MNM
Nitro (left), Melina (center), and Mercury (right) on an episode of SmackDown in 2006
Stable
Members	Joey Matthews/Joey Mercury Johnny Nitro Melina
Name(s)	MNM
Heights	Mercury: 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) Nitro: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[1] Melina: 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m)[2]
Combined weight	555 lb (252 kg) (Mercury, Nitro and Melina)
Billed from	Los Angeles, California
Debut	2004
Disbanded	March 26, 2007
Promotions	OVW WWE

MNM (Mercury, Nitro, and Melina) was a villainous professional wrestling stable in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) that consisted of Joey Mercury (previously Joey Matthews), Johnny Nitro, and their manager Melina Perez.^[3]

Mercury and Nitro first began teaming together in 2004 in OVW, WWE's developmental territory in Louisville, Kentucky.^[4] Melina, who at the time was Nitro's actual girlfriend, joined them as their manager in February 2005.^[5] While working in OVW, Mercury and Nitro captured the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship on one occasion.^[6]

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.^[7] While in WWE, their ring personas was that of a trio of Hollywood celebrities, complete with a red carpet ring entrance, that had them accompanied by "paparazzi".^[2] The duo would go on to lose the title in July 2005.^[7] After their third and final reign ended in May 2006, Nitro and Melina blamed Mercury for the loss and attacked him, splitting the team.^[8] Nitro and Melina were let go from the SmackDown! roster and debuted on the Raw brand.^[9] 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.^[10][11]

Concept [link]

The concept behind the group was that they were Hollywood celebrities.^[2] Upon their debut on SmackDown!, they claimed to be the "hot new team on the scene", because of their good looks and celebrity status.^[12]

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" took photos of them.^[12] The male members of MNM usually wore fur coats to the ring. As they took them off, Melina suggestively rubbed their abs 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 on the ring apron—from the floor—then bending forward and crawling under the bottom rope.^[2]

History [link]

Ohio Valley Wrestling [link]

MNM was formed in the former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) "farm territory" Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). Melina Perez, Johnny Nitro's real-life girlfriend, was introduced into the company as his ex-girlfriend, an ally of Matt Cappotelli with whom Nitro was engaged in a scripted rivalry. Almost immediately, however, Perez betrayed Cappotelli and sided with Nitro. Together they introduced Joey Matthews to become MNM.^[5] While in OVW, Nitro and Matthews won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship once, holding it for over two months.^[6]

SmackDown and break-up [link]

MNM was called up to WWE's SmackDown! roster in April 2005, with Matthews undergoing a name change to "Joey Mercury".^[13] They made their debut during Carlito'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, over the WWE Tag Team Championship.^[14][15] Two weeks later, in their debut match on the SmackDown! brand, they defeated Mysterio and Guerrero to win the WWE Tag Team titles after Guerrero walked out in the middle of the match.^[16][17] While Nitro and Mercury held the championship, Melina was placed in an angle with Heidenreich. She publicly mocked him and was the impetus for an attack on him by Nitro and Mercury.^[18][19] During the assault, Road Warrior Animal saved Heidenreich from the attack.^[19] Together, Heidenreich and Road Warrior Animal, challenged Mercury and Nitro for the tag titles at the Great American Bash, in which they defeated MNM to win the title.^[20]

The loss of the tag team championship was seen as "bad publicity" by Melina so she introduced Jillian Hall, a storyline spin doctor to repair their image.^[21] Hall got them a cover article in SmackDown! magazine.^[22] In September 2005, Hall left the group to join John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL), who had lost a match to Rey Mysterio.^[23]

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 (Super Crazy and Psicosis), William Regal and Paul Burchall, 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.^[24][25] 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.^[26][27] 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 aided MNM in winning back the WWE Tag Team title.^[28][29] Henry was only with the group a short time before his contract was, in storyline, sold to Daivari.^[20][30]

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. In non-title tag team matches, singles matches, and even a six-man tag match, London and Kendrick defeated the duo every time.^[31][32][33] At the Judgment Day pay-per-view in May 2006, in a title match, MNM lost the titles to London and Kendrick.^[8] After the match, Nitro and Mercury started brawling, disbanding the group.^[8] Later that night, Melina lost a singles match against Jillian Hall and after slapping General Manager Theodore Long in anger, she and Nitro were kayfabe fired from the SmackDown! brand.^[9] 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 brand.^[34] Also, Mercury was about to begin serving a suspension for violating the WWE Wellness program.^[13]

Final competitions, second break-up and separate paths [link]

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 (Matt and Jeff) for the December to Dismember pay-per-view.^[10] At the event, MNM lost to the Hardys.^[35] MNM and the Hardys met again at Armageddon as part of a fatal four way ladder match, which also included the teams of Dave Taylor and William Regal and Paul London and Brian Kendrick.^[35] 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.^[36] 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.^[37]

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.^[11][38] Melina and Nitro's association began to fizzle out when Melina became the WWE Women's Champion 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.^[39]

In wrestling [link]

• Double-team finishing moves
  • Snapshot (Delayed flapjack (Mercury) / Elevated DDT (Nitro) combination)^[4]
• Double-team signature moves
  • Double baseball slide^[4]
  • Simultaneous leg drops to the throat and leg^[4]

• Entrance theme
  • "Paparazzi" by Jim Johnston

Championships and accomplishments [link]

• Ohio Valley Wrestling
  • OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[6]

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • Tag Team of the Year (2005)^[40]

• World Wrestling Entertainment
  • WWE Tag Team Championship (3 times)^[7]
  • WWE Women's Championship (1 time)^[41] – Melina

References [link]

External links [link]

Professional wrestling portal

• MNM's Online World of Wrestling profile
• Mercury's Online World of Wrestling profile
• Mercury's Slam! Sports bio and story archive
• Johnny Nitro's WWE profile
• Melina's WWE profile