Layla says the women in WWE weren’t just fighting each other for a spot during the Divas Era — sometimes they were fighting to get the company to care about them at all. She claims one conversation with a WWE head writer in 2012 made that painfully clear.
During her conversation with Katie Lea Burchill on the Lay Talk podcast, the two former WWE stars discussed how difficult it could be for women to get meaningful opportunities during that period. Burchill initially put some of the blame on herself, admitting that she eventually became complacent after arriving in WWE despite already having plenty of wrestling experience.
“Once I was at WWE, I was kind of like, well, I’m kind of, I already have, like, the skills, you know, and other people maybe that I saw around me maybe didn’t have those same skills. And I kind of started to phone it in a little bit.”
Once WWE stopped using her regularly, Burchill said she kept pitching storylines and gimmick ideas to writers. Looking back, however, she wishes she had spent more time working at FCW and improving in the ring.
“And what I should have done at that time would have been what you did and got back to FCW because I was always, like, once they stopped, like, really using me and stuff, I was always trying to, like, pitch storylines to the writers or, like, think about what can, what else can I do gimmick-wise.
But what I should have done is what you did and gone down to FCW and worked and worked and worked in the ring. And I always feel like that’s kind of, like, a thing that I hold up to myself where you succeeded and I failed myself in that moment because I didn’t.”
Layla wasn’t buying that explanation. She told Burchill that she believes she was already ready and argued that the bigger problem was how few opportunities WWE actually provided its female wrestlers. According to Layla, getting someone to even listen to an idea could sometimes be a battle.
“No, I actually don’t. I promise you, I don’t. Honestly, I love what you’re saying. Thank you so much. But I honestly don’t think that. I think, like, I think you did everything right. You were ready. You were ready.
But let’s be realistic about it. Like you said, you pitch ideas, you pitch stories, you talk to writers. Sometimes you walk down the corridor and, let’s be honest, writers wouldn’t even look at you. Like, tell the truth, right? Would they not?
And I don’t think it was that sometimes. And there were only, what, how many spots at that time? Like, think about the girls, Divas, right? There was how many spots, would you say? One, two?”
Burchill agreed that talent alone didn’t necessarily determine who broke through in WWE. She felt some wrestlers received major pushes while others had to force their way through the system, pointing to Dolph Ziggler as someone she believes succeeded despite resistance.
“Yeah, I mean, I do think, like, there’s always an aspect in WWE that some of the people who made it really, really, I want to say, like, people that made it didn’t deserve it. I say some people that made it got there because they were really, really pushed, and some people that made it got there despite the fact that they were trying to be, you know, held back.
Like, for example, I think Dolph Ziggler really, like, pushed his way through the crowd just because he’s so, so good, and I think they really didn’t want him to be as big as he got.”
Burchill also made it clear she didn’t blame the inexperienced women WWE hired for the situation. If the system was unfair, she felt the responsibility belonged with the people running it rather than the women simply accepting an opportunity.
“I should be then mad at Johnny Ace or whoever decided that was, you know, like, if that’s unfair. You didn’t create that unfairness. Like, the people that had the idea to hire you created that unfairness, if we want to say.”
That’s when Layla dropped the biggest revelation of the conversation. She recalled returning from injury and becoming Divas Champion in 2012, only to hear something pretty brutal when she approached one of WWE’s head writers with ideas.
“And just to give you, like, an insight of something, when I got, when I actually, after I came back from my injury and I was Divas Champion, I spoke to one of the head writers at the time because, you know, I was, like, pitching ideas and stuff like that.
And I’m just going to be really honest with you. At that, even at that time, it was, like, 2012, he said to me, ‘Oh, in the production meeting they say, “Oh, we don’t care about the girls.”‘”
Layla said hearing that wasn’t some misunderstanding or exaggeration on her part. According to her, that was genuinely what she was told while she was the Divas Champion.
“So I was like, like, legit. But that was the absolute, absolute truth.”
That certainly puts Burchill’s regrets about not pitching enough or working harder into a different perspective. If Layla’s recollection is accurate, these women could pitch ideas, improve in the ring and fight for television time all they wanted, but they were still dealing with a system where a head writer was allegedly telling the reigning Divas Champion that people in production meetings simply “didn’t care about the girls.”
What do you make of Layla’s claim about how WWE viewed its women’s division during the Divas Era? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
