How to remove spark plugs in 2.6?

I thought that you just pull off the black rubber thing, and underneath would be a spark plug that I unscrew with the spark plug wrench I bought. This is how it was on 2 other cars I had before, but for some reason for the life of me I can't pull the black rubber things off! I even tried with pliers, but it started to tear the rubber, lol, bad news right there. There seems to be a metal ring around each rubber thing. Is there some trick to removing these spark plugs?
Keep in mind that I'm still new at under-the-hood stuff so what may be obvious to you may be news to me
There is a resistor inline on each wire, and that's the reason why non-resistor plugs are the best for these engines.



