If you’re a fan of great pro wrestlers, or just good people in general, then you pretty much have to be into Molly Holly. The secret glue that held the women’s division together during the Trish and Lita era, Molly saw and did it all in the wrestling business, and yet somehow remained every bit as sweet in real life as her character often was on TV. Since retiring from WWE in 2005, Molly has been living a quiet life, working a civilian job at an addictions recovery center, but recently she’s floated back into the WWE orbit, appearing at this year’s Hall of Fame ceremony and on a recent episode of Table For 3.
Speaking of Table For 3, the episode with Alundra Blayze, Ivory and Molly definitely comes recommended. Here’s Molly telling the story of how she first got into wrestling from the episode, which is is pretty much guaranteed to make you love her, if you don’t already.
“I started training in the backyard of a trailer park in a makeshift wrestling school. I lived in half of a single-wide trailer, working at Subway. I didn’t have a VCR myself, so I had to go to a friend’s house and watch tapes. I would watch Ricky Steamboat, and I had a mattress I would take from my friend’s bedroom, and I’d pause the tape, and try to practice, armdrag, armdrag, armdrag, on the mattress. So, I thought I had it all nailed, but when it came time to have an actual match on the indies, it’s a whole different world when you actually have to armdrag a person, not just an imaginary person.”
Molly also recently sat down with Another Wrestling Podcast to talk a variety of subjects, including the somewhat awkward process of filming Table For 3.
“When Macho Man Randy Savage was being inducted into the Hall of Fame, they invited me to be in the crowd, because I was a part of his entourage with Madusa. They asked me if I wanted to do Table for 3, at the hotel there. I didn’t know much about it, they just told me I sit down with Madusa and Ivory and get served a gourmet meal. It sounded pretty good for me. We filmed for three hours, my food was cold. They put this amazing dish down, and I was so hungry, but I didn’t want to eat it and have food in my teeth. There was one super embarassing story Ivory was telling about me I was hoping wouldn’t be in the show, and thankfully they edited it out.”
Speaking of the Hall of Fame, as a former WWE Women’s Champion, does Molly see herself as a candidate?
“There are a lot of people I’d like to see in there before me, if I even get in. I always viewed myself as a glorified enhancement talent, someone they’d give the title to to put over the real stars. I don’t see myself as a future Hall of Famer, of course if they asked me to, I’d love to, I wouldn’t turn it down, but there are some other ladies who should be in there long before I am.”
While many remember Molly as the lighthearted “Mighty Molly,” her greatest career success came while she was playing the buttoned-down heel. Surprisingly, despite her winning her two Women’s Championships in that guise, Molly describes her heel run as lowest point of her career.
“I hated it, I cried every single day at work, it was awful. I didn’t like to be a heel, and for them to have me say awful things, yeah, it was actually terrible. I didn’t want to do it, and I’m not a prude, and I don’t care if Terri Runnels prances around in a bikini, that does not offend me. It was definitely the lowest point of my career.”
Noooo, Molly! Here’s a story about Molly marking out for her own action figure to lighten the mood.
“I could not believe they made an action figure of me. When they first told me, I drove straight to Toys R’ Us and I was, like, ‘Omigosh, I have to see my action figure in the store!’ I guess you’d call that marking out for yourself, but whatever. I drove to the store, I run to the action figure section and there were two boys, probably 9-years-old, and they’re looking at action figures, and they’re ‘Oh, should we get Triple H? Should we get Undertaker?’ So I’m behind them, and I’m like, ‘Oh, you should get Molly Holly!’ and they’re ‘Nah, she sucks.'”
I know they’re just kids, and are probably in their mid-20s by now, but those 9-year-olds can kiss my ass. I suggest you listen to the full Molly Holly interview below, since she’s a lovely person, and strikingly honest in a way the vast, vast majority of wrestlers never are.
