Posted on 4/15/125 by Colin Vassallo
WWE Superstar Natalya was the latest guest on Insights with
Chris Van Vliet.
She sat down with Van Vliet at Insight Live in Toronto to
discuss her journey from being a waitress to a WWE
Superstar, having to fight for spots on the card, helping
Nikki Bella train for her Royal Rumble return, getting her
teeth knocked out a live event, and more.
On still looking to prove herself:
“Here’s the thing, even right now in WWE we look at the
Women’s Division, it’s never, ever been this competitive,
ever. Across NXT, Raw, or SmackDown it’s never, ever been
like this. The girls that we have across the board are
incredible. I look at the NXT Women’s roster and I’m like
they’re amazing. There’s so many women there that I want to
work with. I look at the Raw women’s roster, everybody is so
good. I look at the SmackDown Women’s roster, everybody is
very, very talented.
So you have all this stuff to choose from, all these
different styles and different, as we say, flavors of ice
cream to choose from with every girl bringing something
unique to the table. So for me, because I have been here for
so long, I understand that like even for me, I don’t like
everybody, not everybody has to like everybody, not
everybody has to like me. When I signed my new deal with
WWE, I signed it last June and I thought to myself as long
as I continue to stay in WWE I have to always remember to
keep proving myself. I can’t just rest on the fact that I
have a world record for the most matches, or the most wins,
or the most this, or the most that or that I had a really
great match with Charlotte at TakeOver. To me, when you
continue to work in WWE, you always have to keep proving
yourself no matter what it is that you’re doing, even if
you’re not working at WWE.
So I kind of made that vow to myself that if I want to
continue working here, I have to not only prove myself and
not only fight to be in this division, but also fight to
prove my detractors wrong. So that’s why I thought about
myself wrestling elsewhere. I thought, Hmm, I wonder what it
would be like. I wonder what it would look like for me to
wrestle elsewhere, and I want to wrestle everywhere. That’s
the thing, I want to wrestle everywhere.
That’s what I love about my ring. My ring is really kind of
like a forbidden door. The dungeon that TJ and I have. I
love all these different people coming in and just bringing
passion, whether it’s Joe Hendry, whether it’s Kevin Knight,
whether it’s [Man Like] DeReiss, whether it’s Riho, B-Fab
comes in, [Angelo] Dawkins, Apollo [Crews], all these
different people come to our ring, whether they’re on the
independents, they come from all these different places and
that’s what I want to do. I want to wrestle everywhere.
I love that WWE is starting to do that, and actually in the
coming weeks, because of how I feel about this and the need
to continue to prove myself in the division and fight to be
in the division and fight to have my spot in the division.
Because, honestly, just because I’ve done a bunch of stuff
here doesn’t mean I [should be on TV], wrestling owes nobody
anything. WWE doesn’t owe me anything. So for me, it’s
always about proving myself with everything that I do, every
practice that I run at the dungeon, every match that I have
in WWE, it’s all about proving myself.”
On Jim Neidhart being a part of Total Divas:
“So going back to your question, when my dad was on Total
Divas he was a trip on that show. He just let loose and I
think he loved doing that show because once his career was
over in wrestling, it gave him a chance to feel like he was
still a part of something. Because it’s hard sometimes when
you’re an athlete. Back when my dad was alive and we were
doing Total Divas, it’s kind of hard even saying this, but
he didn’t always feel like he was wanted. WWE does so much
more now to honor legends and to bring back people. But back
then, they weren’t doing all of that, it was hard, unless
you were getting put in the Hall of Fame, which my dad, when
he was alive he was pissed off that he wasn’t in the Hall of
Fame. He was like, ‘Why the hell is Hillbilly Jim in before
me?’ I’m just being honest. My dad loved Hillbilly Jim, but
he’s like, ‘Damn it, I should be in there before Hillbilly
Jim.’ But my dad was so funny on Total Divas. But my dad
just felt like he got to be a part of something, and he
loved the limelight, he loved the cameras on him, and he
loved all the attention, and he loved feeling like he was a
part of something. So that’s one of the things I loved about
Total Divas, is I loved having my dad included on that show,
even if gummies were involved.”
On a previous report that women were being underutilised in
WWE:
“Here’s my thing, and it kind of goes back to what I was
saying earlier. I was talking to my mom, I talk to my mom
about everything, and I was saying sometimes it’s so easy,
especially nowadays. We all have a platform. If you’re on
Twitter, you’re on Instagram, you’re on TikTok, you’re on
social media, you have a platform. That’s the cool thing
about this day and age is that everybody has a voice. It is
so easy. It would be so easy for me to go on social media
and be like, ‘I’m mad about this, and I’m mad about that,
and I should have this and I should have that…’
I would have loved to have been the first-ever Women’s IC
Champion. I would have loved that. For me, and this is the
big thing is that there just has to be the right story. I
think everybody wants everything now, we’re living in a
world of instant gratification where we want everything
right now. So there’s always going to be times where people
feel like we should have this, and the Women’s Division
should do that, and that there should be this.
I do think that booking a weekly TV show, it’s not easy,
especially because there’s lots of things that happen behind
the scenes that people just don’t know about. Somebody gets
hurt, or somebody can’t make it or this isn’t where we’re
going for the big picture. Of course I would love to do more
in WWE, but I also want there to be the right story.
Especially being somebody that has been in WWE for 18 years,
I would love to do more, but I also understand that timing
is everything, so I have faith that the right story will
come.
So yeah, it’s easy to critique, but at the same time I try
to be patient, I try to empathize. And also, the one thing I
do is make suggestions. Rather than be like, ‘I should have
this, I should have that.’ I go, ‘Hey, I have an idea’, ‘We
don’t like that.’ ‘Hey, I got an idea.’ ‘We don’t like
that.’ ‘Hey, I got an idea.’ Something is going to stick. So
I have faith, I think that things are going to get exciting.
It’s just not easy, because also, right now we just have so
many women, and I think that it’s a good thing but it’s also
challenging, because you want to make sure that everybody
has a special place. I think that’s the thing is that back a
few years ago, sometimes I’d be on TV every single week, but
I wasn’t always doing the most meaningful things. I mean, at
one point I was passing gas. I’m joking about that but I
think what I do like about this new era is that we’re just
trying to find the right stories. I think we all want more.
You’re only human to want more, but I also think that let’s
just see what happens.”