There’s been a lot of talk surrounding the Divas Championship and the time of that era floating around Twitter recently. It was all conjured up by Maria Kanellis who held true to considering herself still a Diva and in her opinion, wanting to see the butterfly belt return in some capacity. This had several past talents touch on the subject including Trish Stratus, Mickie James, and Melina.
During this same time, during an interview with MCW Pro Wrestling Backstage Pass, the former Divas Champion Melina spoke about the Divas era. She states that she feels the Divas Championship unfairly gets lumped in with the Diva Search itself.
“It’s a weird thing because diva gets tied up with the model search, and that’s not it. That’s the hard part where the term ‘diva’ is thought of as model days, and it wasn’t even that. Well, kind of. But regardless, each woman who held that title did their best, gave it their all. Maybe blame the divas search, but you can’t blame them for getting an opportunity. It’s like like Tough Enough. You can’t blame the people who did Tough Enough, and that’s what the Divas Search was,” Melina said.
She continues, “I feel like I got a great perspective. I’m never gonna change and look down on my time. Everyone’s like, ‘Okay, do you wish that you were in this era because of all the opportunity?’ No, I love what I went through for the fact that, the perspective that I have.”
Melina would go on to describe the two types of people she has encountered. The women that have been given all the opportunities and don’t care to take it to the next level and then those who were models who weren’t given the full opportunities who wanted to learn more.
“Sometimes I’ll meet women who have all the opportunity in the world, they’re athletic, they got taught by the right schools. They just don’t care about psychology, they don’t have heart, they wanna have everything given to them. Then I explain things to them, and it’s just in one ear and out the other. I’ve had conversations where I‘d say, ‘I’ve worked with women who were models and had no wrestling ability at all, they never got taught. They worked harder and had more passion and conveyed more emotion. They were so much more into the match, like they were hungry, and they wanted to learn so much. That you cannot teach. That is just incredible. I look at the girls who were models and they had that heart, and it makes me sad that these ladies who have all of opportunity and have teachers and have schools, why don’t you want it as much as they do? Why are you just waiting for your turn and want it to be given? Fight for it, earn it. When you’ve been held down and treated like crap, you know how to fight in the sense of working hard and giving your all. That means so much. That’s when beauty happens, and when you get given something, when you earn something, it means so much,” Melina said.
In regards to her own career, she stated –
“Whenever I win a match or I win a title, I remember every time I thought I was never gonna make it or this was hopeless. I think about the times before I ever held a title or had a match at all, and what I wanted. It makes those moments, that win, that title hold, it means everything. I’m grateful.” (Fightful)
Melina had been working with NWA up until December when she last faced Madi Wrenkowski. There is no update on her contract with the promotion. Outside of that, Melina had a shocking appearance in the 2022 WWE Women’s Royal Rumble. Since then she has only had a handful of matches, but she most recently went for the MCW Women’s Championship which she held in 2017. It was a Four-way bout that also included Mandy Leon, Leila Grey, and then-champion Gia Scott. Leon would become the new champion.
In addition to this interview, Melina chimed in on the Divas Championship debate on social media as follows –
What are your thoughts on what Melina had to say about the Divas Era? Join the discussion below.
