Ex-WWE Champion Walked Out While Under Contract: “It Wasn’t Dramatic”
A former WWE champion left the company even though she still had a contract for several more years.
Layla El got her start as a WWE superstar by winning the Diva Search in 2006. That earned her a $250,000 prize and a WWE contract.
For the next nine years, Layla developed into a performer who was talented in the ring, delivered entertaining promos, and worked as a manager as well.
Layla held the WWE Women’s and Divas Titles in her career, with her best run coming as part of the Laycool heel tag team with Michelle McCool, which oftentimes bullied other women. They were mean girls who enjoyed being bad.
In the summer of 2015, Layla walked away from WWE while she was under contract because she was ready to retire as a superstar.
During a recent interview with SportShadow.com, Layla finally opened up about what happened at the time of her WWE retirement.
“I don’t think there was a plan. I think in my mind I was going to keep going and keep going. But I think that I was, like, 38 at that time. So realistically like, it was I’ve been there 9 years. I’ve done everything you could possibly do at that time. And it, it was just time to go both from WWE and for myself.”
As she continued, Layla admitted she would have liked a better ending, but she didn’t seem too upset about how it ended.
“Would I have liked to have gone out better? Would I have liked to have been able to have made a bigger deal about my career retirement? Probably. But I just woke up one day and I, I was, went to the gym and got to the got to the arena for like, you know, call time and I just was like, ‘I don’t want to do this tomorrow. I don’t want to do this. I’m done.’”
“And so I just said, ‘I’m sorry. I just want out. I want done.’ And that was it. And I flew home. That was it. I just, it was just something in me that just had enough.”
Layla Left WWE After Recently Signing A Contract Extension
There are many instances where people depart WWE due to other reasons, like a contract expiring soon, but in Layla’s case, she actually signed a contract extension before she decided to walk away.
“I’d spoken to Vince. I think in July he was the one that gave me the 3 years contract which I signed and then like, I said within a few months I just was like, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore,’ and I went in and spoke to talent relations with Mark Carrano at time and, I just said, ‘You know, I’m done. We’re done. I’m just done.’”
As she continued, Layla admitted there wasn’t much drama about her departure.
“It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t anything. It was just and, as big as that moment was for me, in that like decision to just let it go. It actually felt like I could just breathe.”
After leaving WWE, Layla married former superstar Ricky Ortiz (real name Richard Young) in 2015, but the couple divorced about a decade later.
Also Read: Cody Rhodes Tells Bizarre Story: “I Was Dating Layla”