Melina Perez's 5 Best Evil Moments

Today is the birthday of my all time favorite icon in the world of women's wrestling: Melina Perez. I've mentioned my Melina fandom on Vocal a few times, including writing about actually meeting her via a virtual meet and greet (I'm still surprised that I wasn't nervous through the whole thing). I love so many things about Melina, but of course, the thing I love the most is her immense ability to portray a villainess on-screen.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Melina is the queen of heels. She did idolize the best in Sherri Martel, and we have seen some of Sherri's maniacal energy in Melina's heel persona several times. I've always loved that Melina had different facets to her heel character throughout her career. Her early WWE years saw Melina as the egotistical young Diva, and the tail end of her WWE run saw her as a dark and evil villainess. In the 13 years that have passed since that run ended, Melina's heel character has continued to evolve, and from what I've seen, she's been a sinister mastermind at times, and even a psychotic madwoman on a few occasions. Very delicious!

So with that, I want to list my five favorite Heel Melina moments, and they are as follows.

5. Vengeful

It didn't even take me a year to see that crossing Melina is never a good idea for, well, anyone. I'll never forget this; it was the end of 2005, it was right before Armageddon, and MNM was set to defend the tag titles against Batista and Rey Mysterio. We see Melina attempt to seduce Batista into backing out, that fails, and as for the match, Batista and Mysterio won the tag titles. Two weeks later, Melina declares that she plans on going after Batista for sexual harassment, and that night's SmackDown was main evented by the tag title rematch, which MNM won due to Mark Henry entering and taking down Batista.

The final SmackDown of 2005 ended with Melina raising Henry's arm and flashing an evil smile, which revealed that she enlisted Henry to deliver the assault. The first SmackDown of 2006 featured another rematch inside a steel cage, but somehow, Mark Henry crashed that event and really took out Batista, while Melina relished in her successful vendetta. I loved that moment, mainly because it introduced me to how truly diabolical Melina can be.

4. Evil in Basic Black

Melina would spend two years as a babyface, doing so from 2008-2010. However, Melina turned heel on December 20, 2010, when after winning a #1 Contender's bout on Raw, she slapped then-Divas Champion Natalya and walked off. 2011 would see Melina get back to basics as a heel once again, but at some point in the summer that year, she changed it up a bit. The big change involved a new look. No bright or bold colors, just a black leather outfit that fit her darker character. That look told me that this would not be the same villainess that Melina played before. Rather, this version was darker, more evil, and was potentially going the crazed route.

Unfortunately, we wouldn't see this for long, as Melina was released by WWE just two months later. Even so, it was very awesome and interesting while it did last.

3. Villainous NWA Debut

The date was October 1, 2019, and I was watching the National League's Wild Card contest between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Washington Nationals. During this time, I learned that Melina was back in wrestling, having appeared for the National Wrestling Alliance, which was how I learned that NWA was back in a bigger forum in the first place. Now I was already elated that Melina was back in a wrestling capacity, but I was even more overjoyed when I learned that she was a heel in NWA.

I also learned that the pics I saw were actually spoilers; as they were from the TV tapings. Melina's debut episode of NWA Powerrr aired on November 19, 2019, and prior to this, she was briefly shown during the show's introduction. Melina's villainous debut saw her distract Allysin Kay and cause her and Ashley Vox to lose a tag team match to Marti Belle and Thunder Rosa, and it was followed by Melina standing with Marti and Thunder, establishing herself as the leader of their new alliance. I beamed over learning this a month prior to the airdate, and I remember basically counting down the weeks until I would see it unfold on TV. Melina, as usual, showed out with her heel persona, as well as her "evil queen" look during her fabulous NWA debut!

2. Vicious Veteran

I wrote about this back when this bout took place, and I still enjoy reliving this. So Melina's heel run in NWA lasted until the world shut down due to the pandemic in 2020. That included NWA going on hiatus, but they returned in 2021, as did Melina. When Melina returned, she had turned face and was on the verge of redeeming herself. However, after Kylie Rae joined NWA, Melina turned heel again and set her sights on Kylie, leading to the bout that took place on June 29 of that year.

What we saw was Melina acting as the villainous and surly veteran against Kylie's usual upbeat personality, and it appeared that the more peppy that Kylie acted, the more vicious that Melina became. A shot that I just can't help but gush over is this pic of Melina basically clawing at Kylie's eyes; all the while, the evil Melina snarled venomously while tormenting her opponent. I loved that shot so much, because it was basically Melina being deranged and psychotic, and I just know she enjoyed playing that facet of her heel character in that bout.

1. A Sinister Reminder

I will never forget when I read that Melina returned to the wrestling limelight in the summer of 2015. To me, the hint came when she did that podcast interview a few months prior, and then there was the promotion from Maryland Championship Wrestling. It was their "Ladies Night" event, and it was main evented by a championship contest between champion Amber Rodriguez and challenger Mickie James. The referee was Lisa Marie Varon, and regarding Melina, she was booked as the enforcer. Melina wouldn't come out until Amber's henchmen got too involved, and they ended up ejected by Melina in the process. Once Varon was out, Melina entered the ring to make the count in Mickie's favor, but instead of doing so, Melina turned heel and delivered an attack towards Mickie.

I remember watching that over and over and I absolutely loved what I saw. I watched it after the event happened, and something told me that Melina turned heel at the event. It would make sense. There were three legendary WWE Women's Champions involved. Mickie was the babyface challenger, and Varon and Melina were the guests. Seeing as Melina was the enforcer, it made sense that she would be the villainess out of the three legends, and the attack would see Melina loudly remind Mickie of their past as rivals before delivering the Last Call to her foe. Afterwards, the evil Melina gave her Primal Scream in celebration of her villainous turn, only to be on the receiving end of Varon's Widow's Peak. Again, it was absolutely epic and was trying Melina's greatest villainous moment ever.

I'm still hopeful that Melina turns heel just one more time. Her role as the villainess against Kylie Rae in NWA remains the most recent time that Melina displayed her heel persona; she's been a babyface in every forum since then. This includes her current role as the Director of Wrestling Operations at Ultimate Women of Wrestling, a very awesome women's wrestling promotion. Melina also does commentary for their events, but again, I'm hoping that her current corporate role leads her to use her power for evil purposes; I can definitely see Melina as the evil corporate head of a wrestling faction. Until then, I will continue to enjoy seeing Melina shine as she always does. Melina is a living legend, and a true icon, that's the truth.