Former WWE Women’s Champion Layla El has shared her thoughts on how much the women’s division has changed over the years. The former WWE Diva admitted that she is happy to see today’s female wrestlers getting opportunities that were not always available during her time in WWE.
During a recent interview with Denise Salcedo, Layla discussed the current WWE women’s division and praised many top performers. While she admitted that she does not watch WWE regularly, she still follows certain stars and believes women’s wrestling has reached a completely different level.
Layla reflects on the challenges women faced during her WWE era
One wrestler who stood out to Layla was Chelsea Green. She praised Green’s ability to entertain fans and fully embrace her character, comparing her energy to the Divas Era. Layla also praised other big names like Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Naomi, and Rhea Ripley.
Layla’s comments come from someone who experienced a very different time in WWE’s women’s division. After winning the 2006 WWE Diva Search, she joined WWE. Throughout her stint, she cemented her status as one of the company’s notable female performers during her nine-year run.
During her career, Layla gained popularity as part of Extreme Exposé alongside Kelly Kelly and Brooke Adams before becoming one-half of the famous LayCool team with Michelle McCool. She also became WWE Divas Champion in 2012, holding the title for nearly five months.
Despite her success, Layla admitted that women wrestlers during her era often did not receive the same opportunities that today’s stars enjoy. She explained that matches were sometimes shorter, making it harder for performers to show their full potential.
“I am happy for them, I’ll be honest with you. I truly am happy for them. I’m glad that the women are getting the time and the main eventing and taken seriously because for us it was like a little sad, you know what I mean? It was a little sad having time cut or not being able to show your full potential and stuff. So I’m happy that they don’t have to go through that,” Layla said.
She then went on to praise the athletic ability of the current women’s roster. Layla admitted, “I’m happy that they get to really go out there and shine and not saying that I could have done it because I don’t even know if my athletic ability would be at that time if I could have done that.”
While she wonders what her generation could have achieved with today’s opportunities, she remains proud of the women’s division now.
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