Hair Vs. Title
Molly would remain champion until February 23, 2004, Raw when Victoria won the title in a four-way which also included Lita and Jazz. This was to set up perhaps the most famous moment of Molly Holly’s career, the “Hair vs Title” match against Victoria at WM XX. That it was at the request of Holly, who probably knew that her only chance of getting on the Mania card was to agree to something wild like that, again shows where women’s wrestling really fitted into the WWE in those times.
Molly would spend a few months in a wig, in comedy spots trying not to be seen as bald and losing more matches. She would feud with Stacy Keibler over the summer months before making her final WWE PPV appearance of this run at Taboo Tuesday 2004 in a “Fulfil Your Fantasy Battle Royale” where fans could vote what outfits the contestants wore. Schoolgirl uniforms won out over French Maid or Nurse, although Molly wore deliberately demure clothes. With several departures from the women’s roster and the WWE focussing their attention on the Diva search, there were less and less Molly appearances and again, most were losses.
After WWE & One-Offs
By April 2005, Greenwald had tired of the grind of the WWE routine and was granted her request to be released from her contract. Reportedly she was disenchanted with the renewed focus of the WWE on looks rather than ability from its female reporters but Greenwald would publicly refute that, merely saying that she needed a break and time to spend with family.
For a couple of years, Greenwald made semi-regular indie appearances for the likes of Northern Impact Wrestling as well as taking trips to Germany. Most appearances were non-wrestling ones or spots as a guest referee. Her only other indie appearance of any note came in 2018 when she worked Chikara’s King of Trio’s event.
She would also make sporadic appearances for the WWE over the years to come, including a backstage skit with William Regal, Mickie James and Hornswoggle at Raw 15th Anniversary, a spot in the Miss WrestleMania Battle Royale at WM XXV, another battle royale spot at 2018’s Evolution PPV and appearances in both the 2018 and 2020 Women’s Rumble matches (the latter saw her reprise the Mighty Molly Gimmick).
In 2017 during her own Hall of Fame speech, Beth Phoenix noted that Greenwald had quietly paid for Pheonix’s training when she had started in the business and it has been clear from the goodwill shown after the announcement that Molly Holly was to go into the HoF that there are plenty of other female wrestlers out there with similar stories or who just looked up to the woman they saw on screen in her matches.
It would be fair to say that Holly was never as “over” as the likes of Lita and Trish in their WWE heyday’s but I would argue that if we simply boil it down to how good they were as “wrestlers” then Molly Holly is every bit they’re equal, if not more. At a time when a modelling history seemed a better back-story that any wrestling training was as far as those who were in charge of WWE hiring were concerned Holly showed that there was talent in the female division. Even if a lot of the time it required being the one who held matches together and stared at the lights for three seconds.
Perhaps Molly Holly doesn’t have that one absolute barn-stormer on her résumé (and I’d argue she’s far from being alone in that category) but at a time when the main wrestling companies weren’t interested as much in women being given that platform, it would have been very difficult to do so. In some ways, Nora “Molly Holly” Greenwald was ahead of her time. If things had been different I’m sure she could have joined the likes of Gail Kim and Mickie James in solidifying her legacy via a TNA/Impact Wrestling stint. If a young Nora Greenwald was signed to NXT today she could be putting on clinics with any number of stars.
But if there’s one thing that is perhaps outside a wrestlers’ sphere of influence it is timing. Some are lucky to be in the right place at the right time, others are destined to be the right person at the not-so-right time. Either way, Greenwald built and left a legacy that is still being talked about in fond terms to this day. Molly Holly is a name that has weight in Women’s Wrestling and she most certainly deserves her Hall of Fame call-up.
Photos courtesy of WWE.com