About Shelly Martinez
Shelly Martinez (born February 9, 1980) is an American professional wrestler and valet, and pin-up model. She worked for World Wrestling Entertainment on the ECW brand under the ring name Ariel. Her stage name outside of the WWE is Desire.
Martinez was trained and first wrestled in Southern California, appearing in several independent promotions; most notably Ultimate Pro Wrestling, Revolution Pro Wrestling, and Empire Wrestling Federation where she worked as the (kayfabe) sister of Melina. During her time in California, she worked as a glamour model and pin-up model. In 2004 Shelly posed nude for the website eliteexotics.com, which no longer exists. In those photos, she clearly had not obtained her implants yet.
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 underwear. 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, 2006 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.
When the ECW brand was launched Martinez joined on as Ariel, a tarot reading fortune teller. She was joined by Kevin Thorn, a vampire character who had previously been seen stalking ECW arenas, and announced that she "saw a future that held blood" followed by Thorn spitting blood at the camera. From there, she began acting as a valet for Thorn, joining him at ringside for his matches and kissing him during them. On September 19, she got into her first ECW catfight, rumbling with Francine who'd accompanied Balls Mahoney to ringside for a match against Thorn. Ariel made her (ECW) in-ring debut against Francine on September 26 in an "Extreme Catfight", which went to a no-contest due to interference from both Thorn and Mahoney. The building feud soon dropped when Francine was released from WWE just weeks later. When the ECW brand held its first pay per view, December to Dismember, Ariel and Thorn defeated Kelly Kelly and Mike Knox in a mixed tag team match. In February of 2007, Ariel along with Kevin Thorn joined the New Breed stable and engaged in a feud with their ECW Original foes. On the May 1, 2007 edition of ECW on Sci-Fi, Kevin Thorn & Ariel quit from The New Breed Faction after Elijah Burke yelled at them for losing to CM Punk earlier in the night. On May 18, 2007 Martinez was released from her WWE contract. She has since made an appearance for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).
The Latin American Xchange At the Bound for Glory pay-per-view in October 2007, Martinez participated in a Knockout Gauntlet battle royal to crown the first TNA Knockout Champion, but the match was won by Gail Kim. Shortly afterward, a masked member of The Latin American Xchange (LAX) began interfering in LAX's matches to help them gain victories and attacking The Rock 'n Rave Infection's valet, Christy Hemme. At the Final Resolution pay-per-view in January 2008, the mystery masked wrestler was unveiled as Martinez after attacking Hemme again. On the following episode of Impact!, Homicide and Hernandez gave her the name "Salinas". Salinas then began accompanying Homicide and Hernandez to the ring as their valet.
She made her in-ring debut for TNA in a singles against Awesome Kong, and was quickly defeated. She then began competing more frequently in matches, including intergender tag team matches alongside Homicide and Hernandez. Salinas participated at Lockdown in the first ever "Queen of the Cage" match, which was won by Roxxi Laveaux. After a Knockouts "Makeover Battle Royal" was announced for the Sacrifice pay-per-view, where one Knockout would get their head shaved, Salinas competed in a match to gain immunity from the head shaving on the May 8 episode of Impact!, but was unsuccessful. At Sacrifice, the "Makeover Battle Royal" was won by Gail Kim, and Roxxi Laveaux had her head shaved. The same night, Salinas and Hector Guerrero were in the corner of LAX as they won the TNA World Tag Team Championship. As part of LAX's feud with Beer Money, Inc., Salinas wrestled their manager Jackie Moore on Impact! in June 2008, but lost by submission. She participated in a gauntlet battle royal match for the number one contendership to the TNA Women's Knockout Championship, but was unsuccessful, and a few weeks later lost a three-on-one handicap match to Awesome Kong and The Beautiful People (Velvet Sky and Angelina Love). After Beer Money, Inc. won the TNA World Tag Team Championship from LAX, the two teams began feuding, and at No Surrender in September, Salinas was attacked off camera by their manager Jackie Moore. This storyline was put in place as a way to take Martinez off television, as she had quit TNA to film an Italian thriller movie.
Martinez has since wrestled under her real name for the Perros del Mal promotion in Mexico. Martinez is part of both World Independent Ladies Division and World Wrestling Fan Xperience in the Philippines. Martinez has also appeared as a valet for Dragon Gate USA.
Beginning in 2010, Martinez began appearing for Championship Wrestling From Hollywood. She defeated Lucky O'Shea in her debut match for the promotion in August 2010. In 2013, she was briefly associated with Todd Chandler, before switching her affections to Ricky Mandel, appearing as his storyline girlfriend.
She also starred in a pin-up film titled American Pinups Vol. 2. Martinez collaborated with Jewel De'Nyle on an all-female spanking and softcore bondage video entitled The Notorious Jewel De'Nyle & Shelly Martinez. In October 2009, Martinez posed nude for a contest called "THE 1 Contest".
She also starred in the independent supernatural horror movie Dead Things. In addition, she was a contestant on the reality show The Search for the Next Elvira, which debuted October 13, 2007 on the Fox Reality Channel. Martinez appears in the beginning of the Mötley Crüe music video for "Saints of Los Angeles". In May 2011, Martinez, Raven, and Cheerleader Melissa filmed the music video for the Smashing Pumpkins' song "Owata".
As of late 2011, Martinez has been the official Hollywood Event Correspondent and Hostess for the horror news website MoreHorror.com.
Martinez is an advocate of medical marijuana, and an animal rights activist.
