Natalya talks about Vince's Brass ring comments, her relationship with Kidd and more
WWE Diva Natalya, the first third-generation female member from the Hart family, and one of the stars in the Total Divas reality television show, recently spoke with UK’s Mirror to promote the new season of Total Divas.
Total Divas is now heading into its third season in the UK and season four in the US, has been a breakout hit for E! on Sunday nights. The upcoming season sees Natalya struggling to keep her marriage alive with WWE Star Tyson Kidd. She also responds to Vince McMahon’s brass ring comments and why she’s content with not being Divas Champion.
Below are some highlights from the interview:
Total Divas season three kicks off on January 4. There’s some marital issues this season…
I never really thought I had marriage problems, I thought I had a perfect relationship with TJ, then I started doing Total Divas and I realised, wait a minute, my relationship’s not perfect at all. I watched the show back and it’s been very therapeutic for me. My mum watched it, and TJ’s mum watched it and she was like, ‘I don’t like this, I don’t like the D-word.’ Nobody, including us, knew how bad our relationship was until we did the show, filmed it and watched it back. It’s been very therapeutic for me to do it and address it.
How real is this, though? Is it just scripted?
I’m glad you asked that question. There was some speculation from people, and I took it as a compliment because people didn’t really want to think TJ and I had problems because they liked us as a couple. Some people were saying, ‘Oh, it’s all fake, Nattie and TJ aren’t fighting.’ I thought it was touching. I wish that was the case, you don’t realise how real things are until you go through it.
I realised doing the show we’re really disconnected. I’ve known him for 17 years. Our relationship started going up in flames and it was hard to watch it and experience it in front of the entire world, and have people go, ‘Oh, it’s not real’ and have my mum say, ‘I know you’re crying over something, those are tears are real, I know my daughter.’ I’m still working through it with TJ.
It seems the NXT Divas get a lot more ring time than the main roster Divas on Raw and SmackDown. Why do you think there’s such a disparity?
That’s why I go to NXT, any chance I get, I go to NXT. I want to be on Raw, I want to be on SmackDown, and NXT, and Total Divas, and Main Event, and Superstars, and I want to be on the WWE app – because I want to take any moment I can to get TV time and I want to tell stories.
With that said, who am I to complain? As far as grabbing brass rings, and there’s been a lot of talk of brass rings lately in WWE, Total Divas, when you look back to the original cast, the things we’ve done to elevate the Divas division and bring light and attention to the Divas division … who am I to complain? I’m on a hit show every week, one hour a week, that plays over and over again all over the world. Take advantage where you can get it. The Total Divas grabbed the brass ring and made people pay attention to the women in WWE.
It’s interesting you bring that up. What did you think of Vince McMahon’s recent comments?
When Vince McMahon made that brass ring comment, I think it was cool, it got everyone talking. It allowed us to analyse and say, this is what’s good, this isn’t working, maybe I’ll speak up, maybe I’ll be more aggressive.
But when I stop to look at it, I don’t think Vince McMahon meant every single solitary person that’s in the WWE right now. I think he meant that several people can grab the brass ring harder and I think when we look at Total Divas – I’ve done 40 episodes, I’ve put my life out there in ways I don’t think is even normal, and I’ve been willing to do this to help not only elevate the Divas division but show a human side to what we do. What we do in the ring is such a small part, we do so much – we work with different charities, we have anti-bullying campaigns, we work with sick kids.
For us girls, for the original cast members and the new cast members, for us to put our lives out there on blast for everybody, if that’s not grabbing the brass ring I don’t know what is. I don’t think just anybody could do a reality show and put their life out there and have no qualms about going, hey, I’m sharing something with you guys I’ve never shared with anybody and I’m doing it in front of the entire world. That, to me, is grabbing the brass ring.?