Layla El

Layla El (born June 25, 1978) is a British professional wrestling diva of North African heritage, currently residing in the United States. She is employed by World Wrestling Entertainment, and appears on the ECW brand.

Before joining WWE in 2006, Layla El was a dancer for Carnival Cruise Lines, the Miami Heat franchise of the NBA, and has also danced for Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Layla El first got in to the world of professional wrestling after her trainer suggested she try out for the $250,000 WWE Diva Search contest in 2006. During the contest she won a week's worth of "immunity" on the July 14 (taped July 10) edition of SmackDown! after winning Sgt. Slaughter's "Diva Boot Camp" obstacle course, despite having jumped over several tires in the tire hop section of the course and not having both of her feet cross the finish line due to her doing a split. She won another competition, the "Diva Search Talent Show," on the August 11 SmackDown!, when she danced dressed as a police officer. She won the entire Diva Search, beating out Jen England in the finals on August 16. She was the first non-American, first non-white, and oldest (28) winner in the history of the contest.

She made her first "official" WWE appearance at the 2006 SummerSlam pay-per-view in a backstage segment with several other divas. During the segment the other women initially taunted and teased her before revealing that "it was all in fun" and part of an "initiation" of sorts. Afterwards they dragged her into the showers, fully clothed, where they proceeded to spank her while laughing.

The week after SummerSlam, El made her debut as a member of the SmackDown! brand in an interview with Mike "The Miz" Mizanin—although he didn't allow her the chance to say much, spending most of the time talking about himself.view After this she wasn't seen on WWE TV for weeks, reappearing during the September 22 SmackDown! and getting into confrontations with both Kristal and Jillian Hall. She again went missing for a number of weeks after this, resurfacing at October's No Mercy event and embarrassing the Miz by tricking him into getting a lap dance from Big Dick Johnson while he was blindfolded and expecting it to be from her as a birthday gift.

Layla made her official in-ring debut, a "Diva Trick-or-Treat Battle Royal" on October 24. The match ended in controversial fashion when she was pulled from the ring apron by The Miz, causing her to lose. This led to Miz and Kristal briefly teaming in a feud against Layla and the Boogeyman.

On January 23, Layla was moved to the ECW brand. On ECW she joined up with Brooke and Kelly Kelly as Extreme Exposé, performing a weekly dance segment with the group. Extreme Exposé danced weekly on the ECW show for months until the Miz was also placed on the brand, at which point all three ladies began actively pursuing him. When Kelly shifted her attentions towards the much more slovenly looking Balls Mahoney, Layla, Brooke, and Miz openly mocked her. On November 1, Brooke was released from WWE, and Extreme Exposé dissolved as a group and Layla and Kelly began a feud.

Kelly Kelly, Barbara Jean "Barbie" Blank

Barbara Jean "Barbie" Blank (born January 15, 1987) is an American model, professional wrestling valet, dancer, and wrestler better known by her ring name Kelly Kelly. She currently works for the WWE on their ECW brand.

Blank was a bikini model for Hawaiian Tropic and Venus Swimwear when World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Vice President of Talent Relations John " Ace" Laurinaitis offered her a developmental contract with WWE. Despite having no previous wrestling experience she accepted the contract and was assigned to the WWE's developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) for training. Even after being called up to WWE's main roster she continued to fly back and forth to OVW's base city, Louisville, Kentucky, once a week to work shows; first as a ring announcer and referee then as a wrestler. One of her first matches took place at the September 6 OVW TV tapings where she participated in a Women's battle royal won by ODB.

Blank debuted for the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) brand as Kelly Kelly on the first episode of the weekly television program—June 13, 2006—becoming the youngest diva on the WWE roster. Her character, an exhibitionist, was introduced performing a striptease for the crowd. The next week, while performing another striptease, Kelly was interrupted by her (kayfabe) boyfriend, Mike Knox, who came to the stage and covered her with a towel before dragging her backstage. Her stripping became a weekly segment known as Kelly's Exposé and usually followed the same routine; Kelly would dance and strip until she was interrupted by Knox who was "upset" by her exhibitionism and showing of her body to others. Eventually Knox began "forcing" Kelly to accompany him to ringside so he could keep an eye on her, making her his de facto valet. As a result, she found herself involved in the feud developing between Mike Knox and partner Test with Tommy Dreamer and his partner The Sandman, including being dragged into the ring and spanked by Dreamer and (kayfabe) inadvertently hit with a cane by Sandman when Knox used her as a shield. She made her ECW in-ring debut on the August 22, 2006 episode of ECW on Sci-Fi in a losing effort as part of a six-person Mixed tag team match which saw herself, Knox, and Test lose to Dreamer, Sandman and Torrie Wilson, in what became the blow off match for the feud.

Following this feud, Kelly and Knox were moved into an angle with CM Punk in which Kelly seemed to have a crush on Punk, causing Knox to become increasingly protective and jealous. Things came to a head when Kelly dressed as Punk for ECW's "Halloween Costume Contest," enraging Knox, and leading to a match between the two, during which Kelly cheered for Punk. After those problems Kelly and Knox started on the roads towards a break-up. At the December to Dismember pay-per-view they took on the team of Ariel and Kevin Thorn in a mixed tag match, during which Knox refused to allow Kelly to tag him in before abandoning her altogether, leaving her to be beaten badly by Ariel. On the following edition of ECW, Kelly defeated Ariel with a roll-up in her first ECW singles match, after which Knox made his way to the ring with flowers only to throw them in Kelly's face and hit her with his signature swinging reverse STO, ending their relationship and (kayfabe) injuring her, taking her off the show for six weeks.

She returned to television on January 16, 2007 and cut a promo announcing she was newly single and bringing back Kelly's Exposé. The next week Extreme Exposé debuted, a spin-off to the previous Exposé segment involving not just Kelly but Brooke and Layla performing choreographed dances in the ECW ring. The trio danced nearly-weekly for the next few months, tapering off when Mike "The Miz" Mizanin was moved to ECW in the June draft lottery and all three ladies began actively pursuing him. Later, however, Kelly shifted her attentions towards the much more slovenly looking Balls Mahoney, to the amusement of Miz and her Exposé sisters who spent their time mocking his look. After Brooke was released from the company in November, Extreme Exposé dissolved and Kelly began taking part in more wrestling matches, immediately starting a feud with Layla.

Stevie Richards, part 3

Richards was traded to SmackDown! on June 30, 2005 and reprised the bWo group with Nova and The Blue Meanie. At the Great American Bash, the bWo lost to The Mexicools in a six-man tag team match.

Richards went on to become the main eventer of WWE Velocity and began slowly dropping the bWo gimmick as he jobbed to the likes of Hardcore Holly, Vito, and Booker T. After a while Steven Richards would not be used on WWE SmackDown! or even WWE Velocity, disappearing for over half a year. Richards made his return to the ring during an 18-Man pre-show Battle Royal before WrestleMania 22.

Shortly after the introduction of the ECW brand in 2006, Richards left the SmackDown! brand to join the ECW brand, starting with the WWE vs. ECW Head to Head show on June 7, 2006. Richards went on to appear on ECW's weekly show under his old ring name of Stevie Richards, though his TitanTron video and the on-screen display would still refer to him as Steven.

Richards soon returned to his heel persona, selling out the other ECW Originals and siding with the newer stars. He picked up his first win on ECW's weekly show on September 5, 2006, against Balls Mahoney, after interference from Kevin Thorn, who was feuding with Mahoney at the time.

Richards was part of the new ECW brand's first pay-per-view, December to Dismember, defeating Rene Dupree in a pre-PPV dark match. At WWE One Night Stand 2007, he served as a lumberjack in the Kane vs. Mark Henry match.

Richards wrestled CM Punk six times from February to July 2007, losing each time. In mid-2007, Richards turned face again due to fan reaction, and teamed with Tommy Dreamer against the New Breed on house shows, replacing The Sandman (who was drafted to RAW) in the ECW Originals.

On July 24, Richards defeated Thorn in an upset after reversing a crucifix powerbomb into a backslide pin. This was Richards' first victory on WWE television since September 2006. A week later a re-match took place throughout which Richards was dominated, however he defeated Thorn once again via roll-up. On August 7, he got ambushed by Thorn while giving an interview backstage. He would once again defeat Thorn on August 14 by DQ after the referee declared a disqualification when Thorn continued to massively "destroy" Richards after Thorn had already won. He would then get revenge by ambushing Thorn while giving an interview the next week. Their feud would continue with Richards teaming up with Dreamer and CM Punk on different occasions against Thorn and Elijah Burke with Richards losing and winning a match. Richards was eliminated from the Elimination Chase for the ECW Championship on the September 18 edition of ECW. He was then absent from WWE programming due to having throat surgery.

Almost 5 months later, Richards made his return to ECW on February 12, 2008, defeating a jobber with his signature Stevie-T.

Stevie Richards, part 2

Stevie Richards, with the bWo, was one of the first ECW performers to perform on WWF programming, during a cross-promotional appearance.

In 1999, Richards went to the WWF in a full-time capacity. He would make his WWF debut on the August 15, 1999 episode of Sunday Night HEAT. After briefly using the Dude Love persona (he asked Mick Foley if he could use it and Foley agreed), being associated with the Dudley Boyz, bringing back the mocking gimmick, and teaming up with his old partner Blue Meanie, Richards got a haircut and formed a heel stable called Right to Censor (based on the WWF's then problems with the Parents Television Council organization). He changed his name to Steven Richards and became a manager for the many wrestlers that he recruited. When Chyna was featured in Playboy magazine, Richards demanded a match between Chyna's associate Eddie Guerrero and Val Venis. After Chyna had depantsed Richards leaving him in his white socks and blue briefs, costing Venis the match, Richards and his stable feuded against her.

Soon after the Right to Censor stable broke up, Richards joined The Alliance as the manager of KroniK briefly before Kronik was released. Richards remained on the brand's "B" shows until Team Alliance lost at Survivor Series 2001. Richards was fired along with the rest of the alliance roster by Vince McMahon until Ric Flair was able to save his job and get him drafted over to the RAW brand. There, Steven Richards began using the gimmick of a psychotic jobber and became a 22-time Hardcore Champion trading it several times with Bubba Ray Dudley, Booker T, Crash Holly, Shawn Stasiak, Justin Credible, Bradshaw, Terri, and Tommy Dreamer.

Richards eventually formed an alliance with Victoria in late 2002 as a psychotic couple helping each other win their matches. Richards also helped Victoria retain her WWE Women's Championship.

As Victoria started to make her latest face turn, the duo quietly separated. In August of 2004, Richards began dressing in drag and helping Victoria win matches.[1] He was finally unmasked at Unforgiven when saving Victoria from then heel, Trish Stratus, and Tyson Tomko, but ended up losing an impromptu match to Tomko.[1] Richards made a name for himself as one of the mainstays of Sunday Night HEAT and became the self-proclaimed "General Manager" of "Stevie Night HEAT". After the death of Richard's friend Crash Holly, Richards would wear tights with a similar design to the ones worn by Crash, as a tribute.

Richards's role as a jobber has been at times physically tasking and he was legitimately injured during the RAW debut match of Chris Masters in February 2005. After returning from injury, Richards faced Masters in a rematch but lost to Masters for a second time.

Richards made an appearance at the ECW reunion event ECW One Night Stand 2005, reuniting with his bWo comrades and proclaiming "We have only three words for you. We're – taking – over!"




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