Natalya recently appeared as a guest on the popular INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling and WWE.
During the discussion, the women’s wrestling legend and veteran WWE Superstar spoke about the moment where things clicked for her in WWE, how she helped Nikki Bella train for her return at this year’s Women’s Royal Rumble match, getting her teeth knocked out, as well as her thoughts on reports about women being underutilized in WWE.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where she touches on these topics with her thoughts.
On the moment where it clicked in WWE: “There’s been so many moments. I mean, just getting the phone call. I remember getting the phone call that I was getting hired. I was so excited. It’s funny now, because you hear about contract negotiations and this and that. I remember when I got called, I was told, Hey, we’re going to hire you at this amount. And then they called back and said, Actually, we changed our minds, it’s a little lower and I was like, no worries. Don’t even worry about it, it’s fine. I just remember being so excited, even though they called back and said actually, no, it’s not gonna be that much. I was like, It’s fine. I was just so excited when I got my first WWE check in the mail. I actually have never shared this before, but I have saved every single paycheck I’ve ever gotten from WWE. I have saved the stub, the check stub. I’ve saved all of them, every single one of them. Because I just remembered how big of a deal it was for me to get that. Even when they were small, and I was only making in my first year in WWE $500 a week. So of course that’s not terrible by any means, when you’re just getting started, but when you have to pay for ring gear and your hair and your makeup, and you have to pay taxes on that. In some ways it was less money than I was making as a waitress. But for me, it was about getting my foot in the door. I just had to get my foot in the door and that’s how 18 years later I’m still here. But yeah, just getting to be a part of the company and I never have ever taken it for granted. I always try to approach going to work like, even though we all are human, we all have our highs and lows and ups and downs. I’m just so grateful that I get to do such a fun job, do what I love and do something that just fulfills me. It makes me so happy.”
On helping Nikki Bella train for her WWE return at the Royal Rumble: “Nikki actually has been coming and training with me privately. So she flies in every week, and she’s been coming and working with me. I will tell you that she hasn’t lost it, she has so much passion for this. It’s funny because I saw her last week. She came to Tampa and I said to her, This is so funny because we started our careers together in the very same week, Nikki and I and Brie. So we started together in the same week in developmental in WWE and I remember when all three of us had nothing. All three of us were hired at the very base amount of pay and it was never, ever about the money. It was always about the work, the passion. So we were just laughing and sharing old stories. I didn’t have enough money to buy wrestling gear, so The Bella Twins were giving me their clothes. Because when you just get started, you’re just kind of literally just getting started. I went to Florida with this one suitcase because I was like, I gotta get down to Florida, I’ll just leave everything behind. I’ll get back to Calgary. I never went back to live [in Calgary] because my whole life with WWE has been kind of stateside as far as living, but I didn’t have money for a lot of the things that we need to look like superstars. So The Bella Twins, they were giving me their clothes. They were giving me stuff to look nice. I was taking certain things that they had and I was cutting them up and glueing my own sequins on them, and trying to make it. I look back on that now I’m like Nattie you look like sh*t, pardon my language. But I was like, I wouldn’t have hired you looking like that, because you look horrible, but you do what you have to do. I just remember those early years with the twins. So being able to help Nikki prepare for Royal Rumble and of course, I would love to see Nikki back. I’m looking for a tag team partner and of course I’d love to have Nikki as my partner. But I just love her, and I love Brie so much, and they just have so much passion. So seeing what Nikki’s doing in the ring and doing in our dungeon, I mean, our dungeon is really like a dungeon. We try to make it as much like the original dungeon that my grandfather started in Calgary. There’s no air conditioning. It’s in Florida. It’s just a small room with enough room to put a ring in, and there’s one bathroom, and there’s some fans, and there’s a lot of stray cats that my husband and I feed.”
On getting her teeth knocked out: “So yeah, my front teeth aren’t real, amongst other things [laughs]. But when you’re a lady wrestler, listen, a lot of things get kind of crazy. I feel like at night when I come home after a match I’m like pulling out hair extensions, I’m pulling off eyelashes, I’m taking off my tanner. TJ is like who is that? I’m like, This is me, I’m putting on my pyjamas. But we’ve been on a live event in Las Vegas, and it was a six woman tag. It was me Carmella and Alexa were a team, and it was against Nikki and two other girls and Nikki tackled me. She gave me a crazy shoulder tackle that turned into a head butt and I lost my two front teeth. So there was a picture that kind of went viral of my teeth that were missing, and I was with Renee Young because when I got my teeth knocked out I knew what happened. I gave them to the referee who gave them to the security guard. I didn’t know the security guard, he just had my teeth in his hand. Then I remember Alexa Bliss saying, Do you want me to finish the match? I was like, I’ve got this. I’m already in there. I’m good. Anyway, finished the match like a pro, and afterwards, I remember Renee driving me to an emergency dentist at midnight in Las Vegas. I got two fake front teeth put back, they made me a little bridge, and it got me through the weekend. But, yeah, there’s a lot of teeth that I have that aren’t real and we’ll give Nikki all the credit for that.”
On the report about women being underutilised: “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. And actually, I feel like we’re right around the corner from some big announcements being made, especially with what I’m doing, I’m leaving you guys on such a cliffhanger, those stories will come to fruition. 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. It’s you’re only human to want more. But I also think that let’s just see what happens.”
