User blog:CEDJunior/Layla: Face or Heel?

In 2006, she won the WWE Diva Search and she would be recognized as WWE's final Women's Champion when she won the title in 2010. She came back from injury at Extreme Rules in 2012 and captured the WWE Divas Championship. She is the longest tenured current Diva on the roster. She is Layla; the latest subject in my "Face or Heel?" blogs.

Face Layla:  Naturally, Layla started off as a babyface after winning the Diva Search in 2006, but she really didn't do anything other than appear in segments and perform dances in the ring as one-third of Extreme Exposé with Kelly Kelly and Brooke Adams. Layla's first real run as a babyface, and second overall, began when she and Michelle McCool split up in 2011, but after defeating Michelle at Extreme Rules on May 1, 2011, she would suffer a torn ACL and miss close to a year of action. She maintained her babyface persona when she returned in the spring of 2012, and it would see her capture the Divas Championship and serves as a tag team partner and, in my view, mentor of sorts for the up-and-coming Kaitlyn. What I loved about that babyface role for Layla--other than the refreshing change--was that bond that she and Kaitlyn had, especially when both Divas were victimized by Eve Torres and (to a lesser extent) Aksana.

Layla is currently on her third go-around as a babyface, which started less than a month ago. After feuding with Summer Rae over the affections of Fandango, both DIvas had enough and violently dumped him in the ring on SmackDown three weeks ago. They have since aligned together and go by the name, The SLayers, who are basically a babyface (and far less annoying) version of LayCool.

Heel Layla:  Without question, Layla is best known for her antics as a heel, with her first stint beginning in 2007 when she and Brooke, along with The Miz, were mocking Kelly's relationship with Balls Mahoney. After Brooke was released from WWE, Layla became a full-fledged villainess and feuded with Kelly. I recall watching Layla's first match as a heel on November 6, 2007, and the first thing I thought was, "There's no way that she can pull off being a heel." I seriously thought that. I figured that Layla would not be believable as a heel. She proved me wrong. Layla showed out and worked her heel magic against Kelly, and she would take her villainous persona to Raw in 2008 as the valet for William Regal. Layla was moved back to SmackDown in 2009, where she feuded with Eve Torres mainly due to jealousy of her. Then the LayCool gimmick began. I promise that I will go into deep detail about how much I hated the Lay-Cool gimmick in another blog, but for now, I'll only say that the gimmick, IMO, ruined Layla's heel character.

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of Layla's heel turn on SmackDown, and it was a long time coming! It was after the Elimination Chamber that Layla was originally on the verge of becoming a villainess and trying to make herself look better than then-Divas Champion Kaitlyn. It was supposed to lead to a title bout between Heel Layla and Kaitlyn at WrestleMania 29, but after March 15, WWE did an about face on the angle. Once Layla was portraying a supporter for Kaitlyn after Payback, the heel turn plans were resurrected. This time, they delivered. On August 2, 2013, the evil Layla betrayed Kaitlyn during her Divas Championship opportunity against AJ Lee, and later left with AJ after she defeated Kaitlyn to complete her transformation into a villainess.

I loved Layla's heel turn, even though I wanted her to attack Kaitlyn. I do think that they could have provided some depth into Layla's evil character by revealing that she planned for weeks to betray Kaitlyn. Remember the Divas Championship contract signing that aired on the July 12 edition of SmackDown? The segment had AJ with Kaitlyn's cell phone and she revealed texts that Kaitlyn sent to her "secret admirer" that insulted the other Divas. I would think that they would have Layla reveal that she took Kaitlyn's phone and gave it to AJ to use as dirt against her. After all, Layla did say three days later that she betrayed Kaitlyn for attention. And I think they could have also made Layla into more of a sociopath by having her use AJ just to take the Divas Championship from her. But instead, Layla merely teamed with AJ in several matches, and feuded with the Total Divas.

Layla's second run as a heel hit a large hiccup when she went on a near six-month hiatus for reasons we still don't know. She returned at a house show on March 13, and made her TV return on March 18 (my 29th birthday!). It was weeks after her return that Layla was paired up with Fandango, which led to a heated and humorous feud between her and Summer Rae.

So, without a doubt, I definitely prefer Heel Layla to Face Layla, but let me be more specific on that. I prefer Non-LayCool Heel Layla! I really loved how wicked Layla was as a heel all those years ago before LayCool began, and I did love her second run as well. As I said earlier, I still fondly remember Layla's heel turn from last year, and one of the reasons why is because of how elegant she looked. Layla actually wore what appeared to be a long black evening gown with black leather boots; really having the look of a sexy villainess. As good as Layla is at being evil, she is just as good as a babyface. She brings a lot of her natural, good-natured personality to her babyface persona, especially in her current role with Summer Rae. But overall, Layla is more natural as a villainess, and if she never turns heel again, I can honestly say that I am satisfied with the fact that I got to see that classic Heel Layla once again in the last near year.

Face Layla or Heel Layla? Which do you prefer?