WCW
In Spring 1999 she had an ultimately successful try out with WCW and did enough to impress to earn a full contract. And it was quite a spot she found herself in as she debuted as Miss Madness as part of the ever-growing entourage of The Macho Man Randy Savage (which already included Gorgeous George and Madusa). Behind the scenes, Savage had asked our girl to train George and highlights of this were shown on WCW television at the time. Of course, the storyline use of the three was as interference runners for Savage, but both Greenwald and Madusa were also training women at the WCW Power Plant.
“Miss Madness” even got to slap Hulk Hogan on live television but it was inevitable that before long the trio of Savage associates would break-up. Savage fired her from the group and she became “Mona” and turned fully-fledged babyface.
This led to more matches on TV, against the likes of Little Jeannie, Dee Dee Venturi, Brandi Alexander and Lexi Fyfe. Her biggest profile matches in 1999 came toward the end of the year. In October she defeated Madusa in a “New York Evening Gown Match” (which shows where the priority lay within the anaemic women’s division in WCW at the time) whilst in December she teamed with Jeff Jarrett in a losing effort against Madusa & Evan Karagias (getting a guitar shot for her trouble) on Thunder before losing to Madusa in a triple threat match on the following Nitro that also included Karagias.
In December, Mona was “fired” from WCW by “Creative Director” Vince Russo after that loss but returned to little fanfare in February 2000 in a losing effort on the Valentine’s Day episode of Nitro. In the interim a masked character based on the killer from Scream would make random appearances, attacking people for no apparent reason. This was “Mona” but she was never unmasked and was thus another in a long-line of Russo storylines that were forgotten about/dumped without ever being resolved. Mona would wrestle the likes of Rhonda Singh, Little Jeannie and Dee Dee Venturi on TV as well as newcomers like Asya. Remarkably she was also is a #1 Contenders World Title Battle Royale in May 2000 (won by Ric Flair). Her final on-screen appearance for WCW came on Worldwide where she teamed with Shawn Stasiak to lose to Chris Candido & Tammy Sytch. Despite being a trainer off-screen (Torrie Wilson and Stacy Kiebler were amongst those she worked with) she was released from her contract, presumably as a cost-cutting measure.
WWF / WWE
Nora didn’t have to wait long though as just a few short months later she was picked up by the WWE, being sent to Florida and Memphis before hitting the main roster. Originally in dark matches, she was known as Lady Ophelia, presumably, a gimmick not that far away from her Miss Madness one in WCW, but by the time of her Raw debut in November 2000 she was Molly Holly, cousin to Crash and Hardcore. She attacked Trish Stratus and this led to her WWE PPV debut at Survivor Series as Crash, Molly and Steve Blackman took on Test, Albert and Trish Stratus.
The rest of the year saw that feud continue in many ways and at Armageddon Women’s Champion Ivory successfully defended her title in a three-way that included both Molly and Trish. 2001 saw a good number of TV matches but they were usually losses (to the likes of Ivory, Chyna and Lita) as well as teaming with Crash to, yes, lose to the likes of Lita & Matt Hardy and Rhyno. The most interesting storyline in 2001 was her burgeoning love affair with the runt of the Dudley litter, Spike. It was actually quite sweetly played out and as a result, got over. (The WWE would devote a whole chapter to it on its DVD release WWE Action). Molly even got to slap Stone Cold Steve Austin after he’d called her Spike’s “Bimbo”. The duo again racked up more losses than wins, though they were featured in matches quite a bit. But the love affair wasn’t to last. Molly shockingly turned on Spike in October to be at the side of The Hurricane as “Mighty Molly”.
This even led to a few wins on WWE TV (she defeated Lita on the October 8 Raw) and she was part of the 6-Way for the Women’s Title at that year’s Survivor Series. Several losses to Women’s Champion Jazz on TV were the “highlight” of early 2002 but her biggest moment to date came at WrestleMania X-8 where she pinned The Hurricane to win the Hardcore Title (before losing it to Christian minutes later). A match on the March 21 Smackdown between her and Hurricane was interrupted by then new-comer Brock Lesnar. If nothing else Molly must have got kudos backstage for taking a brutal looking clothesline from Brock.
Molly went super-heel by attacking Trish Stratus (and by darkening her hair to an autumn brown) and declaring herself as “pure and wholesome” in April but it didn’t do too much for her win-loss record as within a month she’d had two singles losses to Trish on TV. She refused (in character) to compete in a Diva’s Swimsuit showdown with Terri in May, claiming to have more dignity than that. Still, a loss to Trish and Spike Dudley (where Molly teamed with William Regal) saw Molly snap and attack Trish with brass knuckles. This set up their match at King of The Ring 2002 where Molly defeated Trish to win the WWE Women’s Title. She would keep the belt until Unforgiven 2002, with successful TV defences against the likes of Torrie Wilson, Trish, Nidia and Jacqueline, where Trish would re-gain. The win-loss record would remain heavily skewed towards the loss column for the rest of the year. That one of her few wins was alongside Victoria and Ivory against Trish, Stacy & Jacqueline in a “Santa’s Little Helpers” match shows where the WWE minds were still at that time.
The first half of 2003 was spent mostly on Sunday Night Heat, again more often than not in losing efforts. In June 2003 she was in the Women’s Title Battle Royale which was won by Gail Kim on Raw. One week later she defeated Trish in a #1 Contenders match but lost to Kim the week after. On July 28 Raw though, Molly won the Women’s Title by defeating Kim. Molly would have an extensive run with the title this time. Highlights included a successful defence over Lita at Survivor Series 2003 and a heated match at Unforgiven where Molly & Gail Kim lost to Trish & Lita. She would also defeat Ivory at Armageddon 2003 to retain the title.