Melina says the WWE Divas Era gets a bad rap, but the women at the forefront tried their best.
Years before the Women's Evolution, Melina, Beth Phoenix, Michelle McCool and others were working hard to change the game around the time when women's wrestling still featured Bra and Panties Matches and questionable storylines. Melina was one of the prominent names in the Divas Era. She held the WWE Divas Championship twice, and she is also a former three-time Women's Champion.
Speaking on MCW Backstage Pass, the Divas Era came up in the conversation, and Melina noted that it unfairly gets lumped in with the WWE Diva Search. She shared her belief that everyone who held the WWE Divas Championship did their best.
“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.
Host Tara Meyer noted tha women's wrestling has changed a lot, and Melina responded by saying that, while that may be the case, she wouldn't change which era she worked in because her experience gave her a unique perspective.
“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," she said.
The veteran continued by descriving how she meets some women now who seemingly don't have the heart or the desire to reach the next level by working hard. On the other hand, she noted that some of the former models she worked with in the past were hungry to learn and succeed
"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.
She concluded by discussing her own career, noting that she appreciates every win and every accolade because she still remembers her early days, when she was struggling to make it in the business.
"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," Melina said.
Maria Kanellis recently stated that she still considers herself a Diva, and she'd like to see the Butterfly Title return. You can check out her comments here.
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