WWE Diva Melina Talks About Being The "Most Controversial Woman in Wrestling," Starts Podcast

As most fans know, Gail Kim isn't the only one having issues with management these days. WWE Diva Melina has also been known for being a magnet for locker room heat (putting it mildly). But Melina does seem to have more self-awareness than her critics have given her credit for, and admitting she was perhaps the "most controversial woman in wrestling," took to her blog to answer some of criticisms levied aimed at her. First of all, she discussed the wrestling press often portraying her as a difficult, erratic woman who has far more enemies than friends in WWE:

I wanted to touch base on the things being said online… I always choose to ignore rumors and lies. The sad thing is people like to stir up trouble and sensationalize drama. I have and continued to be the most controversial woman in wrestling. It amazes and crack’s me up. The stories I hear of why I have heat and what I supposedly did. It’s funny but then again I really don’t like good people being lied to.

I understand that it’s how sites make a living and its easy to throw my name around when it comes to drama… maybe because I’m strong people don’t think of how it would effect me or maybe because I don’t say anything. Maybe people think, "it’s just a stupid rumor it’s not like it’s going to do anything." It can alter people’s lives… maybe it’s just the person that I am but I couldn’t imagine ruining a person’s life is worth getting short term attention from people.

The biggest and most recent story, and likely what Melina is talking about, was Melina's boyfriend John Morrison  giving Trish Stratus the cold shoulder at Wrestlemania because Melina somehow got it into her head that Trish had "stolen" her spot and encouraged Morrison to snub her. Trish would later acknowledge she had been treated shoddily by Morrison in an interview with the Busted Open radio show: "Cold shoulder? Yeah I felt it. I was shunned. Some people are not smart maybe? You know they wrestle well, but maybe they’re not smart. I don’t know." For his part, Morrison admit there was tension on the Law radio show, but insisted the real reason was because he felt Trish was upstaging Snooki from Jersey Shore, who was supposed to be the real star. Er, okay, John. That makes even less sense than giving her the cold shoulder because Melina ordered you to.

For the record, while I don't doubt that a lot of what is claimed about Melina is exaggerated (and superstars like Mick Foley and Gail Kim have leapt to her defence on more than one occasion, with Mick insisting, "Melina is just shy, it gets mistaken for rudeness,") there have also been a great deal of ex-WWE stars who have been extremely critical of her and it's difficult to believe they are all lying or out to get her: Brooke Adams called her a "rude, fake bitch" and claimed, "I can't stand her and neither can the rest." Husband-beater Taryn Terrell also noted in interviews after her diva search stint (but before joining the company full-time) that she had been warned about Melina as soon as she came to WWE. Maria Kannellis hasn't had a good word to say about her either and neither did Val Venis, who absolutely ripped her and Morrison apart in this Youtube video, telling Morrison, "Keep trying to turn that Ho into a housewife!" (Val gets all his one-liners from rap star Ludicrous, it seems), in addition to other vicious insults and remarks. She also had some serious heat with Mickie James at one point. As soon as Mickie showed up on television, Melina, obviously talking about Mickie, wrote in 2006  "I know that there’s going to be people who don’t understand. I’m sorry… I can’t help the way I feel about HER. I Hope you know who HER is. I tried my best to get along with the girl. It’s just not meant to be. I don’t know if you’ve seen America’s Next Top Model and how cady girls can be on that show… well, welcome to my world with HER. She hated me from the day I showed up to Louisville." (Er, she's not exactly the delicate little flower Foley would have us believe here, is she?)

In an interview with Slam Wrestling, Melina dismissed rumours she was being punished (recently, she has lost on tv virtually every time she's been on Raw and was, along with Gail, eliminated from the ring in an embarrassingly short period of time during this week's episode of the show): "It's not that I'm being punished. It's just the way it goes. My fans may want me to get more time, to get more of a push, and I'm happy that they think that. I'm glad that they think that, because that means they still care. And one day it will happen, you've got to be patient."  She also spoke about issues with her heel character and how she felt that spilled over to her real life: "In the past, it was really difficult, because people didn't want to know me or give me a chance, because they believed in that character. Since my character was so mean and so vindictive, people didn't think I couldn't really be that way in real life, so that was really hard. It hit a point that everybody was treating me that I was such an evil person, that it kind of wore me down. It was very lonely...It really hurt when people couldn't really see me for me. It was emotionally very hard, being bullied because of this character. And now I hope my experience can help other people who are being bullied. I think this has helped me help other people." Needless to say, I find Melina's claim that she was "bullied" because of her on-screen character somewhat dubious. Or maybe this is part of her new work-shoot angle? Who knows? She also discussed her character in-depth on this blog. While Melins should be praised for not growing apathetic and merely collecting a paycheck (and Zack Ryder has gained credit for doing something similar when WWE were not doing a single thing with him) it does seem she is putting in far more effort than is warranted here: she's a bit-player in WWE, most casual fans don't know or care about her new character's direction or her feud with Gail. I'm guessing everyone who watches Melina on Superstars is indifferent too. All four of them.

Melina has also started her own podcast, she says:"In the future, I'm going to share a lot about life," she says, "I'm going to tell you about all my experiences, and hopefully people can learn from mistakes...I think there's stuff to be learned from every situation." It remains to be seen how WWE will feel about this, although, like Gail Kim argued this week, it's entirely possible they simply won't care enough to notice.

Update: WWE are claiming Melina has just been released.