Entertaining tag teams almost always display 3 things. Number one, chemistry. Number two, friendship. Number three, gimmick. LayCool crafted and mastered all three of these things in such a short amount of time on screen. When we talk Women's Revolution and evolution, these guys get pushed aside so often it's ridiculous. People can tweet about Victoria, Beth Phoenix and what have you, but those guys aren't in those video packages on Raw and stuff. When they did the Women's Revolution WWE 24 episode, it was Trish this and Lita that. What I won't do is forget one of the great tag teams of all time.
When LayCool started I was unsure of how well Michelle McCool would work out as a heel. Layla I had no worries about because of how stuck up and snobbish she was to Jamie Noble in their short love triangle with William Regal, but that's another story for another day. So creative comes up with the genius idea of putting these two together as kind of a test run in July of 2009, but it didn't take off until Mickie James moved to Smackdown and beat Layla her first night back. So LayCool formed together to bully and antagonize James, leaving her off the Smackdown Women's Bragging Rights team, mocking her weight and calling her Piggie James. This feud led to many memorable moments including a cringe worthy Porky Pig segment, spilling food on Mickie and a fat suit. The fat suit would become their undoing at the Royal Rumble when James beat McCool for the Women's Championship in under 20 seconds.
After accidentally humiliating Vickie Guerrero backstage, Mickie James now had two enemies in LayCool and Vickie, who had now become their manager of sorts. This would prove to be a beneficial move as Guerrero helped McCool defeat James for the Women's Championship as the Special Guest Referee. Without Mickie James in the picture, LayCool continued their rivalry with Beth Phoenix, going as far as mocking her for not fitting the image of a WWE diva, Guerrero putting Phoenix in an "Intergender match" with Layla, and smothering Phoenix's face with makeup. At Extreme Rules, Phoenix defeated McCool in an Extreme Makeover Match for the Women's Championship. Shortly afterwards, McCool cashed in her rematch clause and Guerrero made it a handicap match for the Women's Championship. LayCool came out victorious with Layla scoring the pinfall on Phoenix. After that they began referring to themselves as Co-Champions and carrying two belts to the ring. The two belts wouldn't last as Teddy Long told LayCool to decide who is the real champion with one belt. This led to them breaking one belt in half with each of them taking a piece of one belt to fit Long's demands. In September, LayCool challenged Divas Champion Melina to a unification match at Night of Champions. Despite Layla being the official Women's Champion, McCool defeated Melina in Layla's place to unify the belts and retire the Women's Championship. Their status as Co-Champions was cemented the following night on Raw when Layla defended the Unified Divas Championship against Melina.
After becoming Unified Divas "Co-Champions", LayCool started to go down hill beginning with their loss of the Divas title to Natalya in a Handicap match at Survivor Series. They lost their rematch at the TLC PPV in the first ever Divas Table Match to Natalya. They were given another rematch at the Royal Rumble 2011, in a Fatal-4-Way with Natalya and Eve. Eve would go on to win that match. Their struggles would become more prominent with both going on losing streaks through the start of the year including a loss to Trish Stratus and Snooki at WrestleMania. The tension finally began to boil over when McCool attacked Layla during couples therapy causing them to disband. McCool's mocking and bullying led to Layla reaching her breaking point and attacking McCool. The two ended their rivalry with Layla defeating McCool in a no disqualification match at Extreme Rules with a Loser Leaves WWE Stipulation.
Since there was no Divas Tag Team Division, LayCool weren't often put into positions to show off their tag team expertise but together as a unit they showed all time great teamwork. In fact, they are the first tag team I've covered to not win a Tag Team Championship. My doubts about Michelle being able to play villain were quickly put to rest as she had shown herself to be better at being hated than loved. They have even been shown to have an influence on current NXT team the Iconic Twins, Peyton Royce and Billie Kay, who are quite entertaining themselves.
-Ameen
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