The Enlightenment: Future Legend – Cheerleader Melissa

“Future Legend” Cheerleader Melissa

Sure, we can all fawn about the improvements Trish Stratus has made. Or how Tracy Brooks is underutilized. But there are a number of unknown gems down in the indy circuit that wrestle circles around even our favorite mainstream divas.

Cheerleader Melissa is one of them.

Just a little background: Melissa Anderson is a second generation wrestler (though not part of the Anderson family). She made a name for herself in APW where she was often forced into one-on-one contests with male wrestlers. She even continued to wrestle overseas in Japan and Germany, learning new styles as she worked.

Challenges like these made Melissa into who many wrestling insiders consider the top independent woman’s wrestler in North America.

And this DVD is a little taste of why.

I should note for those who are thinking of buying, the DVD is shot by APW with an indy level budget, so in many cases there is a single camera setup with whoever is holding the camera doing some sort of commentary (and, in other cases, no commentary at all). Ah, the life of an indy wrestler.

Cheerleader Melissa vs. Nikki

Crowd is firmly behind Nikki here, prompting Melissa to have a few words with those in the front row. Very basic stuff off a Melissa headlock to start. Melissa takes her down with a leg scissors and goes back to the headlock. Nikki misses her attempt at a leg scissors but makes Melissa pay with a backdrop suplex. Nikki tosses her across the ring and shoves her in the face to add insult to injury. Suddenly, Melissa schoolgirls her for two, but Nikki stays on top with forearms and a Stinger Splash. Melissa comes back with a neckbreaker and a series of clotheslines. A snap suplex gets two. Nikki follows too closely on a corner charge, and Melissa casts her aside with a headscissors. Nikki catches her with a hotshot but walks in a little too cavalierly enabling Melissa to finisher her off with the Flatliner at 6:25. About what you’d expect from a WWE women’s PPV match. Melissa dropkicks Nikki’s carcass out of the ring and poses for the crowd. *3/4

Cheerleader Melissa vs. Super Dragon.

Super Dragon has gone on to appear in Ring of Honor and Pro-Wrestling Guerrilla. Dragon starts out trying to get into her head (among other places). He gives her a little spank, so Melissa returns the favor. Dragon snapmares her over and gives her a stiff kick to the back. Melissa mirrors him and then avoids his kick when he tries it again. Melissa dropkicks him to the floor and comes off the top with a crossbody. Back inside, Melissa slows things down with a side headlock. Dragon shoots her off, drops down to snag her foot and comes up with an STF. Melissa crawls to the ropes to break. Dragon ties her in the tree-of-woe and does the Tommy Dreamer crotch stand. I don’t think he thought that one through. Dragon goes to work on the arm, including a wicked elbow to the shoulder off the second-rope. He gets tired of that and goes with strikes. You get the feeling he’s just having fun now as he hits a running forearm to the corner that sends Melissa collapsing to the mat. Suddenly, Melissa reverses a German suplex to one of her own! A series of reversals sees Melissa come out on top with a Forward Rolling Cradle for two. A huracanrana gets two more, and Melissa gives Dragon a receipt for the running corner forearm. Melissa sets him on top for a super huracanrana (which Dragon, unfortunately missells by anticipating the move). ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Melissa goes for a suplex, but Dragon twists out of it into a wakigatame (reverse armlock). Melissa blindly reach out and grabs the bottom rope. Dragon picks her up and goes back to the arm with a Hammerlock Blue Thunder Bomb for two. Melissa gets a nicely executed Northern Lights before Dragon reverses back to the wakigatame. Melissa rolls through, so Dragon simply switches up to the jujigatame (cross armlock) for the submission at 12:18. Great stuff as Super Dragon came in with a plan and was able to execute it, putting Melissa on the defensive throughout the match. ***1/4

Cheerleader Melissa vs. Bobby Quance.

Quance is an excellent flyer and mat wrestler similar to Chad Collyer or American Dragon. Melissa has eschewed her normal cheerleading attire in favor of street clothes. Lots of mat wrestling to start with neither person getting a clear advantage for very long. They exchange armdrags, and Quance takes her down with a headlock. They go into the Flair/Steamboat power up sequence ending with Quance slamming her down with an Alabama Slam. That disorients Melissa long enough for Bobby to start picking her apart with suplexes. Melissa elbows out of an Exploder but gets caught going for a wheelbarrow bulldog. Quance gives her a spinning backdrop suplex which probably would be the end, but Melissa is in the ropes. Quance gets two more off a forward rolling cradle, and they’re in the ropes again. Melissa gets two off a surprise schoolboy and another two off an Oklahoma Roll. Quance charges her but runs right into a belly-to-belly suplex. Quance goes for a huracanrana, but Melissa counters to a Jackknife Powerbomb for two. A Released German Suplex sends Quance to the corner, and Melissa locks in a Full Nelson Leglock. Quance returns the favor with a German Suplex for two, but Melissa comes back with a super huracanrana and a corner elbow. Quance avoids the second one and levels her with a Rolling Elbow. That’s enough to set up the Shooting Star Press for the Quance win at 14:06. It didn’t really flow from spot to spot the way that the match with Super Dragon did, but the spots they did use were more impressive. ***

Cheeleader Melissa (w/Tiffany) vs. Lance Chandler.

We have commentary for this one. Chandler is one-half of The Beach Boys (not the music group, obviously). He controls with a headlock, but Melissa pokes him in the eye. Chandler gets a monkey flip and does an awkward double vertical suplex. He ends the sequence with a double underhook suplex and settles into a chinlock. Melissa slaps her way out of it, but Chandler punches her in the face. Melissa counters a second-rope Rocker Dropper (Famasser) with a powerbomb. She nails him with a running corner forearm. Melissa pounds on him until he takes her down with a double leg pick. Melissa gets all UFC on him and reverses to a Rings of Saturn. A dropkick to the knee puts Lance down, and Melissa worsens the pain with a ringpost figure-four. They exchange forearms, and Melissa tries to roll him over for a sort of sunset flip. Over the ropes, she splashes Lance’s legs and rolls him up with her feet on the ropes for the Flairish win at 11:38. Solid match, but the finish seemed to come out of nowhere. **1/4

Cheerleader Melissa vs. Tiffany.

This is student vs. teacher here. Tiffany stalls at first but gets a sunset flip for two. They do a double kip-up spot. Melissa goes to work on Tiff’s arm. Tiffany slides out to stall again. Back in, Melissa elbows out of a chinlock, but Tiff snaps her down by the hair. A neckbreaker gets two for Tiffany. Melissa catches her going up and slams her to the canvass. They trade forearms, won by Melissa, of course. The running forearm in the corner puts Tiffany down. ONE, TWO, TH-foot on the ropes. Tiffany blocks a reverse rollup but falls victim to a German Suplex. Melissa picks up the win at 8:31. I don’t think Tiffany was quite ready to hang with Melissa. As a result, this looked more like what you’d expect to see on Raw. *1/2

Above-the-Law Championship: Cheerleader Melissa vs. Robert Thompson (7/24/04).

The rules here are that the rules don’t apply to Melissa, so she can do anything she wants. Thompson looks like a shorter, chubbier version of New Jack. Thompson pushes Melissa to the corner and tries to punch her, but stickler ref Christina McGraw blocks him. It’s illegal, after all. Melissa hits him with a palm strike right in his grill, but she falls victim to a flapjack. Thompson spends too much time arguing with McGraw over hair pulling. Melissa gets up and mule kicks him in the crotch, Flair-style. Things get good as Melissa unwraps the tape from her wrist and ties Thompson’s hands behind his back, turning this into a fair fight. She puts him in a surfboard. Thompson gets his foot on the rope, but the rules don’t apply. Melissa hits her running elbow in the corner, and the crowd calls for one more. She sprints across the ring, but Thompson suckers her into a stiff lariat out of the corner. Melissa jumps on his back with a choke and then strangles him with her wrist tape. She makes the mistake of climbing the ropes for more leverage, so Thompson grabs her by the ears and snapmares her off the top. The Head Trauma (Inverted Brainbuster DDT) should finish her off, but Killer Jay comes down and picks a fight with Thompson. They fight all the way out of the garage, and Thompson can’t make it back before McGraw’s count. Melissa wins the ATL title at 10:28. Not what I’d call great work in the workrate sense, but it was so intelligently booked that it made up for it in other areas. Minus a bit for the non-finish, though. **1/2

APW Future Legend Title: Cheerleader Melissa vs. Nene Kimura.

Melissa takes Kimura down in a headlock, and they do some nice mat work as Tiffany comes down to observe/interfere. Tiffany gives Nene a shot, prompting Melissa to argue with her. See, Tiffany hates both women. Nene attacks Melissa from behind but takes a wristlock suplex for two. Tiffany pulls Kimura to the outside and gives her a forearm. Melissa chases Tiffany around the ring but takes a dropkick from Kimura. Kimura wins a battle of kicks, and Tiffany trips up Melissa again. Nene bridges out of a Butterfly Pin. She comes back with a huracanrana and hits her with a running forearm in the corner. FACEWASH~! Melissa blocks a bodyslam but gets rolled up. Referee McGraw is busy arguing with Tiffany. McGraw has enough of her and banishes her to the locker room. Melissa accidentally backdrops Nene onto Christina McGraw (now THAT’S a ref bump). She squashes Nene with a Schwien, but the ref is still out. Melissa decides to go up to the Crow’s Nest (the area where they tape with the overhead camera – think the top of the Titan Tron only not as high). Tiffany attacks Melissa on the Nest and throws her over the edge, but Melissa holds on and shoves Tiffany off. Tiffany is, fortunately, caught by a group of wrestlers, so Melissa flies off the Crow’s Nest Sabu-style and takes out the entire group. And yet the match continues. Nene was part of that group that Melissa dove onto, so Melissa rolls her in and picks up the win at 13:12. The ECW-ish angle overwhelmed the match, but that dive was pretty impressive for a women’s match. **

Bonus Footage: Melissa picks up the 2004 Califlower Alley Club “Future Legend Award.” Former winners include Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle. Mike Tenay and Bobby Heenan are on hand to give her the award. Melissa credits her father and thanks everyone for the award. She certainly cleans up nicely.

The 411: Because Vince fancies his conglomerate a "drama" rather than a wrestling show, and because TNA doesn't really have a women's division, Melissa has found herself on the outside looking in at fame. It's an unfortunate circumstance because she could wrestle circles around your average diva (and quite a few of the men). Hopefully, with the Spirit Squad being a natural fit and the importation of former WWE Divas to TNA, there will be renewed interest in Melissa from the Big Two. She's far too talented and hard-working to toil away in relative obscurity. As for the DVD itself: the average viewer will probably not be able to get past the indy production values. Most of the matches look like they were shot on a prosumer video camera rather than real, professional equipment. The match selection is good for what they had available, but she's had even better matches in Japan. Overall, I'd call it a marginal thumbs up for the DVD, but definitely try to take in one of her matches in some form just to see what a serious female worker can do.

Final Score:  5.5   [ Not So Good ]