Layla El

Early life

El was born and raised in London, England, and is of Spanish and Moroccan descent. She attended a performing arts college in London.

Dancing career

El was a dancer for Carnival Cruise Lines. Afterward she joined the National Basketball Association's Miami Heat franchise, where she danced for two years beginning in 2004. As part of the Miami Heat dance troupe, she received a championship ring. During this time, she appeared on-stage with John Legend as one of his backup dancers. She also danced for P. Diddy and Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Diva Search and early appearances (2006–2007)

El's first foray into professional wrestling occurred when her trainer suggested she try out for the $250,000 Diva Search contest in 2006. After a casting call, she was selected as one of the finalists. During the contest, she won a week's worth of immunity from elimination on the 14 July episode of SmackDown!, after winning Sgt. Slaughter's "Diva Boot Camp" obstacle course. She won another competition, the "Diva Search Talent Show" on 11 August, when she danced dressed as a police officer. El won the Diva Search competition on 16 August.

She made her first official WWE appearance at the 2006 SummerSlam pay-per-view in a backstage segment with several other Divas. During the segment, the other women initially taunted and teased her before revealing that "it was all in fun" and part of an "initiation" of sorts. Afterward they dragged her into the showers, fully clothed, where they proceeded to spank her while laughing. The week after SummerSlam, El made her debut as a member of the SmackDown! brand in an interview with Mike "The Miz" Mizanin. Subsequently, she did not appear on television for almost a month, reappearing on the 22 September episode of SmackDown! and getting into a confrontation with Kristal and Jillian Hall.

At October's No Mercy pay-per-view event, she embarrassed The Miz by tricking him into getting a lap dance from Big Dick Johnson while he was blindfolded and expecting it to be from her as a birthday gift. On 20 October, Layla participated in a dance contest with the other SmackDown! Divas, and was chosen as the winner by the judges, Nick and Aaron Carter. Despite this, The Miz, who was acting as emcee, declared Kristal the winner. The following week, Layla made her in-ring debut in a Diva's "Trick-or-Treat" battle royal. The match ended in controversial fashion, when she was pulled from the ring apron by The Miz, allowing Kristal to win. The following week, Layla teamed with Big Vito in a loss to The Miz and Kristal in a mixed tag team match. Continuing to feud with Kristal, Layla had her singles match debut on the 1 December episode of SmackDown!, when she lost to Kristal. In her final match for the SmackDown! brand, Layla teamed with Ashley to defeat Kristal and Jillian Hall in a tag team match on 22 December.

Extreme Exposé and managing William Regal (2007–2009)

The following month, Layla was moved to the ECW brand, debuting on 23 January 2007. She joined Brooke and Kelly Kelly to form Extreme Exposé. The trio performed a weekly dance segment on ECW, choreographed by Layla, for the next several months. In June 2007, The Miz was moved to the brand, prompting a storyline in which all three members of Extreme Exposé were attracted to him. When Kelly shifted her attentions towards Balls Mahoney, Layla, Brooke, and Miz openly mocked her, turning Layla and Brooke into villainous characters in the process. On 1 November, Brooke was released from her WWE contract, and Extreme Exposé dissolved as a group, leaving Kelly and Layla to enter an ongoing rivalry with more active in-ring roles. They were on opposite sides of a 10-Diva tag team match at Survivor Series, which Layla's team lost. In December, Layla formed an alliance with Victoria, which expanded to include Lena Yada in January 2008, and the trio continued to feud with Kelly. At WrestleMania XXIV, Layla was a lumberjill for the Divas' tag team lumberjill match. The following month, Layla was part of the winning team in a six-on-six Divas match at the Backlash pay-per-view.

As part of the 2008 supplemental draft in late June, Layla was drafted to the Raw brand. On the 7 July episode of Raw, Layla made her debut in a tag team match with Jillian Hall, losing to Mickie James and Kelly Kelly, the latter of whom had been revealed as the newest member of the Raw brand earlier that night. She soon entered a storyline with Jamie Noble in which Noble attempted to impress her with his matches, only to be squashed by his opponents. On 1 September, Noble was able to defeat William Regal, which impressed Layla. The following week, however, Layla chose to align herself with Regal, after he defeated Noble in a rematch. On the following episode of Raw, Layla reinforced her decision, telling Noble that she had finally found a worthy man in Regal. Over the next few months, Layla competed only sporadically in matches, spending most of her time managing Regal, and was present at ringside when Regal defeated Santino Marella on 10 November to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. On 5 April, Layla competed in a Divas battle royal at WrestleMania XXV, but the match was won by Santina Marella.

LayCool and Women's Champion (2009–2011)

On 15 April 2009, Layla was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2009 Supplemental Draft. She began a feud with Eve Torres, and lost both a dance contest and an arm wrestling match to Torres, before losing a match to her on the 29 May episode of SmackDown. After Torres defeated Layla again on WWE Superstars on 18 June, the two shook hands.

She then formed an alliance with Michelle McCool, later called LayCool. They began a feud with Mickie James in October, making a mockery of her weight and vowing to make her leave SmackDown. At the Survivor Series, McCool's team lost to James' team. At TLC, Layla interfered in the WWE Women's Championship match between McCool and James by helping McCool retain the title. In January 2010, at Royal Rumble, Layla came out in a fatsuit, mocking James prior to the title match between McCool and James; however, the mockery backfired, as James attacked Layla and used that as a distraction to quickly defeat McCool to win the title. On the 12 February episode of SmackDown, Layla and McCool defeated James in a handicap match made by Official SmackDown Consultant Vickie Guerrero, who had been accidentally humiliated by James backstage. Guerrero then began managing LayCool, accompanying them to the ring and regularly interfering in their matches. At the Elimination Chamber, Layla and McCool defeated Raw's Gail Kim and Maryse in an inter-brand tag team match. At WrestleMania XXVI, Layla was on the winning team in a inter-brand tag team match.

LayCool faced the WWE Women's Champion Beth Phoenix in a two-on-one handicap match on the 14 May episode of SmackDown. Layla pinned Phoenix to win the Women's Championship for the first time, becoming the first British woman to hold the title. Following her win, LayCool began calling themselves the co-Women's Champions. On 1 June, it was announced that LayCool would be mentoring Kaval during the second season of NXT. On 18 July, Layla had her first title defense when she defeated Kelly Kelly at the Money in the Bank. On 30 July, SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long informed LayCool that there was only one Women's Champion, and they had a week to decide who it would be. The following week, LayCool revealed that they had cut the title belt into two, turning it into a friendship charm and circumventing Long's orders. In September, Layla and McCool challenged WWE Divas Champion Melina to a championship unification match at Night of Champions. McCool participated in the match and won, with Layla's help, to unify both title into the WWE Unified Divas Championship. Layla unofficially became the co-champion, and defended the title against Melina the following night on Raw. After both members of LayCool had successfully defended the title against Natalya, they faced her in a two-on-one handicap match at Survivor Series, which Natalya won to become the new Divas Champion. Following Survivor Series, Natalya and Phoenix formed an alliance to continue the feud with LayCool, and at the TLC in December, LayCool lost to them in the first Diva's tag team tables match in WWE. LayCool invoked their rematch clause in January 2011, prompting the scheduling of a two-on-one handicap match for the Royal Rumble. At the event however, the anonymous Raw General Manager altered the match to a fatal four-way, also involving Eve Torres who went to win the title.

Dissension between Layla and McCool began to show following the loss of the Divas Championship, and the two appeared in a series of vignettes in which they were attending couples therapy. On the 22 April episode of SmackDown, McCool attacked Layla during one of their storyline therapy sessions. During the 2011 WWE Draft on 25 April, Layla lost a match to Eve and was attacked afterward by McCool, but was able to fight her off, turning face for the first time in her career. On 29 April, the pair faced each other in a match, which ended in a double countout. As a result, the pair faced each other in a no countout, no disqualification, loser leaves WWE match at the Extreme Rules on 1 May, which Layla won, thus forcing McCool to retire from WWE.

Layla announced that she had suffered a knee injury at Extreme Rules on SmackDown on 13 May, and was interrupted and attacked by Kharma to write her off television. Later that month, it was confirmed that Layla had legitimately torn both her Anterior cruciate and Medial collateral ligaments, and required surgery.

Divas Champion (2012–2013)

Layla made her in-ring return at a Florida Championship Wrestling event on 22 March 2012. She made her return to the main WWE roster at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on 29 April, replacing Beth Phoenix, who was not medically cleared to compete, in a match for the WWE Divas Championship. Despite interference from Brie Bella, Layla defeated Nikki Bella to win the WWE Divas Championship for the first time. The following night on Raw, she successfully defended the championship against both Nikki and Brie in a triple threat match, and retained twice against Beth Phoenix at the Over the Limit and No Way Out pay-per-views in May and June respectively. On the 20 August episode of Raw, Kaitlyn won a battle royal to become the number one contender to Layla's Divas Championship. At Night of Champions, Kaitlyn was removed from the championship match following a storyline injury and replaced with Eve Torres. Torres would go on to defeat Layla for the Divas Championship, ending her reign at 140 days.

Layla defeated Torres in a non-title match on Superstars to earn a shot at the Divas Championship. She received her title match on 15 October, but was unsuccessful, and failed again to regain the championship in a three-way match at Hell in a Cell that also involved Kaitlyn. On 12 November, on Raw, Layla was defeated by Kaitlyn in a number one contenders match for the championship. On 16 December at the Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view, Layla competed in a number one contender's "Santa's Little Helpers" battle royal to face Torres for the championship, but was unsuccessful in winning the match.

Various storylines and retirement (2013–2015)

In early 2013, Layla briefly developed a feud with Tamina Snuka, losing to her in singles matches. As part of the feud, Layla allied herself with the new WWE Divas Champion Kaitlyn, and the two defeated Tamina and Aksana in a tag team match. In March, Layla began displaying a villainous persona when she cost Kaitlyn a singles match against Tamina. On the 2 August episode of SmackDown, Layla became a villainess and stopped Kaitlyn from spearing AJ Lee, costing Kaitlyn both the match and the Divas Championship, after which she left with AJ. In subsequent weeks, the evil Layla defeated Kaitlyn in singles competition and in a tag team match with AJ as her partner. In late 2013, Layla took a hiatus from WWE due to ongoing personal issues.

Layla returned at a non-televised event on 14 March 2014, and made her television return the following week on an episode of Main Event, where she and Alicia Fox lost to The Funkadactyls (Naomi and Cameron). Layla participated in the Vickie Guerrero Divas Championship Invitational match at WrestleMania XXX, which was won by defending champion AJ Lee. The following week, Layla replaced Summer Rae as Fandango's dance partner and valet, and quickly became embroiled in a feud with Emma and Santino Marella. In May, Layla appeared on the rebooted WWE NXT, entering a tournament to determine the new NXT Women's Champion, but lost to Natalya in the first round. Fandango's former dance partner Summer Rae returned on 19 May, attacking Layla. Competing over Fandango's affections, Layla and Rae repeatedly attacked each other, prompting a match at Money in the Bank with Fandango as the special guest referee, which Layla won. During a rematch in July on SmackDown, Layla and Rae attacked Fandango, before dancing with each other. Starting at Battleground, the pair formed an alliance and began distracting Fandango during his matches, causing him to lose. In their first match as a team, Layla and Rae, who dubbed themselves "The Slayers", lost to AJ Lee and Paige on the 18 July episode of SmackDown. The duo won their first match on the 2 September episode of Main Event, where they defeated Rosa Mendes and Natalya. The Slayers were part of Paige's team at Survivor Series in November, but were both eliminated, and their team lost the match. In January 2015, Layla underwent surgery for unknown reasons, and the Slayers quietly disbanded.

Layla returned on the 14 April episode of Main Event, where she defeated Emma in a singles match. On the 13 June episode of WWE Superstars, Layla lost to Paige in what would be her final televised match. On 29 July, WWE announced that Layla had decided to retire from professional wrestling.

Modeling career

El has been featured in the magazines King, Smooth, and was the cover-girl for the first issue of Liquid. She also posed for FHM with the other members of Extreme Exposé. Layla, along with Beth Phoenix and Candice Michelle, appeared in the February 2009 issue of Flex Magazine.

Other media

In April 2007, El and several other WWE Divas appeared in the music video for "Throw It On Me" by Timbaland and The Hives. During the week of 5 November 2007, she appeared on five episodes of Family Feud with other WWE wrestlers. On 6 February 2008 she appeared on Project Runway with several WWE Divas as part of the week's challenge. El also appeared on the 13 April 2008 episode of Celebrity Fit Club Boot Camp as a trainer.

In 2012, she ranked number 95 in Maxim's Hot 100. The next year, El alongside Alicia Fox appeared on the Summerslam episode of Cupcake Wars. El has also made guest appearances on Total Divas.

El appears as a playable character in the video games WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011, WWE '12, WWE '13, WWE 2K14, and WWE 2K16.

Personal life

El has previously lived in Miami, Florida, and Los Angeles, California. El's mother died in August 2008 at the age of 48 due to breast cancer. El's mother had battled it three times in two decades. In October 2012, El appeared in a commercial from the WWE and Susan G. Komen for the Cure to promote awareness for finding a cure for breast cancer. El incorporated infinity symbols on her wrestling attire as a tribute to her mother.

El began dating fellow wrestler Richard Young, better known as Ricky Ortiz, in mid–2014. On 28 July 2015, El announced their engagement, and the two were married on 27 November in Glendale, Arizona.

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments