Melina On Taking Issue W/ Steve Austin's Negative Reaction To Her Work On Tough Enough
Former WWE Superstar Melina was recently interviewed for the Ring The Belle YouTube channel.
During her appearance she opened up about how she was offended when WWE Hall of Famer "Stone Cold" Steve Austin scoffed at, then Tough Enough contestant, Cameron. During the now controversial moment, Cameron told Austin that her favorite match was a Melina vs Alicia Fox bout from an episode of SmackDown.
"I've got issues with this stuff," Melina said. "I don't understand how this is funny at all. She had her favorite pick and I am sorry if people don't agree with it.
"He asked her what her favorite match was, not what his favorite match was. He's going to ridicule her for what her favorite match was? I don't care what your favorite match was." She added, "If it's something you love, that's all that matters."
During Melina's comments, Ring The Belle put an old tweet up on the screen from Austin. In it Austin clarified that he meant no disrespect with his comments or reaction.
Another classic Melina moment that was brought up was her 2008 Night of Champions "I Quit" Match against Beth Phoenix. The hard hitting bout stood out in the then-Divas Era.
"I don't care what anybody says. They can say that because I was in the Divas Era I wasn't a good wrestler... blah blah blah." She went on, "We were only given the opportunities we were allowed. So, to have this opportunity in an era where people were ridiculing Divas. To me, I knew that I worked hard for this moment. I knew they trusted us."
Melina also touched on her iconic entrance to the ring that saw her dropping down and doing the splits. Apparently the splits entrance came about by mistake.
"I knew I could do the splits," Melina proudly stated. "At that point in time I didn't want to do it as a move because I thought, 'Who's going to do the splits?' As a move it's not serious. So I did the splits because the guys kept saying, 'You need to come up with a sexy entrance.'"
She credits then-boyfriend John Morrison (aka Johnny Impact), and their friend Sky Fire, for ultimately helping her finalize the choreography. She just jumped up, while playing with the ropes and went into the splits. "That's it!" they both exclaimed.