This was the hardest 1st round match for me to call. I like both of these women equally. Melissa has always been one of my favorite journeywomen. She's a phenomenal talent and one of the best female wrestlers of the modern era. She's been successful everywhere she's worked. In SHIMMER where's she been the longest reigning champion ever, in All Pro Wrestling, she's won 2 Chickfight tournaments, was named the best women's wrestler in the world by PWI in 2013, and had a great run as Raiesha Saeed in TNA. The only promotion that she's never been apart of was the WWE, which was a poor decision of there's not to hire her when they had the chance. With Del Rey now with WWE and Kong back in TNA, Melissa is easily the best wrestler not to be apart of a major promotion.
That being said hooooooooly crap was OBD allot of fun in TNA. As either a heel or face. She's just so good at playing her role. I remember in an interview the Kurt Angle gave at one point putting over ODB and few other women as being bigger draws than him. And if that were true then it would be a fair assessment to say that she was more popular than the likes of Sting and Styles too. Even for a short time that's a huge achievement.
I think I'm going to go with ODB just for the sake of the tournament. She's more well known than Melissa, and has had greater successes in the "upper echelon" promotions. Really for women wrestlers, after 2007, SHIMMER is up there as an elite place [well beyond what ROH is for men] but the Knockouts division has been the best division in the world for years with both the WWE and AJW divisions tanking in comparison to what they once were. And for that reason ODB will probably go further.