It’s fair to say that it’s been one heck of a week in WWE Diva-land. We’ve seen epic brawls, exciting Diva drafts, and we were given something incredibly exciting to look forward come SmackDown and the weekend. At the Tuesday night taping, the former BFF duo known as Lay-Cool, squared off in a match that would seemingly put all their issues to rest. Michelle McCool and Layla didn’t wrestle, they brawled. And needless to say their match didn’t happen. But the gauntlet was thrown down and the stipulations were added… and come to find out, very badly edited later. Lets take a look!
The ‘Cool’ part of Lay-Cool is the first to make her way to the ring. Michelle is sporting her SmackDown pride shirt and she does her usual playing to the crowd once she enters the ring. The Lay-Cool theme music continues to play as Lay makes her way out. She is dressed in her blue brand shirt as well and she looks a lot more hesitant to get in the ring than Michelle! Perhaps she’s having regrets over beating the tar out of Michelle?
The bell rings and the two girls immediately lock up. They end up forcing each other back against the ropes and Michelle muscles Layla off of her. Layla bounces right back up and takes Michelle down, and they start brawling. They roll around in the ring and then they fall to the outside. Michelle takes the lead at this point and picks Layla up, only to throw her against the steel guardrail. Layla is hurting but she’s relentless. She goes right back at Michelle, but the former Diva’s Champion whips her ex-best friend into the opposite guardrail. Layla takes a horrible bump but when Michelle comes back at her she gets her foot up. Michelle is kicked away but she comes flying back at Layla. Layla dodges it and bounces Michelle’s face off the guardrail. She tries to follow it up by grabbing a handful of Michelle’s blond hair, but that failed and Michelle goes back on the offense. She shoves Layla away from her and then forces her former partner to eat a huge boot to the face. Layla tries to get back up, but Michelle kicks her back down and they start fighting again. They roll around and fight for a little while longer until the referee finally calls for the bell. The match is thrown out but Lay-Cool just want to fight. Two referees have to break it up and eventually they get the girls apart.
The crowd is actually furious that this fight has been broken up and Lay-Cool are frustrated as well. The fans begin a ‘Let Them Fight’ chant and that prompts Lay-Cool to try and attack one another again. The referees maintain order and Layla takes the microphone. She says that they need to have an actual match, a one-on-one, no disqualification, no count-out match. She says that she is sick of Michelle and she wants to shut her up for good. After throwing down her challenge Layla storms off and Michelle stalks to the ring. She has a microphone and she screams that Layla would be nothing without her. She accepts Layla’s challenge but only on one condition… LOSER. LEAVES. wwe.
GASP!
Layla accepts.
And that sets the stage for Sunday, Diva wise.
Okay. So if you read spoilers you know that this was originally taped with a loser leaves SmackDown stipulated and come to find out when the show aired in Australia, it had been changed. With the stipulated now set as a “Loser Leaves the WWE” match, we have a whole new animal on our hands. At first it seems insane, but as we reported here at DD, there is a rumor floating around that Michelle is on her way out of the company. Things seem pretty cut and dry.
If everything turns out to be true, then this is a huge loss to the Diva’s division as Michelle is one of the most technically sound girls on the roster. Lay-Cool has basically dominated Friday nights for how long now? Seeing one of them go is going to be heart-breaking. I know both girls have their haters and frankly I don’t care. These are the only two girls the WWE has put anytime and effort into and it sucks that one of them is leaving. I feel like it will be Michelle and if it is, I’ll miss her. What McCool brought to the table that some people refuse to see is actual talent and passion for the sport. She went from being a high-school teacher to being a Diva and one of the most athletic ones. Her ring work was always solid. Her willingness to learn and grow as a performer is to be respected. Love her or hate her, Michelle got people to watch her and that’s the mark of a true performer. I have no clue what the WWE will do without Michelle (should she actually be leaving) and I don’t know what you readers will do without her to complain about. Maybe we can go back to having a happy peaceful comment section?
Tonight’s segment was just as passionate and as fun as Raw’s. As much as I’ve enjoyed Lay-Cool as a team, they’ve made even better enemies. Their brawl was just a sample of what we could possibly get on Sunday and my expectations are so high for that match. Ignoring the completely un-called for, stupid edit they put in, SmackDown was brilliant. All I ask is that if the WWE ever wants to change stipulations at the last minute, that they do it on the actual pay-per-view. It would have taken all of thirty seconds to let Michelle take the microphone at Extreme Rules and bully Layla into making it a Loser Leaves the WWE match. That said, I can’t recall when we’ve had an actual Loser Leaves WWE match for the Divas, so if Layla does win and Michelle does leave, it’s an amazing scenario for Layla. She could be catapulted into a position where she ends up as a top face and who knows? If they want to put the time and effort into it, the sky is the limit for Layla.
But baby steps. Definitely an A minus for SmackDown tonight. Here’s hoping that Sunday delivers just as well.
