User blog:CEDJunior/LayCool: A Women's Wrestling Abomination

In my past "Face or Heel?" blogs about Layla and Michelle McCool, I voiced my displeasure about the "LayCool" gimmick and said that I would express my sentiment in a separate blog. I've put it off long enough. I will finally give my reasons and thoughts on why I just flat out couldn't stand this gimmick. But first, a little history.

As you know, Michelle and Layla were both products of the Diva Search, with Michelle being part of the first one in 2004, while Layla won the 2006 contest. Michelle was competing already by 2006, while also working as the heel manager of the Teacher's Pets. 2007 would see Layla as one-third of Extreme Exposé with Kelly Kelly and Brooke Adams, before Brooke would be released in November of that year. Layla would become a villainess and feud with Kelly heading into 2008, which would see Michelle become the first-ever WWE Divas Champion. Michelle underwent a villainous transformation of her own at the end of the year, which she completed when she attacked guest referee Maria Kanellis after she lost the title to Maryse. 2009 would see the evil Michelle win her first WWE Women's Championship; becoming the first of five Divas to hold both titles.

It was in October of 2009 that Michelle and Layla first got together as a unit. On the 12th of that month, a trade that involved all three brands (Raw, SmackDown, and ECW) and seven Divas occurred, and one of the Divas who was part of the trade was Mickie James, who was sent to SmackDown. Once Mickie got there, she was targeted by Michelle and Layla for weeks, which led to the most infamous part of the LayCool gimmick:  "Piggie James."

You know how much I hated this? This is the first time in the five years that have passed that I have referred to it by name in such a public forum. As we all remember, "Piggie James" centered around LayCool making fun of Mickie's weight in another attempt to bully and humiliate her. See, I have my theories as to why WWE had Mickie go through with this terrible angle. Rumors broke back then that Mickie and John Cena actually dated a year prior to this and she didn't take the break-up to well, so she was moved to SmackDown. As for the whole "Piggie James" thing, It had to be punishment. Clearly, this went against WWE's whole "anti-bullying" thing; another problem I had with this.

Mickie got her redemption when she won the Women's Championship from Michelle at the Royal Rumble, but she lost the title back to Michelle about a few weeks later in a match officiated by SmackDown consultant Vickie Guerrero. Yes, Vickie was part of the LayCool bandwagon as well. As if the LayCool gimmick wasn't annoying enough, add Vickie to the equation, and it gets even more stomach-churning. The antics of LayCool even had Beth Phoenix shedding her own villainous ways and becoming a golden heroine who stood up to the duo. The Glamazon defeated Michelle at Extreme Rules but due to a legit injury, she dropped the title to Layla in a two-on-one handicap match on May 14. Which brings me to yet another reason why I hated this gimmick.

I was very happy when Layla won the Women's Championship. Before that night, she hadn't had a title opportunity, and after four years, Layla had finally reached the pinnacle of her career and held the most prestigious title in women's wrestling history. Yet what do I see less than a week later?! Layla and Michelle...BOTH wearing Women's Championship belts! What fresh hell is this?! Now, I was fair about this, and I thought that Michelle might be portrayed as delusional and even jealous over Layla holding the title. But instead, the reason why they both held belts:  they're best friends, and best friends share. They referred to themselves as "Co-Women's Champions." This really made me angry. What was supposed to be Layla's time in the golden spotlight was shrouded with this whole "co-champions" BS. Not even The Bella Twins did this when one of them would later hold the Divas Championship, and they're identical twins! If they did it, I'd probably be fine with it. But this was just a slap in the face to Layla's biggest moment, IMO. As equal as they were supposed to be, LayCool was clearly more about Cool than Lay.

In fact, that was proven at Night of Champions, which featured the historic Lumberjill Match that unified the Women's and Divas Championships, with the latter being held by Melina. Michelle, who was NOT the actual champion, represented LayCool in the match and defeated Melina at the event. LayCool spent the rest of 2010 feuding with Natalya, which included the Queen of Harts losing singles matches to both members before defeating them both in a handicap match to win the Divas Championship at Survivor Series. Beth Phoenix later returned to align with Natalya, which led to the Tag Team Tables Match at TLC, which LayCool also lost.

The beginning of the end of LayCool came at the Royal Rumble when both Michelle and Layla failed to regain the Divas Championship when Eve Torres defeated both of them and Natalya to capture the title. They later went after Trish Stratus, but that would lead to a defeat at WrestleMania 27. After that, the duo imploded when Michelle attacked Layla during a counseling session, which led to a Loser Leaves WWE Match at Extreme Rules on May 1, 2011. Layla won that match, ending Michelle's WWE career.

Among the other previous reasons why I hated LayCool ("Piggie James," the co-champions angle, the lack of equality), I also hated it because it was too much like the movie Mean Girls, and I hate anything that reminds me of Lindsay Lohan. Clearly, LayCool was WWE's attempt of copying TNA's The Beautiful People, who were running wild and dominating the Knockouts Division at the time. But the BPs, IMO, came across as an actual faction. Yes, they had their comedic moments, but they were taken more seriously. The same can't be said about LayCool. LayCool was all comic relief; basically the Lucy and Ethel of the Divas Division.

Since Michelle's departure, Layla went on to capture the Divas Championship in 2012 and reigned for nearly five months until losing the title to Eve at Night of Champions. Layla continued as a babyface entering 2013 until she turned back into a villainess last summer. She formed a partnership with Summer Rae earlier this year after feuding with her for a brief while. The duo are known as The Slayers, but a lot of us call them, "LayCool 2.0." Layla's partnership with Summer is a lot more bearable than her alliance with Michelle, and that's mainly because Summer, well, fits the comedic role more than Michelle did. When The Slayers began, they were originally babyfaces brought together by their hatred of Fandango, but they would be wicked heels again due to Summer's feud with Natalya.

The LayCool gimmick is long dead and buried, but I still consider it perhaps the most annoying gimmick in Divas history. The gimmick ruined the heel characters of both Michelle and Layla. In the two years before the gimmick began, Layla was portrayed as an arrogant heel who thought she was better than the other Divas, mainly Kelly Kelly and Eve Torres. She was also a bit of a femme fatale as well, especially when she served as the evil manager for William Regal. When Michelle became a villainess in the end of 2008 (in fact, it was this day in 2008), she was portrayed as a bit of a psychotic woman with a killer mentality; attacking Divas from out of nowhere. Once LayCool began, the darkness was removed from their gimmicks and replaced with childish annoyance. I couldn't stand it. I honestly can't see why people loved the gimmick; it was so annoying. But as I said before, the gimmick is done and has been for three years, and the Divas Division is much better for it.