Pro Wrestling Illustrated Magazine
July 2004 Issue
Wrestlemania XX: The Real Winners and Losers
By: Will Welsh

The Match: Victoria vs. Molly Holly in a hair vs title match for the WWE women’s title.

The Action: The stipulations of this match were simple: If Molly won, she would regain the WWE women’s championship. If Victoria won, Molly would have her head shaved.

Easy enough.

Molly and Victoria began the match using rudimentary punches and kicks, with the much smaller Molly acting as the aggressor. Victoria had almost no offense during the first minute or so, but she surprised Molly with a rollup that earned her a one-count.

Molly smartly rolled out of the ring to remove herself from danger and to recover. When Victoria came rushing out of the ring to chase her, Molly dropped her with a clothesline, threw her back into the ring, and took her over with a snap suplex for a two-count. She followed up the pinfall attempt with two well-placed elbows into Victoria’s kidneys and a forward kick directly into her face. At 2:10, she locked Victoria into a painful neck vice, and you could hear the defending women’s champion screaming out in agony. Molly held on to the submission hold for nearly a full minute before yanking Victoria down to the mat by her luxurious raven-colored locks.

The hair-pulling woke Victoria up, because she immediately went on the offensive. First, she kicked Molly in the head, and then she hooked her into a pinning predicament for a two-count. When both women got back to their feet, she used a series of overhand rights to keep Molly on the defensive. At 3:30, she took Molly over with a powerslam. Molly recovered enough to trip Victoria up and send her neck-first into the ropes, and she even managed to powerbomb Victoria from the second rope, but Victoria remained largely unscathed. Molly thought she had the match won when she positioned Victoria for the widow’s peak, but Victoria countered the maneuver and took Molly over with a backslide for the winning pinfall. Shortly thereafter, Molly was bald as “Stone-Cold” Steve Austin.

The Winner: Victoria pinned Molly at 4:53 to retain her title.

Another Winner: Molly. Let’s face it, not every WWE diva would put her hair on the line for a chance at the title. Molly did, and the fact that she lost shouldn’t take away from that. She’s one dedicated diva. Someday, she’s going to turn fan favorite, and we think people will really appreciate and get behind her.

More Losers: The rest of the WWE divas in the women’s division, who will now have to try to figure out how to beat Molly with one of their favorite weapons removed from their arsenals: hair-pulling!

Victoria
FIRST WRESTLEMANIA: WrestleMania XIX (2003)
OPPONENTS: Trish Stratus and Jazz
OUTCOME: Stratus defeated Victoria and Jazz in a three-way match to win the women’s title
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF MATCH: This was actually one of the better matches of WrestleMania XIX, and it pointed out the unprecedented depth in the women’s division. Victoria showed a fine blend power and technique in dominating Trish and countering Jazz. The crowd in Seattle wanted a feel-good moment here, and Trish provided them with one when she came out on top and won Victoria’s title, but all three women gave terrific performances in the triple threat match.
GRADE: A