Melissa Coates (born June 18, 1971) is a Canadian professional wrestler, bodybuilder, fitness model and actress. She is perhaps best known for appearing in the first two seasons of the Game Show Network show Extreme Dodgeball.Prior to wrestling, Coates aspired to become a professional tennis player after watching Martina Navratilova. In order to train effectively for tennis, Coates began weightlifting at 15, and during that same year, she entered her first tennis competition in 1984, where she lasted until the finals. She re-entered the following year and won the Mid-Canada Junior Girls Championship. However, she soon began to shift her attention from tennis to bodybuilding and entered her first contest in the early 1990s, where she won the overall lightweight category of the Windsor Physique Contest. After she began making prominence, Coates decided to move to Los Angeles and worked for two gyms and two bars to finance herself. After being granted professional status in 1995, she won the Jan Tana Classic in 1996. In 1999, she took a leave from bodybuilding and subsequently began working as a model.
She also competed in the first two seasons of Extreme Dodgeball on the Game Show Network. Her team, the Barbell Mafia team, qualified for the playoffs in the first season but failed to qualify the next year.
After training at both Killer Kowalski's training school and Ultimate Pro Wrestling's Ultimate University, Coates moved down to Louisville, Kentucky to begin training in World Wrestling Entertainment's developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling. Coates then made an appearance at WWE's Backlash, taking part in Chris Masters' "Masterlock Challenge" segment, where he offered $1000 to anyone who could break his Master Lock, which she failed to do. She was then placed in OVW as an official trainee and became the "head of security" for Kenny Bolin's stable "Bolin's Services". Soon after, however, Coates left both OVW and WWE and went to work for World Xtreme Wrestling.
After defeating Krissy Vaine in WXW, where she also competed in the prestigious Elite 8 tournament and had a cage match against Mercedes Martinez, Coates returned to OVW, albeit not under a WWE developmental contract, and soon began facing off with several of the OVW Divas, including Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Melina Perez, and Jillian Hall before becoming the bodyguard of Jillian Hall. Then, along with Hall, she acted as a valet for the Toland Brothers (Chad and Tank Toland). After training in OVW, Coates then moved over to Deep South Wrestling and debuted for the territory as The Bag Lady, a homeless woman who became the love interest and eventually the valet of The Freakin' Deacon. On February 22, 2007, the Bag Lady debuted a new Diva-esque look and defeated Angel Williams in their subsequent match. The Bag Lady then began feuding with both Williams and Krissy Vaine before leaving DSW to wrestle on the independent circuit.
