Review Of WWE Network “Table For 3” With Candice Michelle, Michelle McCool and Molly Holly

Episode four of the second season of Table For 3 is titled “Millennium Divas” and features former Divas Candice Michelle, Michelle McCool and Molly Holly. All three women were from, to steal a phrase from the Vaudevillians, a bygone era in women’s wrestling. While Michelle McCool was the first Divas Champion, none of the three were part of the mainstream wrestling world on Total Divas. But it could be argue that they helped lay some of the groundwork for where women’s wrestling is today.

Let’s start with a recap of their 19 minute conversation over a meal:

-The intro begins with video and sound of Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler talking about each of the three women. They mentioned that Molly Holly was a two-time Women’s Champion, Lawler said that Candice Michelle has to be the hottest Diva, and they showed a clip of Michelle McCool saying that LayCool is flawless.

-McCool welcomes her two friends to Texas and they discuss how they hadn’t seen each other in such a long time. I’m assuming they filmed the whole season back to back during WrestleMania in Dallas.

-They discuss how Molly actually helped train McCool despite the fact that she probably didn’t want to work with her at the time. But she says she was no nice and so helpful. She also said she looked up to Molly and used to watch her work. She also thanked her for the help she gave.

-The conversation goes to Diva Dodgeball from SummerSlam 2004. Candice says she doesn’t remember dodgeball at all but has seen the movie. Molly explains that it was a Divas Search event, the wanna-be Divas against the Real Divas. She says they viewed their opponents as just models with no athletic ability and they would send them home crying. McCool says for the most part that was accurate. The real Divas had five competitors with McCool standing alone for her team. Molly says McCool single-handedly came back and won, leaving the real Divas to pretend they lost on purpose.

-Candice says that while she can’t remember meeting either of them, she does remember meeting Lita. Her first day in the locker room she sat down in front of a mirror on the floor, thinking she was leaving the good spots to the veterans. Lita stormed into the room saying that she had taken the best spot and it’s something you don’t do when you’re brand new. She joked that maybe from now on she should just do her makeup in the hallway.

-McCool says there were a lot of antics backstage at that time. Candice says her first backstage segment was with Trish, who was supposed to slap her. She was very confident going into it but says Trish slapped her so hard she thought her face had flown off. She says played it off that she was fine until she got to the hotel and she finally got ice for it. After that she never wanted to be slapped by Trish again. McCool says Mae Young also had a really hard slap.

-Molly says her favorite time in WWE was when she had her love story with Spike Dudley, when she got to play the girl next door. They showed video and she sort of looked like Amy Poehler. McCool says her favorite match was the Tables Match she had with Layla against Natalya and Beth Phoenix because it was the first time they got to do anything outside of the box. Unfortunately they didn’t break all the way through the table and Nattie had to hit a splash on top of them to put them through it.

-Candice says the first thing she ever pitched was her finishing move called “The Orgasmic” even though she wasn’t in matches yet. She emailed the idea to Stephanie McMahon and looking back she can’t imagine what they must have thought of it. Needless to say it never came to be. Molly and McCool say it’s like pitching a book when all you have is a title. Candice continues that she decided to carry a wand because Triple H carried a sledgehammer. She said people laughed at her about her wand, and pointed out Fit Findlay being a culprit. Ultimately he had to tell her that his daughter loved the wand and asked if she could sign one to give to her. She joked that the wand was over.

-Molly says her big break in WCW came when Randy Savage asked her to be in his entourage. She says she hated the Macho Man because Ricky Steamboat was her favorite, but 10 years later she was his valet.

-McCool asks if there was anyone they didn’t want to meet when they got to the company. She says for herself it was Kane and The Undertaker because she was afraid of both of them. When she met Kane, she said he was the nicest, sweetest guy. And of course we all know how it turned out with The Undertaker. Candice says she always loves when people play someone scary but are opposite in real life. She says Victoria always played the bad chick, but wouldn’t hurt a fly.

-Candice asks with the prominence of the Divas and Total Divas, would they rather be in the company now or in their own era. Molly says in her own era because she couldn’t keep up with todays women. McCool and Candice both disagree about her ability to keep up. They say that the girls now are so mainstream and so busy, but in their time it was all about the wrestling, which is what they cared about. McCool says that’s why she preferred their era. Candice brings up that the Women’s Championship was so much more prestigious, so she preferred their era as well. I guess they weren’t aware of the Women’s Championship being brought back. They say that when you won that belt it meant you had made it, even if you only held it for a hot second.

-Candice asks them about injuries they suffered and McCool says her sternum, She also mentions that Candice broke her nose and her collarbone. They showed her fall from the top rope to the mat and she was lucky it was only a collarbone. McCool says how scary it looked and Candice said that while she was recovering she got a phone call from Steve Austin checking up on her. They say even though she had only met Austin a couple time, it shows the family atmosphere of the business. Molly says whenever things in her wrestling career weren’t as good as she would have liked she always remembered that for two years she was a telemarketer.

-Starting the next segment, Candice says that on the road they always ate dinner in strip clubs because they were open late. Molly says she heard the boys do that. Candice says her husband wondered why they always ate in strip clubs. When he finally went out on the road with her for the first time, they were in a town with no strip clubs and he was bitterly disappointed that they had to settle for McDonald’s.

-Molly says that back then the Women’s Champion would do both Raw and SmackDown! which required an extra day’s stay in whichever city they were in. She didn’t know she was going to win the Women’s Title so she hadn’t booked a room for the second night in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Somehow every hotel in Wilkes-Barre was sold out on this Tuesday night and she had to stay in the Honeymoon Suite at the Knights Inn for $25.

-McCool tells a story about how she and Torrie had arrived at their hotel at 2:00 AM still in their gear. Teddy Long overheard the staff talking about the strippers that had checked in. Teddy was so upset and gave the staff such a hard time about it that he almost was removed from the hotel. She then remembers that Chavo Guerrero’s wife and son were backstage. Chaco’s wife told them that she tells her son that they are always dressed up for Halloween, which is why they dress the way they do. She wondered what exactly is she telling him they are dressed up as. Molly says it’s funny because when she was eight years old she told her mom she wanted to be a hooker for Halloween, thinking a hooker was a punk rocker.

-Candice tells a cautionary tale about taking Ambien for the first time on an overseas flight. She says instead of being able to sleep for the whole flight it just made her out of it. She spilled a glass of wine all over The Undertaker. That was the last time she took Ambien.

-The three women say that life on the road in WWE isn’t as glamorous as people think. They also agree that it has helped shape the beautiful, strong women they have become. Molly says that her years in the WWE actually make living a regular life much easier, because she knows she can handle anything after handling pro wrestling.

-Candice closes by saying bon appetite, even though that means eat and it’s the end of the show.

MY THOUGHTS

With full disclosure I was not very interested in women’s wrestling at the time any of these three were competing in WWE. Molly Holly is the one I remember most because of her time during the Attitude Era and the fact that she was once the Hardcore Champion.

After watching this episode I gained a level of respect for the work and the time the three of them put into WWE. They seemed to form real bonds and appreciate their time in the company and grateful for the opportunity to do this show together.

While I didn’t really give the women much of a chance as far as wrestling was concerned in my younger days, women’s wrestling is arguably my favorite part of WWE’s current product. All three of these women held either the Women’s or Divas Championship, so they all made their own impact on the business.

While this was my least favorite episode of the season so far, I still enjoyed the time I spent listening to Molly, Michelle and Candice catch up and reminisce. It’s always cool to see three women talking about their experience in WWE because it comes from such a different perspective than the men. I would like to thank the three of them for their contributions and I’ll be back with another review for next week’s episode.