Lay Cool

Team Lay Cool (also simply called Lay-Cool) were a tag team in Professional Wrestling that consisted of WWE Divas Michelle McCool and Layla. The two teamed together regularly in standard diva tag matches in 2009 before officially forming an alliance at the end of the year. They were given new characters as exaggerated versions of Alpha Bitch and Valley Girl tropes, feuding with the other divas. As 2010 went on they slowly became more prominent in the WWE, even becoming the first female pros on NXT as well as co-holding the Women's title. The majority of their feuds with the other divas were based around their Valley Girl gimmicks ie. with Mickie James they made fun of her weight, with Beth Phoenix they kept calling her a man etc.

The IWC is pretty divided in their attitude towards the team mainly because Michelle is an easy target for haters due to her marriage with The Undertaker, Villain Sue push, and outspoken attitude towards her critics, but the duo were very important in building the WWE's women's division up in 2010 when injuries and firings nearly buried it completely.

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Lay Cool provides examples of the following tropes:

• Alliterative Name: Michelle McCool.
• Alpha Bitch: Oh god yes. Though Layla's case seems to be because she's more of an idiot than actually spiteful, and at the very least seems to like Michelle. Michelle, on the other hand, is a straight up Jerkass to everyone, Layla included.
  • Nope, Layla was very much as sadistic as Michelle in the early days though she also added a lot of goofiness which caused the fans to root for her.
• Arch Enemy: The entire Diva's division, really.
• Ascended Extra: Layla in two different cases. Before the team formed she was really just another generic heel diva on the roster. Then at the start she was mainly Michelle's sidekick but once she won the Women's title she became as prominent as Michelle and the two are fairly equal now.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Vickie Guerrero allied herself with them briefly thus giving them the colours
• Catch Phrase: "Real Talk". Also "Simply Flawless" as well as "Famous and Flawless" being common captions on their clothes.
• Cerebus Retcon: Their feud with Mickie James was basically just them cracking fat jokes at her every week and Matt Striker making fun of the whole thing on commentary. Then came a certain in-ring promo to hype up their match at the Royal Rumble...and the feud became a lot more powerful.
• Completely Missing the Point: Natalya told them their combined IQ was lower than their non-existent waist size. They took that as a compliment meaning they were skinny.
• Continuity Nod: Even after their feud with Kelly Kelly was over, whenever they faced her in matches they would mime that there was a bad smell in the air, referencing what their feud was about.
• Costume Porn
• Creepy Cool Crosses
• Cry Cute: Layla, when it became apparent that Michelle hated her guts towards the end of the groups run.
• Double Standard: People were outraged at them calling Mickie James fat and immediately started calling Michelle "skeletor" among other things. Anorexia is just as big a problem as obesity and Michelle has struggled with it in the past.
  • Mostly since, if she has suffered anorexia, having Michelle go around and call other healthy, slender gorgeous women fat made her look a little like a hypocrite, since many eating disorders go hand in hand with bullying. It's by no means Michelle's fault (blame can be sent to the WWE Creative team), but it is coming out of her mouth, and WWE fans have never been above shooting the messenger.
    • Layla's also two inches shorter, and the same weight as Mickie. Whoops.
• Dropped a Bridge on Her: Michelle's departure seemed really rushed. They began to show cracks a while ago, but aside from a couple of sneak attacks and a couple of matches, there wasn't much of a payoff for it, especially in comparisons to other current feuds such as Michael Cole / Jerry Lawler. Real Life Writes the Plot below seemed to indicate that there might have been more to it, but it got cut short for one reason or another. It's especially bad since Michelle and Layla are a couple of WWE's better Divas and Lay Cool was one of the things that made Women's wrestling a little more enjoyable to watch (since WWE's writers tend to forget storyline most of the time and turn the Divas into a PG-rated Jiggle Show.)
• Fan Nickname: Diva Dirt dubbed them "Lay-Kav-Ool" when they were mentoring Kaval. Also for their Halloween costumes they were dubbed "Lady Gagool" and "Layonce" (see Shout-Out below).
• Halloween Episode: They've actually gone past two Halloween specials on Smackdown now. See the Shout-Out below for this year's example. In 2009 Michelle dressed up as a devil and Layla as Michael Jackson.
• Heel Face Revolving Door: Happened when they were mentoring Kaval on NXT since he was a face.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: They even got each other necklaces each shaped like half a heart so that when they were put together they spelled "Best Friends"
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Layla eventually developed into one. It's why she became so popular
• Irony as She Is Cast: Michelle used to be a school teacher and so would likely have been preventing bullying every day, very ironic when you look at her LayCool gimmick.
• It's All About Me: Even at their friendliest, Michelle always used Layla to make herself look better, and Layla, not being particularly bright, was none the wiser. When Layla said she thought the two of them were equals, Michelle decided she had enough and turned against her.
• Jerkass: Michelle, who was a major bitch to everyone, and in the final weeks of LayCool turned against Layla, cementing the latter's Heel Face Turn.
• Jerkass Facade: Layla, who just seems more stupid than actually mean. She eventually got the hint when Michelle made Layla her latest target, and subsequently apologized.
• Kick The Bitch: Considering that she just lost a Loser Leaves WWE Match, it really wasn't all that necessary or required for Kharma to pretty much kill Michelle... but god DAMN if it wasn't cathartic.
• Loser Leaves Town: The group disbanded at Extreme Rules 2011, where Layla defeated Michelle, forcing her to leave WWE. Just to make sure it stuck, Kharma (WWE ring name for Awesome Kong) also debuted that night and proceeded to kill the bitch dead.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: Layla, to a degree.
• Oh Crap: The sheer look of absolute terror Michelle had on her face before getting crushed by Kharma almost made you forget she was the biggest heel in the Diva's division. Almost.
• Old Shame: According to Michelle, the sexy teacher gimmick she played when she redebuted in 2006. She was apparently terrified of her old co-workers seeing that in case she wanted to get her old job back.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Weird case with Layla. She is in fact British, but usually seems to be trying to sound American, with varying levels of success. It seems like she's either deliberately sounding American to avoid the Foreign Wrestling Heel trope, or she has simply lived in America so long, her accent has simply faded.
• One Head Taller: If you buy into the Les Yay. Michelle's 5'10". Layla's 5'2".
• Pretty in Mink: Goes with their gimmicks
• Put on a Bus: Michelle first; she retired from in-ring competition after her match with Layla, leaving the latter on her own. The latter's solo run never got out of the blocks before she suffered a devastating injury. In Layla's case The Bus Came Back almost exactly a year later.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The stipulation, as of the Smackdown taping before Extreme Rules, was supposed to be that the loser would leave Smackdown (Read: Move to Raw). But with Michelle reportedly leaving the company, it was changed that the loser would leave WWE (You could even tell that it was dubbed in).
• Ship Tease: Layla and Kaval.
  • Layla and Michelle more like it. During their break-up angle, they even started attending Couple's Counseling.
• Shout-Out: For Halloween they dressed up as Lady Gaga and Beyonce.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Michelle was the biggest Heel in the diva's division before she was forced to leave WWE by Layla. Kharma, who seems to be her replacement in this regard, is more intimidating.
• Take That: They dubbed Melina "Lady Wawa" due to her excessive crying after she won the Divas' title.
• The Ditz: Layla more so than Michelle but both of them fit.
  • Became apparent one night while they were doing commentary. After spending months insulting every person in their path, they actually asked, "Why doesn't anyone like us?"
• The Dog Bites Back: Michelle clearly didn't bank on Layla going absolutely apeshit on her when she sneak-attacked her on Raw.
• Those Two Girls
• Villain Song: You're not enough for me...
• Wham! Line: "The Harts don't belong in the Hall of Fame"