Notes from Melina’s Chasing Glory Interview -
She started tearing up at the beginning of the interview when Lillian talked about her accomplishments.
“You don’t realise that some of these moments are the best moments of your life until afterwards.” She still wrestles to give back - she loves wrestling and wants to be a part of what’s going on now. She wants to help younger wrestlers now.
It means a lot to her when people say they appreciate her work.
“I may not have children, but these kids [in wrestling] that watch me, that are somehow are inspired by me -those are my children. And I want the best for them.”
She says there are still people that are disrespectful. That hurts her heart.
She says some people see her as intimidating. She thinks that they may be threatened- sometimes they see her as Melina(the character)
Lilian says that Melina is so nice, that she almost thought it was an act - Melina says she’s gotten that before.
She’s been told “you’re so nice- it can’t be real”
She’s shy. So she gets why people think she’s fake she keeps to herself sometimes, because she doesn’t talk much. But she always wants to be helpful.
She didn’t grow up with much. She had hand-me-downs and stuff from yard sales. She didn’t know she was missing out on anything. Her perception was that she had her family - that was enough.
She says when she was in WWE, she was always just trying to survive each day.
She overcame depression by always trying to look on the bright side
She felt like she was the odd one out in the WWE locker room. She says that she kind of feels like she put herself in that position.
She’s grateful for all the good things and experiences she had.
She says the locker room was like “putting a bunch of mice in a cage together- they start eating each other.”
They were all trying to figure out each other’s personalities. She still sees them as sisters.
People didn’t open up to her because they thought she was fake. But she started to get closed off too.
She had walls up because she knew that sometimes when people shared things, it would be used against them.
It was thrown in her face that she was married (from someone she didn’t tell). That made her feel like she couldn’t trust people.
On her Falls Count Anywhere match: she’s very proud of it. She had an idea of a level she wanted to be at, but everything was happening so fast, so at the time she felt like she was undeserving.
When she had the Title, she felt like she had to work very hard to make her title run mean something. She says some people took it the wrong way.
She says that she’s got only a couple of years wrestling in her. She’s always going to be involved in some way though.
She’s a babyface in the indies, she misses being a heel because it’s fun.
When she was a heel in wwe, the wrestling world hated Melina. It was a bit hard for her because, people only saw that character.
People believed in the persona and in the dirtsheets. There were a lot of crazy rumours about her that affected her even after she left wwe. People thought she was a bitch and a “diva”.
On not being a part of the Royal Rumble and Evolution - she can’t drive herself crazy asking why. There’s a little part of her that thinks it would have been nice to be a part of it though.
On the diva era: “people were mean. They didn’t give us a chance. We wrestled our hearts out. When Trish and Lita left, there was a backlash because their favourite people left. We still kept it together. ”
“I still see women trying to be divas. Even when they say ‘I’m a female wrestler’. I still see you trying to be a diva, and that’s okay.”
She says the diva era didn’t bother her.
On the divas: “The girls I worked with had heart. They didn’t have to, but they wanted to train and learn. They had passion. They did the best in their position.
On alleged heat with the WWE: she cant imagine having heat, because she did everything she was told. They were nice to her when they let her go.
There were rumours about her getting people fired: “I can’t even keep my own job, how am I gonna get other people fired?”
She says she was released because creative had nothing for her.
She felt secure when she was released. She thought she was going to come back. She’s okay with the fact that she still hasn’t.
When people tell her she’s going to be in the Hall of Fame, she says it’s okay if she doesn’t end up there. She talks about how Chyna should have been inducted earlier.
“Sometimes when your tv persona isn’t valued, it kind of hurts how you carry yourself in real life. But I’m still Melina, I’m still strong, creative and happy.”
She says it was weird adjusting to regular life after leaving.
On depression: it started to affect her later in life. People took advantage of her trust. People didn’t see that she was struggling because of who she was. She says she sexually assaulted. This made her depression worse. These things made her build up more walls. She considered taking her life when she was wwe. It was during when she was injured. Somebody caught her before anything happened to her.
She wants people to know that it gets better. Life gets better as long as you choose to make it that way.
She wants to go back to school to learn psychology. She wants to be a therapist to help people.
On Ashley: she knows Ashley knew, but she wishes she could have told her recently that she was proud of her. She’s trying to do more of that now by telling people she appreciates and respects them.
She says having her dog helped her through depression. She also says that Batista told her to share her smile with the world. Now, she only keeps positive things in her life to make her smile.
She says she’s going to start doing stories on her Instagram for suicide prevention and sexual assault.
