Shelly Martinez

Biography

Shelly Leonor Martinez (born February 9, 1980) is an American model, actress, retired professional wrestler and valet. She is known for her work with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on its ECW brand under the ring name Ariel and for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) under the ring name Salinas as valet to The Latin American Xchange (LAX). Martinez entered professional wrestling in December 2000. She worked mainly on the independent circuit in Southern California, using the name Desire, competing for promotions including Revolution Pro Wrestling, Ultimate Pro Wrestling and the Empire Wrestling Federation (EWF). In April 2005, she signed a contract with WWE, and was assigned to their developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). She moved to the ECW brand in mid-2006, and using a gimmick of a tarot reader, managed Kevin Thorn, while known as Ariel. In 2007, she was released from her WWE contract, and signed with TNA. Known as Salinas, she was associated with LAX, and managed both members of the team, Homicide and Hernandez. She left TNA in September 2008, and appeared for several independent promotions until her retirement in 2017. Martinez is also known for her acting and modeling work. She was a contestant on the reality television show, The Search for the Next Elvira, and has also appeared in films. She starred in The Notorious Jewel De'Nyle & Shelly Martinez, a softcore pornography video alongside Jewel De'Nyle, and has also posed nude on several occasions.

== Professional wrestling career ==

=== Early career (2000-2005) === Martinez began working as a model in order to further her professional wrestling career. She also worked as an actress, and after being cast in an independent film about wrestling, she was introduced to a wrestling promoter and trainer. She trained at his school for two and a half years. Martinez first wrestled in Southern California under the ring name Desire, appearing in several independent promotions such as Revolution Pro Wrestling, Empire Wrestling Federation (EWF) and Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW), where she worked as the storyline sister of Kyra. While in UPW, she also competed under the name Halloween Barbie. She also had a run in Women's Extreme Wrestling, where she played the storyline cousin of Mercedes Martinez. On July 19, 2002, Martinez, under the name Desire, teamed with Threat to win the vacant EWF Tag Team Championship in a battle royal. They held the championship for 28 days, before losing it to PHAT (Eric Matlock and Devon Willis) on August 16. In December 2004, Martinez trained at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) for a few weeks.

=== World Wrestling Entertainment (2005-2007) ===

==== Ohio Valley Wrestling (2005–2007) ==== In April 2005, Martinez signed a developmental contract with WWE. By July of that year she had begun training and wrestling in their primary developmental territory OVW, using simply "Shelly" as a ring name. Her first role there had her, along with Beth Phoenix, acting as co-manager for Aaron Stevens. As part of her affiliation with Phoenix and Stevens, Shelly had an erotic gimmick, with a relationship between all three being implied. She was involved in a scripted rivalry with Alexis Laree, with Shelly and Phoenix attacking her on several occasions and the pair wrestled her in handicap matches. In her first singles match in OVW Shelly defeated Laree on October 29. Shelly and Phoenix also appeared together on the January 27, 2006, episode of Heat as part of The Heart Throbs (Romeo Roselli and Antonio Thomas) "Throb-o-Meter" section, dancing in the ring with the team and teasing a kiss, before being interrupted by Trevor Murdoch. In February 2006, Shelly began a gimmick of being obsessed with Paul Burchill, who was using a pirate gimmick on SmackDown!. It began at the television tapings on February 1, when Burchill had picked her up to perform a piledriver, but instead carried her backstage after looking at her panties. This obsession provoked a feud with Phoenix, when Shelly attacked Phoenix who was attempting to stop Shelly from attacking Cherry during a match between Burchill and Deuce Shade. As part of the feud, Shelly and Phoenix competed against each other in several matches, including a street fight at the television tapings on April 19. On the May 6 episode of Velocity, Shelly appeared as Burchill's valet for his match against Road Warrior Animal, and was referred to as his "buxom wench". Returning to OVW, she became involved in Seth Skyfire's ongoing feud with Mike "The Miz" Mizanin and Roni Jonah. Upon her debut on the ECW brand in mid-2006, Martinez began using the ring name Ariel in OVW as well. In November 2006, Ariel unsuccessfully challenged Beth Phoenix for the OVW Women's Championship. Her final appearance in OVW came on January 25, 2007, when she and Jon Bolen defeated Stevens and Phoenix.

==== ECW (2006–2007) ====

In mid-2006, Martinez joined the ECW brand as Ariel, a tarot reading fortune teller. Originally, Martinez was to be part of a 'vampire' faction with Gangrel and Kevin Thorn; however, the faction did not materialise on television. Instead, Ariel and Thorn began appearing in vignettes together, and on July 25, Thorn made his in-ring debut with Ariel acting as his valet. Ariel then increased her ringside presence during Thorn's matches, often interfering in his matches, and Thorn began a scripted feud with Balls Mahoney. In order to counteract Ariel's interference, Mahoney began bringing in Francine as an equalizer. Ariel made her ECW in-ring debut against Francine on September 26 in an "Extreme Catfight", which ended as a no contest due to interference from both Thorn and Mahoney. The two teams feuded until early October, until Francine was released by WWE. During a match between Thorn and CM Punk, Kelly Kelly interfered in order to help Punk. As a result, Punk won the match, and Ariel and Thorn attacked Kelly after the match. At the December to Dismember pay-per-view, Thorn and Ariel defeated Kelly and Kelly's on-screen boyfriend Mike Knox in a mixed tag team match, after Knox walked out on Kelly. The next week on ECW, Ariel lost to Kelly in a singles match, when Kelly utilized a schoolgirl for the victory. On February 6, 2007, Ariel and Thorn joined Elijah Burke, Matt Striker, and Marcus Cor Von in forming The New Breed stable. Ariel began accompanying the New Breed to the ring during their matches, and appeared at WrestleMania 23, managing the New Breed during their match against the ECW Originals. Shortly afterward, Burke announced a match between Thorn and CM Punk, after Punk had betrayed the New Breed, but Thorn lost. After the match, Thorn quit the New Breed, as none of the other members interfered during the match to help him. A few weeks later, on May 18, 2007, Martinez was released from her WWE contract. In a 2013 interview, Shelly Martinez blamed her release on a confrontation with Dave Batista.

=== Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2007–2008) ===