Layla On Having Culture Shock When She Started In WWE, What She Did With Diva Search Money

Layla came into WWE as a newcomer to wrestling, and she recently spoke about the culture shock she had when she came in. Layla became part of the company by virtue of winning the WWE Diva Search in 2006. She had no prior wrestling experience.

Layla spoke with SportShadow for a new interview and talked about the experience of coming in and having to learn everything about wrestling from the jump. She also revealed what she did with the Diva Search prize money. You can see the highlights below:

On What She Did With the $250,000 Diva Search Prize:

“Well, the 50 grand i didn’t get. That was technically was my contract. So the 50 grand was my contract for 2006. So I did get a cheque for $200,000. The first thing I did with it, which — I was so scared, was I paid a lot of taxes. [laughs] Paid a lot of taxes from it. And then I think I put some of it away and then other stuff I just, kind of, had for expenses.

“So you don’t realize you’re going to get a massive cheque, but then you’re like, ‘Oh, no! The taxes and stuff like that.’ So that was like, the biggest kind of time that I had to pay so much taxes first time.”

On Culture Shock In WWE:

“It was the fact that I didn’t understand any of the wrestling language. I didn’t understand any of the backstage rules or how you should conduct yourself or not conduct yourself. Because this is stuff that you either go to train and you learn, or like me you have to learn by trial and error. Or watch other people mess up and know I can’t do that or I must do that.

“So that was what I found the hardest. As soon as I got backstage as well at that time when I’d won that money, there was so like wrestlers who are not top names who are like,’I’m training every day. I’ve trained my whole life. I’ve done this. I’ve done that. And then you come in and you win that kind of money.’ I had to adapt to that and to people looking at me differently and not treating me how you would normally just treat a new colleague. And it wasn’t personal, which now I can reflect, but like at that age when I was like 20, I was like, ‘Oh, oh!’ Like I felt guilty at one point for winning that money and being given that opportunity. So that was the hardest.”