What's Next For Melina?

http://www.diva-dirt.com/2010/10/10/whats-next-for-melina/

Barring injury, it’s been a good two years for Melina dating back to her first comeback from injury in November 2008. The three-time Women’s Champion and two-time Divas Champion has spent most, if not all, of her run between November ’08 till Night of Champions last month at the top of the Divas division. That is, of course, excluding the 7 months Melina spent on the shelf between January and July this year.

A brief history lesson: Returning from her injury suffered in June 2008, Melina returned triumphant in November of that year, and chased Beth Phoenix for the Women’s Championship, putting the exclamation point on her comeback by winning the belt at Royal Rumble 2009. Next, Melina moved to SmackDown and began a months-long feud with Michelle McCool over the belt, including that Match of the Year winning bout at Night of Champions 2009. Traded back to Raw in October, Melina became the Divas Champion on her first night back and held the belt till her ACL injury in December. Returning in time for SummerSlam, she regained the Divas Championship only to lose it a month later in that high profile title unification match — and now here we are.

It’s not often that a Diva can command the spotlight for so long, so it seemed inevitable that the A-List Diva would join the queue of fellow former champions turned ‘another face in the crowd’ along with Eve, Alicia etc. following her loss against Michelle McCool at Night of Champions. That ‘face in the crowd’ status was further cemented by her and Gail Kim filling the usual Bella Twins spot of schmoozing with the guest host on Raw last Monday. But while it’s a breath of fresh air to see the likes of Natalya get a chance to shine, I can’t help but question… what is next for Melina?

You see, unlike an Eve or Alicia — who make sporadic appearances since losing their respective championships — I feel there’s more that can be done with Melina while she’s out of the title picture. Melina is one of the most tenured Divas in WWE, as well as one of the most experienced girls having wrestled the likes of Michelle, Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Trish Stratus and more, plus she’s one of the most popular Divas in WWE and also, a great personality. In my opinion, she’s the perfect candidate for what seems to be a dreaded term when it comes to the Divas — a secondary feud.

Sadly, it seems WWE can barely write for one feud for the Divas, so it’s a rarity that we see two. But if we could ever have an exception to that rule, Melina should be it. Putting her in a secondary feud with one of the rising girls could help put them over and after all, aren’t we looking for new stars? Melina’s been blessed to have five title runs in WWE and has had a career that has spanned as many years, perhaps WWE could use this downtime in her own career to help put over one of the other girls. It beats standing around with Johnny Knoxville…

Heck, why not amp it up even more? After two years and three title runs as a babyface, it seems like it’s time to switch things up for Melina. Aside from Lay-Cool, the heel side in WWE is lacking depth and if there’s one Diva that has depth as a heel — it’s Melina. Look no further than her berating and slapping Maria. Don’t we miss that? Sure, smiley, happy Melina has been fun but it seems to have run its course. If Lay-Cool are the immature high school heels, well, Melina’s a college graduate. Sure, her heel act would need to be toned down for the current PG climate, but I’m confident that Melina could deliver the same sass in her performances without using the ‘B’ word.

With Natalya currently at the top of the division and Beth Phoenix’s return pending, Melina isn’t necessarily needed on the babyface side. After all, you also have Eve, Kelly and Gail Kim waiting in the wings and ready to be taken off the bench. The heel side? Aside from Lay-Cool, there’s no strong heels in the division at the moment. Maryse is off doing her thing with the Million Dollar Man and Tamina is more focused on Santino. Alicia Fox is the closest we have to a secondary heel aside from Layla and Michelle, but fans don’t seem to be too convinced by her. The return of heel Melina seems like a perfect fit right now.

Which brings me back to my earlier point of putting others over. Now you have a heel Melina, why not put her against someone like Eve Torres, who WWE loves and wants to get over? Or Kelly Kelly? Even if it is just on WWE Superstars, a secondary storyline with either of those up-and-coming girls will hopefully get them that much more ready for the title picture.

Of course, a key component to this working — and something WWE seems reluctant to give — is promo time. Aside from Lay-Cool, no other Divas are given regular promo time. What made Melina a great heel, and Trish Stratus before her, was that they were constantly talking. Like I say, even if it is on WWE Superstars, promo time and a match each week could go a long way. Putting Eve against Melina, and getting the crowd interested, could be a launch-pad for Eve to feud with Lay-Cool for the Unified Divas Championship.

But don’t get me wrong. I’m not calling time on Melina’s own career, by any means. Turning heel would probably give her a new lease on life too and she’d be waiting in the wings to take over from Lay-Cool when they run their course. Heel Melina vs babyface Beth for the belt? Or Natalya? In the meantime, give her a secondary feud and team her up with Lay-Cool on Raw when you do tag team matches.

There’s still a lot for Melina to offer the division, even if she isn’t in the title picture. Having her on the sidelines becoming another face in the crowd will do no one favours. WWE should take advantage of the asset that they have built up over the past five years and utilise her to strengthen the division by working with the likes of Eve, Kelly, Alicia, Tamina etc. in secondary programmes.

That’s just one writer’s take anyway.
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So what do you think?

Even if you are a hater your know the wwe won't just fire her so no need to even say that..

But would you like her to turn heel and or feud with say Eve or other up and coming faces?

EDIT: I FUCKING hate how when you post an article and you double space it before you post it it fucks up and makes you double space it again! What the fuck! That is so fucking annoying and that shit needs to be fixed. It has happened twice or more to me and is VERY annoying.

i want her to stay right where the hell she is...in the background. i'm enjoying not seeing her in the spotlight after almost watching her win 2 titles in one month. if she goes heel, she becomes the center of the division again....and i dont want that.

i want her to stay where she is. gimme more LayCool/Nattie...then LayCool/Beth...and after Beth wins gold..then we'll talk about Melina.

i think a heel turn would be best for Melina. she clearly can't pull off her high flying moveset now since the injury. as a heel she might be able to improve her wrestling somewhat, incorporate more submissions like we saw in the I Quit match. and she needs to learn to let her opponents get in some actual offence. she should be on Smackdown since she isn't needed on Raw. unless she turns heel again she should not get another push

I would love a heel turn. I was watching old vids last night & I really miss her as a heel. She played her character so well & had a really good moveset. I'm just imagining how much better it'll be now that she has improved way more in the ring & is one of the best WWE women wrestlers.

I'd love to see Beth get the belt sometime next year then feud with Melina. It'd finally give Michelle a break from the spotlight since she's been in it nonstop for a couple years & it'd put Melina back in there after taking a break for a few months. She'd also be more fresh as a heel since we haven't seen her as a heel for a long time.

King Silva wrote:

^ That is true but I don't want Melina to win the belt off of Beth who is likely to win it off of McCool.

I would so like for Beth to lose to a likely face whenever she drops it.

Natalya or Gail REALLY deserve the belt.

Hell I'd rather have one of them win it before Beth but that isn't going to happen.

Not like I don't like Beth but Natalya deserves a push and Gail is my favorite face..

Melina could win then feud with Natalya or Gail. Either match would be really good, I've been wanting to see Melina vs Gail or Melina vs Natalya for awhile.

I just want Michelle out of the spotlight for awhile. She needs to let other heels get a chance to shine

Heel turn against face Beth, Gail and Nattie?


YES PLEASE!

1 - Heel turn because she's very lame as a face.

2 - Help get others over.

What's next for Melina? The Kentucky Derby of course

A i couldnt care less

but i guess a heel turn could be useful

LayCool need a good strong secondary heel....and considering Melina killed Alicia off...she is the only other option.....plus sshe BLOWS as a face

I'd personally like to see Gail/Melina both turn heel, and team up (Molly/Gail 2003-4). They could really be a good team.

Raw-
Faces- Eve, Brie, Nikki, Nattie
Heels- Alicia, Maryse, Melina, Gail

Smackdown-
Faces- Tiffany, Kelly, Rosa
Heels- Layla, Michelle

i dont see Melina being heel as a way of helping anyone get over esp the already established face known as Beth.

it's not like Melina is gonna job out to Eve...Melina is too big of a star for that. (think Michelle)

Maryse and Alicia will...but not Melina.

so i dont see her turning face helping anyone except Beth.

i mean..who exactly has LayCool put over? it will be the same with Melina...she's too big a star to be jobbing out to nobodies like Eve.

tbh a lot of diva have gone over Layla or Michelle or both clean...so they do put ppl over. But when feuds end with LayCool ontop ppl assume the other side aint been put over....its not LayCools, Kellys, Tiffanys, Natties faults that they are just fueding for filler til Beth returns

but how many of those divas put over are going to make a move up the diva ladder?

Melina going heel wont make Eve the sudden #1 diva...nor will it help Kelly...or Tiffany.


it will be the same thing.

The LL Father wrote:

tbh a lot of diva have gone over Layla or Michelle or both clean...so they do put ppl over. But when feuds end with LayCool ontop ppl assume the other side aint been put over....its not LayCools, Kellys, Tiffanys, Natties faults that they are just fueding for filler til Beth returns

I consider the women LayCool "put over" a failed attempted because all the women they "put over" aren't "over" so LayCool is a big heavy load of Failure....because they have failed to get anyone "Over"...since they are supposed to be this heat magnet.

Vickie is a success story....thanks to vickie...Kaitlyn is "OVer"....who LayCool has feud with is no "OVer".....think it through....then get back to me. -_-...because the way i see it....every person they feuded with was "OVer" so in other words.....Who is putting who "Over"?....again...think about it...and get back to me.

Let's face it...WWE isnt trying to establish new divas. they feel they dont need to since they have MBM (Melina/Beth/Michelle)

they took like 1 month to establish Alicia...only to kill all that shit they built for her in a record 13 days (with Melina)

they established Jillian for all of 3 minutes...before crushing her....to give Melina "momentum" she clearly didnt need.

so again, Melina being heel isnt going to help any diva get over because obviously WWE doesnt care about getting any diva over. the only diva who is semi-established is Maryse...but even she falls to the wayside when MBM are available and healthy.

show me an up-and-coming face diva (Eve...Tiffany..) who goes over Melina and maintains a consistent push in WWE if you want me to change my mind. until then, i dont see Melina helping as a heel. WWE doesnt want to build up any new ladies so even if they go over Melina in a feud (cause faces always win) the face diva in question will once again fade into obscurity as if her beating Melina didnt happen. same with divas pinning LayCool...Kelly has beaten Michelle clean one on one and she's still just a "meh" lady on SD lol

well when i state put over...i mean make them look good, look like a threat etc
i dont mean get over as in crowd reaction

The LL Father wrote:

well when i state put over...i mean make them look good, look like a threat etc
i dont mean get over as in crowd reaction

it wont matter when WWE doesnt put in the effort to keep them over/established.


like Alicia...former divas champ (top heel diva)...to jobbing to nattie in like 45 seconds? yeah WWE is trying real hard to establish her

Vix is right, no matter how you change it but unless beth/Melina or Michelle leaves. WWE has no desire in building new girls, especially now with 1 championship...there is no need to. 2 Championships meant they had to use people they had no desire to use in the first place....but now that they are down to one, they can continue to use the same 3 women they want to build the entire division around. Notice how LayCool shows up less and less on SD and there was NO talk on moving ANY divas on SD to level things out, notice how both Kelly and Rosa are irrelevant once LayCool is not on SD?? It is how it is.

I don't even think WWE cares about Melina anymore.
She was the only credible diva to take on Michelle at Night of Champions, hence why they built her up quickly to throw the title on her. Now that she isn't needed, she falls to the back- jobbed to Layla, random guest host segment/aka doesn't appear, and a random smiley face run-in to help the main face diva over. She isn't the woman who lost at Night of Champions, shes smiley face #5. Now she is even on Superstars. When was the last time this happened? After her fued with Candice. WWE won't care about her for a long time now, especially after Beth returns. Instead of continuing a program with Melina, they gave Nattie the opportunity because she is now the most credible face diva.

They obviously do still care about Melina or she wouldn't be on Superstars. There wasn't going to be a Raw match this week so they chose HER to wrestle Alicia on Superstars which is a good thing considering she's still being used & the divas get at least 5 minutes on Superstars.

If they really didn't care about her she'd be another Gail, who is rarely seen & rarely wrestles.

Natalya was only chosen to feud with LayCool so they could go through another diva. They've gone through Tiffany, Kelly, Melina, & now it's Natalya's turn til Beth returns to stop them.

Seriously, stop making excuses for her. Gail and Jillian are on superstars regularily, doesn't mean they give a damn about them.

Um, I'm not making excuses for her. Just because she's not in the spotlight right now doesn't mean they've given up on her entirely. If they didn't give a shit she'd either not be there at all or she'd be jobbing.

What's next for Melina? *pink slip*

we wish what?