Layla Reveals CM Punk Came Up With the LayCool Name Despite Not Being Part of the Discussion

The LayCool tag team is one of the more memorable acts in WWE’s Divas division history, but the story behind its name involves an unlikely contributor — CM Punk.

Layla has revealed that it was Punk who coined the LayCool name when she and Michelle McCool were being paired together in July 2009. What makes the detail particularly amusing, according to Layla, is that Punk wasn’t even involved in the conversation where a name was being brainstormed. As she put it, someone — she recalled it may have been a person named Johnny, though she wasn’t certain — raised the need for the team to have a name, and Punk simply jumped in with the suggestion that stuck.

Layla and McCool would go on to become one of the era’s most prominent women’s acts in WWE, leaning into a self-proclaimed “flawless” persona that made LayCool a fixture on SmackDown. McCool held the Women’s Championship during the team’s run together, and the duo were known as much for their comedic, over-the-top heel work as for their in-ring performances.

The revelation adds a fun footnote to WWE history — that one of the more recognizable team names of that period was essentially an off-the-cuff contribution from a man who had nothing to do with the team itself. It’s a reminder of how much of wrestling’s creative fabric gets shaped in casual, unplanned moments behind the scenes.