Natalya says today’s WWE would have been a better time to debut.
On April 4, 2008, Natalya made her main roster WWE debut. Her arrival came during the Divas Era of the company’s women’s division, but she has remained a constant presence on the roster throughout the women’s revolution.
Speaking to The New York Post Sport, Natalya was asked whether she would have preferred to debut in today’s era rather than during the Divas Era.
“I think that truthfully, it would be easier for me to start where the company is right now because Triple H, he really respects wrestling. He loves great wrestling, whether you’re a guy or a girl, I feel like he really respects wrestlers and respects good wrestling, respects the work. I think that he’s, of course he understands the, you know, entertainment value of everything, but like, I think it would have been easier for me now to debut in this era for sure. But that’s the thing is that that’s not, that wasn’t my journey. So it was tricky. It was tricky debuting in the Divas era, but it taught me so much about grit and I turned every no into a yes. I was rejected by WWE for like five years. I kept sending in tapes. I kept trying to, and I couldn’t just have, I mean, listen- Joseph, I would have loved to have had Bret Hart make a call for me. I would have given anything to be like, ‘Bret, just call someone’, you know? They couldn’t at the time. Bret wasn’t on good terms with them at the time. I couldn’t, you know, my dad wasn’t on, like he wasn’t on bad terms, but he didn’t have that relationship with anybody in the company. We didn’t have any family that was working there that could just make a call. My life would have been so much easier if family members could have made that call.”
-Natalya
Natalya is a former WWE Divas Champion and SmackDown Women’s Champion and has recently competed on the independent scene as Nattie Neidhart alongside her work with WWE.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on future plans for Natalya as soon as we hear more.
H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
