Former WWE Women’s and Divas Champion Layla has opened up about why she decided to end her wrestling career in 2015, revealing that the arrival of Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and eventually Bayley helped convince her that it was time for a new generation to take centre stage.

Speaking on TMZ’s Inside The Ring, Layla reflected on being 38 years old and having already spent nine years with WWE when the company’s women’s division began undergoing one of the biggest transformations in its history.

“I was 38. I was there for nine years. I was 38, and it was just time for me to go.”

By that point, Layla had already shared the ring with some of the emerging talent who would soon become central figures in WWE programming. She recalled working with Charlotte Flair at live events before watching several other NXT stars begin making their way onto the main roster.

“I had a few matches with Charlotte on the road when she first came up, and then Becky came up, Sasha came up. I think then Bayley came up, and then they were bringing in Carmella, and it was just like, you know what, this is their time now.”

For Layla, the decision was not something she viewed as giving up her position for somebody else. Instead, she felt she had already been given her opportunity to succeed and did not want to stand in the way of younger wrestlers beginning their own journeys.

“Maybe when I was younger, because I was younger and fresh. But for me, I was too old, and it wasn’t my time. It wasn’t my moment. I had my time, and I had my moment, and I’m grateful for it. That’s just how I look at it.”

“They were young. I don’t want to hold them back. They got to go. Let them shine.”

Layla’s WWE journey began almost a decade earlier when she entered the 2006 Diva Search despite having no professional wrestling background. On August 16, 2006, she was officially announced as the competition’s winner.

She subsequently developed into a regular member of WWE’s women’s roster and accomplished something relatively few Diva Search contestants managed, capturing both the WWE Women’s Championship and Divas Championship during her career.

Layla also became particularly well known for her partnership with Michelle McCool. Together, the pair formed LayCool, one of the most memorable women’s acts of that period. Layla and McCool have remained close since their WWE careers.

Her final WWE match took place in 2015, meaning this summer marks 11 years since she stepped away from the company.

The timing proved significant. Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks made their highly publicised main roster arrivals during the July 13, 2015 edition of Monday Night Raw in Atlanta. Stephanie McMahon introduced the NXT stars as WWE presented the beginning of a major shake-up to its Divas division.

Bayley would make the transition later, closely matching Layla’s recollection of watching the new generation gradually arrive rather than everyone appearing at once.

The wrestlers emerging around the time of Layla’s departure ultimately became instrumental in changing the presentation of women’s wrestling in WWE.

Within several years, women had competed inside Hell in a Cell, received their own Royal Rumble match and reached the main event of WrestleMania.

The Divas Championship, a title Layla herself once held, was also retired as WWE moved away from the “Divas” terminology that had defined much of her era.

Layla has previously highlighted that difference when discussing today’s performers. She has pointed towards Rhea Ripley being presented simply as a WWE Superstar rather than being defined separately as a “Diva” or specifically as a women’s wrestler.

That distinction was not available to Layla and many of the performers who came through WWE during her generation.

Rather than criticising what came afterwards, Layla has consistently spoken positively about the opportunities available to today’s roster. Her focus has instead been on explaining the restrictions placed on women during her own time with the company.

Those experiences will now form part of Layla’s latest project.

Her new podcast, At Lay Talk, launches Sunday, exactly 20 years after she won the WWE Diva Search on August 16, 2006. Former WWE Divas Champion Kelly Kelly will be her first guest.

Layla has explained that part of her motivation for starting the podcast came from seeing criticism directed towards women from the Divas era online.

Rather than attempting to argue that her generation should be compared directly with today’s WWE women’s roster, she wants to provide greater context about the environment they worked in, the opportunities they were given and the limitations that were outside their control.

For Layla, the question is why the careers of women from that generation cannot be appreciated for what they accomplished during their own era, while also acknowledging how dramatically WWE has changed since then.

Twenty years after entering WWE with no wrestling experience, Layla’s career included two major championships, the memorable LayCool partnership and nearly a decade with the company. Her decision to leave also happened just as a generation that would reshape WWE women’s wrestling was beginning to arrive.