Foley is Blog: The Story Behind the Melina Photos
By Mick Foley

The following was posted on WWE.com April 18, 2006

It all started back, back, way back at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C., the site of a WWE Supershow on Feb. 27, 2006. There was a meeting that I apparently forgot about, as I showed up an hour late to find that every single WWE Superstar (and Al Snow) was there but me. I tried to sneak in and act like I’d been there all along, but my attempt at subterfuge fooled no one.

At the conclusion of the meeting, I prepared myself to meet new people. As a very sporadic RAW Superstar, there were actually quite a few people on the SmackDown roster that I had never met. Fortunately, I still watch both brands pretty regularly. So, I at least knew I wouldn’t be saying hello to complete strangers — getting away with calling people “champ” or “pal” the way Val Venis did to me for the first eight months of our acquaintance.

Of the entire SmackDown roster, there was really only one person I was apprehensive about meeting: Melina. Don’t get me wrong, I was a big fan, and I found her character fascinating. But man, she was kind of mean on television. And that entrance! When watching SmackDown with my kids, that entrance would often put me in the unenviable position of having to pretend to be not nearly as interested as I actually was.

So, when I saw Melina approaching me, I prepared myself for the quick brush off that was all but inevitable before I met with other SmackDown Superstars who weren’t nearly as scary, such as the Boogeyman. Instead, this beautiful woman said hello with a warmth and sincerity that left me dazed and confused. Was I feeling the effects of so many chair shots, or had the mean girl on TV just been really nice to me?

I walked into a dressing room, and seeing longtime friend and Disney fanatic Scotty 2 Hotty, sought out his insight on this most confusing of subjects.

“Scotty, what is Melina like?”

“She’s really quiet,” Scotty said.

“Is she nice?”

“Yeah, she’s nice. But she’s really quiet.”

I turned to another wrestler whose name escapes me, attempting to verify my inquiry.

“Is that true?” I asked.

“Yeah,” the unknown wrestler said. “She’s really shy. She doesn’t talk much.”

I was no longer just confused. Now I was baffled, feeling like a guest star on my very own episode of “The Twilight Zone.” First the mean girl was nice, and now I was expected to believe that the loud girl, the screaming girl, was quiet and shy.

Well, I spoke to the mean, nice, loud and quiet girl a couple more times that night. And I’ve got to be honest; I’d have to go back to the summer of 2001 to the initial Mick Foley-Katie Couric meeting to find a time when I was so thoroughly taken with someone on first impression.

One of the cool things about having a weekly Web log is that my thoughts, once written, instantly become a matter of public record. Once they’re in the log, they can’t be taken back. So, in my next entry, I thought I would at least acknowledge the fact that I had met Melina and was very impressed. So, I inserted two simple words that fairly accurately summed up my feelings: Holy Crap!

Now, had it not been for WWE’s misleading marketing of that entry, I very likely would not have spoken of Melina again in my Web log. Little did I know that my entry was being augmented with little teases such as: “See what Mick really thinks of Melina.” I don’t want any of my readers to think that I consider my column all that important — at least not on a regular basis. But I did consider that week’s effort to be fairly substantial. After all, I had written about meeting my sponsored child, an international incident at the Manila airport, which may yet see me blackballed from the Philippines, and even my historic 20 hours with Ric Flair on our return flight home.

Yet, in spite of all this, WWE chose to focus on my two words about Melina — even including a revealing photo of her to hype the column. I never actually saw the photo. As some of you know, I don’t even know how to turn a computer on, so although I do the writing (by hand), I very rarely see the finished product on the Web site.

I was a little concerned, however, about offending the poor girl by taking our first meeting and exploiting it.

I asked RAW announcer Joey Styles for his opinion.

“Actually, I think she’d be flattered,” said Styles.

I also sought out the opinions of a couple of people at WWE.com, they pretty much echoed Joey’s opinion and also added that in its own little way it would actually help Melina, that in wrestling vernacular, it would “put her over.”

That was pretty much all I needed to hear. Keeping in mind that my track record when it came to pleasing beautiful women was a little shaky, I decided to do what I could that next week to both flatter her, and “put her over.” So, yes, I came up with a vague reason to mention her name and asked WWE to slap another picture of her on my blog.

Now, I swear that I fully expected Melina’s column No. 2 to be my last public mention of her, but unfortunately I received word that she had been through a tough time on the most recent SmackDown overseas tour. It seems that some people had mistaken her shyness for arrogance (not the first time I’ve seen someone suffer for that same mistake) and had taken it upon themselves to make her life a little harder than it needed to be.

I wish I had been there to right the wrong, but I wasn’t. I was about 10,000 miles away. So, I did the next best thing: I vowed to continue to post sexy photos of her on my blog as a sign of support. That’s right; it was my own shallow, self-serving immature way of letting her know that I cared.

I’ve talked with Melina several times since that initial meeting, and the mean, nice, loud, quiet girl has made a pretty rapid climb up my list of favorite people in the world (the whole world, not just the wrestling one). In fact, I believe she shot right past Al Snow based on our first “hello,” alone. Not that Al was all that high on the list anyway.

I don’t really know when I will see Melina again. Next WrestleMania would be my best guess — almost a full year from now. Sporadic RAW guys and SmackDown people don’t tend to run into each other all that often. I do know that I will look forward to that next meeting with the wide-eyed anticipation of a child awaiting a visit from St. Nicholas on a snowy Christmas Eve. Alright, I know that comparison was a little wimpy, even by my standards. But, truth be told, Melina’s ring entrance has kind of made Santa’s whole sleigh-and-reindeer, bag-of-toys-down-the-chimney thing seem really second rate.

So, until we meet again, I will remain a big fan of what she does around the ring — and an even bigger fan of whom she is away from it.