20 Former WWE Stars Who Should Return For Brand Split 2016

10. Melina

shawn Davari
WWE.com

There aren't too many women's stars from the mid-to-late 2000s who are still wrestling. A lot of the women around whom the division was built - Beth Phoenix, Candice Michelle, Kelly Kelly, and Michelle McCool - have been out of wrestling for years. The one outlier, though, is perhaps the most successful star of the era - two-time Divas' Champion and three-time Women's Champion Melina.

Melina first came to WWE as the manager for MNM, but she soon began participating in matches. The former independent standout used a unique style that got a lot of attention, and while she wasn't as good as, say, Sasha Banks or Charlotte, she still made a fine centerpiece of the division. Like many of the female talent of the era, though, she was hurt by bad booking and repeated shifts in focus, and was released in 2011.

Though Melina retired from the ring in 2012, she returned to action in 2015, competing for Japanese promotion Stardom. If she's interested in a full-time comeback, and if WWE is interested in giving her a shot, the brand split presents a unique opportunity.

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Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013