Naman Shrestha
Molly Holly, who went by several ring names during her WWE tenure, is a former WWE Diva who is not just remembered for getting her hair shaven at the grandest stage of them all but is also known for her pure and exceptional wrestling skills. Having won everything there is to win for a Diva in the industry, she had reached the pinnacle of success in WWE. So, when she departed from the industry, rather abruptly, there were a lot of rumors of something going on behind the scenes and her feeling underutilized and underestimated.
Why Did Molly Holly Leave WWE?
Nora Greenwald AKA Molly Holly was born in Forest Lake, Minnesota, on September 7, 1977, and has been into powerlifting ever since her early teens. Besides breaking the Minnesota state powerlifting record for her age group at the age of 14, she even trained as a gymnast. With a strong foundation, she started training as a wrestler under Dean Malenko in 1997, and in August of the same year, she debuted under the ring name Starla Saxton in the World Professional Wrestling Federation (WPWF). But it was in WCW in 2000 that she garnered national attention as Miss Madness.
After her departure from WCW, Greenwald finally entered WWE and assumed the ring name Molly Holly, the cousin of the late Crash Holly and Hardcore Holly, becoming a star in no time. After helping out the cousins against the Dudley Boyz and forming a relationship with Spike Dudley for a brief time, she became Might Molly, the trusty yet beautiful superhero sidekick of The Hurricane. However, her ambitious nature soon took over as she betrayed The Hurricane by taking his Hardcore Championship at WrestleMania X8, which she lost within an hour to Christian.
Getting back to her previous persona, only more uptight and determined, Greenwald returned to her earlier ring name, Molly Holly, in April 2002. A couple of months later, she defeated Trish Stratus and won her first Women’s Championship at the 2002 King of the Ring. For the next couple of years, she had two title runs, defeating the likes of Stratus, Lita, and Gail Kim, before finally losing out to Victoria in a Four-Way Elimination match on February 23, 2004. This led to a rematch between the two as they competed in a Hair vs. Title Match at WrestleMania XX, which Molly Holly lost, resulting in the most embarrassing moment of her career because she had her hair shaven in front of the crowd.
After the humiliation, Molly Holly failed to get her WWE career back on track even after getting multiple shots at the Women’s Championship. In April 2005, she departed from WWE and bid farewell to her full-time wrestling career. Reportedly, she was the one who decided to quit WWE and asked to be released directly from Vince McMahon even though there were nine months remaining in her contract. As for the reason for her departure, she opened up about it during a conversation with Colt Cabana on the Art of Wrestling podcast in February 2017.
Molly Holly said, “I knew about a year before I quit that I needed to. I was crying every day at work, I was so miserable and I think going so many years with so little sleep, sometimes four or five hours a night four days in a row plus always being sick. Because I was run down, I’d get colds constantly. I was always sick, I was always tired, my body hurt and because I had already accomplished everything there was to accomplish in women’s wrestling, I just felt like I had nothing more to give. I was worn out and miserable and wanted to be done but I didn’t quit because it was really good money. Then it got to a point where it didn’t matter how much they paid me, I could not do it anymore.”
However, Molly Holly made quite a few sporadic appearances in WWE after quitting — at WrestleMania XXV; at the 2018 Royal Rumble, where she competed in the first women’s Royal Rumble match; at the 2020 Royal Rumble, where she returned as Mighty Molly; on March 2021 where she got inducted into the 2021 WWE Hall of Fame; and at the 2022 Royal Rumble again as Mighty Molly.
Molly Holly is Actively Indulged in Community Work Now
Life after WWE has been quite smooth for Molly Holly, as she performs charity work quite regularly. Soon after leaving the industry, she even took a trip to Guatemala for several months to learn Spanish and finish missionary work. Moreover, she earned a license in massage therapy and even took public speaking classes. On July 22, 2010, she tied the knot with Geno Benshoof in the backyard of Benshoof’s parents’ house in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
As of writing, it is reported that the 46-year-old woman of solid faith is signed to WWE as a producer and part-time wrestler. Since she has kept her private life under wraps, it is hard to gauge what she has been up to lately. But all we can do is hope for the best for her personal as well as professional endeavors.
Read More: Gail Kim: Where is the Former WWE Star Now?
