Layla Exposes WWE Writer’s Dismissive Attitude Toward Female Wrestlers

Layla joined WWE after winning the 2006 Divas Search but things were very different for female wrestlers during her time in the company. Layla has now revealed how a writer once even told her they didn’t care about the women wrestlers in WWE and reduced the time of their matches.

While speaking on the No Name Wrestling Podcast, Layla talked about how the women’s division wasn’t treated as important back in the day. She noted the creative team’s focus was rarely on the women, and they were often seen as filler segments rather than integral parts of the show, with one writer directly telling her they didn’t care about the women’s division.

“At that time, the women’s division was an afterthought. I once spoke to a writer who flat-out told me, ‘We don’t care about the girls.’ We were treated as a side attraction, just something to distract the fans for a bit.”

Layla then revealed that their matches were often cut down to just a couple of minutes, and if they were lucky, they’d get three minutes. Despite this challenge, she and Michelle McCool put in a lot of effort as LayCool to stand out. They managed to leave a lasting impression even though WWE didn’t prioritize women’s wrestling the way it does now.

“But for the girls, we weren’t factored for anything and it was hard for us to do it because we were always the ones who would get our time cut. It was always like ‘One minute, two minutes, three minutes.’ So, what I feel, like, LayCool was able to attain in that short period of time was pretty amazing because the company was behind us but not as much as they are behind the WWE women superstars at present.” 

Currently, women in WWE regularly main-event weekly shows and major events and this is something Layla had been fighting for during her entire tenure with the company. As for Layla’s future in pro wrestling, Layla admitted that she would love to return to WWE during the Royal Rumble as she believes revisiting her past in WWE would be worthwhile. We’ll have to see if Layla will return to WWE next year, but at least she is happy with the fact that women are much better off now than they were during her time in WWE.

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