Nora Greenwald

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Nora Greenwald


Statistics
Ring name(s)	Lady Ophelia Ophelia Mighty Molly Miss Madness Molly Molly Holly Mona Starla Saxton Nora Greenwald
Billed height	5 ft 4 in (163 cm)
Billed weight	140 lb (64 kg)
Born	September 7, 1977 Forest Lake, Minnesota
Billed from	Mobile, Alabama
Trained by	Dave Finlay, Tim Mahoney, Dean Malenko, Tracy Smothers, WCW Power Plant
Debut	August 2, 1997

Noreen Kristina Greenwald (goes by Nora) (born September 7, 1977), better known by her ring name, Molly Holly, is an inactive American professional wrestler. Greenwald is best known for her appearances with World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment.

1 Career
2 Missions work
3 Wrestling facts
4 Championships and accomplishments
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

Greenwald began training as a wrestler under Dean Malenko in Tampa, Florida in 1997. She debuted on August 2, 1997 in the World Professional Wrestling Federation (WPWF) under the ring name Starla Saxton. Greenwald wrestled on the independent circuit throughout 1997 and 1998, winning two championships. She appeared with both World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation as a jobber, unsuccessfully challenging Jacqueline for the WWF Women's Championship on an October 1998 episode of WWF Sunday Night HEAT.

[edit] World Championship Wrestling

She debuted in WCW as Miss Madness, one of Randy Savage's valets along with Gorgeous George and Madusa. Savage had asked her and Madusa to train his then-girlfriend Gorgeous George in real life, highlights of this were shown on WCW TV. This heel group, called Team Madness, would interfere in matches for the benefit of Savage. Nora caught the attention of fans with her in-ring ability during such interference. Behind the scenes, Nora and Madusa would train the other women of WCW at the Power Plant. Eventually, Savage turned on her and she became Mona, a face wrestler, who was adored by fans and wrestled barefoot in a blue dress. She embarked on mini-feuds with Madusa, Little Jeannie, and Asya. Independent female wrestlers such as Dee Dee Venturi and Brandi Alexander were brought in often to wrestle Mona. WCW released Greenwald in August 2000 in a cost-cutting move.

[edit] World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment

Upon signing a contract with the World Wrestling Federation, she was sent to their training ground in Memphis Championship Wrestling to work off ring-rust. She became the manager of William Regal and was known as Lady Ophelia. While there, she squared off against The Kat, Bobcat, and Victoria.

She reappeared in the World Wrestling Federation once again as Lady Ophelia, a dark match wrestler and valet to William Regal. However, Greenwald would have her first major run in the company as Molly Holly, where she would join her "cousins" Bob Holly and Crash Holly. At the time, the Hollys were involved in a feud with Test and Albert, who were managed by Trish Stratus. Molly's arrival on the November 6, 2000 edition of RAW started a short feud with Stratus, leading to her first televised victory over Stratus in a Six-Person Intergender Tag Team Match at the 2000 Survivor Series. In 2001, Molly formed a relationship with Spike Dudley, in the midst of a feud between her "cousins" (the Hollys) and Spike's "brothers" (the Dudleyz). This relationship only served to add some friction to the feud.

In September 2001 she dumped Spike to become Mighty Molly, the superhero sidekick of The Hurricane. Molly however eventually left The Hurricane to become a full-time solo wrestler, taking his Hardcore Championship after whacking him with a frying pan at WrestleMania X8 on March 17th, 2002 in Toronto. She promptly lost it to Christian an hour later after getting a door slammed in her face.

After splitting up with the Hurricane in April 2002, she returned to her previous ring name, Molly Holly. Upon her return to the newly renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), she drastically changed her look as she shortened her trademark blonde locks and darkened it autumn brown. Greenwald's reasoning behind this is that her hair was "fried" from years of bleaching it blonde and it fit her new character better anyways. Greenwald adopted a self-righteous prude gimmick;it was similar to that of the Right to Censor faction as she was appalled by the other WWE Divas continually using their "assets" and degrading themselves. During this gimmick, she would often refer to herself as being "pure and wholesome." In response, Trish Stratus started to poke fun at Molly's amply-sized buttocks. This led to a feud with the then Women's Champion Trish Stratus which culminated with her winning the championship in a match at the King of the Ring PPV in June 2002. The feud with Stratus continued for several months and Molly would later bring in Victoria as an enforcer to help deal with Trish. She would finally drop the title back to Stratus at Unforgiven 2002 in September.

Greenwald would earn her second WWE Women's Championship by defeating Gail Kim on an edition of RAW in July 2003. Kim would later turn heel and join Greenwald in her feud with Stratus. It was during a particularly vicious beatdown on Stratus that Lita made her return, helping Trish fend off her attackers. Greenwald and Kim would then lose a tag team match to Lita and Trish at Unforgiven 2003, sparking a feud with Lita. This led to a match at that year's Survivor Series for the Women's title, which Greenwald ultimately won. Greenwald would go on to lose her championship to Victoria in a Fatal 4-Way Match in February 2004. She would feud vehemently with Victoria for the next few months, believing she had been robbed of her title. The feud led to a Hair vs Title match at WrestleMania XX in March 2004 which Greenwald lost when she tryed to execute Victoria's Widow's Peak. The move was reversed, resulting in Greenwald having her head shaved. Over the next few months, she would desperately try to disguise her lack of hair using some loose-fitting wigs, a gimmick that Kurt Angle had also used two years prior to that. Later in 2004, she feuded with Stacy Keibler, which led to Keibler pinning Holly on three consecutive occasions, the last one occurring in a number one contender's match.

Greenwald's final WWE pay-per-view appearance occurred at Taboo Tuesday 2004 as she appeared in the Fulfill Your Fantasy Battle Royal along with many other WWE Divas. The fans voted online for the Divas to wear schoolgirl uniforms, as opposed to French Maid and Nurse outfits. In contrast to the other girls who wore sexy schoolgirl uniforms with thongs on underneath their skirts, Greenwald decided to go retro with her wardrobe as she wore a demure 1980s-style schoolgirl uniform with large pink panties underneath. Greenwald failed to win the match because Stratus eliminated her by tossing her over the top rope for the win. Greenwald's efforts in subsequent attempts to regain the title failed. Due to several wrestlers from the company's women's division were released in late 2004, and the introduction of the RAW Diva Search program, Greenwald was mostly left off television, only occasionally appearing on Sunday Night Heat and RAW in losing efforts to the likes of Lita, Trish Stratus, and Christy Hemme.

When Greenwald went in for a check-up, a lump was found in her breast. She was afraid it was something serious but it was not cancerous. She had it removed and decided to take a break from WWE and spend some time with her family and enjoying life. Vince McMahon is leaving the doors open for her to return if she wants to in the future.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Independent circuit

Nora Greenwald in 2006

In August 2005, she released an autobiographical DVD entitled "Nora Greenwald: Shootin' the ~~Shi~~ Crap" that detailed the reasons behind her departure.

On January 8, 2006 in Amery, Wisconsin, Greenwald made her first in-ring appearance in nine months, appearing with Northern IMPACT Wrestling, a local Minnesota/Wisconsin wrestling promotion. In addition to refereeing a match between Rain and Ann-Thraxx, Greenwald returned to the ring near the conclusion of the main event match between Team Revolution and Team Invasion to make the decisive three-Team Revolution. She went on to referee an Impact Zone Wrestling match on February 14, 2006 in Tempe, Arizona and a XJAM Wrestling match on February 16, 2006 in Minot, North Dakota. The latter occasion saw Greenwald challenge Ann-Thraxx to wrestle her, with Ann-Thraxx refusing.

On April 1, 2006, Greenwald attended the 2006 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Chicago, Illinois with her friend, SmackDown! referee Charles Robinson. On April 8, 2006, Greenwald appeared at the German Stampede Wrestling event International Impact III in Olsberg, Germany, commentating on a match along with former Pro Wrestling Illustrated senior editor Bill Apter and refereeing a women's match. In subsequent months, she made appearances at several independent wrestling events.

Greenwald has stated that she currently has no intention of returning to wrestling full-time. In addition to her sporadic wrestling appearances, Greenwald acts as a landlady with regards to her property holdings and performs charity work.

In the fall of 2006, Greenwald and fellow former WWE diva Lisa Moretti went on a road trip in celebration of Trish Stratus' retirement and wedding called the Wedding Tour Wrestling Road Trip- wrestling at independent shows on the drive from Minneapolis to Toronto.

On October 7, 2006, Greenwald returned to in-ring action for the first time since April 2005 by defeating Jonny Fairplay after a quick low blow and pinfall in a WCWA event. The match was believed to have lasted less than 30 seconds.

On November 4, 2006, Greenwald made a brief surprise appearance at the World Series of Wrestling in West St. Paul, Minnesota, when at the conclusion of the 8-man elimination main event after both referees were knocked out, she ran in and counted the pinfall for Arik Cannon over John Johnson. Afterwards, she gave the "C.E.O." of Northstar Premier Wrestling a "Stone Cold Stunner" after he shoved her.

[edit] Missions work

On December 16, 2006, Nora returned to Antigua, Guatemala, for a four month stay to learn Spanish and do missions work. She went there the year before with a group of friends from a church in Florida to help build a house for refugees. She is due back stateside on April 11, 2007.

While in Guatemala she stopped by a WWE Raw houseshow to meet with friends. Three photos of her meeting with Shelton Benjamin, Lilian Garcia, and John Cena are available on WWE's main site. Afterwards, she stated that she had no plans of returning to wrestling anytime soon, but also stated "never say never in this business".