During her appearance on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet this week, women's wrestling legend and WWE Superstar Natalya reflected on being ringside for the Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon match at WrestleMania 26.
She also discussed why he called her Natalie, the most difficult chapter to write in her new book and more.
The following are some of these highlights.
On being ringside for Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 26: “It was crazy because we only found out that we were going to be part of that the night before. So Vince wanted to do this. Vince and Bret were going to do the match, and then Vince had decided the night before that he wanted the whole family out there. Somebody was going into the Hall of Fame. I can’t remember what it was, but the family was there, and then Vince decided, listen, the whole family’s here, maybe we’ll just get them all in the ring, get them all out there with Bret. But then Vince wanted me to slap him. [...] So Vince, before the match, he pulled me aside and he was like, ‘I really want you to have this moment.’ And I thought that was great. He really cared about me having that moment. So he was like, ‘But you have to promise me one thing, Natalie. You have to slap me as hard as you can.'”
On why he calls her Natalie: “He always called me Natalie. And so he made me promise him that I’m going to hit him hard. He was like, it has to look real, because he didn’t want me being scared that he was the boss, where I maybe don’t touch him, imagine me at WrestleMania not actually hitting him and I totally miss his face, or whatever. He was like, ‘It needs to look good. It needs to look real.’ And after the match, Hunter was like, Who taught you how to slap, Steph?”
On what was the most difficult chapter of the book to write: “I think the most difficult topic to cover was TJ’s injury. I had sleepless nights writing about those chapters. Those were the chapters that they pulled at my heart because they were really [tough]. Even with the stuff that, you know, we think about the Hart family, you think about all the things, there’s been highs and lows. Owen’s death was very tragic. My dad in his struggles, growing up with a parent that my dad struggled his whole, entire adult life, and so I had so much instability that when I was a kid that I’ve never shared. I’ve never shared any of it until writing this book, that people were like, Oh, I had no idea that for two years my sisters and my mom and I lived at my grandfather’s house, and we shared a bed. We shared one bed, and we all four slept in that bed for two years, because my dad lost everything, and so my mom was trying to create some stability for us. We were never, ever homeless. We lived at the Hart House, but there was only one available room. So it really taught me about like I got to sink or swim. Those were hard chapters to write about, because I talk a lot about my dad’s addiction and the things that we went through, and it was just those. Those were hard, but they were nothing like writing about TJ’s chapters of his injury and what we went through.”
Check out the complete interview below.
