MNM
Encyclopedia
MNM was a villainous professional wrestling
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...

 stable in World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...

 (WWE) and Ohio Valley Wrestling
Ohio Valley Wrestling
Ohio Valley Wrestling is an American independent professional wrestling promotion based in Louisville, Kentucky. OVW is run by owner Danny Davis and was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance from 1997 until 2000...

 (OVW) that consisted of Joey Mercury
Adam Birch
Adam Birch is a retired American professional wrestler, best known for his tenure with World Wrestling Entertainment , and training in WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling, as Joey Mercury...

 (previously Joey Matthews), Johnny Nitro, and their manager
Manager (professional wrestling)
In professional wrestling, a manager is a secondary character paired with a wrestler for a variety of reasons. The manager is often either a non-wrestler, an occasional wrestler, an older wrestler who has retired or is nearing retirement or, in some cases, a new wrestler who is breaking into the...

 Melina Perez
Melina Perez
Melina Nava Perez is an American professional wrestler currently signed to Women Superstars Uncensored. She is best known for her time with World Wrestling Entertainment under the ring mononym Melina....

.

Mercury and Nitro first began teaming together in 2004 in OVW, WWE's developmental territory in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

. Melina, who at the time was Nitro's actual girlfriend, joined them as their manager in February 2005. While working in OVW, Mercury and Nitro captured the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship
OVW Southern Tag Team Championship
The OVW Southern Tag Team Championship is the tag team titles of Ohio Valley Wrestling. Created in 1997, the first champions were Nick Dinsmore and Flash Flanagan. As of 2011, the current champions are Ted McNaler and Adam Revolver, known as The Elite in their fourth reign...

 on one occasion.

MNM were called up to the SmackDown! roster in April 2005, in which Mercury and Nitro went on to win the WWE Tag Team Championship
WWE Tag Team Championship
The WWE Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship in WWE. It was established as a second title for tag teams in WWE in 2002 to complement the original World Tag Team Championship...

. While in WWE, their ring personas was that of a trio of Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...

 celebrities
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...

, complete with a red carpet
Red carpet
A red carpet is traditionally used to mark the route taken by heads of state on ceremonial and formal occasions, and has in recent decades been extended to use by VIPs and celebrities at formal events.- History :...

 ring entrance, that had them accompanied by "paparazzi
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...

". The duo would go on to lose the title in July 2005. After their third and final reign ended in May 2006, Nitro and Melina blamed Mercury for the loss and attacked him, splitting the team. Nitro and Melina were let go from the SmackDown! roster and debuted on the Raw
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...

 brand. In November 2006, MNM reunited for a brief period, before Mercury was released from his contract in March 2007 though eventually returned in July 2010.

Concept

The concept behind the group was that they were Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...

 celebrities
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...

. Upon their debut on SmackDown!, they claimed to be the "hot new team on the scene", because of their good looks and celebrity status.

As part of their in-ring personas, MNM had a distinctive ring entrance. They walked to the ring on a red carpet, while members of the "paparazzi
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...

" took photos of them. The male members of MNM usually wore fur coats
Fur clothing
Fur clothing is clothing made of the fur of animals. Fur is one of the oldest forms of clothing; thought to have been widely used as hominids first expanded outside of Africa. Some view fur as luxurious and warm; others reject it due to moral beliefs...

 to the ring. As they took them off, Melina suggestively rubbed their abs
Rectus abdominis muscle
The rectus abdominis muscle, also known as the "six pack", is a paired muscle running vertically on each side of the anterior wall of the human abdomen . There are two parallel muscles, separated by a midline band of connective tissue called the linea alba...

 while removing the title belts from their pants, where they hung in an exaggerated phallic fashion. Melina has a signature entrance which involves her doing a split
Split (gymnastics)
A split is a human body configuration in which the legs are parallel to each other and extended in opposite directions. Splits are performed in various athletic activities, including dance, figure skating, gymnastics, martial arts, contortionism, synchronized swimming, cheerleading and yoga...

 on the ring apron—from the floor—then bending forward and crawling under the bottom rope.

Ohio Valley Wrestling

MNM was formed in the former World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...

 (WWE) "farm territory" Ohio Valley Wrestling
Ohio Valley Wrestling
Ohio Valley Wrestling is an American independent professional wrestling promotion based in Louisville, Kentucky. OVW is run by owner Danny Davis and was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance from 1997 until 2000...

 (OVW). Melina Perez, Johnny Nitro's real-life girlfriend, was introduced into the company as his ex-girlfriend, an ally of Matt Cappotelli
Matt Cappotelli
Matthew Lee "Matt" Cappotelli is an American professional wrestler, last working in Ohio Valley Wrestling, which was the primary developmental territory for World Wrestling Entertainment until February 7, 2008...

 with whom Nitro was engaged in a scripted rivalry
Feud (professional wrestling)
A professional wrestling feud is a staged rivalry between multiple wrestlers or alliances of wrestlers. They are integrated into ongoing storylines, particularly in events which are televised...

. Almost immediately, however, Perez betrayed Cappotelli and sided with Nitro. Together they introduced Joey Matthews to become MNM. While in OVW, Nitro and Matthews won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship
OVW Southern Tag Team Championship
The OVW Southern Tag Team Championship is the tag team titles of Ohio Valley Wrestling. Created in 1997, the first champions were Nick Dinsmore and Flash Flanagan. As of 2011, the current champions are Ted McNaler and Adam Revolver, known as The Elite in their fourth reign...

 once, holding it for over two months.

SmackDown and break-up

MNM was called up to WWE's SmackDown! roster in April 2005, with Matthews undergoing a name change to "Joey Mercury". They made their debut during Carlito
Carly Colon
Carlos Edwin "Carly" Colón, Jr. is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler better known internationally by his ring name Carlito. He is best known for his work in the World Wrestling Entertainment , but was released from his contract on May 21, 2010. In his native Puerto Rico, he is known as both...

's interview segment, Carlito's Cabana, where they interrupted an interview between Carlito and Rey Mysterio, attacking Mysterio, and beginning a feud with Mysterio and his partner, Eddie Guerrero
Eddie Guerrero
Eduardo Gory "Eddie" Guerrero was a Mexican-American professional wrestler born into the Guerrero wrestling family. He wrestled in Mexico and Japan for several major professional wrestling promotions...

, over the WWE Tag Team Championship
WWE Tag Team Championship
The WWE Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship in WWE. It was established as a second title for tag teams in WWE in 2002 to complement the original World Tag Team Championship...

. Two weeks later, in their debut match on the SmackDown! brand
WWE Brand Extension
WWE, formerly the World Wrestling Federation and World Wrestling Entertainment , currently promotes its core business of professional wrestling through two "brands" named after their two major television shows Raw and SmackDown...

, they defeated Mysterio and Guerrero to win the WWE Tag Team titles after Guerrero walked out in the middle of the match. While Nitro and Mercury held the championship, Melina was placed in an angle with Heidenreich
Jon Heidenreich
Jon Heidenreich is an American professional wrestler, better known simply as Heidenreich. He is best known for his tenure with World Wrestling Entertainment, where he was a one time WWE Tag Team Champion with Road Warrior Animal as a part of the Road Warriors.-Early career:Prior to professional...

. She publicly mocked him and was the impetus for an attack on him by Nitro and Mercury. During the assault, Road Warrior Animal
Road Warrior Animal
Joseph Aaron "Joe" Laurinaitis is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring names, Road Warrior Animal and Road Warrior...

 saved Heidenreich from the attack. Together, Heidenreich and Road Warrior Animal, challenged Mercury and Nitro for the tag titles at the Great American Bash
The Great American Bash (2005)
The Great American Bash was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment .It was the second annual event and took place on July 24, 2005, at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York...

, in which they defeated MNM to win the title.

The loss of the tag team championship was seen as "bad publicity" by Melina so she introduced Jillian Hall
Jillian Hall
Jillian Faye Fletcher is an American professional wrestler who is currently signed to Women Superstars Uncensored. She is also known for her tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment under the ring name Jillian Hall or simply Jillian...

, a storyline
Kayfabe
In professional wrestling, kayfabe is the portrayal of events within the industry as "real" or "true". Specifically, the portrayal of professional wrestling, in particular the competition and rivalries between participants, as being genuine or not of a worked nature...

 spin doctor to repair their image. Hall got them a cover article in SmackDown! magazine. In September 2005, Hall left the group to join John "Bradshaw" Layfield
John Layfield
John Charles Layfield is a former American professional wrestler, a former commentator/host for mixed martial arts promotion Vyper Fight League and financial analyst for Fox News...

 (JBL), who had lost a match to Rey Mysterio.

On the October 28, 2005, episode of SmackDown!, Mercury and Nitro were placed into a tag team title fatal four way match alongside the teams of the Mexicools
The Mexicools
The Mexicools were a professional wrestling stable and tag team, that were signed to World Wrestling Entertainment's SmackDown! brand. The team consisted of three well-known Mexican wrestlers of the late 1990s: Super Crazy, Psicosis and Juventud...

 (Super Crazy
Super Crazy
Francisco Islas Rueda is a Mexican professional wrestler, or Luchador, best known by his ring name Super Crazy. Islas is most known for his three year run in the original ECW...

 and Psicosis), William Regal
Darren Matthews
Darren Kenneth Matthews , is an English professional wrestler, author and color commentator currently signed to WWE and competing on the SmackDown brand under the ring name William Regal. He is also known for his time in World Championship Wrestling under the ring name Steven Regal...

 and Paul Burchall
Paul Burchill
Paul Birchill , better known by his ring name Paul Burchill, is an English professional wrestler. He is best known for his time with World Wrestling Entertainment , where he signed after training and debuting for the Frontier Wrestling Alliance in his home country.-Frontier Wrestling Alliance...

, and the WWE Tag Team Champions Legion of Doom 2005 (Heidenreich and Road Warrior Animal). During the match, Mercury and Nitro were able to perform the Snapshot on Heidenreich, to win the title for a second time. On the December 6, 2005, episode of SmackDown!, a tag team title match was scheduled between MNM and the team of Batista and Rey Mysterio. In this same episode, Melina was placed in an angle with her trying to make Batista call off the match by visiting him in his locker room and attempting to seduce him. The storyline had the two engage in sexual acts, after which he simply thanked her for the "warm-up" before leaving to take part in the match, where he and Mysterio defeated MNM for the title. The storyline played over to the next episode of SmackDown! when, before MNM invoked their rematch clause, Melina held a press conference in the ring where she claimed that Batista had sexually harassed her. During the tag team match, Mark Henry
Mark Henry
Mark Jerrold Henry is an American professional wrestler signed with WWE, where he performs on its SmackDown brand as the reigning World Heavyweight Champion. He is a 1992 Olympian, and winner of the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic...

 aided MNM in winning back the WWE Tag Team title. Henry was only with the group a short time before his contract was, in storyline, sold to Daivari
Shawn Daivari
Dara Daivari is an Iranian American professional wrestler, currently performing on the American independent circuit as Shawn Daivari. He is best known for his work with World Wrestling Entertainment as simply Daivari and with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as Sheik Abdul Bashir.-Career:Daivari...

.

In April 2006, MNM were placed in an angle in which they found themselves in a losing streak against the team of Paul London and Brian Kendrick
Paul London and Brian Kendrick
Paul London and Brian Kendrick are a professional wrestling tag team best known for their time together in World Wrestling Entertainment . The team never had an official team name, but were just referred to as "the tag team of London and Kendrick." In 2006 London and Kendrick put the tag team name...

. In non-title tag team matches, singles matches, and even a six-man tag match, London and Kendrick defeated the duo every time. At the Judgment Day
Judgment Day (2006)
Judgment Day was the eighth annual Judgment Day professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment...

 pay-per-view
Pay-per-view
Pay-per-view provides a service by which a television audience can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it...

 in May 2006, in a title match, MNM lost the titles to London and Kendrick. After the match, Nitro and Melina turned on Mercury, disbanding the group. Later that night, Melina lost a singles match against Jillian Hall and after slapping General Manager Theodore Long
Theodore Long
Theodore R. "Teddy" Long is an American professional wrestling manager and former referee who currently works for WWE on its SmackDown brand as its General Manager.-National Wrestling Alliance / World Championship Wrestling:...

 in anger, she and Nitro were kayfabe fired from the SmackDown! brand. Off-screen, Nitro and Mercury did not get along, and WWE management decided to split the tag team and send Nitro and Melina to the Raw
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...

 brand. Also, Mercury was about to begin serving a suspension for violating the WWE Wellness program.

Final competitions, second break-up and separate paths

After serving his suspension and a brief stint back in OVW, Mercury returned to WWE, reuniting MNM, in late November 2006 to answer an open challenge put out by The Hardys
Hardy Boyz
The Hardy Boyz are a professional wrestling tag team, consisting of real-life brothers Matt and Jeff Hardy...

 (Matt
Matt Hardy
Matthew Moore "Matt" Hardy is a semi-retired American professional wrestler. He is best known for his stints in World Wrestling Entertainment and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....

 and Jeff
Jeff Hardy
Jeffrey Nero "Jeff" Hardy is an American professional wrestler, who is currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , where he is a former two–time TNA World Heavyweight Champion...

) for the December to Dismember pay-per-view. At the event, MNM lost to the Hardys. MNM and the Hardys met again at Armageddon
Armageddon (2006)
Armageddon was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment , which took place on December 17, 2006 at the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Virginia. The event starred wrestlers from the SmackDown! brand.The main event was a tag team match, in which the team...

 as part of a fatal four way ladder match
Ladder match
A ladder match is a type of match in professional wrestling that is most commonly used to describe a match where an item is hung above the ring, and the winner is the contestant who climbs a ladder and retrieves the item...

, which also included the teams of Dave Taylor and William Regal and Paul London and Brian Kendrick. During the match, which saw London and Kendrick retain, Mercury was legitimately injured when he was struck in the face with a ladder, necessitating a trip to the emergency room where his broken nose received 15 stitches. The facial injury was worked into the angle, and when Mercury returned wearing a protective covering on his face, the rivalry between the teams intensified with MNM actively seeking to injure one or both of the Hardys, even going so far as to attack and perform a Snapshot on Matt on exposed concrete following a match.

After their feud with the Hardys was over, Nitro and Melina continued to team on Raw, while Mercury wrestled in singles competition on SmackDown!, mostly being used to win matches. On March 26, 2007, through WWE's official website, it was announced that Mercury had been released from his contract, thus ending MNM as a stable. Melina and Nitro's association began to fizzle out when Melina became the WWE Women's Champion
WWE Women's Championship
The WWE Women's Championship was a professional wrestling championship in the World Wrestling Entertainment promotion. Created in 1956, it was the oldest active professional wrestling championship in World Wrestling Entertainment history until its retirement in 2010 as a result from a unification...

 and began garnering attention as a singles performer. During the 2007 supplemental draft, Nitro moved to the ECW brand and renamed his ring name to John Morrison, while Melina remained on Raw.

In wrestling

  • Double-team finishing moves
    • Snapshot (Delayed flapjack (Mercury) / Elevated DDT (Nitro) combination)
  • Double-team signature moves
    • Double baseball slide
    • Simultaneous leg drop
      Leg drop
      A leg drop or legdrop refers to an attack used in professional wrestling in which an attacking wrestler will jump and land his leg across a fallen opponent's chest, throat, face or head or in some cases, the groin/lower-abdominal area...

      s to the throat and leg

  • Entrance theme
    Music in professional wrestling
    Music in professional wrestling serves a variety of purposes. The most common uses of music in professional wrestling is that of the entrance theme, a song or piece of instrumental music which plays as a performer approaches the ring...

    • "Paparazzi" by Jim Johnston
      James A. Johnston
      James Aloysius Johnston was the first warden of Alcatraz prison. He was warden from 1934 to 1948....


Championships and accomplishments

  • Ohio Valley Wrestling
    Ohio Valley Wrestling
    Ohio Valley Wrestling is an American independent professional wrestling promotion based in Louisville, Kentucky. OVW is run by owner Danny Davis and was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance from 1997 until 2000...

    • OVW Southern Tag Team Championship
      OVW Southern Tag Team Championship
      The OVW Southern Tag Team Championship is the tag team titles of Ohio Valley Wrestling. Created in 1997, the first champions were Nick Dinsmore and Flash Flanagan. As of 2011, the current champions are Ted McNaler and Adam Revolver, known as The Elite in their fourth reign...

       (1 time)

  • Pro Wrestling Illustrated
    Pro Wrestling Illustrated
    Pro Wrestling Illustrated is a professional wrestling magazine. PWI is currently based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania and published by Kappa Publishing Group.-History:The first issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated was released in 1979...

    • Tag Team of the Year (2005)

  • World Wrestling Entertainment
    World Wrestling Entertainment
    World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...


    • WWE Tag Team Championship
      WWE Tag Team Championship
      The WWE Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship in WWE. It was established as a second title for tag teams in WWE in 2002 to complement the original World Tag Team Championship...

       (3 times)
    • WWE Women's Championship
      WWE Women's Championship
      The WWE Women's Championship was a professional wrestling championship in the World Wrestling Entertainment promotion. Created in 1956, it was the oldest active professional wrestling championship in World Wrestling Entertainment history until its retirement in 2010 as a result from a unification...

       (1 time) – Melina


External links

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