Tay Melo
Melo in March 2024
Birth name	Taynara Melo de Carvalho
Born	(1995-06-09)June 9, 1995 (age 29)[1] Rio de Janeiro,Brazil
Spouses	Jorge Conti ​ ​ (m. 2017; div. 2021)​ Sammy Guevara ​ ​ (m. 2022)​
Children	1
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Tay Conti[2] Tay Melo[2] Taynara Conti[3] Taynara Melo
Billed height	5 ft 5 in (165 cm)[4]
Billed from	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil[3]
Trained by	Dustin Rhodes WWE Performance Center[5]
Debut	April 1, 2017 (2017-4-1)[6]

Taynara Melo Guevara (néede Carvalho and formerlyConti; born June 9, 1995) is a Brazilianprofessional wrestler andjudoka. She is signed toAll Elite Wrestling (AEW), where she performs under thering nameTay Melo (/ˈtaɪ/) and was a member of theJericho Appreciation Society. She also appears in AEW's Mexican partner promotionLucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), where she is a formerAAA World Mixed Tag Team Champion with real life husbandSammy Guevara.

Prior to joining AEW, Melo performed forWWE on theNXTbrand asTaynara Conti from 2017 to 2020.

Taynara Melo de Carvalho was born on June 9, 1995, inRio de Janeiro, Brazil. She has a brother and two sisters, one of whom is adopted. Melo grew up in Rio's notorious poverty-stricken and crime-infestedfavelas. She holds ablack belt injudo and a blue belt inBrazilian jiu-jitsu.^[5] Melo briefly went to law school in Brazil^[7] and participated in trials for the Brazilian Olympic team at the2016 Summer Olympics prior to joining WWE.^[3]

Melo began her athletic career inartistic gymnastics inCR Vasco da Gama, but soon migrated tomartial arts. She initially fought for the judo teamBrasil vale ouro ("Brazil is worth gold") and later joined Brazilian sports and educationNGOInstituto Reação, led by Olympic judokaFlávio Canto. Melo was a regional champion and four-time state champion. In addition, she was a four-time Brazilian runner up. She joined the Brazilian team and participated in the European circuit in Portugal and Germany.^[8]

In October 2016, Melo was announced as having signed with WWE and reported to theWWE Performance Center.^[5] She made her professional wrestling debut as Taynara Conti atWrestleMania Axxess inOrlando, Florida on April 1, 2017, competing againstSarah Bridges in a losing effort.^[9] She took part in the inauguralMae Young Classic, during which she lost toLacey Evans in the first round of the tournament.^[10]

Conti appeared on television on the October 11 episode ofNXT, interfering in atriple threat match betweenNikki Cross,Peyton Royce, andLiv Morgan on behalf ofThe Undisputed Era (Adam Cole,Bobby Fish, andKyle O'Reilly) to prevent Cross from winning the match.^[11][12] This led to a match between Conti and Cross on the November 1 episode ofNXT, where Conti lost.^[13] On April 8, 2018, Conti performed during the pre-show ofWrestleMania 34, competing in theWrestleMania Women's Battle Royal, becoming the first female Brazilian to compete on the evening of WrestleMania.^[14] Later in the year, Conti qualified for the2018 Mae Young Classic tournament after she defeatedVanessa Borne.^[15] She defeated Jessie Elaban in the first round but lost toLacey Lane in the second round.^[16][17]

On April 20, 2020, Conti was released from her WWE contract as a result of budget cuts due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.^[18] Like all other talent released, she remained under the 90-day no compete clause, which expired on July 23, 2020. Conti later revealed in an interview that she had been unhappy for months at WWE and wanted to be released, but the company initially would not grant her a release out of fear she would go toAll Elite Wrestling (AEW).^[19]

On August 4, 2020, Melo appeared on AEW as Tay Conti, participating in theAEW Women's Tag Team Cup Tournament: The Deadly Draw and teaming withAnna Jay. The team, known officially as TayJay, defeatedNyla Rose andAriane Andrew in the quarterfinals but lost toIvelisse andDiamante during the semi-finals.^[20][21] On the August 26 episode ofDynamite, she received a contract from the stableThe Dark Order to join them.^[22] On September 9, AEW announced that Conti had signed with the company.^[2]

On the January 13, 2021, episode ofDynamite, Conti competed for theNWA World Women's Championship for the first time, and was defeated bySerena Deeb.^[23] In the following weeks, Conti earned a title match for theAEW Women's World Championship, but she was not successful in beating the champion,Hikaru Shida, on the April 21 episode ofDynamite.^[24] In September, Conti and Anna Jay began a feud withPenelope Ford andThe Bunny in a series of singles and tag matches onDynamite andRampage. On November 13, Conti fought again for the AEW Women's World Championship, this time facing defending championBritt Baker atFull Gear but came up unsuccessful.^[25] The TayJay/Bunny & Ford feud came to a head when the team of Jay and Conti defeated the team of The Bunny and Ford in astreet fight on December 31 onRampage.^[26]

On March 6, 2022, atRevolution, Conti facedJade Cargill for theAEW TBS Championship in a losing effort.^[27] After months of feuding, on May 29 atDouble or Nothing Conti teamed up withSammy Guevara andFrankie Kazarian in a trios mixed tag team match facingAmerican Top Team'sEthan Page,Paige VanZant andScorpio Sky, which Conti's team lost.^[28] On June 15, atRoad Rager, Conti along with Guevara, joined theJericho Appreciation Society, turning heel.^[29] On August 12 onRampage Quake by the Lake under the new ring name Tay Melo, teamed up with Guevara defending theAAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship againstDante Martin and Skye Blue which they successfully retained.^[30]

Melo and Guevara then started a feud withRuby Soho andOrtiz, trading wins during August before defeating them atAll Out due to interference from Anna Jay.^{[citation needed]} The feud between Melo and Soho resumed on the November 30 episode ofDynamite, leading to a match atWinter Is Coming where Soho defeated Melo.^{[citation needed]} The feud continued with Melo and Jay defeating Soho andWillow Nightingale on the December 28 episode ofDynamite; Soho and Nightingale however defeated Melo and Jay on the January 11, 2023, episode ofRampage in a street fight.^{[citation needed]}

On April 30, 2022, Conti made her AAA debut teaming withSammy Guevara to defeatLos Vipers,Maravilla and Látigo, and Sexy Star II andKomander to win theAAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship atTriplemanía XXX. For most of the match,La Parka Negra would wrestle in Guevara's place.^[31]

On January 3, 2025 following a 22 month hiatus from wrestling Melo made her in ring return and debut forStardom atNew Year Dream where she teamed withMina Shirakawa and faced the team ofAthena andThekla but were defeated.^[32]

Melo appears as a main cast member forAEW All Access.^[33]

In 2017, Melo married fellow judoka Jorge Conti. In November 2021, Melo revealed that she was no longer married, and that the couple had been separated "for a long time".^{[34][35][better source needed]}

Melo had been in a relationship with fellow professional wrestlerSammy Guevara since January 2022.^[36] The couple got engaged in June inParis^[37][38] and were wed on August 7, 2022, inOrlando.^[39] In May 2023, atDouble or Nothing, Melo and Guevara revealed they are expecting their first child, and confirmed it on their social media accounts.^{[40][better source needed]}

On November 28, 2023, Melo gave birth to a daughter named Luna Guevara.^[41][42]

She is a fan ofMMA (particularly theUFC and the MMA fightersAmanda Nunes andCharles Oliveira), often comments on the events and fights of these events on her social media, in addition to having declared that she is open to a challenge of fighting MMA in the future and that she has visited a UFC Gym several times.^{[citation needed]}

• All Elite Wrestling
  • AEW Dynamite Awards (1 time)
    • Biggest WTF Moment (2022) –TayJay (Anna Jay and Tay Conti) vs.The Bunny andPenelope Ford in aStreet Fight onNew's Year Smash (December 31)^[43]
• Inside the Ropes
  • Most Improved Wrestler (2021)^[44]
• Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide
  • AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship (1 time) – withSammy Guevara^[31]
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • Ranked No. 49 of the top 150 female wrestlers in thePWI Women's 150 in 2021^[45]
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter
  • Most Improved (2021)^[46]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toTaynara Melo de Carvalho.

• Taynara Conti onWWE.com
• Tay Melo's profile atCagematch.net,Wrestlingdata.com,Internet Wrestling Database
• Taynara Melo atIMDb

• 1995 births
• Living people
• Brazilian female professional wrestlers
• Brazilian martial artists
• Martial artists from Rio de Janeiro (city)
• Expatriate professional wrestlers
• Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in the United States
• Jericho Appreciation Society members
• 21st-century female professional wrestlers
• AAA World Mixed Tag Team Champions

• CS1 Spanish-language sources (es)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from September 2024
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from January 2023
• All articles lacking reliable references
• Articles lacking reliable references from June 2023
• Articles with unsourced statements from June 2023
• Commons category link from Wikidata