Layla Reveals How Her “Layout” And “Face Lift” Finishers Were Developed

Layla talks about her two finishers, the Layout and the Face Lift.

Speaking with DS Shin of Ring the Belle, the former Women’s Champion gave her first interview since stepping away from the ring. She went through the top-5 fan-voted moments of her career, but also shared how her signature moves came about.

“I just got shown the Layout because I was looking for a finisher at the time when I really wasn’t going to ever use a finisher. I think someone said, “Layla, use this, it’s kind of easy, you know.” I felt like everyone could kind of do it. It just felt natural to me. I could always hit it. With finishes, if you can’t hit it twenty times in a row and make it look good and crisp, don’t, don’t do it kind of thing. I think that one just stuck out to me.”

As for the Face Lift, Layla revealed that she came up with it during a training session.

“That happened by accident. I never planned it or we never thought that that would be a finisher, but someone, we were just up there practicing and I was like, “hold on, what about this?” and just felt the move and liked it and I thought it worked. I didn’t get to use it much though, right. I don’t think I used it that much. I wish I would have used it more.”

On July 29, 2015, WWE announced that Layla had decided to retire from professional wrestling. During her decade with the company, she won the Diva’s Championship, Women’s Championship, and was a part of the successful LayCool tag team with Michelle McCool, which WWE ranked as #36 on their “50 Greatest Tag Teams” list.

Recently, McCool announced that she had tested positive for COVID-19.

If you’re interested in learning more about other wrestlers’ signature moves, Fightful’s Making A Finisher series goes in-depth with the performers themselves as they explain their moves, discuss how they were developed, who took it the best, the worst, why they stopped doing some of them, and the psychology behind them. Past editions feature names such as Mick Foley, Kevin Owens, Victoria, “Hangman” Adam Page, and many more!

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit Ring the Belle with a h/t to Fightful for the transcription.