Nora Greenwald

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

Career

Early career

Greenwald started wrestling as Starla Saxton in 1997 after being trained by Dean Malenko and Jeff Bradley in Tampa, Florida. She worked on the independent circuit and wrestled for WWF and WCW as a jobber. One notable early appearance was when she challenged Jacqueline for the WWF Women's Championship on an October 1998 edition of Sunday Night HEAT.

World Championship Wrestling

She gained some fame in WCW as Miss Madness, one of Randy Savage's valets along with Gorgeous George and Madusa. This heel group, called Team Madness, would interfere in matches for the benefit of Savage. Eventually, Savage turned on her and she became Mona, a face wrestler.

World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment

She reappeared in WWF once again as Lady Ophelia, a dark match wrestler. 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 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) (both relations are in kayfabe). This relationship only served to add some friction to the feud. However, in September 2001 she dumped Spike to become Mighty Molly, superhero sidekick to The Hurricane. Molly however eventually left The Hurricane to become a full-time solo wrestler, taking his Hardcore Championship in an ambush at WrestleMania X8 on March 17th, 2002, but promptly losing it to Christian almost an hour later.

After splitting with the Hurricane, she then returned to the name Molly Holly, adopting a gimmick similar to that of the Right to Censor faction, where she was appalled by the other WWE Divas continually using their "assets" and degrading themselves. During this gimmick, she would refer to herself as being "pure and wholesome". 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 2002.

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 with 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 which 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, resulting in her 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 a few years previously.

Her efforts to regain her title failed and with the release of a number of wrestlers from the company's women's division in late 2004 and the introduction of the RAW Diva Search program, Greenwald was mostly left off television, only occasionally making appearances on Sunday Night HEAT and RAW.

Independent circuit

After unsuccessfully petitioning the WWE writing team with a request to be turned face once again, Greenwald requested, and was granted, her release from WWE on April 12, 2005. In August 2005, she released an autobiographical DVD entitled "Nora Greenwald: Shootin' the ~~Shi~~ Crap" that detailed the reasons behind her departure. On November 21, 2005, Greenwald joined the Atlanta World Wrestling Alliance (WWA 4) as a trainer.

On January 8, 2006 in Amery, Wisconsin, Greenwald made her first in-ring appearance in nine months, appearing with the Northern Impact 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-count for 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. On May 21, 2006, Nora made a brief appearance at the SHIMMER Women Athletes event in Berwyn, Illinois to meet with fans and sign autographs. Then spent the entire weekend of June 9-11 at Ohio Valley Wrestling house shows in Indiana and Kentucky.

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.