Over the years, many former WWE women's stars have voiced their appreciation for Fit Finlay, who has mentored and trained most of the company's female talent since the mid-2000s. Without Finlay seeing the potential in the women's division, the historic rivalry between Lita and Trish Stratus, the end to the Divas Era, all the way to women main eventing WrestleMania would've never been possible. However, Finlay wasn't just a trainer, according to former WWE star Layla on "Insight," he was a motivator as well as a shoulder to cry on when women needed support."Fit Finlay was LayCool. Fit Finlay was the Divas girls. Even Trish [Stratus], I know he trained us all. Fit Finlay he trained all the girls. He had patience with us. He fought for us. I think he even fought for me to win the women's championship the first time ... We used to get to live events super early and then Fit would have Diva sessions in there and he would be like, 'Nope, you're wrestling like girls. Wrestle like guys.' He didn't care. He treated us like the guys and we would have Fit Finlay boot camp ... He believed in all of us. He really did. He supported us and man, he was also the agent that all the girls would go to cry and stuff like that. He was the guy."
Although she wouldeventually be mentored by Finlay, Layla shared that WWE initially didn't think it was necessary for her to train, and though she still decided to explore options in order to get better in the ring, she decided to avoid seeking outside assistance due to a trainer from an independent wrestling promotion."No, we weren't allowed to get trained ... I wanted to go to, it was OVW at the time and I think it was at Deep South Atlanta and I think Johnny [Ace] was like, 'Well, we don't want you going to OVW,' and then he's like 'Well, you don't need to. You're on TV. You don't need to go train. We don't need you to do that. Alright, so if you go, you can go down in Atlanta and train there,' but even then it was very like not, and then the trainer at Atlanta at the time, Deep South, I was told had a screen saver of me cause I was going to be his next victim. So that's why I didn't go down there."After being denied the opportunity to train, Layla would use her background in dance to insert herself in the groupExtreme Expose with Kelly Kelly and Brooke. However, with Layla not being required to wrestle often on TV with management using her dancing skills instead, she began to train on the road with Finlay.If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Insight" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
