Trivia / Molly Holly

• Actor-Inspired Element: The heel character she adopted in 2002 was originally envisioned as a Distaff Counterpart to Hardcore Holly who wanted the division to be serious and less about T&A. Molly however drew inspiration from the likes of Kurt Angle and William Regal, and made the character a more comedic heel. Though when she was pushed in 2003, the character reverted to her original serious persona.
• Approval of God: In this video she is shown the match where Kelly Kelly did a Molly-go-Round as a Shout-Out to her - and is visibly pleased, describing it as "so cool".
• Contractual Purity: She confessed in an interview that she told WWE up front she would not wear skimpy outfits or do too risque storylines - so she was a Token Wholesome amongst the other sexualised Divas. But she has spoken against this trope in other interviews - mostly at dirt sheets claiming WWE didn't think "she could be an effective babyface without playing the T&A card" - and she had no problem taking part in bikini shoots or other mild Fanservice segments.
• Costume Backlash:
  • She laughs at the gear she had on her tryout match on Heat in 1998, joking that she wouldn't have hired herself looking like that.
  • While she felt the bleach blonde hair fit her earlier character, the constant upkeep ruined her hair, so she was glad to change it.
• Creator Breakdown: Suffered this behind the scenes as her character became a Hollywood Pudgy laughing stock. It took a cancer scare to convince her to leave.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Throughout her entire wrestling career. First, when she was Miss Madness in WCW, she bleached her hair blonde and glammed up to look like a pageant queen. When she turned heel, she cut her hair and darkened it to fit the new character. Then there's WrestleMania XX. She even re-bleached her hair blonde for her Cameo at WrestleMania 25.
• Funny Character, Boring Actor: She says that the Holly Cousin character and Mighty Molly were goofier and exaggerated versions of herself. She's usually very soft spoken and polite in interviews.
• Hostility on the Set: A mild example, since she got along with most people. But she admitted that Lita was difficult to work with.
• Lying Creator: She said she wouldn't be wrestling in the 2018 Royal Rumble, claiming she wasn't in ring shape. This turned out to be a lie, as she had been training for months and competed in the event.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance:
  • Her favorite storyline is not one of the ones involving the title - but rather her romance with Spike Dudley.
  • Additionally she was surprised that so many people remembered the Mighty Molly gimmick - when she only did it for about eight months. She's also talked about how thrilled she was to see kids dressed as Mighty Molly for Halloween that year.
• Money, Dear Boy: Claims that she came to hate wrestling itself but she stayed for a long time because the pay was very good, and she also enjoyed the travelling aspect - for a while.
• Playing Against Type: Usually a face on the indies, and in WCW. In WWE she enjoyed two Women's Championship reigns as a heel. She spent about a year as a face in WWE and the rest of that time as a heel, too.
• Promoted Fanboy: Michelle McCool was a big fan of Molly's and called her a dream match. The two worked together (sort of) in the 25-Diva Battle Royal at WrestleMania 25 and then properly in the 2018 Royal Rumble. Michelle even eliminated Molly.
• Reality Subtext: She actually was a virgin, which is where the self-righteous prude character came from.^note She opted to stay a virgin until she married, as she believed it would be best for her husband to be her 'first'. She married in 2010.
• Wag the Director: A positive example. She didn't name the name but revealed an embarrassing incident where "an old school wrestler" was temporarily the agent for the women's matches - and he suggested she do a spot where she "motorboat" Trish Stratus's boobs. Molly privately went to Johnny Ace to report it, and this led to Fit Finlay becoming the agent for the women's matches.
• What Could Have Been:
  • She apparently got herself into WWE by telling Vince McMahon she would have a full twisting moonsault as her finisher. When the time came for her to use it on TV, she couldn't get it right in the practice. As such, Dean Malenko created the Molly-Go-Round finisher we're all familiar with these days. Luckily for Molly, they were very impressed.
  • She first valeted dark matches for William Regal as Lady Ophelia in a black evening gown.
  • After splitting from The Hurricane, she reverted back to her original Holly Cousin attire for a match against Jazz (though with a new theme). This seems to suggest that she would have been pushed as a face - except that Jazz found she had a torn ACL, so Molly had to be quickly turned heel to give Trish someone to feud with.
  • When Christian defeated her for the Hardcore title at WrestleMania X8, the segment had to be filmed twice because the door he slammed in her face came off its hinges and fell right on top of her. Molly sold it anyway, thinking the cameras were still rolling and everyone thought she'd been legitimately knocked out.
  • She wrestled Traci Brooks, Gail Kim and Beth Phoenix in their tryout matches all in the same night. She told John Laurinitis that Beth was the one who should be hired, and that Gail Kim was too stiff. Gail Kim was hired, but Molly eventually became good friends with her.
  • She confessed that her Hall of Fame induction speech was originally given a fifteen minute time slot - but it was cut down to two minutes. They compromised by having her make the speech remotely, allowing the full thing to be uploaded to the official YouTube channel (at just under ten minutes).
  • She turned down an offer to be a coach at the Performance Centre, feeling she wouldn't be creative or imaginative enough to be an effective trainer. She eventually changed her mind in 2021 and came on board as a producer.
  • Her "Table For 3" appearance (alongside Candice Michelle and Michelle McCool) had about three hours of footage filmed.
• Writer Revolt: She hated being a heel, so her many comedy moments were her way of compromising - as she didn't mind being the bad guy if she could make the fans laugh.
• You Look Familiar: Starla Saxton appeared at a WCW event on June 24th, taking a fall to Malia Hosaka, before getting called up next year as Miss Madness. She jobbed again later that year to WWF Women's Champion Jacqueline on the October 11, 1998 (taped September 29, 1998) Sunday Night Heat.