Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Nobody is going to confuse WWE with a Shakespearean masterpiece…a soap opera perhaps, but nothing above that. In all the years that the promotion has been around, there have been many love storylines. Whether it was George ‘The Animal’ Steele pining for Miss Elizabeth, Stephanie McMahon and Test or even something as bizarre as Kane and Lita…the WWF/WWE has had no shortage of superstars falling in love with each other.
In 2001, the World Wrestling Federation tried their hand at recreating the classic Romeo and Juliet storyline. The subjects in this tale would be Molly Holly and Spike Dudley. They would find love with one another in between a violent feud between their warring “families” of the Hollys and the Dudleys. In storyline, Molly Holly was the cousin of Hardcore and Crash Holly, while Spike Dudley was the kayfabe brother to Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley.
While the Dudleys and Hollys were hardly the Montagues and Capulets in this story…it was one of the very best…yet underrated angles of the post Attitude Era. You had the classic of tale of two people from opposite sides finding love with one another, despite their families determined to destroy the other. Naturally, the Dudleys and Hollys were against Molly and Spike’s relationship and that only escalated the violence between the two teams.
The Holly cousins wanted Molly to dump the scrawny, awkward Spike, while the Dudley Boyz felt that Molly was clouding Spike’s judgement on handling wrestling business. Despite the constant opposition, Spike and Molly continued to spend time together as a couple. It even saw Spike stand up and defend Molly’s honor when a heel ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin called Molly a name and that led to a mini feud between Spike and Austin.
In several interviews, Nora Greenwald who portrayed Molly Holly said that the Molly/Spike storyline was her favorite time as a wrestler. She said, “I really enjoyed my character’s storyline with Spike Dudley. It was fun to have acting skits and the things that the fans could get involved with, get behind, root for. So my Disney romance with Spike Dudley was by far one of my favorite things in my time with the WWF.” Matt Hyson aka Spike Dudley agrees and said that the storyline with Molly Holly was “very exciting” during his career. He gave his thoughts why he thinks the angle got over so well, “We were the two most average people in WWE, which I think normal people could relate to.”
Of course, like with any Shakespearean story….it wasn’t without tragedy….well at least in terms of kayfabe. The culmination of the Hollys versus Dudleys feud came in the form of a tables match. During the course of the match, Bubba Ray and D-Von were poised to put a defenseless Molly through a table to end the star crossed relationship. While the table was set up and Bubba was prepared to powerbomb Molly through it…Spike climbed on the table to prevent his half brother from hurting his girlfriend. Instead of letting Molly go, Bubba Ray went ahead and powerbombed Molly on to Spike through the table. Thus disowning Spike Dudley as family in the process.
The story doesn’t truly end there however. The end of this storyline came in September of 2001 with the emergence of the Invasion angle. While Spike and Molly were still a couple, Spike took on Hurricane Helms in a match. Molly would turn on Spike and align herself with Helms. She would become ‘Mighty Molly’ and become a heel super hero character. The rest as they say…is history.
