Molly Holly started out her career in 1998, making her television debut in WCW before moving on to WWE, where she started out managing The Holly Cousins as well as The Hurricane before embarking on a run as a singles wrestler. By the time she left WWE in 2005, Molly Holly would be a two-time Women’s Champion as well as a one-time Hardcore Champion.
In 2021, it was announced that Molly Holly would enter the WWE Hall of Fame, capping off a great -- if relatively short -- career. Given that accolade, now is a great time to take a look at every permutation of Molly Holly during the course of her career -- starting with the worst version.
7 Lady Ophelia
After her firing from WCW in 2000, the wrestler later known as Molly Holly signed to WWE, where she’d initially debut in the short-lived Memphis Championship Wrestling, a developmental territory that lasted about a year. There, she portrayed the character of Lady Ophelia, who accompanied William Regal to the ring on MCW shows as well as in a handful of dark matches for WWE proper. This character lasted mere months and wasn’t seen widely beyond regional television, so it made less of an impact than even her WCW roles.
6 Starla Saxton
Trained by “The Iceman” Dean Malenko, Molly Holly made her debut in 1998 under the ring name of Starla Saxton. Her earliest matches during this era were against 1980s/1990s women’s wrestling legend Malia Hosaka in a number of bouts including one on WCW Worldwide as well as a Thunder dark match.
In addition to that, she’d work a couple of matches for WWE, challenging Jacqueline for the Women’s Title on Shotgun Saturday Night and Sunday Night Heat. It was a promising start for the newcomer, as she quickly got television exposure and matches against talented veterans very early in her career.
5 Miss Madness
Molly Holly’s first role in WCW was in 1999 as Miss Madness, one of Macho Man Randy Savage's valets in the stable Team Madness alongside Madusa and Gorgeous George. Her big storylines involved training Gorgeous George for a match, and then fighting with Madusa after Savage lost the World Title to Hollywood Hogan, resulting in Macho Man firing both women.
While Miss Madness mostly functioned in a non-wrestling capacity that didn’t show her potential as an in-ring performer -- she only ever wrestled once on an episode of Thunder -- she got a decent amount of TV time out of it.
4 Mona
Miss Madness’ ejection from Team Madness resulted in a reinvention into Mona, a babyface character who dressed like a beauty queen and wrestled without shoes for some reason. The Mona era would result in a lot more in-ring success and exposure, as she’d perform on all of WCW’s weekly shows, even taking part in a three-way #1 Contender’s match for the Cruiserweight Title against Evan Karagias and Madusa. For a second it seemed like WCW might be interested in building an actual Women’s Division, but unfortunately, the promotion released her after about a year.
3 Cousin Molly
In November 2000, the former Lady Ophelia made her official WWE debut as Molly Holly, the kayfabe manager of Hardcore and Crash Holly. Molly would take an active role in her kayfabe cousins’ tag team feuds. As they took on Test and Albert, Molly Holly feuded with T&A’s manager, Trish Stratus, and as the Hollys feuded with The Dudley Boyz, Holly developed a storyline romance with Spike Dudley.
It was also during this era that she debuted her Molly-Go-Round finisher. So, while this was maybe not the most successful era of Molly Holly, it was a run that introduced a lot of memorable elements and storylines.
2 Mighty Molly
The Spike Dudley affair would lead to Molly Holly splitting from her cousins, and once she was done with Spike she moved on to The Hurricane, becoming his sidekick, Mighty Molly, in September 2001. This was a very cute, fun run that showed Molly’s potential as a pure babyface. While she had a few successful shots at the Women’s Title, she did end up winning her first Championship after she turned on The Hurricane to steal the Hardcore Championship out from under him at WrestleMania X8.
1 Pure Molly
After betraying The Hurricane, Molly Holly would dye her hair brown and return as a heel who opposed the rest of the Women’s Division for being sexually provocative, claiming to be wholesome and pure. This run -- easily the most iconic version of Molly Holly -- would prove to be a full-on singles run executed without a male counterpart.
While there’s some weird body-shaming stuff in this era, it also saw Molly Holly reigniting her feud with Trish Stratus and becoming a two-time Women’s Champion. She’d lose her second title to Victoria in a hair vs. title match at WrestleMania XX and depart from the company in the spring of 2005.