Layla does not understand why WWE put the word interim on Chelsea Green’s championship, and thinks it took something away from a moment Green had waited thirteen years for.
Green won the Interim WWE Women’s Championship in a five-way ladder match on night two of SummerSlam, beating Tiffany Stratton, Charlotte Flair, Jade Cargill and Lash Legend. The title exists because Rhea Ripley, the reigning WWE Women’s Champion, has been out since June with a torn meniscus and confirmed on August 6 that she had undergone surgery on her right knee.
Speaking on TMZ’s Inside The Ring, Layla was blunt about the concept.
“I don’t get it. The champion or not the champion? Just make a choice.”
She made clear the objection is about the presentation rather than about the wrestler holding it.
“I’m just being honest. I’m a fan of Chelsea Green. Like I’m a fan. She reminds me of the Diva era. She’s so entertaining and well deserved. She deserved this moment. She really did.”
“I don’t like the fact that they put interim and then they put Chelsea Green as a champion. Why can’t they just say she’s the women’s champion? Just let her have her moment.”
WWE has leaned into the qualifier rather than away from it, producing merchandise in which the word “interim” is crossed out and replaced with “permanent”.
Layla also raised the injury, and wondered aloud whether the interim status had been chosen with something in mind.
“I know she’s injured now, so that’s even like, did they choose that? I don’t know.”
That is speculation on her part, and nothing supports it. Green broke the orbital bone around her right eye on the August 7 SmackDown, five days after winning the title, in a tag match in which she and Stratton challenged Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship. Jacy Jayne interfered and Henley pinned Green.
Green went to the hospital after the show and posted a video the following day.
“I ended up in the emergency room and I have a broken orbital bone,” she said. “I have no idea what that means for me.”
She is expected to remain the interim women’s champion while she recovers. Adam Pearce had said the interim champion would eventually face Ripley to determine the undisputed one, which leaves the company with both women in that picture currently unavailable.
Layla’s wider point was about how far the division has come since her own time. She spent nine years in WWE from 2006 to 2015 and held the Women’s Championship and the Divas Championship.
“Charlotte Flair, I don’t think she gets as much credit or flowers as she deserves. She’s amazing, even at her age right now. And then you look at the matches that they put on, the main events, the ladder match. I saw the ladder match recently and Chelsea Green won. I was just blown away. These women, they can go.”
“It’s actually very empowering to watch, and proud, not jealousy, just really proud of them. They can compete with the men, and I’m so happy that they are able to have that opportunity.”
She singled out the change in how the roster is described.
“Rhea Ripley, I don’t even call her a diva or a women’s wrestler. She’s just a WWE superstar. You can now not have to have a gender. It’s just a WWE superstar. We never had that in our era.”
Layla is launching a podcast on Sunday, called At Lay Talk, built around the Divas era and timed to the twentieth anniversary of her Diva Search win on August 16. Kelly Kelly is the first guest.
Green was released by WWE in 2021 and returned in the 2023 Royal Rumble. She has said it is almost exactly four years since she texted Triple H asking for her job back.
