“I greatly wanted to succeed”- Natalya explains how her late father’s career affected her position in WWE


“I greatly wanted to succeed”- Natalya explains how her late father’s career affected her position in WWE

Natalya giving an interview

Natalya has always been in the top tier since her debut in WWE. Natalya signed her WWE contract in 2007 and wrestled around the developmental territory until 2008. She made her WWE debut on SmackDown Brand in 2008 as a villainous character, assisting Victoria in attacking Michelle McCool and Cherry. Natalya then introduced herself as Jim Neidhart’s daughter on an edition of SmackDown. During 2009, Natalya formed a group with her then boyfriend and now husband Tyson Kidd and her real life cousin David Hart Smith called as “The Hart Dynasty”.

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Natalya won her first major WWE championship; The Divas Championship when she was a part of the Hart Dynasty. Natalya and defeated the then best in the business Michelle McCool, who was accompanied by Layla, to win the Divas Championship for the first time in her career. Since then, Natalya has now won the SmackDown Women’s Championship once and holds the Guinness World Record for the most Live event appearances, bouts, and victories.

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Natalya compares her current position in her profession to her father’s accomplishment

Natalya with her father Jim "The Anvil" Niedhart
Natalya with her father Jim “The Anvil” Niedhart

Natalya’s father Jim Neidhart wrestled in WWE from 1985 to 1998, where he became two time WWF Tag Team Champion with Nattie’s Uncle Bret “The Hitman” Hart. Jim has been included in the WWE Hall of Fame in 2018 as a member of the Hart Foundation. Jim passed away in 2018 due to a head injury caused by a seizure resulting in a fall.

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Recently, Natalya appeared on Corey Graves Podcast “After the Bell with Corey Graves” and talked about her career as a wrestler and her father. She said that her father couldn’t keep his position in WWE, although her uncles Bret, Owe, and Davey had longer and more successful careers. She stated that her father struggled with many inner demons, indicating his drug abuse problems. Nattie continued that, her father would do great on some days and on some days would lose his job. Natalya closed by adding that she wants to thrive in the field that her father battled in, and that she has become a corporate girl at this stage in her career.

“Growing up, my dad couldn’t hold down his job in WWE while my uncles Bret, and Owen, and Davey, they were able to kind of sustain a longer, more successful career, my dad, really, really struggled to keep his job because he battled a lot of demons,” Natalya said. “I grew up with that, I grew up with that instability of my dad doing great, my dad losing his job, my dad doing great, my dad losing his job … I greatly wanted to succeed in an industry that my parent struggled at … I kind of became the company girl and that’s actually something I’ve never really talked about before, but it’s true. I became the company girl.

Natalya recently lost the match for SmackDown Women’s Championship against Ronda Rousey at the MITB Live event. Rousey in turn would lose the championship to Liv Morgan the same night when the latter cashed in her MITB contract.

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