when Chris Jericho was General Manager for the night, but ultimately returned to OVW and MNM. It was also during her stint in OVW that Melina, Nitro, and Steven Adkins came up with her trademark split ring entrance.

MNM made their debut in WWE as a heel tag team on the April 14 2005 edition of SmackDown! by interrupting the first ever Carlito's Cabana interview segment, where one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions, Rey Mysterio, was a guest. Melina insulted Mysterio and had Mercury and Nitro attack him, leading to MNM's in-ring debut the next week on SmackDown! in a title match. The team was booked to win the match against Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero, giving them their first WWE Tag Team Title reign.

While managing the Tag Team Champions, Melina was given a gimmick where she declared herself "the most-dominant Diva in WWE". She also started wrestling against the other WWE Divas, making her official WWE in-ring debut on June 30 against Michelle McCool and had her first pay-per-view match – a Bra and Panties match – at The Great American Bash against Torrie Wilson, winning both matches. Also at The Great American Bash, MNM dropped their championship to the Legion of Doom, prompting Melina to kayfabe hire Jillian Hall, a "fixer", to assist them. MNM regained the title on October 28 in a Fatal Four Way tag team match.

On the Eddie Guerrero Tribute Show Melina won an interpromotional Divas battle royal by eliminating Women's Champion Trish Stratus. The next week, MNM kayfabe kidnapped Stratus and Melina challenged her to a match for the Women's Championship. The two fought at Survivor Series, with Melina jobbing to Stratus after interference from Mickie James.

During this time, MNM was set to defend their Tag Title at Armageddon in a match against The Mexicools but before the event, they were booked to defend their title against Rey Mysterio and the World Heavyweight Champion Batista. Melina was placed in an angle with her trying to make Batista call off the match by visiting him in his locker room and attempting to seduce him. After the two kayfabe engaged in sexual acts, he simply thanked her for the "warm-up" before leaving to take part in the match, where he and Mysterio defeated MNM for the title. The storyline played over to the next episode of SmackDown! with MNM evoking their rematch clause. However, before the match took place, Melina held a press conference in the ring where she claimed that Batista had sexually harassed her. During the tag team match, Mark Henry aided MNM in winning back the WWE Tag Team Championship.

With the angle continuing into the next year, on the first SmackDown! of 2006 Melina announced that Henry was her personal protection against Batista. He accompanied her and aided the other members of MNM in matches against Batista and Mysterio.

At Judgment Day on May 21, 2006, MNM were booked to lose their Tag Team Championship to Paul London and Brian Kendrick. After the match, Melina and Nitro attacked Mercury, blaming him for the loss. Later that night, Melina lost a singles match against Jillian Hall and after slapping General Manager Theodore Long in anger, she and Nitro were kayfabe fired from the SmackDown! brand. Off-screen, Nitro and Mercury did not get along, and WWE management decided to split the tag team and send Nitro and Melina to the RAW brand.

Melina and Nitro made their way to RAW on May 29, with Nitro losing to WWE Champion John Cena. The following week, Melina faked a sprained ankle, allowing Nitro to roll-up Charlie Haas for his first RAW victory. Melina continued to manage Nitro during his successful hunt for the WWE Intercontinental Championship, while rekindling her feud with Trish Stratus. The angle turned into a tag team feud when Carlito joined forces with Stratus to take on Melina and Nitro. At Saturday Night's Main Event, Melina and Nitro lost to Carlito and Stratus in a mixed tag team match.

After Melina's arrival on RAW, Mick Foley began to mention her in promos, playing on the real friendship they had forged that he talked about in his WWE.com columns, and they soon formed an on-screen friendship. At SummerSlam, Melina was involved in Foley's "I Quit" match against Ric Flair when Flair threatened to hit her with a barbed wired baseball bat, causing Foley to quit the match to save her. On the August 21 edition of RAW, her career was kayfabe endangered when Foley was offered the choice to either join Vince McMahon's Kiss My Ass club or have Melina fired. After begging Foley not to go through with it, Foley "joined the club" to save Melina's job, only to have her suddenly turn on him by delivering a low blow and kayfabe firing him at the behest of McMahon, a storyline concocted by Foley to refresh the idea of the Kiss My Ass club. It was also around this time that Melina added another characteristic to her gimmick: screaming loudly at ringside while managing or in tag team action, which became known as the "primal scream".

On January 29, 2007, Melina became the number 1 contender for the WWE Women's Championship, as well as introduced her finisher from the independent circuit, the Kyrapractor, to WWE under the new name California Dream. On February 5 Melina lost a title match against Mickie James. The following week on RAW, Melina pinned James in a mixed tag team match and then challenged James again for the title. On February 19, Melina was booked to win the Women's Championship from James and, in continuation of their storyline feud, retained the title in a rematch during the first ever Women's Falls Count Anywhere match in WWE history.

In March, Melina was placed in an angle where she became jealous of SmackDown! Diva Ashley Massaro due to Ashley's attention toward her appearance in Playboy. The angle had Melina claim in her blogs that all Playboy cover models were not capable of fighting her in the ring. This resulted in scheduled matches against former Playboy cover girls Torrie Wilson and Candice Michelle, with both women jobbing to Melina. The storyline finished at WrestleMania 23 with Melina pinning Ashley in a Lumberjill match to retain her Women's Championship in her first WrestleMania match.

After WrestleMania, Melina organized a photo op with the Women's Title belt in the ring but was interrupted by Mickie James, resulting in another kayfabe feud between the two Divas. On April 24 at a house show in Paris, France, Melina lost the Women's Championship in a Triple Threat match to James when James pinned Victoria, but on the orders of Jonathan Coachman she was entitled to a rematch on the same night, where she pinned James to regain the title and become a two-time WWE Women's Champion.

On May 7 Melina was defeated in a tag team match when she was pinned by Candice Michelle. Melina was scripted to lose to Candice in various tag team matches, as well as in non-title bouts over the next few weeks. At Vengeance, Melina dropped the Women's Championship to Candice, and failed to recapture the title at The Great American Bash.

*Finishing moves **Inverted split-leg drop bulldog into a split-legged pin **Charging 180° spinning facebuster **California Dream / Kyrapractor (Grapevine bridging reverse STF) **Extreme Makeover (Springboard 180° spinning facebuster) – Early 2007 **Divastator (Kicking combination) – Independent circuit **Kyranium Buster (Flying neckbreaker slam) – Independent circuit **Frog splash – Independent circuit

*Signature moves **Inverted DDT **Top rope rear naked choke into a flying seated senton from the corner **Modified rope hung inverted double knee gutbuster **Japanese stranglehold into a split leg rear mat slam **Split-legged / Kneeling hangman's neckbreaker **Top rope neck scissors choke **Double leg nelson **Single leg Boston crab **Reverse Indian deathlock into a hair-pull surfboard stomp **Feint knee strike into a headbutt **Pendulum backbreaker submission **Corner axe kick **Modified rope hung Boston crab **Running double high knee strike to a cornered opponent **Rope hung inverted facelock with body scissors **Lariat **Leg hook camel clutch / Camel clutch **Giant swing **Turnbuckle headscissor takedown

*Double team moves **Wheelbarrow hold (Jillian Hall) followed by a spinning facebuster (Melina) **Double hair-pull mat slam - with Victoria **Tree of woe (Victoria) followed by a running senton (Melina) **Bite of the Dragon (Melina) followed by a Savate kick (Victoria) **Inverted X-Factor Hold (Jillian Hall and Beth Phoenix) followed by a Seated Senton (Melina)

*Wrestlers managed: **Joey Mercury **Johnny Nitro **Mick Foley **Mark Henry

*Nicknames: **The Barracuda (from WWE announcer Jim Ross) **The Most Dominant Diva in WWE **The A-List Diva **The Paparazzi Princess

*World Wrestling Entertainment **WWE Women's Championship (2 times)

Perez is of American and Mexican heritage and is also bilingual. She can speak both English and Spanish fluently. She is currently dating John Hennigan, who plays John Morrison on ECW. The two met during their auditions for Tough Enough III. Dave Bautista claims to have had a sexual relationship with Melina after the divorce from his wife in 2006.

Perez has expressed a disinterest in posing for Playboy.

Her favorite TV shows include Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Sleeper Cell, Dresden Files, Heroes, Supernatural and 24.

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*Official website *WWE profile *G.L.O.R.Y. profile