Former WWE Divas Champion Layla enjoyed a lengthy run with the promotion, from 2006 to 2015. For some of that time, Layla was with Michelle McCool, and the two were known together as LayCool. Eventually, Layla would retire McCool from in-ring competition, only to follow suit a few years later, ending her WWE run.

According to Layla in an interview with “Sportshadow Wrestling,” her retirement wasn’t something she ever planned, but her body could no longer take the toll. “I was like 38 at that time. … I had been there nine years, I’ve done everything you could possibly do at that time, and it was just time to go; both for WWE and for myself,” she stated, further adding that she began to realize how she was aging on television and being on the road was rough.

“Would I have liked to have gone out better? Would I have liked to have been able to have made a bigger deal about my career retirement? Probably,” she admitted, recalling that she went to the gym one day and simply felt like she was done and just went home after talking to WWE about it. Layla explained that Vince McMahon had personally given her a three-year contract in 2015, but just a few months into the deal, she asked to leave.

“It wasn’t dramatic, it wasn’t anything!” she claimed. “As big as that moment was for me and that decision to just let it go, it also felt like I could just breathe! … That was it. I literally walked away from wrestling in every capacity once I retired.”

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Sportshadow Wrestling,” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.