Layla On Today’s Women’s Wrestlers: ‘They Represent For Us’
Former WWE Diva Layla discusses the rise of women’s wrestling with Fightful.
Layla played a significant role in the WWE Divas roster during the WWE PG era. Alongside Michelle McCool, she was one of the top women on the roster. Known at the time as LayCool, they had numerous matches against stars such as Mickie James, Beth Phoenix, Natalya, Kelly Kelly, and others.
Today, women’s wrestling has progressed rapidly. WWE women now compete in all the same match types as the men and often receive praise for sometimes exceeding the men’s performance.
Speaking with Fightful’s Kate Elizabeth at WrestleCon in August 2025, the former WWE Diva praised what the women of today have accomplished and expressed her hope that, in 10 years, those women will be praising the next generation.
“I’d say women’s wrestling now is like, is it real? Like, I want to pinch myself sometimes. Like, ‘Wait, what?’ It’s great. I’m so happy for all these women. I’m happy that they’re able to attain and they’re able to represent for us and show us that women can do it. Women can be like the men. In our Diva era, it was always more about the sex appeal or the eye candy and stuff like that. To see women out there in like main event, it’s amazing and I hope that in 10 years the women who are current now are going to be looking and saying like, ‘Wow, women have taken over.’”
In the past, Layla has spoken about potentially coming out of retirement for one match alongside Michelle McCool. Read more here.
Check out the full interview with Layla embedded below.
