Why WWE Hall of Fame inductee declined to coach at the Performance Center
Molly Holly is set to join the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2021. She was also offered a job as a coach at the WWE Performance Center, but turned it down.
Molly Holly competed in her last WWE match at last year's Royal Rumble, where she was a surprise entrant in the women's match. She had a very successful career in WWE, which included two reigns with the Women's Championship.
Holly was also a good in-ring worker, making sense of why the company would want to hire her as a coach. During her interview on the Talkin' Sass podcast, Molly Holly explained why she declined the offer to work for WWE as a coach.
“Yes they have [asked me to coach at the Performance Center] and I just don’t want to. It sounds terrible but I’m just — I’m so far removed from that world. I don’t want to be this like grizzled, bitter, jaded trainer who is like, I don’t know. They need to have trainers who are passionate about pro wrestling, who love the psychology of it because you can meet certain people on the indies or people who used to work for WWE or people who do work for WWE and they just light up when their creative juices are going and they’re like, ‘Oh, you could do this, you could do that’ and it’s like, those are the kind of people you need to have as a trainer. Even though back in the day, I might’ve had skills or experience as a trainer, I’m not at that place now where I feel excited about doing that type of job.” (H/T POST Wrestling)
Molly Holly revealed that she wasn't interested in the role, but her declination didn't ruin her relationship with WWE.
"Mighty" Holly on competing in the 2020 WWE Royal Rumble match
During the 2020 Women's Royal Rumble match, the WWE Universe saw the return of Mighty Holly. Holly opened up on how nervous she was getting back into the ring. She was afraid that the other competitors were going to slow the pace of the match for her, but everything went off smoothly.
"It’s flattering, it feels good to be honored and I always feel a little bit embarrassed because when I do actually have to get in the ring, I just think, ‘Ugh, I’m going to be holding them back.’ Like if we have to do an interaction, I’m just like, because I’m not conditioned currently to be a pro wrestler, I’m like, ‘Ah, they’re going to have to slow their pace a half-a-step or a full step to match mine since I can’t keep up with them’ and I was nervous because I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t want them thinking, oh, this old lady is wrecking our show’ but everyone was like, ‘No, this is awesome’ and they all seem super nice and they all took care of me. They tried to make sure that they could make up for my weak areas and yeah, it’s been fun."
Molly Holly will be inducted into the 2021 WWE Hall of Fame alongside Eric Bischoff and the 2020 class on April 6.