History Wrestling / Melina

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Her transition from wrestler to valet saw her stop braiding her hair. From valet to active competitor in the women's division was marked by her hair going from brown with blonde highlights to black with the occasional highlights.

* ThemeNaming: Many of her moves were named based on the fact that she's from sunny California. "Sunset Split", "California Dream"

* SquashMatch: Defeated Jillian in one to become the Divas' Champion, giving Jillian the shortest reign on record, which will most likely never be broken. Also retained the title in another against Wrestling/AliciaFox.

** DiamondsInTheBuff: In 2005, she did a photo shoot for WWE's website where she was on a couch nude and barely covered by [=MNM=]'s [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-t.html WWE [=SmackDown=] Tag Team Title]] belts, while wearing a necklace and other jewelry.

* NiceCharacterMeanActor: Zig-zagged to the extreme.
** She was always a target for backstage controversy during her WWE run. Some people have said she slept around and was an obnoxious [[ThePrimaDonna prima donna]] while others have said nothing but positive things about her. Her backstage heat got so bad at one point that she was summoned to Wrestlers' Court, with the other wrestlers taking bets on ''how long it would take before she cried''. Wrestling/MariaKanellis offered a compromise and said "I used to get along with her but then she drove me crazy". The two seemed on good enough terms when they appeared on ''Afterbuzz'' together. Fans have also said she is always nice and friendly, and she always appears as such when out of character.
** A lot of it does come from the fact that she kept working her angles in her blogs (when she was heel anyway). The Wrestling/BellaTwins offered a compromise - saying they never saw that side of her when they were in WWE. They theorised she may have had a lot of heat in her early years but shook it off later.
** She was also very shy according to Mick Foley and Jim Ross when she first debuted. She mostly talked only to MNM so it's easy to believe that she would get heat from that since locker room etiquette calls for rookies to shake everybody's hand on their first night which she likely did not do. That led to a lot of workers assuming she was ignorant and arrogant and was part of the reason she was taken to Wrestlers' Court.
** Another wave of controversy hit when wrestling news sites reported that she was taken off of ''Wrestling/LuchaUnderground'' following appearances at the end of season 1 for supposed attitude problems. Melina refuted this and said she was taken off the show because it was a one-time deal and they had no interest in doing a long term rehash of Morrison and Melina from WWE. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Make of that what you will.]]
** She seems to have shaken this image off to some extent since coming out of retirement.

** Was also hit with this big-time when she faced LayCool. She never got a true important win on Michelle McCool, even losing to her clean on multiple occasions in title matches, while Layla beating her in under 3 minutes on RAW ended Melina's relevance as a contender.

* YouHaveFailedMe: She blamed Joey Mercury for MNM losing the Smackdown tag team titles (in real life, they were breaking up due just not wanting to work together anymore). Melina would get her own medicine on Raw when Beth Phoenix turned on her for failing to help her win the Women's title off Mickie James.

* BashBrothers: With Wrestling/FrankieKazarian, John Morrison and Joey Mercury. ''[[FireForgedFriends Eventually]]'' with Wrestling/MickieJames too. [[Wrestling/GregoryHelms Hurricane Shane Helms]] in Lucha Libre USA.

* TheWorfEffect: An odd example, as she was knocked out and pinned by [[Wrestling/KatarinaWaters Winter]] to set up Wrestling/{{Lita}} at Family Wrestling Entertainment, even though Lita had long since retired from matches and thus didn't do much more than knock Winter around after she beat Melina. Lita even attacked Winter while Melina was still unconscious on the floor.
Was also hit with this big-time when she faced LayCool. She never got a true important win on Michelle McCool, even losing to her clean on multiple occasions in title matches, while Layla beating her in under 3 minutes on RAW ended Melina's relevance as a contender.

* MakeAnExampleofThem: Beth Phoenix did this to her during a triple threat title match on RAW. Melina was knocked out earlier by another opponent, but instead of just pinning her, Beth ragdolled Melina and hit her with her finishing move for the win.
* MiniDressOfPower: Stopped wearing them in an effort to be taken more seriously.

* MsFanservice

** PantyShot: Initially during her time in MNM when she did the splits. She kept the entrance after becoming a full time wrestler but wrestled in tights, thus averting the trope.

* TheWorfEffect: An odd example, as she was choked out by [[Wrestling/KatarinaWaters Winter]] to set up Wrestling/{{Lita}} at Family Wrestling Entertainment, even though Lita had long since retired from matches and thus didn't do much more than knock Winter around after she beat Melina.

** She appeared at WCPW True Legacy on 12 November 2016 as a special guest referee for the street fight between [[Wrestling/PrincessKimberlee Kimber Lee]] and Nixon Newell.

** She appeared at WCPW True Legacy on 12 November 2016 as a special guest referee for the street fight between Kimber Lee and Nixon Newell.

Melina Nava Perez is a Latin-American beauty queen from UsefulNotes/LosAngeles, UsefulNotes/{{California}} who won Miss Hawaiian Tropics Anaheim, Ms. California Belleza Latina and a couple group USA shows before turning to {{Professional Wrestling}} and eventually becoming a [[Characters/WWEDivas WWE Diva]]. She first became interested in a wrestling career by talking to EWF superstar Mike Henderson, which lead to her training in Jessie Hernandez's School Of Hard Knocks in 2001 and Kyra making her official debut not too long after. Kyra tried out for the third season of ''Wrestling/WWEToughEnough'' in 2003, where she was one of the last cut. She continued to wrestle in Empire Wrestling Federation, Ultimate Pro Wrestling, Arizonan Impact Zone Wrestling and Mexican WWA as Kyra and as '''Melanie Little Deer''' in CRUSH (by the man who gave you Wrestling/{{GLOW}}) until she successfully signed with WWE in 2004. Melina initially was the manager of MNM in developmental OVW, though occasionally wrestled, sometimes as Kyra again when allowed back on independent shows, before the team moved up to the main WWE roster and Melina broke out on her own to join the Women's division. After a HeelFaceTurn in 2008 she became surprisingly over. She was eventually released by WWE in 2011 but continued to pursue work in independent promotions such as Wrestling/{{WSU}} as well as in those outside of the continental USA, even reappearing on national TV via Wrestling/LuchaUnderground. She is a three-time [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-wm.html WWE Women's Champion]] and 2-time [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-diva.html WWE Divas' Champion]].

* BreakupBreakout: Averted. She broke out slowly on her own and her alliance with Wrestling/JohnMorrison quietly disappeared. Played straight compared to Joey Mercury, however.

** After defeating Lana Austin during the Southside Queen Of The Ring tournament, she kissed her [[https://youtu.be/Rd_i9zlXXYA]]. Obviously, the crowd really enjoyed this.

** Another wave of controversy hit when wrestling news sites reported that she was taken off of ''Wrestling/LuchaUnderground'' following appearances at the end of season 1 for supposed attitude problems. Melina refuted this and said she was taken off the show because it was a one-time deal and they had no interest in doing a long term rehash of Morrison and Melina from WWE. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Make of that what you will.]]

!!! "A-List Tropes:"

* CareerResurrection: On the independent circuit since the end of her TenMinuteRetirement.
* CelebrityResemblance: She both looks and sounds a lot like Music/JenniferLopez.

** She seems to have shaken this image off to some since coming out of retirement.

** She's always been a target for backstage controversy. Some people have said she slept around and was an obnoxious [[ThePrimaDonna prima donna]] while others have said nothing but positive things about her. Wrestling/MariaKanellis offered a compromise and said "I used to get along with her but then she drove me crazy". The two seemed on good enough terms when they appeared on ''Afterbuzz'' together. Fans have also said she is always nice and friendly, and she always appears as such when out of character.

** She was also very shy according to Mick Foley and Jim Ross when she first debuted. She mostly talked only to MNM so it's easy to believe that she would get heat from that since locker room etiquette calls for rookies to shake everybody's hand on their first night which she likely did not do. That led to a lot of workers assuming she was ignorant and arrogant. She was even taken to Wrestlers' Court over it.
** Another wave of controversy hit when wrestling news sites reported that she was taken off of ''Wrestling/LuchaUnderground'' following appearances at the end of season 1 for supposed attitude problems. Melina refuted this and said she was taken off the show because it was a one-time deal and they had no interest in doing a long term rehash of Morrison and Melina from WWE.[[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Make of that what you will.]]

* CareerRessurrection: On the independent circuit since the end of her TenMinuteRetirement. Becoming the Queen of Southside and MCW Womens' Champion definitely helped a lot.

* GimmickMatches: Competed in the first Divas' Falls Count Anywhere and I Quit matches. Also Bra & Panties matches, [[MudWrestling a pudding match]], a pillow fight and naturally many Lumberjill matches.

* OlderHeroVersusYoungerVillain: In 2016 she appeared for OTT Wrestling in Ireland filling this role against the young Wrestling/KateyHarvey.