Mel Masters

== Early Life ==
Mel is the son of Forrest Masters and Eliza. When Mel was young, he would hang around his father’s dojo; watching his father’s movements and tendencies. When he asked his father to train him, Forrest said that he was much too young to receive training from him. Forrest also told him that he wants Mel to take lessons in all styles of fighting before he trains him. Mel started training in all forms of Martial Arts at the age of 6 taking: Karate on Monday, Kick boxing on Tuesday, Kung Fu on Wednesday, Muay Thai on Thursday, Jiu Jitsu on Friday, Wrestling on Saturday, and Boxing on Sunday. Mel did this regimen until the age of 11, when his parents divorced. They were given joint custody of Mel, but Eliza didn’t care. She stole 80 million dollars of Forrest’s money and moved to Japan with Mel. Not long after, Eliza met and fell deeply and madly in love with a man she met named Yujiro Hanma. That very night, they went upstairs to the bedroom where he told Eliza that she was going to bare him a son and his name would be Baki( which is Mel in Japanese). He knew that Eliza already had a son named Mel, but he planned on killing him once his son was born. While she was pregnant, Eliza suffered a miscarriage. Yujiro decided that if he couldn’t have a son of his own, he would accept Mel( who is known as Baki) as his son. Yujiro told Baki that they would fight when he became strong enough. Baki came to look up to Yujiro because of his seemingly super human strength and he looked to him as a father since his own was not around. Eliza gave Baki the best medical and training staff available, so he could become stronger and face Yujiro. Her love for Baki was dwindling however; as she was reminded of Forrest every time she looked at him. She no longer wanted Baki as a son and wished she never had a miscarriage because she would rather have a son by Yujiro. Eliza wants Baki to become stronger and fight Yujiro so Yujiro can kill him and rid any memory of Forrest and their Marriage away. Eliza had Baki dye his hair Orange and she dyed her hair Black so no one would be able to recognize them. 
== Warrior Reborn-13 ==
Baki has become an exceptional fighter beating almost half of the street gangs in the country of Japan. He takes on a street gang of 100 men and defeats about 37 before being overwhelmed. Baki lives alone and not in a mansion with his mother. People vandalize Baki’s house because they know that’s the only way they can hurt him since they can’t beat him. The next day during conditioning training with his experts, Baki lashes out and destroys the facility stating that he does the same things every day and he’s not getting any stronger. Baki leaves and says that he’s going to train on his own. Baki then spots the Welterweight Boxing Champion Yuri Chakovsky and follows him to his gym. Baki then challenges Yuri to a fight. Yuri accepts and tells Baki to put on some gloves. Yuri beats Baki by knocking him out. When Baki wakes up, he decided to go to the mountains and train up there with one of Yujiro’s old friends Ando. He has a short reunion with Ando before telling him that he wants to camp out on Yasha Crag. Baki explains that he hopes to fight the Yasha Ape. Baki thinks that if Yujiro already killed a Yasha Ape before, he should be able to as well. Ando then gives Baki some advice and tells him if he wants to get stronger then he needs to eat and eat a lot. Baki goes to Yasha Crag and he eventually finds the Yasha Ape, but when he sees the Ape he gets frozen and becomes afraid. Before the ape can do any harm to Baki, Ando comes and tries to fight the Ape for him. This resulted in Ando getting his torso ripped open. The only reason why the Ape didn’t kill him is because Baki threw fire on the beasts back and he retreated back to his cave. At Ando’s house, Baki puts gun powder on Ando’s wound. Baki then calls a helicopter to pick up Ando and bring him to a hospital. After this, Baki decides that if he wants to get stronger he needs to eat. So baki eats and eats and eats and eats for a month while also training his body. During this time, Baki gains Endorphins and near death concentration. After the month is over, Baki goes back to Yasha Crag and challenges the Yasha Ape to a rematch. During the fight, Baki attains multiple scars and is very bloody; while the Yasha Ape loses an eye and gets his windpipe busted. In the end however, Baki comes up with the win. Yujiro killed the Yasha Apes wife. In return, Baki returned the skull of his wife as a sign of respect. Likewise, Yasha gave Baki one of his fangs as a gift. In actuality, the Yasha Ape is a docile creature and only fights to survive. As Baki departs, Yasha revealed that he was raising three children on his own.
=== Grappler vs. Gripper ===
When Baki comes back to the city, he has a new challenge waiting for him; the toughest gangster in all Japan, the massive Kaoru Hanayama. When Hanayama fought Yuri Chakovsky, he broke his arm with his infamous gripping technique and seemingly ended his boxing career. Hearing this, Baki goes to pay Hanayama a visit. When Baki sees Hanayama, Baki kicks him in his face; stunning the brute for a moment. Before Hanayama could retaliate, the police showed up and Baki left. Once he left, Hanayama was furious and wrecked his office room. Hanayama went outside and destroyed a car all with his bare hands. Baki sees Yuri in the hospital and stays there for a while as the two have now become friends. Yuri knows Baki is going to fight Hanayama and he tells him to watch out for his gripping technique. When the two finally face off, it is in front of hundreds of people. It was a tough, long, hard fought battle and both fighters were fatigued. In the end, Baki showed the resilience to get up; while Hanayama stayed on the floor making Baki the winner. After the fight, Yujiro comes and Hanayama tries to fight him. Hanayama is easily overwhelmed and Yujiro states that he is not worth being killed by his hand. Baki now seeing Yujiro’s true nature, hates him and means to one day kill him.
=== Jungle warfare ===
After the fight, Baki goes on a run around the track. Yujiro comes to Baki to tell him that in one month they will fight. Before Yujiro left, he showed Baki the head of the Yasha Ape; meaning that Yujiro killed it. Yujiro breaks the head open and leaves with a sinister laugh; reminding Baki that he has 1 month. A distraught Baki, eats the teeth of the Yasha Ape saying that now they could both beat him. Baki is later approached by Yujiro’s friend Strydum who tells Baki that if he is to beat Yujiro, then he needs to go to the jungle in North Korea. Strydum warned Baki that if he goes there, he has no way of getting him out so he’s on his own. Baki accepts anyway and he is dropped off in the jungle. Baki is then instantly attacked by 5 renegade commandos. Baki is tied up until they leave him unwatched. Baki then gets himself free, taking down 4 of the commandos. Baki waits patiently for the leader of the commandos, Gaia. Unbeknownst to Baki, Gaia is a split personality of one of the commandos. When Gaia comes, he proceeds to literally teach Baki a lesson. While he beats Baki up, Gaia is telling him what he is doing wrong and explaining why Baki would never be able to defeat him. Baki learns his lesson though, and defeats Gaia with a compassionate yet affective move. After the fight, they develop a mutual respect for each other as Baki and the 5 commandos all eat dinner together. When Baki returns back to Japan, he is sent to go see his mother. As soon as Eliza and Yujiro get through with a night of passion, he tells her that this is the last time they will see each other. His reasoning is that Eliza has failed him by not giving him a son and instead she has given him Baki. Eliza leaves the room feeling weak on the verge of passing out, when she sees Baki. Eliza then becomes enraged. She starts yelling at Baki and punching him asking him why is he so weak. A heartbroken Baki tells his mother that he knows that she loves Yujiro more than him and more than anyone. Baki tells her that if he beats Yujiro tomorrow, he wouldn’t be doing it for him; he would be doing it for her. Just so that she would love him with at least a fraction of the love she has for Yujiro. Eliza tells him to shut up and when she goes in for another punch, he dodges it. Baki then hugs her saying “just love your son mom.” Eliza bites his arm and runs away, thinking to herself that she is not going to give up and she will have Yujiro.
=== Tough Love ===
On the day of the fight, Baki decides to train for 12 hours straight. Hanayama and Yuri help Baki train while Ando, the 5 commandos, and everybody else who helped Baki get this far; receive letters to come and view the epic fight. Everybody arrives at the battle ground except for Gaia. When Yujiro’s helicopter lands; Gaia who is all beaten and bruised is the first one out. Gaia then bows as Yujiro comes out of the helicopter. Everybody is shocked as this means that Yujiro has conquered Gaia. Eliza gets out after Yujiro and stands behind him. Now not only is Baki against Yujiro, he is against his mother too. As the fight starts, Baki comes out swinging; connecting kicks, punches, and knees directly into the face of Yujiro. The only problem is, Yujiro was totally unaffected by Baki’s unrelenting barrage. Baki tries to get Yujiro in a rear naked choke and the way that they are positioned made Eliza think of a child on their fathers back. Eliza started coming to her senses realizing that she is losing both the man who has her undying love and her only son. Yujiro easily swings Baki off of him. When Baki continually tries to attack him, Yujiro starts to thank everybody who helped make Baki the “weakling” that he has become. Yujiro then proceeds to kick Baki to the ground, leaving him unconscious for 2 tenths of a second. Yujiro asks Eliza if they should rip Baki’s heart out and if he should leave her a taste. When he says this, Eliza starts to remember her motherly connection and realizes that it’s not Yujiro she loves more than anything; it’s her son Baki who she loves above all else. Eliza yells for Baki to give him everything he’s got. With that said, Baki gets a whole new set of determination saying in his head ‘this is for you mother’. Baki prepares his final attack waiting for Yujiro to hit him. When Yujiro touches him, Baki counters with a kick. Yujiro then uses Baki’s same technique and counters the counter, leaving Baki knocked out cold. Yujiro didn’t stop there, he kept on pounding and beating on the unconscious Baki; trying to kill him slowly. Eliza couldn’t take any more of it; she came to the aid and protection of her baby, punching Yujiro and yelling for him to make her his opponent. Eliza throws a punch and Yujiro head butts her hand breaking it. Eliza throws another punch with the other hand and Yujiro slaps it out of the way breaking that hand. Eliza then kicks his groin area. Yujiro reciprocates with slapping his hands on her ears causing her to go deaf. Eliza replies saying that he’s not as strong as she thought. Eliza then puts her arms around him and starts to bite him. Yujiro puts his arms around her and proceeds to break Eliza’s back, paralyzing and ultimately killing her. Yujiro then beats up all of Baki’s friends who came to see him win. Baki is distraught, heartbroken, and saddened by the loss of his mother and at the same time he is happy that she reciprocated the love he gave her back to him. Baki buries her wedding ring; promising her that he will beat Yujiro and tells her that he loves her one last time. Baki then dyes his hair a mixed color of Eliza and Yujiro’s hair.         
== The Quest to Becoming the Greatest Grappler-14 ==
Afterwards, Baki travels to America; where he wants to fight people in no holds barred matches so he can use all of his strength. Baki also went to search for his biological father Forrest Masters since he is all that he has left. Baki then travels to Brazil without finding his father and goes to see legendary Brazilian fighter, Dixon. Dixon tells Baki “if you want fame and money without any competition, you should stay in Brazil. If you want true competition though, you should go back to Japan and fight in Mr. Tokugawa’s underground fight league.” On his way back to Japan, Baki finds Forrest and they have a heartfelt reunion. Forrest apologizes for not being there for him and tells him he didn’t know where Baki was since his mother just took off. They go on to tell each other everything that’s been going on during the past 4 years. When Forrest tells Baki(who he refers to as Mel) that he will find and kill Yujiro, Baki tells his no stating that he will be the one to avenge his mother no one else. Baki tells Forrest that he needs to go back to Japan to get stronger. Forrest tells Baki that if he ever needs him come and see him, and if he ever needs a place to stay he has a home with him. With that, Baki goes back to Japan.  In Japan, he breaks into Mr. Tokugawa’s house, beats up his security guards, and takes out one of his underground fighters. Baki apologizes to Mr. Tokugawa saying that fighting is the only way he knows how to prove himself. Mr. Tokugawa accepts his apology and gives him a job as one of his Underground Supreme Fighting Circuit fighters.         
== Young Champion-17 ==
It took a year before Baki was champion and 2 more for him to be considered one of the greatest. Baki was unbeaten and considered by some unbeatable. Baki now lives with Kinuyo Matsumoto and her daughter Kozue at the request of Mr. Tokugawa. Baki and Kozue go to school together and develop a secret crush on each other. By day he’s a senior in high school, by night he’s the Supreme Fighting Champion. Baki’s next fight though would test him like no other. He would fight the cord cutter Shinogi Koushou. In an epic brawl that saw Shinogi cut the nerve that moves the arm and cutting the cord that controls his right eye; Baki was able to persevere and win the fight when he caught Shinogi in an unbreakable armbar. The only way for Shinogi to get out was if Baki broke his arm of if he submitted. When Baki found out that he wasn’t going to submit, Baki Knocked Shinogi out. Baki wanted to end the fight and even if he broke his arm, Shinogi would have still continued so knockout was his only solution. Shinogi later shows Baki a sign of respect and tells him “don’t you ever lose Baki Hanma.” To make himself seem more normal at school, Baki gives a group of thugs lunch money for “protection”. When Kozue finds out and catches them trying to bully Baki, she tells them to leave him alone and asks Baki “why do you let them do this when you can tear them apart” much to the amusement of the thugs. Baki then covers her mouth and runs away so the thugs can’t find them. Later, Kozue is with her friend Mai when the thugs come to them and kidnap Kozue. Mai tells Baki what happened and he goes to search for her. Before Baki gets there, the thugs tell Kozue that she made them miss a pay day and if she didn’t have money she was going to pay them in another way.  One guy says “I want to go first”, but the leader says “don’t worry boys we’ll all have a turn.” Baki then arrives on the scene and finishes them before they could do anything to her. Baki then tells her to go home where it’s safe. Baki’s next fight in the arena is against famous pro wrestler Mt. Toba. At first, Baki was overwhelmed by Toba’s strength. Baki slowly but surely started to take control until Toba went for his finishing move. When Toba hit it, everybody thought the fight was over; but Baki got up. When Toba tried the move again, the big wrestler’s knee gave out. Baki then kicked his knee breaking it, but breaking it in a way that it would grow back even stronger than before. Baki wins the match and retains his title. Immediately after the match, Yujiro Hanma jumps into the ring. Baki tries to fight him but is easily dismissed by Yujiro. Then an unlikely challenger and former Supreme Fighting Champion “the tiger slayer” Dopo Orochi challenges Yujiro to do battle with him in the arena. Yujiro gladly accepts and they are set to do battle. Baki watches the fight and is surprised that Dopo can keep up and even hurt Yujiro. In the end however, it was all for naught as Yujiro won and Dopo lost an eye and temporarily his life before be resuscitated to a man named Kureha Koshou. Ironically, Baki’s opponent that night was none other than Shinogi Koshou’s older brother Kureha Koshou. Kureha is very narcissistic and trains to develop the perfect body through rigorous weight training. Kureha claims to have all the traits of several Olympic level athletes, the speed of a sprinter, the endurance of a marathon runner, the flexibility of an amateur wrestler, and the reaction time and strength of a heavyweight boxer. Kureha however, does not have any known formal training in a martial art like his younger brother. Kureha is also a surgical genius; able to do surgeries that normally take several hours in only 30 minutes as seen when he revived Dopo, though he does not have a license. Most of the fight goes in Kureha’s favor until he is destroyed by Baki after Baki meets the people that got screwed over by his non licensed surgeries. Ironically, Kureha is saved from death by one of his victims when he needed a blood transfusion after his match with Baki.   
=== Maximum Tournament ===
Later towards the end of the year, Baki participates in the Maximum Tournament sponsored by the Supreme Fighting Circuit. It’s a tournament where all of the best fighters in the world participated in: past, present, and future. During the tournament, the relationship between Baki and Kozue is made official as they officially begin dating. He fights Arudi Regan in round 1, Zool in round 2, Igari Kanji in round 3, and Retsu Kaioh in round 4 before facing his step-brother in round 5 which are the finals of the tournament. He eventually develops the ogre/demon face on his back when fighting his brother, but manages to suppress it. Unlike Yujiro, he chooses to control his killing intent and fight his battles fair and honorably no matter what the outcome. Baki wins tournament and becomes champion of the world. 
== The Way of Baki-18 ==
As the new Tournament champion, Baki is able to take a well deserved vacation until he receives the news of five deadly, murderous, martial artist who have escaped their prisons and are now headed to Japan. Baki fought one of the escaped convicts,Sikorsky and won easily by smashing his nuts. When Baki was on a date with Kozue Matsumoto they share a kiss, but during their kiss appears serial killer Speck, who wants to fight Baki. Baki notices him and gives Speck a death glare that scares even a monster like him. Speck still tries to attack, but Yakuza boss Kaoru Hanayama appears and drags Speck away without making a sound. Baki also fought with two escaped convicts at once, Sikorsky and Yannagi, and was able to defeat them easily; although Baki was poisoned by Yannagi during the melee. Baki then participates in the Chinese Raitai Tournament and is cured of his poison. The poisoned Baki fights Ri Kaioh in his first match in the Raitai Tournament. Ri manages indirectly to "heal" Baki with his poisoned hands, as a counter effect. Baki's body was renewed and he remarked that his body feels as light as a feather. Ri Kaioh is then knocked out in two hits. Baki then easily defeats Kaku Shunshei in 2 seconds without the opponent landing a hit. After the tournament, Muhammad Ali Jr. challenges Baki to a fight in the Korakuen Underground arena, believing that his strength and style are better. Ali Jr. has one major weakness however: unlike every other fighter who has faced Baki, he was not prepared to face the possibility of his own death in the fight, which goes back to Ali Jr's losses against Gouki and Doppo in the second matches he had against them. Ali Jr. loses to Baki without landing a single hit, and Baki almost kills him before Ali Sr. jumps into the ring and stops him. Kozue then asks Baki why he went overboard against Ali Jr. Baki says Ali became too dangerous to be easy on. Kozue then responds by saying "I'm going home alone." Baki and Kozue then break up and ironically Kozue began dating Muhammad Ali Jr. Baki then decides that the only way for him to get stronger is to send himself to the same prison that Biscuit Olivia is contained in, and fight him. To do so, Baki kidnapped the US President under heavy security just to request to be sent to The Arizona Prison to fight Oliva. To get Oliva's attention, Baki escaped the most secure prison by dodging bullets and defeating the prison guards in a split second. Even when he was cornered by 5 guards holding M16's, Baki was able to take the buttons off their uniform and crack the glasses of the Director. Hence, he was able to reverse the situation by taking them hostage even though they have guns. Baki was eventually able to fight Oliva. At the start of the fight, Oliva slammed Baki into concrete walls and through the top floor of the prison. Baki was able to stand up however, and kick Oliva so hard that he was sent flying. Baki and Oliva then have a bout of pure strength by a brawl of fists. Oliva loses when Baki was able to knock out Oliva by utilizing the 0.5 seconds when Oliva was getting ready to move to sneak in his knockout punch. Baki then fought the prehistoric man Pickle in the Korakuen Arena. During the fight, Baki was able to withstand Pickle's "Test of Strength" attack as Pickle charges at Baki with the force to rival a Triceratops. Baki was then able to knock down Pickle in two moves, using a double leg kick and a high round house kick to Pickle's face. After that, Pickle grabbed Baki, jumped to the top of the Korakuen Arena, and came back down to the floor; slamming Baki on the ground. Baki was able to endure the pain and survived the leap of death. Baki then demonstrated his genius prowess by knocking out Pickle by gently tapping his chin. When Pickle awoke, Baki challenged Pickle to an all out fight. Baki was able to avoid Pickle's attacks by barely dodging them at skin breath; while also demonstrating his mastery of the Five Animals martial art, combing all of the dinosaur styles and making Pickle see the illusion that he is more dangerous than the dinosaurs. Baki was able to match Pickle in speed and was able to push him back. Baki technically ended up losing the fight due to Pickle using a Jujutsu technique; However, Baki was able to instill fear into Pickle, thus making him the true victor of the match. After the fight, Baki's wish to have dinner with his father like a normal family is granted. Yujiro Hanma goes to Baki's house and eats the dinner prepared by his son, dispensing never before seen knowledge with class and proper mannerisms. As thanks for preparing the meal, Yujiro invites Baki to a dinner "in his own style" at Tokyo's best restaurant. At one point during the dinner, Baki asks Yujiro why he had to kill his mother; Yujiro refuses to explain his motives "to a resentful brat" and Baki grows confrontational. Baki then has another fight with Yujiro. Baki was still vastly inferior to Yujiro however, until Baki's demon back had activated. When Baki's demon back appeared in his fight with Yujiro, he was shown to be powerful enough to actually hurt Yujiro. Baki ends up losing to Yujiro by a very close margin, when they have a punch-out until one falls.The gruesome fight leaves Baki a broken mess despite using remarkable techniques that earn him the praise of his father. However, Yujiro recognizes Baki's unique fighting spirit and acknowledges that he can no longer be so selfish as to call himself the strongest creature on Earth; as Baki is worthy of being considered Yujiro's equal. To thank Baki, Yujiro starts using imaginary cooking to prepare Miso soup. Baki plays along but says the soup is a little salty, which angers Yujiro, but when he "tastes" it himself he discovers that the miso was, in fact, salty. Baki claims the moral victory due to being able to get his father involved in his own fantasy. The conflict ends in a tie, with both fighters recognizing each other's greatness. Before they go their separate ways however, Baki reaffirms his promise to Yujiro telling him that he will kill him one day. Yujiro laughs hardily at Baki's words and promises Baki when the time comes he will seek him out. After his confrontation with Yujiro, Baki was still participating in arena fights and engaging in regular intensive training, but became bored with his day-to-day life. That is until he was able to reconcile with the recently single Kozue adding a new layer of excitement into his life.
== Training with his Father-(19-25) ==
Baki then decides to reinvent himself as a fighter because he knew that if he wanted to beat Yujiro he had to get better. Baki and Kozue both left Japan to go to America and look for Baki’s biological father, Forrest Masters. When they find him, Forrest is living in New York City. Baki is surprised to see that he has a new wife named Sonya Blade and that he has a 1 year old sister named Maria. Baki is also surprised to see that Forrest is already training someone, a man named Sean. Baki asks Forrest to train him, reminding Forrest that he said once Baki mastered all fighting disciplines he would train him. Forrest remembers saying this and agrees to train Baki along with Sean in a form known only to a handful of people, a martial art rooted in Ansatsuken. Baki stayed in America and trained for 6 years, until he felt he was strong enough to confront and defeat Yujiro. During that time, he went by his original American name Mel and dropped the name Baki(even though Kozue still refers to him as Baki).
=== The Challenge ===
One day when the Masters family had a family outing, Yujiro approached them looking for a fight no doubt. When Yujiro arrives, he senses something different in Mel that he never sensed before. “So the cub finally becomes a man” Yujiro said before turning his attention to Forrest. “So you must be Baki’s father” Yujiro exclaims. “And you must be Yujiro” Forrest replies. “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to kill you” Yujiro says in an excited way with a sadistic smile. Yujiro then charges at Forrest, but Mel gets in between them; kicking Yujiro in the stomach(knocking the wind out of him). “No your fight is with me, no one else” Mel says. Mel then goes even further by saying “in one month, one month, we will fight. Winner takes all. One survives and one dies simple as that.” “So now you’re the one calling all the shots” Yujiro said amusingly. “Do you accept my challenge or not” Mel said firmly. “And where will this fight take place boy?” asks Yujiro. “where it all started, the place where I decided to make it my mission and my ultimate goal in life to kill you; The place where you took my mother away from me. I don’t have to say the name you know where it is” replies Mel. “Oh you mean the whore, she deserved to die” Yujiro proclaimed. Expecting to enrage Mel, Yujiro ends up surprised because Mel showed no emotion at all; he just looked at Yujiro with an intense stare. “Interesting” Yujiro says before he walks around the corner laughing. “Wait you didn’t answer me” Mel says. Mel follows Yujiro around the corner and sees nobody there. Mel then hears Yujiro’s voice as he yells to him “one month Baki!” and finishes it with a villainous laugh.
=== The End of the Kings Reign ===
2 weeks later, when Mel and Kozue are alone in bed together; Mel tells Kozue that he wants to make things right between them. Mel says that whether he wins, whether he loses, whether he lives, or whether he dies; in 2 weeks he wants to marry her. Mel wants Kozue to be the woman he spends the rest of his life with. Kozue accepts his proposal and they make sweet love. On the eve of battle, they were wed in Japan. Everyone you could think of was there including: the whole Masters family, Mr. Tokugawa, Dopo Orochi, the Koushous, Mel’s step-brother Jack, Hanayama, Gaia and the commandos, Yuri and Nina, Ando, Mr. Kuriyagawa, Detective Kido, and even Mel’s old dog Musashi. Even Strydum made a special guest appearance, much to the delight of Mel. Mel thanked everyone for coming and hoped everyone would stay for what Mel described to be his last fight: win, lose, or draw. That night, Mel tells Kozue that no matter what happens he wants her to know that he will always love her. Kozue says that she loves him too and they proceed to consummate their marriage. The next day was finally fight day. When Mel arrived at the place where it all began, he was happy to see that everyone from his wedding was there to support him. At 12:00 midnight Yujiro arrived. Wanting to get the fight over quickly so he could kill Mel and everyone else there, Yujiro decided to use half of his strength and fighting ability; while Mel was going all out from the start. They were dead even for the beginning of the fight until Yujiro started getting the upper hand. “What’s wrong Baki you seem very weak. Maybe you shouldn’t have made love to your wife before you are to do battle with the king” says Yujiro who laughs right after that. While Yujiro is talking, Mel spotted an opening. “You were careless” Mel says to Yujiro as he does a split punch to the groin, and then gives Yujiro a powerful kick to the face knocking him down. “Now look who’s on their back” Mel says confidently. Yujiro becomes enraged by the fact that he’s just been punked and decides that he should use his full strength so he could shut Mel’s mouth. Mel is then no match for Yujiro as Yujiro is too strong, too fast, and too skilled for Mel. Yujiro then smashes Mel’s head on the ground and performs an axe kick to his temple. On the ground lied a senseless, near death Mel unconscious. While unconscious, Mel had a vision of his mother and she tells him to keep on fighting. That there would be a day where they would be reunited, but it would not be this day. She pleaded for Mel to do it not for her, not for him, but for anybody who has ever suffered at the hands of Yujiro. She says to Mel “go back son and fight and remember I’ll always love you Mel.” When Mel regains consciousness he hears Yujiro saying “get up Baki. Haven’t I taught you anything? I could have killed you 6 times right there. Believe me this is a real fight, but I’ve decided that I’m going to make you suffer.” Mel says “that’s not my name.” “Stop your bitching Baki” responds Yujiro. “THAT’S NOT MY NAME!” Mel screamed. Mel then performed a Shoryuken on Yujiro knocking him senseless. On the ground Yujiro looks up at Mel and Mel says “you know, I could have killed you right there.” Yujiro became enraged and consumed by the hate; while Mel stayed calm, poised, and precise. Mel attained the upper hand and never relinquished it. Mel ended his barrage of attacks using a bone breaking fatality. When Yujiro tries to grab him, Mel does a split and performs three perfectly executed punches to the groin and finishes it with an elbow to the spine; paralyzing Yujiro. Mel grabs Yujiro by his shirt and just as he is about to deliver the final blow, Yujiro tells him “yes that’s right my son, embrace the hate.” “You see that’s where your wrong father, I won’t embrace the hate….. I’ll eliminate the Hate” said Mel as he let Yujiro live: bloody, broken, and beaten. Mel then turns to walk away from Yujiro’s body. As he does this, Yujiro realigns and fixes his spine and broken back. Yujiro lunges toward Mel saying “that is why you are weak, that is why you are no son of mine, and that is why you will die!” Unbeknownst to Yujiro, Mel is charging up his ki for one final attack. As Yujiro lunges toward him, Mel turns around to deliver the Hadouken. When the blast connects, it disintegrates Yujiro into ashes. Forrest grins and says “it works every time” recalling the time when he and Bo fought Bison and Bo used the move to finish him. Finally the nightmare that was Yujiro Hanma is finally over. After the fight, Mel went to Jack and said “It’s finally over brother, for both of us.” Also after the fight, Mel swore never to use the Hadouken again. The Masters family along with Mel, Kozue, and their dog Musashi go back to America to start their new life. Mel and his wife buy a house in Miami, not far from his father who also lives in the city. 
== Professional Wrestling-(26-34) ==
Mel was happy he finally had a chance to live a normal life. Even though his family is rich, and he doesn’t ever need to work; Mel wanted a job. His father Forrest had been working as a show wrestler for the WWF and Mel wanted to give it a try. It was something that Mel said would keep him close to home, being in the ring and fighting. Mel also liked the fact that he wouldn’t get really hurt and he wouldn’t really hurt others. Forrest tells the chairman of the board Vince McMahon about Mel. Vince said that he would give Mel a look once he’s had proper training. Forrest trained Mel in the art of Pro Wrestling. Mel went back to Japan to get even more, further training from Mt. Toba and Antonio Igari Kanjo.
=== Ring of Honor ===
While in Japan, Mel joined a Japanese wrestling promotion called Ring of Honor for further on the job wrestling experience. In ROH, Mel faced off against ROH World Champion Samoa Joe for the championship in a three match series. The first match, on June 12th at World Title Classic at the Tokyo Dome, resulted in a 60-minute time limit draw when neither Mel nor Joe could pin or cause the other to submit in the 60 minutes. The second match between Mel and Joe was planned for December 4th; however, due to Steve Corino being pulled from a match with Joe by Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE, the second match was hastily rescheduled on October 11th for October 16th at the Tokyo Dome. At Joe vs. Mel II on October 16th, they wrestled to a second 60-minute draw. In addition to Joe vs. Mel II becoming Ring of Honor's best-selling DVD at the time, the match received a five-star rating by Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Joe ended the series by defeating Mel in the third and final match on December 4th at All-Star Extravaganza 2 in which there was a no time limit stipulation.
=== World Wrestling Entertainment-27 ===
Mel was a natural prodigy at pro wrestling as evidenced by his only 3 matches all getting high ratings. By the start of the new year, Mel was in what was now called the WWE. On June 24th, Mel made his ECW debut during a house show at the former ECW Arena, defeating Stevie Richards. He made his TV debut on the July 4th episode of ECW on Sci Fi, cutting a brief pre-taped promo about his straight edge lifestyle emphasizing the disciplinary aspects of being drug and alcohol free. Mel made his TV wrestling debut on August 1st at the Hammerstein Ballroom, defeating Justin Credible. Mel established himself in ECW by going undefeated, defeating opponents such as Christopher W. Anderson, Stevie Richards and Shannon Moore. Soon after, Mel began feuding with Mike Knox after Knox's girlfriend, Kelly Kelly, was seen to have feelings for Mel. Mel defeated Knox in their first singles match (qualifying for the Elimination Chamber at December to Dismember in the process) as well as the rematch, after which Kelly Kelly celebrated Mel's victory over her boyfriend. Mel then teamed with D-Generation X and the Kidz in their Survivor Series match against Rated-RKO, Mike Knox, Johnny Nitro and Gregory Helms, a match in which all the participants on DX's side survived elimination. At December to Dismember, Mel participated in the Elimination Chamber for the ECW World Championship; however, he was the first person eliminated by his father Forrest Masters. 
=== 28 ===
Following the pay-per-view, Mel entered into a feud with Hardcore Holly, who ended Mel's six-month unbeaten streak in singles competition on January 9th. Mel went on to feud with Matt Striker, who gave him his second singles loss since being in ECW on January 30th. Mel then qualified for the Money in the Bank Ladder Match at WrestleMania 23 by defeating Johnny Nitro. In the final week leading up to WrestleMania 23, Mel made appearances on both Raw and Friday Night SmackDown!, defeating Kenny Dykstra and former World Heavyweight Champion King Booker, respectively. At WrestleMania 23, Mel competed in, but did not win, the Money in the Bank ladder match, being knocked off the ladder just seconds before the winner, Mr. Kennedy, claimed the briefcase. On the April 10th, edition of ECW on Sci Fi, Mel briefly became a villain by officially joining the New Breed alliance, after several weeks in which both the New Breed and the ECW Originals had attempted to recruit him. Two weeks later, however, Mel betrayed the New Breed during a four on four elimination match between the New Breed and ECW Originals by kicking New Breed leader Elijah Burke in the back of the head and costing them the match. After the match, Mel proceeded to deliver his finisher, the Go To Sleep, on Burke and sarcastically apologized before leaving the ring alone, becoming a fan favorite again. WWE.com later confirmed that Mel was no longer a member of the New Breed. At Judgement Day, Mel wrestled and defeated Burke in his first singles match on a pay-per-view. Mel then went on to One Night Stand and teamed up with Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman in a tables match to defeat the New Breed. Because of the drafting of ECW World Champion Bobby Lashley to Raw, the ECW World Championship was now vacant, and a mini-tournament was announced to declare a new champion among Mel, Elijah Burke, Marcus Cor Von and the recently drafted Chris Benoit. Mel defeated Marcus Cor Von on the June 19th edition of ECW on Sci Fi. By doing so, Mel was meant to face Chris Benoit at Vengeance: Night of Champions for the vacant ECW World Championship. Benoit, however, was hastily replaced by Johnny Nitro when Benoit no-showed the event due to what was described on-air as "personal reasons". Nitro subsequently defeated Mel at Vengeance for the vacant championship. Mel won another shot at the title at The Great American Bash against Nitro, who had changed his moniker to John Morrison by this point; however, Mel was defeated again by Morrison. The next week, Mel challenged Elijah Burke and Tommy Dreamer in a triple threat match to determine the next competitor in Morrison's 15 Minutes of Fame Challenge, in which Mel came out victorious. A week later, Mel defeated Morrison with the Go To Sleep to earn an ECW Championship title match at SummerSlam. At SummerSlam, however, Mel lost the match when Morrison used the ropes for leverage. At the September 1st ECW taping, in a "last chance" title match, Mel defeated Morrison for the ECW Championship. Mel then went on to have successful title defenses against the likes of Elijah Burke (at Unforgiven), Jumbo Flapjack via disqualification (at No Mercy) and The Miz (at Cyber Sunday). On the November 6th edition of ECW, Mel retained the ECW Championship in a match against Morrison following The Miz's interference. At Survivor Series, Mel retained his title in a Triple Threat match, beating The Miz and John Morrison. 
=== 29 ===
On the January 22nd edition of ECW, Chavo Guerrero defeated Mel in a No Disqualification match to win the ECW Championship after Gunloc, (acting as a guest commentator at ringside) ran in and speared Mel. Mel won his first Money in the Bank briefcase at WrestleMania XXIV when Mel won the Money in the Bank ladder match, after defeating Chris Jericho, Montel Vontavious Porter, Shelton Benjamin, John Morrison, Mr. Kennedy and Carlito. On April 13th during the WWE Draft, Mel was drafted from Raw to SmackDown. In the period after the draft, Mel feuded with King Rasta Mon over King Rasta Mon's repeated surprise attacks while Mel was attempting to cash in his Money in the Bank Contract. This ultimately resulted in a Samoan strap match at Extreme Rules which was won by Mel. At the end of the pay-per-view, Mel cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to defeat Terry the Kid for the World Heavyweight Championship. Mel retained his title in a Triple Threat match against both Gunloc and Terry eight days later on the June 15th episode of Raw. At The Bash in Sacramento, California, Mel lost to Terry the Kid by disqualification after kicking the referee after being afflicted with a storyline eye injury, claiming he could not see the referee, but because titles do not change hands on a disqualification, Mel retained the championship. Terry called Mel into question about his eye injury, believing he had been feigning it, leading Mel to turn heel, claiming to be the moral superior of those who support Terry due to his drug-free lifestyle. At Night of Champions, Mel lost the championship to Terry the Kid. Their feud continued through SummerSlam, where Mel regained the title in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match; afterward, Mel was attacked by Mike Haggar. On the August 28th edition of Friday Night SmackDown, Mel concluded his program with Terry the Kid and achieved his booked goal of excising him from the WWE, defeating Terry in a steel cage match wherein the loser agreed to leave the company. This act would earn Mel a second Slammy that December as he was named winner for "Shocker of the Year". At Breaking Point, Mel defeated Mike Haggar in a submission match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. Haggar originally won the match with his Hell's Gate submission hold. SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long re-started the match after stating that the ban that former General Manager Vickie Guerrero had placed on the move was still in effect. Mel would win the match with his Anaconda vise when referee Scott Armstrong called for the bell despite Haggar never submitting (reminiscent to the Montreal Screwjob, which took place in the same venue). The feud between the two continued and at the Hell in a Cell PPV, Mel lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Mike Haggar in a Hell in a Cell match. He lost two subsequent rematches against Mike Haggar on Smackdown and in a Fatal Four Way match at Bragging Rights also involving Batista and El Blaze. Mel’s character took on a more sinister dimension on the November 27th episode of SmackDown when he revealed that he had converted Luke Gallows, who had previously been portrayed as mentally incompetent, to the straight-edge lifestyle which had rid him of his mental troubles. Continuing to espouse his straight-edge philosophy, Mel began to present himself as a cult-like savior to the crowd, growing his hair, beard and chest hair long in an allusion to Jesus. 
=== 30 ===
Through the next year, Mel began to convert planted members of the audience to a straight-edge lifestyle, making them take a pledge of allegiance to him and shaving their head as a sign of renewal and devotion. The third convert, Serena, from thereafter accompanied Mel and ran interference in his matches, acting with Gallows as Mel's Straight Edge Society. On the February 16th episode of ECW, it was announced that Mel would appear on WWE NXT, partnering with Darren Young. On the premiere of NXT on February 23rd, Mel said in an interview that he didn't know why he was on NXT mentoring the "South Beach Party Boy". Over the weeks, however, Young became fascinated with Mel's straight-edge lifestyle and Mel became impressed at Young's skills. Luke Gallows, however, showed signs of jealousy towards Young. Mel began a feud with El Blaze in February leading up to the WWE Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, during which Mel was eliminated by El Blaze. In the weeks to follow, tensions between the two increased, especially after El Blaze interfered in a Money in the Bank qualifier, causing Mel to lose. During the on-screen celebration of El Blaze's daughter's ninth birthday the Straight Edge Society showed up, taunting El Blaze and challenging him to a match at WrestleMania XXVI and also a match then and there, a challenge El Blaze declined to answer as he escorted his family away from the arena to the sound of Mel declaring that Blaze was a coward. Later in the night, during Luke Gallows' match against The Scorpion, El Blaze returned to the ring and proceeded to attack Mel after the latter interfered in the match. This caused Mel to run from the arena. The following week, El Blaze accepted the challenge at a match at WrestleMania, albeit in a street fight. Mel told El Blaze he would have to beat Luke Gallows for him to accept the challenge as a street fight. El Blaze lost the match, however, and Mel said that if El Blaze were to lose at WrestleMania, he would be forced to join the Straight Edge Society stating that his influence will help bring even more members to the Straight Edge Society. Mel's attempt to convert El Blaze would fail when El Blaze defeated Mel at WrestleMania. Five days later on SmackDown, Mel challenged Blaze to one more match at Extreme Rules, and if Blaze won Mel would shave his head bald. On April 25th at Extreme Rules, Mel defeated El Blaze due to an interference by a masked hooded man. After El Blaze attacked Mel who was observing a match involving Luke Gallows and Montel Vontavious Porter, both of them agreed to one more match at Over the Limit reinstating previous stipulations (Mel's hair vs. El Blaze's allegiance to Straight Edge Society). At Over the Limit, Mel lost the match and his hair, with some post match interference from the Straight Edge Society and The Scorpion. After being shaved, he started wearing a mask, similar to El Blaze's, to cover his baldness. At Fatal 4-Way, Mel challenged for the World Heavyweight Championship against El Blaze, Hugo and the champion Jack Swagger, but was unsuccessful when he was attacked by The Scorpion who accused him of putting Mike Haggar in a vegetative state and ran backstage. On the June 25th edition of SmackDown, Mel fled the arena during a "No Disqualification" match with The Scorpion ending the match in a no contest. On the following edition of SmackDown, after a match between Luke Gallows and The Scorpion, a video aired showing Serena drinking in a bar on the day that Mike Haggar had been put in a vegetative state and showed Mel stopping her from drinking, proving he wasn't responsible for Mike Haggar's attack. Mel and Gallows left Serena in the ring as punishment. The following week, however, Mel forgave Serena for her actions. On the July 16th edition of SmackDown, Mel and Hugo began a feud between them where during the segment, Hugo took off Mel's mask showing his bald head to the world. Mel would then stop sporting his mask to cover his baldness and the Straight Edge Society plotted revenge on Hugo when Luke Gallows was set to compete, but instead the masked member of the Straight Edge Society was selected to fight. Hugo removed his mask and it was revealed to be Joey Mercury. The three then challenged Hugo to a match at SummerSlam in what would be a losing effort after Mel abandoned his fellow teammates. On August 20th one of the members, Serena, had been released by WWE, thus leaving only three in the group. On September 1st, it also became widely known that Joey Mercury required surgery, thus putting the future of the group in doubt. On the September 3rd episode of SmackDown, Mel delivered his signature move to Luke Gallows after losing a handicap match to Hugo. Hugo beat Mel in a singles match at Night of Champions. On the September 24th episode of SmackDown, Mel defeated Gallows following Gallows leaving the Straight Edge Society, thus officially disbanding the group. On the September 21st episode of NXT, Mel joined Josh Mathews for one night only on commentary after Michael Cole quit the previous week, though Cole would return during the broadcast. On the October 11th episode of Raw, Mel was traded back to the Raw brand for Gunloc, who was traded to SmackDown the week before. That same night, he successfully defeated Evan Bourne to become the fifth member of Team Raw at Bragging Rights. At the pay-per-view, Team Raw lost to Team SmackDown. On the October 25th episode of Raw, Mel joined Michael Cole and his grandfather David Masters on commentary during the Tiger Mask vs Dolph Ziggler match, in what he said was "scouting talent". It was then reported that Mel was suffering a hip injury, which could sideline him for the rest of the year. On the November 18th edition of WWE Superstars, Mel joined Scott Standford on commentary for matches, showing signs of a face turn as he was behind wrestlers and divas Yoshi Tatsu, Melina and Gail Kim. The following Monday, he joined Michael Cole and David Masters on the Raw announce team. On the December 20th edition of RAW, he turned back to his heel tactics as he attacked Biff Slamkovich, with a chair, after Slamkovich's match with Dolph Ziggler and again on the next day of SmackDown. The following RAW, he showed the reasons of his actions, and later that night, allowed The Nexus to attack Slamkovich, before hitting him with a GTS, and joining them as its new leader.
=== 31 ===
During Royal Rumble, he interfered with Bass Armstrong's match, allowing Miz to retain his championship. Mel and Armstrong began feuding leading up to a match at Wrestlemania 27. The rest of the new nexus (Husky Harris, Michael Mcgillicutty, and Mason Ryan) got to fight Armstrong for the chance to be allowed in Mel's corner. Armstrong defeated them all and punted them all in the skull. Mel injured Armstrong's knee on RAW the week before the fight and focused on it during the match but was unable to defeat Armstrong at Wrestlemania XXVII. On May 1st at Extreme Rules, Mel lost to Bass Armstrong yet again this time in a Last Man Standing Match. At Over the Limit, the team of Mel and Mason Ryan were unsuccessful in their attempt to defeat Hugo and The Scorpion for the WWE Tag Team Championships though on the following night, the team of Michael McGillicutty and David Otunga defeated Hugo and The Scorpion on Raw for the tag team championship thanks to Mel interfering in the match. In June, after pinning WWE Champion Biff Slamkovich on Raw, El Blaze at Capitol Punishment and finally Alberto Del Rio again in a contendership match (which included El Blaze) all within one week, Mel revealed his contract would expire at Money in the Bank and vowed to leave the company with the WWE Championship. After making a scathing on-air speech concerning the way in which WWE is run and its owner Vince McMahon, he was given a storyline suspension from televised WWE events but was reinstated the following week on Slamkovich's insistence. Upon his return Mel ceased to appear with the remaining members of Nexus and the group would quietly dissolve the same month. This helped transition him from a villainous character back to being a fan-favorite. Two weeks later, at Money in the Bank, Mel defeated Biff Slamkovich to become the WWE Champion on his final night under contract with WWE. On July 21st, Mel made an unannounced appearance at a joint WWE and Mattel panel at the San Diego Comic Con to mock new Chief operating officer Alex and offer WWE Championship tournament finalist El Blaze a match for Mel's own WWE Championship. El Blaze won the WWE Championship tournament on the July 25th episode of Raw, only to lose it to Slamkovich later that night. After Slamkovich's victory, Mel returned to Raw and upstaged the new WWE Champion's victory celebration while also entering into a title dispute. Alex would later uphold both Mel and Slamkovich's claims to the WWE Championship as legitimate and schedule the two to a match at SummerSlam to decide the undisputed WWE Champion. Mel prevailed but immediately lost the title to Alberto Del Rio, who had cashed in his Money in the Bank contract, after being attacked by Thunder. The night after SummerSlam, Mel accused Thunder of conspiring with Alex to keep Mel away from the WWE Championship. After repeated confrontations, Thunder and Mel demanded to face each other at Night of Champions, to which Alex acquiesced. However, after Mel's repeated verbal attacks towards him and his wife Stephanie McMahon, Alex booked himself to replace Thunder. At Night of Champions, Mel lost a No Disqualification match after Thunder, The Miz, and R-Truth attacked both men. Miz and Truth also attacked Mel at Hell in a Cell after he lost a WWE Championship Triple Threat match. He attempted to avenge this by teaming with Alex against Miz and Truth at Vengeance, but lost again due to Thunder attacking Triple H. This helped transition Mel's anti-establishment voice from Alex to John Laurinaitis who became the interim Raw General Manager. Mel balked at Laurinaitis' promotion and verbally attacked him as a dull yes man. On October 31st, Mel strong-armed his way into a match with Del Rio at Survivor Series, where he regained the WWE Championship by way of submission with the Anaconda Vise. He went on to defend the title through the end of the year, retaining in a rematch with Del Rio on the November 28th episode of Raw and against both Del Rio and The Miz in a Triple Threat TLC match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs. On the December 26th episode of Raw, Mel was defeated by Dolph Ziggler in a gauntlet match; as a result Ziggler became #1 contender to the WWE championship. Had he been successful Mel would have earned the right to face Laurinaitis in a match. The following Raw, Mel was defeated by Ziggler via countout following interference from Laurinaitis; retaining the championship as a result.
=== 32 ===
Intermeddling from Laurinaitis caused Mel to lose to Ziggler throughout January which ultimately led to Mel attacking Laurinaitis in retaliation. At the Royal Rumble event, Mel successfully defended his title against Ziggler, despite Laurinaitis acting as the outside enforcer. On February 6th, Chris Jericho explained Mel was the foremost reason behind his WWE return. Jericho dismissed the WWE roster as imitations of himself, singling out Mel for claiming he was the best in the world, a moniker Jericho used the last time he was in WWE. Their rivalry continued through Elimination Chamber as Mel retained the WWE Championship in the namesake structure; while four competitors were eliminated, Jericho was unable to continue the match after being kicked out of the chamber by Mel, causing temporary injury. The following night, Jericho earned a match against Mel at WrestleMania XXVIII, and in a bid to psychologically unsettle him, he revealed Mel's father was an alcoholic and alleged that his sister was a drug addict, asserting that Mel's straight edge philosophy was paranoia to avoid the same vices and vowing to make Mel turn to alcohol by winning the title from him. John Laurinaitis added the stipulation that the WWE Championship could change hands via disqualification, which led to Jericho inciting Mel into using a weapon, but Mel resisted and retained the title. The following night on Raw, Mel insulted Laurinaitis, who decreed Mel would defend the title every week starting with Raiden, which he lost by count-out. After the match, Chris Jericho poured whiskey over Mel and broke the bottle over his head. The following week, Mel would engage in a title rematch against Raiden and would successfully defend his title when he got disqualified. After the match, Jericho would return and would again pour alcohol on Mel. The next week on Raw, Mel had another match against Raiden, this time with No Disqualification and No Count-out. Mel would win the match but would later be interrupted by Chris Jericho again. At Extreme Rules, Mel retained his title against Jericho in a Chicago Street Fight. On the May 7th episode of Raw, Mel would come out while John Laurinaitis was talking. Mel would spend the time insulting Laurinaitis and would later be pit in a match against Lord Tensai. As he was getting ready for the match, Laurinaitis came out to tell Mel that he turned the match into a handicap match. Mel lost in a 2 on 1 handicap match against Lord Tensai and Tiger Mask. On the May 14th episode of Raw, Mel teamed with Santino Marella and defeated Tiger Mask and Cody Rhodes. Later on, Mel successfully defended his title against Tiger Mask at Over The Limit. Mel and Tiger would then begin a concurrent feud with The Scorpion , after attacking him with steel chairs on several occasions. On the June 1st edition of SmackDown, a WWE Championship match between Mel and The Scorpion ended in a double disqualification after Tiger Mask attacked both men. Meanwhile, Tiger's jilted ex-girlfriend AJ turned her affections to both Mel and Scorpion. This feud would culminate in a triple threat match at No Way Out, where Mel managed to retain the title after AJ distracted The Scorpion. After No Way Out, Mel continued to fued with Tiger Mask and A.J became even more infatuated with Mel. A.J was even named guest referee at Money in the Bank for Mel and Tiger's match for the WWE championship. On the June 2nd episode Raw, in an order to get attention from Mel, A.J was going to put herself through a table while Mel and Tiger Mask where wrestling. But before she could do it Tiger and Mel intervened. A.J. then would kiss Mel and push him off of the turnbuckle into Tiger Mask sending them both Mel and Tiger through the table. At Super Smackdown Live: The Great American Bash, the following night, both Mel and Tiger Mask confronted A.J. about her actions the previous night. The discussion ended with A.J. kissing both Mel and Tiger. The following week on Raw, A.J. proposed to Mel causing Tiger Mask to propose to A.J. Later that night, Mel declined A.J.'s marriage proposal leaving A.J. scorned and upset. She even slapped both Mel and Tiger in the face. At Money in the Bank, Mel successfully retained his championship against Tiger Mask with A.J. performing the three count. The following night on Raw, the love triangle seemed to have broken apart, Mel moved on and Tiger Mask and A.J. decided to get married. Mel had much bigger things to worry about. Mel had a match with Hugo and Mel thought that whether he would win or lose, Biff Slamkovich, the money in the bank ladder match winner, would cash in his Money in the Bank contract. Mel beat Hugo because of a DQ, and Slamkovich came out with his briefcase. Biff announced to Mel that he would cash in his Money in the Bank contract at the 1000 episode of Raw. On the 1000 Episode of Raw, it was announced the WWE Champion at that time would face The Rock for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble PPV in January. Later in the night, Mel lost the match against Slamkovich by DQ after Hugo ran in and attacked Slamkovich. Mel left the ring limping which allowed Hugo's attack to continue. The Rock arrived to defend Slamkovich and attacked Hugo. When The Rock was about to hit Hugo with the People's Elbow, Mel ran in and clotheslined him and followed it up with a GTS. Mel left the ring with a conflicted look, ending Raw 1000. Mel would then begin a slow heel turn. The following week on Raw, Mel would display traits of both faces and heels, claiming he did not turn his back on the WWE Universe, only the Rock, and he was sending a message. Later in the night, during the Biff Slamkovich/Hugo number one contenders match, Hugo threw Slamkovich into Mel, causing Mel to attack Hugo. Mel would claim neither of them won the match, however, AJ Lee, the new Raw general manager would come out and announce Mel would have to defend the title against both of them at SummerSlam. The following week, Mel again demanded respect from AJ Lee, she then put him in a match against former long-time rival, El Blaze, which he won. Later in the night, Mel came to the ring immediately after Biff Slamkovich's win against fellow-former rival Tiger Mask and mocked Slamkovich with the WWE title belt, just before Hugo attacked. When Slamkovich went for an AA, Mel again "saved" Slamkovich before his knees gave out, followed by Mel saying he would end Raw like he did the past two weeks by walking out, however before he could, Hugo attacked Mel and Slamkovich. On Raw 1003, Mel seemingly reverted back to his fan-favorite gimmick, re-adpoting his old mannerisms for his match against Hugo, but the match ended by DQ after Tiger Mask locked Mel in the No Lock. Mel later in the night teamed with fellow Summer Slam rival Biff Slamkovich to defeat Tiger Mask and Hugo, with each Slamkovich and Mel using the others signiture moves on Tiger Mask before Mel saved Slamkovich from an attack from Hugo, Mel would then attempt to shake hands with Slamkovich, but Slamkovich would decline, making Mel believe Slamkovich doesn't respect him anymore. At SummerSlam, Mel retained the title twice against Hugo and Slamkovich after AJ Lee restarted the match. The Raw following, Mel named Slamkovich as his new number one contender and attacked his own grandfather David Masters after David refused to call Mel "The Best In The World". The following week, Mel challenged David to a match, to which David accepted, after Mel called David a cowardly loser who hid behind a commentary booth. The following week, Mel walked out on the Chicago crowd, claiming to use one of his "personal days" only to show up at the end of the main event, Biff Slamkovich vs Alberto Del Rio, costing Slamkovich the match, before riding off in a car with Paul Heyman. At Night of Champions, he and Slamkovich fought to a draw. In the weeks following, it was shown Mel had aligned himself with Paul Heyman-the very man who gave rise to his career to "help out with his current situation." However, Mel's feud with Slamkovich was cut short due to Slamkovich being injured during their match at Night of Champions. Mel then moved into a feud with Slamkovich's hand-picked opponent, Ryback, which Mel beat at Hell in a Cell, with help from a biased ref. The following night on Raw, Mel announced he would fight Team Foley against Team Mel at Survivor Series. However, this would never come to the light of day when a Triple Threat match was made for the Survivor Series after Vince McMahon forced Vickie Guerrero to put Slamkovich in the match. Mel would feud with Slamkovich and Ryback until the night of Survivor Series, where he would pin Slamkovich to retain the title after Ryback was attacked. On the December 3rd edition of RAW, Mel was injured during an assualt by Ryback. It was reported the following day he will miss TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs, and possibly even miss the Royal Rumble. 
=== 33 ===
On the January 7th edition of RAW, Mel defeated Ryback, to retain the title with the help of The Shield. At the Royal Rumble on January 27, Mel defended the WWE Championship against The Rock in a match with the stipulation that if The Shield interfered, Mel would be stripped of the title. Mel originally pinned The Rock to retain after The Shield put Rock through a table while the arena lights were out. Vince McMahon began to announce that Mel would be stripped of the title, but he instead restarted the match at The Rock's request. Mel then lost the WWE Championship to The Rock, ending his reign at 434 days. Mel got a rematch at Elimination Chamber where if The Rock was disqualified or counted out, the championship would go him. Mel ended up hitting Paul Heyman with the championship belt while the referee was knocked out and allowed for The Rock to capitalize and retain his championship. On March 4th, Mel won a Fatal Four-Way match to face Mike Haggar at WrestleMania 29. On March 11th, Mel interrupted Haggar while he was paying tribute to the late Paul Bearer, after a real-life death. This angered not only Mike Haggar but The Scorpion as well. This led to a no DQ match between Mel and The Scorpion, which Scorpion won. After the match, The Scorpion and Haggar both paid tribute to Paul Bearer. Mel then attacked The Scorpion with the urn (Haggar's urn) that The Scorpion bought to the ring. Mel ran off with the urn angering Mike Haggar. The next week, Haggar demanded that Mel return the urn. The next week, Mike Haggar would come out to eviscerate Mel by talking about his historic title run and demand his urn back. However, the druid music would play with druids emerging from the stage and Paul Heyman imitating Bearer, Mel would then reveal himself as a druid and attack Mike Haggar. Mel then poured all the ashes all over taker and himself to end that episode of Raw. However at WrestleMania 29, Mel would be defeated by Mike Haggar, raising Haggar's streak to 21-0. On the April 15th episode of Raw, Mel addressed the crowd and recalled his WWE Championship reign, as well as his matches with The Rock and Mike Haggar. He then suddenly dropped the microphone and left the arena, leaving the crowd and Paul Heyman wondering what had happened. On June 16th, Mel returned to WWE Payback, Where he defeated Chris Jericho, and during the match, Mel showed signs of a face turn, high fiving fans several times and engulfing himself in their cheers. On the June 17th episode Of Raw, Mel announced he wanted a match with new World Champion Alberto Del Rio, Mel asked Paul Heyman to not be at ringside with him. Mel won the match by countout. After he won the match, Buffaloman returned to Raw and attacked Mel. The following week on RAW, Mel confronted Heyman about Buffaloman's attack to which Heyman claimed Buffaloman was acting on his own. Mel in turn claimed he trusted Heyman and allowed him to stay at ringside for his match against Darren Young, which Mel won. Following the match he was attacked by Titus O'Neil and in turn Heyman summoned his newest client Curtis Axel to save Mel, much to his dismay. The following week, Mel was forced to team with Curtis and together, they defeated the Prime Time Players. At Money in the Bank, Mel nearly won the briefcase but he was attacked by Paul Heyman, whom struck Mel with a ladder several times, stopping Mel from winning the match. The following night on RAW, Mel called out Heyman who claimed that without him, Mel wouldn't be the Best in the World, and proceeded to have Buffaloman attack Mel. The following week on Raw, Mel challenged Buffaloman to a match at SummerSlam, which Heyman accepted on Buffaloman's behalf. On the August 5th Raw, Mel wrestled Axel to a no-contest, after Heyman attacked him. Buffaloman then came out and brawled with Mel, eventually getting the upper hand. Mel got revenge the next week by attacking Buffaloman with a camera and a steel chair, after Heyman tried to change the scheduled match between Mel and himself to a handicap match involving Buffaloman. He then delivered a Go To Sleep to Axel, who had interfered while Mel was chasing Heyman. Six days later, at SummerSlam, Mel lost to Buffaloman in a No Disqualification match, after interference by Heyman. On the next Raw, Mel had the chance to again become a "Paul Heyman guy", but declined by attacking Axel. The next week, Mel defeated Axel before being assaulted by him and Heyman. Mel was then scheduled to face Axel and Heyman in a handicap elimination match at Night of Champions, later adding a No Disqualification to the stipulation. During the match, Mel tapped Axel out, leaving only Heyman left to deal with, but in the process of attacking Heyman, Ryback attacked Mel and placed Heyman on top of Mel for the pin. At Battleground, Mel defeated Ryback after executing a low blow, while the referee was distracted by Heyman attempting to interfere in the match. On the October 14th episode of Raw, Mel defeated Axel in a Beat a Clock challenge match to determine the stipulation for his rematch with Ryback at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. He announced that his match would be a two-on-one handicap match in the Hell in a Cell, in which he would face Paul Heyman and Ryback. On October 27th, at Hell in a Cell, Mel defeated Ryback and Paul Heyman. Mel faced Ryback again in a Street Fight match the following night on Raw, defeating Ryback by submission, thus ending their feud. After the match, he was attacked by The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan), starting a feud, and later formed an alliance with former rival Tiger Mask. At Survivor Series, Mel and Tiger Mask defeated Harper and Rowan in a tag team match. After Tiger was "abducted" by the Wyatt Family the following night on Raw, Mel was attacked by old allies The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns). The following week on Raw, The Scorpion announced that Mel would face The Shield in a 3-on-1 Handicap match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, which Mel won after Reigns accidentally speared Ambrose. 
=== 34 ===
At the Royal Rumble, Mel entered in at entrant #1. After having lasted until the final four, The Scorpion, who was already eliminated earlier in the match by Mel, ran back to the ring and eliminated Mel from the outside. Mel did not appear on the episode of Raw on the Monday after the Rumble. Despite being advertised for the SmackDown taping on Tuesday, he also did not appear in front of the live audience. By Wednesday, WWE.com stopped advertising Mel for future events. It was reported by the Wrestling Observer that on Monday, Mel had legitimately walked out on WWE when he informed Vince McMahon that he was "going home". In an interview published in late May, Mel indicated that he had retired; he was questioned "How does it feel to be retired at 33?" and replied with "It feels good." On July 15th, WWE (through WWE.com) moved Mel from the active roster to the alumni page without releasing a statement. On the same day, Mel thanked his fans without mentioning WWE. In late July, Mel claimed that he was "never ever" going to return to wrestling. During the 8 years Mel was invested in Pro Wrestling, he became a 6 time World Champion, former Tag Team Champion, former Intercontinental Champion, 2 time Money in the Bank winner, and the Nineteenth Triple Crown Champion.  
=== Other Ventures ===
Mel also did a lot out of the ring in those 8 years and had a lot of monumental things happen to him. Forrest was able to get Mel a movie deal with the company he used to work with. Since Mel had such great charisma as a Pro Wrestler, the producers weren’t opposed to having him star in their movies. Mel starred in such movies as: Every Dog Has It’s Day, Massive Strike, Iron Claw, Time Smashers, Fight Dirty, and Worlds Most Wanted. Most of his movies happened to be remakes of his father’s old movies. Also during that time when Mel was 32, he and Kozue gave birth to their first child; a son named Eriya. By the time Mel left the WWE, Kozue was 6 months pregnant with their daughter. Everything was looking great for Mel and he was having a great life, until that one fateful day.  
=== The Day That All Smiles Died ===
2 Months after Mel quit Pro Wrestling, he and his heavily pregnant wife Kozue attend a post-fight victory party for Mel’s best friend Kickboxer Andy Bogard. Mel met Andy while training at a kickboxing gym in Miami, just trying to keep his skills sharp. The two quickly became best friends to the point where Mel became Andy’s primary sparring partner when Andy trains for fights and Mel’s son Eriya calls Andy “Uncle Andy.”  After the party was over, Mel and Andy went to the gym so they could go over some of the mistakes Mel spotted Andy make; leaving just Kozue and Andy’s father Jeff at the Bougard house. Unbeknownst to them, while they were gone Andy’s father Jeff had been murdered by his arch rival Geese Howard; who along with his thugs forced his way into the house. When the two men return to the house from the gym, they see Geese Howard and his men leaving the house. Andy remarks “what the hell is he doing here?” Mel and Geese lock eyes and Geese gives Mel a smirk before entering his vehicle. The car then speeds off in ridiculously fast fashion. Mel looks at the house at sees a weeping Kozue looking out of the window. Mel then gets out of the car and starts walking toward the house, but before he can even take 2 steps the house explodes. The force of the explosion sends Mel and Andy to the ground. When Mel gets up, he searches frantically through the rubble of the house not wanting to expect the worse. Mel’s worst fears were realized as he sees the smoke emanating from Kozue’s charred pregnant body. A heartbroken Mel then swears vengeance on Geese Howard to avenge the deaths of his wife and unborn daughter. 
== King of Fighters-(35-39) ==
=== Fatal Fury-35 ===
A year later, the crime lord Geese Howard organized a tournament, dubbed The King of Fighters. Mel, his friend Andy Bogard and Muay Thai Kickboxing champion Joe Higashi would enter with the purpose of facing Geese. The battle that followed would eventually see Mel defeating Geese, and for some time, it was thought that Geese perished in the battle.
=== Unfinished Business-36 ===
The next year saw Geese's half-brother Wolfgang Krauser take control of The King of Fighters, and bringing the once Miami-only tournament onto the world stage. The finals of this new tournament would again see Mel fighting the sponsor and him ultimately defeating Krauser. During this event, he befriended many of the contestants and became a hero of Miami. 
=== The Jin Scrolls-37 ===
One year later, it was revealed that Geese had survived his encounter with Mel. When Mel and friends learned of Geese's intentions to retrieve the legendary Jin scrolls, Mel once again challenged and defeated him. Afterwards, Geese fled. Mel faced Yamazaki and then challenged the Jin brothers. Standing now as the victor, Mel once again was the champion. However, Geese had escaped with the scrolls. 
=== Final Conflict-38 ===
During the next tournament, Mel managed to get all the way through the tournament to Geese for one final conflict. At the end of the fight, he knocked Geese off the edge of Geese Tower, but grabbed hold of Geese's hand and tried to keep him from falling. But this was not to be, as Geese knocked Mel's hand away, plummeting to what is believed to be his permanent death. Sometime after their final conflict, Mel encountered a boy by the name of Rock Howard (Geese's son). Taking him in, he would teach him how to fight as they travel together around the world. 
=== A New Life-39 ===
6 years after the death of Kozue, Mel got remarried to a beautiful young woman named Mary Ryan(who goes by the allies Blue Mary) whom he met when they were both contestants in the King of Fighters tournament. The couple, along with Mel’s children Eriya and Rock, then move to Montréal, Québec, Canada to start their new life. 
== UFC-(42-52) ==
The next year, Forrest was able to get Mel a new job in a new organization called the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The UFC is where fighters from all over the world compete in Sanctioned matches to become the best at their respective weight classes. 
=== 42 ===
Mel made his UFC debut at UFC 46, where he defeated highly ranked Karo Parisyan by unanimous decision. His next fight in the UFC was against Jay Hieron at UFC 48. Mel defeated Hieron via technical knockout in only 1:42 of the first round. Mel and Mary then gave birth to a daughter named Emi, whose namesake was Mel’s mother.  Following his second win in the UFC, he faced Matt Hughes at UFC 50 for the vacant UFC Welterweight Championship. Despite a competitive performance against the much more experienced fighter, Mel tapped out to an armbar with only 10 seconds remaining in the first round. The loss was the first of Mel's career and he admitted that he was in awe of Hughes going into the title bout. 
=== 43 ===
After his loss to Matt Hughes, Mel rebounded with a win over Dave Strasser at TKO 19 by a first-round kimura submission. He then returned to the UFC to face Jason Miller at UFC 52, defeating Miller by unanimous decision in a bloody battle. Mel was then matched up against top contender Frank Trigg at UFC 54. Mel controlled the fight and eventually sneaked in a rear naked choke with less than a minute remaining in the first round. He then faced future lightweight champion Sean Sherk at UFC 56. Midway through the second round, Mel became the second fighter to defeat Sherk and the first to finish him. During the post-fight interview, he famously went down on his knees with an impassioned plea to UFC management to give him another title shot.
=== 44 ===
At UFC 58, Mel defeated former UFC welterweight champion B.J. Penn to become the No. 1 contender for the UFC welterweight title. Mel won the match by split decision and was set for a rematch against then-champion Matt Hughes at UFC 63. Mel was forced to withdraw from the match, however, due to a groin injury and was replaced by the man he defeated in March, B.J. Penn. The UFC announced afterward that Mel would have the opportunity to fight for the title when his condition was fully healed.  Mel was seen as a trainer on The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback on Spike TV, which featured fighters who were previously seen in UFC events including Matt Serra, Shonie Carter, Pete Sell, Patrick Côté, and Travis Lutter. Mel was seen vocally supporting fellow Canadian and training partner Patrick Côté during the season's airing. At UFC 63, Mel made an appearance to support fellow Canadian David "The Crow" Loiseau. At that time he was seen pushing Loiseau to "fight his fight" against Mike Swick. At the same event, after Matt Hughes had defeated B.J. Penn, Mel stepped into the ring to hype up his upcoming title fight against Hughes, stating that he was glad that Hughes won his fight, but that he was "not impressed" by Hughes' performance. According to both commentator Joe Rogan and Hughes' own autobiography, Hughes was unhappy with Mel's statement. Hughes said that they "had words" off-camera shortly after, at which time Mel apologized, saying he had misunderstood something Hughes had said on the microphone and did not mean to offend him. Mel challenged Matt Hughes again at UFC 65 for the UFC Welterweight Championship. The fight was almost stopped near the end of the first round when Mel sent Hughes to the mat with a superman punch and left hook, but Hughes managed to survive the first round. In the second round, Mel won the fight via technical knockout after a left kick to Hughes' head followed by a barrage of unanswered punches and elbows. After the fight, on January 30, Mel signed a new six-fight deal with the UFC.
=== 45 ===
Mel and Mary then gave birth to their second child, a son named Cade. At UFC 69, Mel lost the welterweight title to The Ultimate Fighter 4 winner Matt Serra when Serra forced the referee to step in after a series of unanswered strikes at 3:25 of round one. Matt Serra was an 11–1 underdog going into the bout. Mel said that he lost the match due to a lack of focus and later parted ways with his manager and most of his entourage. Mel then went on to say that he should not have made any excuses and that Serra was simply the better fighter that night. On August 25, at UFC 74 Mel won a unanimous decision over Josh Koscheck (30–27, 29–28, 29–28). He outwrestled Koscheck, who is a four-time Division I NCAA All-American and an NCAA wrestling champion, by scoring takedowns, stopping Koscheck's takedown attempts and maintaining top position throughout most of the fight. Many predicted that Koscheck would outmatch Mel on the ground due to his credentials, but Mel was confident that he was a better wrestler and striker and was more well-versed in submissions than Koscheck. Before and after the fight, Mel stated his intention to reclaim his lost title, miming the act of placing a championship belt around his waist while still in the octagon. His win over Koscheck had placed him in the No. 1 contender spot for the UFC Welterweight Championship. That fight was to be against the winner of Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. Matt Serra had to pull out of UFC 79 due to a back injury sustained during training, and instead Mel faced Hughes in a rubber match for the interim UFC Welterweight Championship. Hughes was unable to mount any serious offense against Mel, who again showcased his wrestling skills by not only avoiding all of Hughes' takedown attempts, but also taking Hughes down at will. In a reversal of their first fight, Mel attempted a kimura on Hughes' right arm, then switched to a straight armbar with fifteen seconds left in the second round. Hughes fought the extension, but was forced to verbally submit at 4:55 of the second round, making Mel the interim Welterweight Champion. 
=== 46 ===
At UFC 83 on April 19, Mel fought Matt Serra to determine the undisputed UFC welterweight champion. It was the UFC's first event in Canada and was held at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Québec. Instead of starting with strikes, Mel pressed the action early with a takedown and then mixed up his attack, which never allowed Serra the chance to mount a significant offense. In the second round, Mel continued his previous actions and forced Serra into the turtle position and delivered several knees to Serra's midsection. Near the end of round two, the fight was stopped by referee Yves Lavigne with a visibly gassed Serra unable to defend himself from Mel's continuous knee blows or improve his position. Mel's first title defense after regaining the belt was against Jon Fitch at UFC 87. Fitch was on a 16-fight winning streak and a victory against Mel would have been Fitch's ninth consecutive UFC win, a new UFC record. Mel defeated Jon Fitch by unanimous decision with scores of 50–43, 50–44, and 50–44, scoring multiple devastating strikes and taking the former Purdue wrestling captain down seemingly at will. The win over Fitch set up one of the most anticipated rematches in UFC history. BJ Penn entered the octagon after Fitch's loss and challenged Mel to a rematch of their UFC 58 bout, which had ended in a split-decision victory for Mel. 
=== 47 ===
The rematch took place on January 31, at UFC 94. The first round of the fight was nearly even, with both men exchanging punches and Penn exercising elusive head movement, fast hands, good take-down defense - thwarting all of Mel's take-down attempts. In the ensuing three rounds, however, Penn put forth a lackluster performance. Mel dominated the rest of the bout, scoring the first take-down of the night midway through the second round and from that point on, taking Penn down at will, repeatedly passing his guard, and persistently punishing the Hawaiian with a brutal ground-and-pound attack. The fight ended after the fourth round when Penn's cornerman, Jason Parillo, requested that the referee stop the fight. Penn failed to attend the post-fight press conference due to hospitalization for injuries. Penn later admitted that he could not recall anything that happened during the 3rd and 4th rounds because "I was probably borderline knocked out or something." During the fight, Penn complained that Mel was too slippery to hold, which led to suspicion about petroleum jelly being illegally applied to Mel's back. The matter was formally investigated by the UFC and Nevada State Athletic Commission upon the request of the Penn camp. Dana White said it was unfortunate Mel's dominant win was overshadowed by the cornerman controversy. "Do I think that he got greased? Yeah, I do," White told The Canadian Press prior to the UFC 95 weigh-in Friday at the Dominion Theatre. "Absolutely, 100 per cent, I think that that guy was rubbing grease on him. Do I think Mel was trying to cheat? Absolutely not at all, but that cornerman was rubbing grease on him and you cannot do that." 
=== 48 ===
Prior to UFC 100, Beau Dure of USA Today stated that Mel was possibly "the best in the world." At the event, Mel defeated No. 1 contender Thiago Alves. Alves showed promise on his feet standing up in the fight, but Mel's wrestling offensive, endurance and ground control proved too much for the challenger and put Mel en route to a unanimous decision victory, despite suffering a pulled groin muscle in the third round. While Mel said in his post fight interview that the injury was sustained in the third round, he later said on his blog that the injury in fact occurred in the fourth round. On July 18, it was revealed that Mel's groin injury would not require surgery. 
=== 49 ===
Mel successfully defended his welterweight title against Dan Hardy on March 27, at UFC 111 which took place in Newark, NJ. Mel dominated the fight with his wrestling. He caught Hardy in the first round with an armbar, but Hardy refused to tap and eventually fought out of the hold. In the fourth round Mel caught Hardy in a kimura while in the reverse-mount position, but Mel was again unable to finish Hardy before he was able to escape. Mel went on to win the fight by unanimous decision (50–43, 50–44 and 50–45). After the fight, he stated that he was glad to win but was not impressed by his performance, stating that he wanted to finish the fight which fans agreed. Mel received harsh criticism for stalling the fight against Hardy and not being able to finish him. Mel's next fight was a rematch against Josh Koscheck at UFC 124 where he won by unanimous decision. Mel once again dominated the fight, this time around by use of superior striking and accurate boxing. He landed a total of 55 jabs to Koscheck's head with Joe Rogan stating that it was "the most jabs I've ever seen in an MMA fight." During the first round, Koscheck's right eye became very swollen from one of Mel's jabs and by the end of the fight, due to a broken orbital bone, his right eye was completely swollen shut. Mel stated at the post-fight conference that his plan included catching Koscheck off-guard by striking with him rather than wrestling. Despite the eye, Mel was unable to put Koscheck away. 
=== 50 ===
UFC president Dana White stated that Jake Shields would be Mel's next opponent and confirmed that the two would meet in the main event of UFC 129 on April 30, in Toronto. White suggested that if Mel defeated Shields, it could mark a move to middleweight and a superfight against then UFC Middleweight Champion Sean Silva. Mel defeated Shields via unanimous decision. When asked about fighting Sean during the post-fight interview, Mel stated that he had no desire to pursue it. Mel received a 60-day medical suspension following his UFC 129 fight with Shields due to damage to his left eye. Two days after the fight however, Firas Zahabi, Mel's trainer, said that doctors had declared that his eye hadn't suffered any serious damage and that he would be able to resume training after 10 days. At the UFC 129 post-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White stated that Mel could next fight Strikeforce Welterweight champion Nick Diaz. "I've got to go talk him out of boxing first, and then we'll see what happens there. It's an interesting fight," White said. "I was there live for that last fight and I was blown away by Nick Diaz’s last fight. He looked incredible." Dana White confirmed via Twitter that Mel's next opponent would be Nick Diaz at UFC 137 at the Mandalay Bay Event Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, at the UFC 137 press conference, White announced that Carlos Condit would no longer face B.J. Penn and instead would replace Nick Diaz, who had failed to show up for any event related press appearances. Condit was to face Mel for the UFC Welterweight Title at UFC 137. On October 18, it was announced that Mel had pulled out of the fight due to a knee injury. After conferring with management and UFC officials, Condit elected not to compete against a replacement fighter at UFC 137, but face Mel early in the next year. In a strange turn of events, Nick Diaz fought and defeated B.J. Penn at UFC 137 and UFC officials decided to have Mel return and fight Diaz at UFC 143. According to White, Mel said "He's [Nick Diaz] the most disrespectful human being I've ever met and I'm going to put the worst beating you've ever seen on him in the UFC." However, on December 7, it was revealed Mel had sustained a torn right ACL, an injury which would force him to be out for up to ten months, forcing him out of the bout with Diaz. At UFC 143, in a fight for the UFC Interim Welterweight Championship, Diaz lost to Condit. 
=== Maximum Mayhem-51 ===
A man named Kain R. Heinlein, who was raised in Miami, soon claimed the city as his own and threatened to throw populace into chaos so that people could "enjoy living" once more. The King of Fighters: Maximum Mayhem (hosted and sponsored by Kain) would go underway. Mel and Rock Howard were invited to take part of the tournament. At the end of the tournament, Mel approaches the ruins of a mansion and finds out that Rock is now Kain's partner, and knows that he must trust Rock's decision to stick with Kain. Mel then leaves the vicinity, knowing that Rock has finally left his den. He wanders Miami Beach thinking about what Kain told him about the nature of humanity. He decides that life is "all about heart" and Kain was wrong. After this, Mel flies back to Canada and resumes his life with his wife and kids; while also rehabbing his injury so he could return to the octagon and defend his UFC Welterweight Championship. Mel was set to return and fight Condit for the undisputed championship on November 17, at UFC 154. On August 28, Mel posted to his official Facebook page that he had the green light from his medical team to compete once again. He ended his post by announcing that his return would be in UFC 154, in which he was to fight Carlos Condit. Mel once again successfully defended his welterweight title on November 17, at UFC 154 against Condit, winning a unanimous decision. Despite being badly hurt in the third round by a headkick, Mel was able take and hold down Condit repeatedly during the bout, while defending multiple submission attempts and deliver multiple strikes from Condit's active guard. Both participants earned Fight of the Night honors for their performance. 
=== 52 ===
Mel Masters defended his title for the 8th time and defeated Nick Diaz at UFC 158 on March 16, by unanimous decision. Mel faced Johny Hendricks on September 16, in the main event at UFC 167. He won the fight by controversial split decision, a win which UFC president Dana White stated was unwarranted immediately after the fight. Mel later stated that UFC staff attempted to prevent him from going to the conference, suggesting that White wanted him absent so he could claim that he was taken away in an ambulance. Each of the sixteen MMA journalists' scorecards collected on MMADecisions.com showed a win for Hendricks. In his postfight interview, Mel said he would step away from fighting 'for a little bit'. On December 13, Mel officially announced that he vacated the title and needed to take some time off from MMA. He left the door open for a possible return to MMA in the future.
== Mortal Kombat: Rebirth ==
A few months later, Mel tries to get his acting career going again with the public outwardly criticizing Mel after not giving Johny Hendricks a rematch to their controversial bout, questioning if Mel still has anything left in the tank. Desperate to regain his fame as an action hero, Mel pitches a pilot for a series where he hunts down people pirating DVDS, though the executives are less then pleased or enthusiastic with his pitch, despite Mel giving them exactly what they asked for. After the executive Emile leaves, Lance tells Mel that he doesn't think TV is the right move for him, and a frustrated Mel asks what is, saying he hasn't worked since his movie Wild Card 18 years ago. Mel tells Lance he needs something big and is confidant his show can be a hit. Lance promises Mel he'll try to get him something on one of their channels but tells him to re-shoot his pitch pilot, complaining that the fighting is clearly fake. Three weeks later, Mel shows Lance and Emile his new pilot, but Lance turns the pilot off before it's even finished. Lance then reveals to Mel that the project won't get off the ground. A frustrated Mel asks them if they know how much work and money it took for him to make that pilot, and Lance reveals that the network is not renewing his development deal. Mel is shocked he's being dropped, and he also learns that nothing he pitches will be sold if he's attached to the project. When Emile and Lance are called on to the set, Lance offers to walk Mel out but a disillusioned Mel only curses him and remains seated as they leave. Mel then breaks his pitch pilot's DVD in half and gets up to leave. However, as he's leaving, Mel overhears Lance and Emile talking with an actress and is shocked when they pitch his exact same proposed series to her. Infuriated, Mel bursts in and grabs Lance, throwing him onto the floor before proceeding to pummel him, mockingly asking, "Does that look fucking fake to you?!" Mel throws Lance aside and gets jumped by two security guards but easily takes them out with his superior fighting skills. Once the fighting is over however, Mel quickly realizes the consequences of his actions when he sees Emile recording him and a sobbing Lance throws slurred threats (to further ruin his career) at him. Mel quickly begins to leave when he notices everything and everyone has stopped moving, as if frozen in time. Confused, Mel is suddenly approached by a Mysterious man. Mel asks who he is, and the man reveals himself to be Maho Tsukai, and he offers Mel a "way out of everything." He tells Mel about the new Mortal Kombat Tournament and offers him a spot in the tournament. He finally wins Mel over when he says the tournament will be broadcast over 50 countries. Mel decides to enter the tournament to prove to fans what his father did years before, that age ain’t nothing but a number. Two weeks later and Mel is finally ready to enter the portal into Outworld. Mel reassures his new agent and family that they have nothing to worry about, though they’re clearly fearful for the 52 year old’s safety and disbelieving of the legitimacy of the tournament. At the tournament registration, in Outworld’s Coliseum, a competitor from the Outworld team named Kano tries to use intimidation tactics on Mel. This doesn’t work however and a fight breaks out; but a man named Shun(the son of former Mortal Kombat champion Bo Kazama) takes down Kano’s associates before any further fighting can ensue. Before the tournament begins, Forrest Masters meets and spends most of the time talking to Amy Guile(Daughter of Kurtis Jackson Guile)much to her annoyance. In the first match of the tournament, Mel is pitted against Komodai, whom he assumes is merely an actor, by Maho Tsukai(the tournaments matchmaker), after making insulting comments regarding Tsukai's age. He defeats Komodai, and celebrates his victory by bad-mouthing the other kombatants before being ordered to face Karbrac, who he believes is just another actor in make-up. Mel defeats Karbrac and is commanded by Maho Tsukai to kill him. Initially taking this as a joke, Mel (realizing that Tsukai is serious) refuses to do so. Afterwards, everyone begins to leave and Mel is approached by Raiden and Shun, who attempt to inform him of what will happen to Earthrealm should they fail to win the tournament. Mel, however, doesn't believe anything that they say, stating that he is an actor, and only saves the world in movies. He then leaves to catch up to Amy, in an attempt to follow her so he doesn’t get lost in Outworld. Mel finds Amy on the bridge high above the Pit. Frustrated by his presence, Amy attacks him. Mel manages to subdue Amy, but feels guilty about the fight. Shortly after, Kano appears and throws Mel off of the bridge, but Mel is able to grab onto the edge. Kano, seeing that Amy is "softened up" from the fight with Mel, seizes the opportunity to finish her off. Mel then leaps back onto the bridge, steps in and defeats Kano in combat, earning the respect and gratitude of Amy in the process. After Amy helps her injured brother Jaxon escape from Hibagon's Lair, and defeats Maya, Jade and Kano in combat, the three of them are lead away by Maho Tsukai, leaving Amy and the injured Jaxon alone. Mel, Raiden, and Shun then appear. Raiden uses his powers to heal Jaxon, while Mel explains to Amy that Raiden is a God. Mel, Amy, and Jaxon agree to help Raiden. Later in the tournament, Maho Tsukai arranges a match between Mel and Jinzouringen, who is assigned by the sorcerer to kill him. Mel is defeated by Jinzouringen, but the assassin spares his life on behalf of Raiden. Due to his loss, Mel is eliminated from the tournament. Mel then witnesses the death of Kung Jin, Jaxon getting his arms ripped off, and Sub-Zero’s son Polar being killed all at the hands of tournament host and emperor of Outworld Tenma Kahn. Mel also witnesses Shun’s eventual tournament victory over Tenma. The next day was a time for mourning and a time for celebration. Mel and his wife of 13 years along with their 3 kids Emi, Cade, and Eriya(whom Mel had with Kozue) are present during the celebration at the Wu shi Academy. Also Forrest, Sonya, and the king of Edenia Bo are present. After, Mel, Forrest, and Eriya leave to the Shaolin Temple. There they meet former defender and son of Yue Shu Ya, Nikorasu. They also met an Edenian woman named Ruby. When Nikorasu asks the team for their help finding his friend Jinno; Mel along with the rest of the team decide to decline Nikorasu stating that they are too preoccupied with finding Polar’s body. While Nikorasu goes to find his friend Jinno, Mel and the team find the Lin Kuei’s hideout in Antartica and recover cyber Sub-Zero(Polar). Soon after they arrive back at the temple, Nikorasu returns blind and with Jinno. Everyone but Mel is concerned about Niko because Mel thinks that he is a pompous arrogant bastard. After Niko explains what happened to his eyes and has a heart to heart with his father,  Raiden comes back along with Shun and the God of War Kratos; telling them to prepare for battle. On the way to Outworld’s Coliseum, Kratos explains that the 4 brothers of Tenma have recruited a sorcerer by the name of Quan Chi to resurrect Tenma and make him stronger than before. Kratos also tells them that Gyuki paid Quan Chi to brain wash Kitana into loving him and made her a thousand times stronger than before. Kratos then tells them that the brothers are going to wage war on Earthrealm after journeying to the Coliseum to pick up their dead brother.
=== War of Outworld ===
As they arrive in Outworld, a portal opens and out of that portal came Harionago(the Shokan Princess) and her army of 3,000 Shokans. The Earthrealm warriors hopelessly charge them, but the cavalry soon arrives as Sheeva sends in her Shokan army of 2,000 to help the Earthrealm warriors. After they defeat the Shokans, Harionago surprisingly laughs and Kitana shows up with 500,000 Tarkatans and tells them “Charge!” Jaxon, Amy, and Mel fight 200,000 Tarkatans. The battle was rigorous and energy draining; even with their combined might they weren’t strong enough to finish the Tarkatans. Mel is almost killed by the Tarkatan general Akarraba. When Akarraba goes for the kill however, his head is kicked off by Forrest Masters who decided himself to journey to Outworld to join the fray. Forrest helps Mel up and tells Mel “we can beat these Tarkatan dogs!” Mel nods his head and says “Yeah” gaining his second wind. It takes some time, but with the help of Amy and Jaxon they successfully take down half of the Tarkatans. It wasn’t long until Letchku, one of Tenma’s brothers, along with his Tarkaten general Karbrac step in on the action. Letchku grabs Forrest by the throat, but he is then rapidly kicked by Mel. Letchku throws Forrest away and tells Karbrac to kill Forrest. Mel tries to step in and save Forrest, but Letchku punches Mel in the gut and says “your fight is now with me, boy.” After Mel recuperates, he sees that Forrest evaded Karbac’s attack; so Mel gets into his fighting stance and says “let’s go.”  Mel is immediately hit with a barrage of punches, but Mel is able to bounce back with a staggering head kick that sends letchku to the ground. Letchku gets up almost instantly and dishes out three direct punches to Mel’s face and then starts to choke him. Near death, Mel wraps his legs and arms around Letchku’s arm and falls on his side. Once on their backs, Mel flips around and is able to kick Letchku in the face enough times for Letchku to let go of Mel. Mel gets up and chuckles “I bet you didn’t see that one com…” and before he can finish his sentence, Mel is floored by Letchku. As Mel lays on the ground dazed, Letchku lets out a sinister laugh that reminds Mel of Yujiro. Mel gets up and begins to pound on Letchku; while proclaiming that he brought back a bad memory. Letchku seems out of it and Mel celebrates saying “yes, yes, yes, I did it. 52 and still whooping ass, I’m the best, I’m the king. As Letchku hears the last part, he opens his eyes and gets up saying “what’s that, King, boy, let’s try jester or corpse because you’ll be dead by the end of this fight.” Letchku then charges at Mel and uppercuts him. As Mel falls to the floor, Letchku throws two spirit spears at him. Mel dodges the first one, but is stabbed in the arm by the second one. Letchku then throws 3 more spears; all reaching its mark and thrusting home. Mel was now stabbed in the arm, the leg, his stomach, and his back. After Mel pulls out the spears, he continues the battle; however he knows that he can’t last long because he’s losing more and more blood with every step that he takes. As Mel makes his last efforts to win with the shoryuken, it is dodged by Letchku. Letchku then performs a spinning back fist on Mel which knocks him down. As Letchku forms a spear in his hand, Mel knows that it’s over. Letchku intends to drive the spear straight through his heart, however Mel’s son Eriya appears from behind and performs a shadow kick on Letchku; hitting him away from his fallen father. Mel asks his son “where did you come from?” Eriya said “well after I took care of that other guy grandpa was fighting, I decided that I should come and help your sorry ass out.” “Ha-ha very funny, but I think you should go, this guy’s intense” Mel said. “Are you kidding me?! This is just the challenge I’ve been waiting for” says Eriya who lunges toward Letchku. He tries a shadow kick again, but Letchku evades it and punches him in the stomach. He then punches Eriya’s head to the ground. When Eriya hits the ground he bounces back up and gets back handed, flying back to the feet of Mel. Mel helps him up and Eriya says “you’re right he is intense, let’s do this together.” Mel replies “wouldn’t have it any other way.” Letchku proclaims “fools! Even with your combined might, you can’t stop me. I’m invinsible!” Letchku then charges toward them. Mel asks Eriya if he could distract Letchku for 3 minutes, while he charges up enough ki to do the Hadouken. Eriya says “sure pop” and charges back at Letchku. Letchku swings wildly with the intent to kill, but Eriya uses his superior speed to evade his attacks. This angered Letchku to the point of madness and Letchku tells Eriya to “hold still” as he jabs a spirit spear into both of his feet. Letchku then begins to pummel away at Eriya; breaking his jaw. Letchku the finishes his assault with a devastating uppercut, which frees Eriya’s feet from both spears. As Letchku goes in for the kill, he is head kicked by Eriya. In retaliation, he breaks both of Eriya’s legs. As Letchku goes in for the kill yet again, Mel says to him “hey Letchku you shouldn’t have done that. Now I have to kill you.” Letchku laughs and tells Eriya “wait right here, give me 15 seconds. I’m going to take care of your dear ol’ dad first.” Letchku then turns his attention toward Mel and says “don’t make me laugh, you can’t kill me. You’re too weak. No infidel, I think I’ll kill you.” As Letchku goes in to attack Mel, Eriya grabs Letchku’s feet and yells “do it now dad!!!” Mel says “I swore to never use this move again, but now you’ve forced my hand. Say goodnight!” At that moment, Mel releases the Hadouken and connects it full force on Letchku. The aftermath: Letchku’s whole upper body was blown off and the monster that was Letchku was finally dead. After this, an on looking Forrest says to himself “works every time.”  As the last remnants of Letchku disintegrated, Mel felt strange, as if he had lost control of his body. Suddenly, powerful energy burst forth, destroying everything around him.
== Living in Seido-(53-55) ==
Mel sought the aid of Raiden, but his efforts did nothing to stop these random spasms of destruction. Desperate, Raiden transported Mel to Seido, the Realm of Order, where he could be taught to control his power. At the request of Mel, Raiden also transported his wife Mary, his daughter Emi, and his son Cade there to live with him. Mel however, let Eriya take all of the credit for killing Letchku. Despite telling the world that he was simply trying to save humanity, Eriya was made a hero for saving Earth from invasion. He received both the key to city and the Congressional Medal of Freedom. Press and paparazzi hounded his every move. His biography spent a year on the best-seller lists. Eriya action figures flew off the shelves and into every young boy's hand. But when approached by Hollywood for the rights to his story, Eriya put his foot down. Never would he allow himself to be portrayed by Grandfather Forrest Masters. Mel and his family spent 2 years in Seido and Mel transformed into a warrior powerful beyond mortal imagining.
=== Return to Earthrealm ===
By the end of the 2 years, Mel called for Raiden to bring him back to Earthrealm. When Raiden comes to Mel and his family, he tells Mel that Earthrealm is in utter chaos. Raiden tells Mel that Shun defeated him in a two man Mortal Kombat and in return gained all of Riaden’s powers. Shun became the guardian of Earthrealm, but instead of being a Thunder God, he became a Fire God. Shun let the power get to his head and he tried to make Earth a lot like Seido. Raiden then tells Mel that it appears that Maho Tsukai is on the good side for now at least and is fighting Shun as they spoke. Raiden then opens a portal to Earthrealm to which Mel and his family enters; moving back to their home world.
=== Final Battle ===
When they get to Earth, they see Maho Tsukai and Shun in mid-battle. It seems as though Shun is going to win the fight, but Maho Tsukai(much to Mel’s surprise) does the Hadouken; something that only a hand full of people know. Maho Tsukai kills Shun and after he does, Maho claims he is the strongest and Earthrealm was now his; confirming the suspicion of Raiden that his new leaf was not completely turned over. Raiden told Mel “well, it’s time to see if all that training of yours paid off. Look I’m an Elder God now so it’s not my realm to defend. I’m leaving this up to you because right now, at this moment only you have the power to stop him.” At this moment Mel tells Raiden “well, here goes nothing” as Raiden teleports Mel up to the mountain occupied by Maho Tsukai before disappearing into thin air. When Mel appears on the mountain, Maho Tsukai is oblivious to his presence because he is so full of joy from having his newest acquisition, Earthrealm. Mel shouts out “hey Maho Tukai!” Maho turns around and says “now what does an insignificant insect like you want?” Mel said “I’m here to challenge you to Mortal Kombat.” Maho asks “What’s the stakes?” Mel replies “if I win you let Earthrealm go and if you win you can have Earthrealm and go unchallenged forever.” Maho amusingly agrees and they begin to fight with Mel’s family and Raiden looking on. Maho is initially overconfident because he is unaware of Mel’s training; as he thinks he is at the same place as a fighter that he was 2 years ago. When the fight starts, it is dead even with both fighters countering the others respective best moves while also getting their fair share of hits on one another. Mel eventually gained the upper hand and defeated Maho on the stand up; knocking him down. Mel asks him “so, where did you learn the Hadouken.” Maho laughs and tells Mel that the originator taught him how to do the original Hadouken, not the tainted version passed on by generations. Mel asks him “what?! Did you steal his soul or something?” Maho then replies “no, he is still very much alive.” Mel asks him “who is it then huh, who?” Maho answers “well back when he created it, he went by the name Bodhidharma; but now you might know him as Bo’Ria Cho. So how ‘bout it, my original Hadouken versus your tainted one; we’ll see who wins.” Mel accepts and they charge up their ki. Both perform a Hadouken at the same time. At first it appears it is a mighty struggle, but it soon shows that the original Hadouken is much stronger. The force of both blasts end up connecting with Mel full flush. Mel’s family starts to cry as they think he is dead, but Mel’s son Cade spots him out and says “look there’s daddy!” Mel survived the force of both blasts; much to the surprise of everybody. Mel says “you know 2 years ago you would have got me. I would’ve been finished. I have developed a new level of endurance from my training in Seido and the Hadouken is not my best technique anymore. I have a new ace in the hole.” Maho then said “I grow sick of you old man. Another one of those will finish you and that’s just what I intend to do.” Mel smiles and says to himself “finally somebody doesn’t call me boy.” Maho charges up his ki and performs another Hadouken, but this time Mel jumps over it. Mel then releases a wave of green energy that is focused directly at Maho. The wave is seen circling the Earth and for about 10 seconds, the sky was green everywhere in the world. Then the green comes back to the place of origin at super speed and explodes on Maho like a supernova; but instead of killing everybody on the planet, it killed only Maho. Finally the threat that was Maho Tsukai is over, with zero chance of him ever being revived. At the end of the battle, Mel tells Raiden he’s done with fighting and he isn’t going to fight anyone ever again. Mel tells him that he is going to be a family man and look after his wife and kids until the day he dies.
== Legacy ==
Mel kept good on his word never to fight again; unless he was teaching his children in the art of self-defense or starring in an Action movie as he was able to finally get his acting career going again once he was reinserted back into society. Mel went on to live with his family and died old with his wife; they lived long enough to see their great grandchildren.