YMMV / Molly Holly

• Anti-Climax Boss: Victoria defeated her rather easily with a weak backslide pin at WrestleMania.
• Badass Decay: The latter part of 2004 up until her 2005 departure saw her reduced to a joke about having her wig ripped off or else losing to Stacy Keibler in matches on Heat.
• Comedy Ghetto: Notably, her second Women's title reign - where she was a more serious and ruthless heel - was longer and she was a more effective top heel than when she had first turned and been a comedy figure. She actually preferred the comedy side instead.
• Crack Pairing: Sometime after she arrived in late 2000, someone created a combined fansite for her and The Undertaker titled "The Beauty and the Badass." Their paths never crossed really, only when The Undertaker teamed with Crash and Hardcore, Molly being the valet.
• Critical Dissonance: Molly Holly is praised by smarks as one of the greatest female wrestlers ever, someone who never botched and could carry lesser opponents to a decent match. However, casual fans didn't care anything about her. Partly because she wasn't a Ms. Fanservice and partly because she was often made to look like a complete joke.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Even as a heel, she had a strong online fanbase. For a time on the Usenet newsgroup rec.sport.pro-wrestling, she was featured in several .sigs, with her being referred to as "Angel Molly Holly" and "Queen Molly, the First Lady of Wrestling." When she and Trish tied for diva of the year on the now defunct radical wrestling site, the webmaster decided to overrule the vote and declare Molly Holly the winner. (for the record, he left the tie between The Dudley Boys and The World's Greatest Tag Team alone)
  • It's also important to note that upon her debut, Molly was getting great reactions from fans in the arenas - enough for dirtsheets to speculate that she would be pushed immediately. Indeed she got a few title matches and was prominently featured on TV for the next several months, even if she wasn't Women's Champion.
  • She has said that she was shocked that she got a reaction when she returned at the 2018 Royal Rumble.
• Fandom Rivalry: For a stretch, YouTube was the battle ground of a perplexing one between her fans and fans of Malia Hosaka^note Hosaka was a well regarded female wrestler who was signed to a developmental contract around the same time Molly was hired, but "Creative never found anything" for her to do and she was released. Par the course for youtube, the Malia side got overtaken by pranksters, who blew Molly's ties to a rehab scam out of proportion (by omitting that she worked there three months at most without pay and then left) and the wrestling debate got drowned in a sea of a lot of other noise. (the lesson was be wary of the comment sections) The kindling for the fire storm appears to be an interview Hosaka gave that touched on their friendship and falling out.(the full interview was done by Ring Belles Online)
• Fanon Discontinuity: Some fans like to pretend the self-righteous prude character didn't exist and remember Molly only as the Holly Cousin or Mighty Molly - given how much she's said she didn't enjoy playing the heel. She reappeared in her Holly Cousin attire for WrestleMania 25 but then was in her heel attire and used her heel theme for her Royal Rumble 2018 appearance.
• Fans Prefer the New Her: When she had her head shaved at WrestleMania XX, it was obviously meant to be the character's ultimate humiliation. Most fans however noticed that she looked great bald, and she herself enjoyed the look.
• Fashion Dissonance: SLAM Wrestling noted that it was odd how in 2003 WWE were trying to push Molly as a Darker and Edgier heel than the Sour Prudes gimmick - when her ring gear didn't match.
  "If Molly wants to be taken seriously as a badass, she should wear more street clothes instead of that prima wrestling attire..."
• Harsher in Hindsight: While already uncomfortable to watch, the constant mocking of Molly for having a large ass becomes even worse when she was a guest on Lilian Garcia's Chasing Glory podcast; around the time this was happening on TV, she was battling an eating disorder.^note She had a food addiction, where she compulsively binged foods because of her body's dependence on processed sugar.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Michelle McCool constantly mentioned how Molly Holly was one of her idols and she was excited to be in the Wrestle Mania 25 battle royal with her, even if they weren't really working together. Both women get to properly work together in the first ever women's Royal Rumble in 2018.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Her 2021 Hall of Fame induction speech. Not only does she thank the women she worked with, but she names all the crew members by name, shares pictures and thanks them for their contribution to making the show what it was. She also describes responding to every single fan letter she was ever given, and thanking the fans for accepting her despite her flaws.
  • In an interview with Ring the Belle, she's shown a clip of Kelly Kelly doing a Molly-go-Round as a Shout-Out to her. She Squees and says "that's so cool", visibly flattered by the gesture.
  • Behind the scenes, she spotted potential in Beth Phoenix and decided to make the first payment for her training at OVW. Beth didn't even realise until she went to make the payment and was told it had been taken care of. Beth thanked her for it in her Hall of Fame speech.
  • The proceeds from her 2005 documentary/shoot interview were donated to the education fund for the late Crash Holly's daughter.
  • Her learning during her appearance on the WWE show The Bump that she was the first 2021 inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame leads to her being shocked and overjoyed. She beams with happiness and you can see just how much the induction truly means to her.
  • The cheers she received during her appearances at the Women's Royal Rumbles, not to mention the "You've Still Got It" chants the crowd gave her.
• Hollywood Homely: Played with. She purposefully altered her appearance so that she would be plain and unattractive to reflect the new heel character, although she still was attractive, just not blatant about it. This was mainly due to adopting very conservative ring attire and constantly scowling.
• Hollywood Pudgy:
  • One of the most infamous examples. One segment was written where Trish Stratus made fun of her ass and this eventually evolved into the entire locker room poking fun at her weight. Unlike Mickie James, she wasn't portrayed sympathetically. The worst part is that the fans didn't buy it at all - Molly was slim and athletic by any definition, and anyone with even a passing knowledge of fitness and human musculature could tell that any extra size on Molly's lower body was mostly muscle. Fans were already of the "pay money to see Molly lose" mindset anyway, so the whole exercise was superfluous.
  • This hounded her long before WWE used it on-screen. Even when she had first debuted in late 2000, reports from dirt-sheets claimed that WWE wanted her to lose weight. This is pure speculation as Molly herself has never said that she was directly asked to.
• Les Yay Shipping: On Archive of Our Own, she gets this a lot. She gets paired with Original Female Characters, Jacqueline, Michelle McCool, Halloween Barbie (Shelly Martinez), and in a No Yay example with Nicole Bass, a huge female bodybuilder best known for her appearances on The Howard Stern Show, and who had runs in ECW and WWE. On the other hand, she gets Shipped with William Regal, Chris Jericho and, in one story, with both Spike Dudley and with Raven, so fans clearly see her as much more sexual than WWE themselves did.
• Like You Would Really Do It: The majority of fans didn't think Molly would actually have her head shaved at WrestleMania, if only because of Long Hair Is Feminine. Or possibly it would only be partially done - for example Kevin Nash had lost a hair vs hair match and had only gotten a short haircut as opposed to his head being shaved completely bald. SLAM Wrestling expressed shock that she actually went through with the whole thing.
• Misaimed Fandom: A lot of people mistakenly believed Molly despised the Diva Searches and other T&A related segments. Indeed a lot of dirt sheets reported that was the reason for her departure. Molly herself says she had no problem with them, seeing Fanservice as a part of show business - and said she was excited to work with a lot of the Diva Search contestants who got hired. Indeed future first Divas' Champion Michelle McCool was a huge fan of Molly.
• Moe: The Holly Cousin character was intolerably cute, also managing to be Badass Adorable too.
• Narm Charm:
  • Her acting during her forced head shave was a bit too silly to be believable, but it didn't detract from a memorable Mania moment.
  • Similar in her Holly Cousin days, where she was over-the-top but still very endearing.
• Nightmare Fuel: One segment post head shaving had Victoria rip her wig off as was standard in the aftermath. But this time Molly snapped and beat Victoria until she was unconscious. It came completely out of left field for those who were expecting a slapstick gag for Molly.
• Smurfette Breakout: Compared to her Holly Cousins partners. Hardcore Holly remained on the midcard and, while he stayed in the company several years longer than her, never regained much prominence. Crash Holly would be a jobber for the rest of his career, sadly passing away at the age of 32. Molly by contrast became a 2-time Women's Champion, had a memorable head shave at WrestleMania XX and got inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: While her Evil Makeover was justified, a lot of fans preferred her with the blonde hair. Molly has said that she had to go brown because her hair had been ruined from years of bleaching.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Some fans would have preferred for the wholesome Holly Cousin character to get a big push for the Women's Championship. She got title shots but never a big feud (as meaningful title feuds were nonexistent in the Attitude Era for the women).
  • She didn't stay as Mighty Molly for too long either, adopting the character in late 2001 and splitting from the Hurricane in early 2002. For some reason she reverted to her original Holly Cousin persona for a couple of weeks before she had to hurriedly be turned heel to replace Jazz. As the gimmick is still remembered today, it's clear that fans were receptive to it. Similar to X-Pac as the 1-2-3 kid, it would take a trip to Chikara to finally resurface.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Tori had returned in early 2001 as the masked ninja, helping Raven win matches. He started feuding with Crash Holly, and Molly in turn began keeping the ninja at bay. Reports said a mixed tag match for WrestleMania X-Seven was in the plans, but Tori apparently annoyed Raven backstage and the whole angle was dropped.
  • Very minor example, but at the Royal Rumble 2018 The Hurricane made an unexpected return during the Men's Rumble at #21. During the first Women's Rumble later in the show, Molly Holly returned to great adulation at #12, but some people were disappointed that, considering Hurricane's earlier appearance, she didn't return as Mighty Molly. She would actually enter the 2020 Rumble as Mighty Molly at #3.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Jerry Lawler did note that Molly was technically forced into putting her hair on the line against Victoria - when as the former champion she was guaranteed a rematch anyway - and Stone Cold was likely fully aware of this when he suggested it. They did their best to subvert the trope after the match itself when Molly tried to escape and then when that didn't work, tried to shave Victoria's head. FYI - Victoria's hair was never on the line.
• The Woobie: For many of the above reasons.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: In one 2003 match against Victoria, she wrestled wearing a peasant blouse with impractically long sleeves. This prompted JR on commentary to wonder if she was going to a Fleetwood Mac concert. The next week against Jazz, she wrestled in a similar top that at least had shorter sleeves.

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