Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame tabs Cheerleader Melissa as second member of 2023 class

Christopher Daniels was the first name announced for this year’s Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame class, the second group of inductees to receive the Game Changer Wrestler-administered honor.

On Wednesday night (Feb. 22), GCW revealed one of the other people who will be celebrated along with the Fallen Angel at Los Angeles’ Biltmore Hotel on Sun., April 2... Cheerleader Melissa.

Like CD, many wrestling fans may know Melissa Anderson from her time in TNA, where she debuted in 2008 as Awesome Kong’s manager Raisha Saeed and later wrestled as Alissa Flash.

Prior to and in parallel with that however, she was working with the man who will induct her, Dave Prazak, to establish women’s wrestling on the independent scene. She participated in Prazak’s ChickFight tournaments in the mid-aughts, and was a key player in Shimmer when Dave launched that promotion with Allison Danger in 2005. Melissa’s rivalry-turned-partnership with MsChif was a staple of the early Shimmer “volumes”. She’d go on to win the promotion’s top title twice, and its tag belts once, with Mercedes Martinez.

In 2013, Pro Wrestling Illustrated awarded Cheerleader Melissa the top spot in their ranking of the 50 best women’s singles wrestlers. She also worked for Lucha Underground, wrestling under a mask as Mariposa. Her last matches were for Shimmer in 2019.

You can watch Melissa accept some well deserved flowers when the Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame Ceremony streams on Fite at 3pm ET on April 2.