Where Are They Now? Molly Holly
Long before she ever won the Women's Championship, Nora Greenwald was an eccentric teenager working as a "sandwich artist" in a Subway restaurant in Florida. A free spirit, Greenwald had left her childhood home of Forest Lakes, Minn., behind in search of adventure. But it wasn't until a coworker offered her an unexpected suggestion that she would find it.
"He said, 'You look athletic. Have you ever thought about wrestling?'" Nora told WWE.com. "I was like, 'What? Girls do that too?'"
While not a sports-entertainment fan, Greenwald had excelled in gymnastics and power lifting in high school, so the physical challenge of professional wrestling piqued her interest. Unsurprisingly, she was a natural in the ring from the start. (PHOTOS)
"I caught on to how to do the maneuvers very quickly," Nora said. "All the people at the wrestling school were amazed that they would tell me how to do something and I could just do it."
Despite her exceptional talent, Nora did not see herself competing in the ring for a living. Instead, she maintained a job as a telemarketer and performed on small independent shows for fun.
"I was totally fine making an extra 20 bucks wrestling at biker bars on the weekend," Greenwald said. "I never dreamed I would actually make it to the big leagues."
The talented competitor would soon find this type of major success, however, starting out in World Championship Wrestling in the late '90s.
"The first time that I got a tryout at WCW, I was so nervous that during the match I forgot to breathe," Nora remembered. "I came back through the curtain and I was hyperventilating. It was terrible."
Her audition may not have been stellar, but WCW saw something in Nora they liked. Although she wasn't offered a full-time contract, she began competing with the company off and on for the next few years. Soon, a meeting with a former WWE Champion would catapult Greenwald to the top.
"Randy Savage asked me to teach his girlfriend, Gorgeous George, to wrestle," Nora revealed. "And after spending a month with her, we all became friends and Macho Man asked me if I wanted to become part of his entourage on television."
While she was excited by the opportunity, Nora didn't exactly have a Diva look. Quickly, with the help of Gorgeous George, her dark hair was bleached and a new costume was created. Within hours, the former telemarketer was now Miss Madness.
"Two days later, I'm in a limousine with Hulk Hogan and Macho Man and I just couldn't believe it," Nora said. "When I was ten years old, I saw these guys on TV and now I'm in the same limousine. It was just total craziness."
At the time, Savage was the World Heavyweight Champion and Nora enjoyed the main event spotlight alongside the ring legend. While WCW has received heavy criticism from many of its former employees, Greenwald thoroughly enjoyed her time with the company.
"WCW was great! I worked one day a week and made more money than any person with barely a high school diploma should ever make."
Unfortunately, Nora's good time would come to an end after Macho Man left the company in 2000. With no active women's division and no spot for her on television, Greenwald was released from WCW the same year.
But rather than return to the sandwich line at Subway, the gifted competitor decided to try her luck with World Wrestling Entertainment. Using a plane ticket Ted Turner had purchased for her, Nora flew to Atlanta to meet with WWE's Jim Ross. She was offered a position immediately, even though she wasn't thrilled with the initial job prospect.
"In my meeting with Jim Ross, he said a lot of the women start out with The Godfather," Nora recalled. "I said to him, ‘Oh, sure, whatever works for you guys.' But I was really hoping I would not be one of The Godfather's ladies."
Luckily for Nora, she was not paired with the over-the-top Superstar. Instead, she became Molly Holly, a spunky country bumpkin and cousin to the bickering team of Crash and Hardcore Holly.
"I really enjoyed being a Holly cousin," Nora said. "Crash went out of his way to build my confidence. If I was nervous about something, he would assure me I could do it."
The three competitors clicked as a trio and carried on a rivalry with The Dudleys in 2001. It was during this time that Molly Holly began a surprisingly sweet onscreen relationship with the runt of the Dudley litter, Spike.
"Having that Disney romance with Spike was a breath of fresh air," Nora admitted. "Sometimes you need something a little different to keep people's attention."
The association would not last long, however, as Molly left the diminutive Dudley and teamed up with The Hurricane as his superhero sidekick, Mighty Molly. This campy, comic book persona was a perfect fit for Nora for a number of reasons.
"I preferred doing an over-the-top persona, mostly because I am a really bad actress," Nora admitted with a laugh.
While the Mighty Molly persona was fun for Nora — especially her one-hour reign as Hardcore Champion during WrestleMania X8 — she would soon chop off her bleached blonde hair and lose her Southern charm, becoming one of the most devious women in WWE. With her newfound mean streak, she would also find major success, capturing the Women's Championship on two occasions and battling the most talented Divas of the era.
"Wrestling Lita, Trish and Victoria was such a pleasure," Greenwald said. "They are all so talented and I knew that whichever one of those girls I was wrestling that the fans would go away happy."
Still, even with the increased competition and championship glory, Nora was never happy in her role as the bad girl.
"At the start, I would be asked to read at libraries or meet Make-A-Wish kids," Nora said. "Those opportunities weren't there once I was a villain."
When the card for WrestleMania XX was announced in 2004, Molly found out that she might be missing out on another opportunity, as well.
"They told me that there wasn't going to be a Women's Title Match," Nora remembered. "So I figured I could either start slashing people's tires or think of a way to get myself on the show."
With that in mind, Nora came up with an idea for a match that the WWE Universe would not soon forget.
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