WWE legend Melina has admitted she struggled with being sexualised in wrestling.
The 46-year-old former Women’s Champion, who will be at Manchester’s Bowlers Exhibition Centre on February 21 and 22 as part of the For The Love of Wrestling convention, is one of the company’s most memorable performers, and her iconic splits entrance has stood the test of time.
Speaking exclusively to Metro, Melina revealed she first found out she could do the splits at school during track and field, but she never expected the entrance to become as impactful as it did.
‘It didn’t occur to me how big it would be. I didn’t think about it. I also didn’t think about how it would be sexualised at times. I didn’t think any of it through,’ she said.
‘I just knew, I love watching the gymnastics at the Olympics, I was able to do it, this is cool. It never occurred to me that that would be as big as it is, and how it would influence other girls… It’s amazing to see.’
However, Melina also wasn’t prepared for the way some fans would react to the entrance, which saw her do the splits on the ring apron in a tiny skirt.
‘It didn’t occur to me that when you go to live on Raw or SmackDown, that people would be taking pictures. Thank goodness they were able to change the shots so that people don’t see the behind,’ she added.
‘But still, people were taking pictures, so I didn’t think it all through. But at the same time, it is an experience.’
She smiled: ‘Although these things weren’t what I expected and I didn’t know how to deal with it. You learn and you adapt, and you change a negative into a positive.’
During her seven-year WWE run between 2004 and 2011, Melina won championship gold and was a huge part of Monday Night Raw working with legends like Mick Foley, but she’s still surprised she was ever seen as more than her brother’s ‘annoying little sister’.
‘People telling me I’m pretty, all that stuff, “What do you want? Why are you saying that? You’re just telling me I’m ugly,”‘ she admitted.
‘I didn’t understand it fully and didn’t know how to deal with it. Sometimes part of it’s kind of like, “Oh, it’s just people responding to the skirt, whatever. It’s not really me as a person, it’s not because people really think I’m pretty.”‘
She also had to deal with wrestling in a very different WWE to the current era, during a time when the women had to go out in lingerie competitions or now-defunct Bra and Panties Matches, and she insisted there was a real skill to making those work.
‘How do you have a match and make it look creative, trying to take people’s clothes off? Like, it is an art, you have to have creativity and [figure out] how to get into things, out of things,’ she explained.
‘You don’t just do it, you have to flow into it.’
Melina is still deeply passionate about wrestling and has fond memories of her career, and events like FTLOW help remind her of the positive impact she’s had.
‘At the time, you don’t see that, because you’re the character. Especially when you’re a heel, in your mind, everybody hates you, and that’s just the life you live, “Everybody hates me,”‘ she recalled.
‘The fans make me appreciate all the things that I didn’t get to in that moment because I was too busy working. And then I get to see it through their eyes.’
One of those moments was beating Beth Phoenix for the Women’s Title in YEAR, although Melina admitted she actually tried to argue with Vince McMahon against the career highlight.
‘I had mixed reactions. Instinctually, the first thing I thought was, “No, not yet. Like, it’s not time,”‘ she confessed. ‘”I still have a lot to learn. I still need to build up my repertoire, my presence. I need to have people believe that I could win.”‘
However, she accepted the move knowing that her position as a villain meant it would all work out.
‘That’s the beauty of being a heel, it doesn’t matter if you are the female Bret Hart or not,’ she explained. ‘They’re gonna hate you no matter what, because you screwed somebody over!’
Melina still has a strong relationship with WWE, having been on the front row for last summer’s all-women’s Evolution show, but she isn’t leaping at signing a new deal.
‘I am blessed that they do invite me back for shows. We have a good relationship. But when it comes to signing a contract that takes time,’ she said.
‘There’s so much I want to do in life. I love WWE, it has a special place in my heart. They believed in me, and they allowed me to do my work. Nobody else did that. So I will always be grateful to them and love them in my own way, and be a WWE girl.’
Melina will appear at For The Love of Wrestling in Manchester on February 21 and 22.
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