17-year WWE veteran reveals her father initially didn't want her to get into wrestling due to a major reason
Wrestling consists of several prominent families, including that of WWE Superstar Natalya. She recently revealed that her Hall of Fame father, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, was initially hesitant about her pursuing a career in professional wrestling.
Jim Neidhart was a legendary figure, best known for his role in the tag team during the 1980s and 1990s, The Hart Foundation, with his brother-in-law, Bret Hart. The Anvil was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019 and his daughter, Nattie, is carrying his legacy.
The Queen of Harts began her career with the Sports Entertainment titan in 2007. Over the past 17 years, she has won the Divas Championship once, the SmackDown Women's Championship once, and the Women's Tag Team Championship once.
Speaking on the Growing Up Von Erich podcast, Natalya's father initially discouraged her from pursuing a career in wrestling, as it was a male-dominated field in the 1980s. The former Divas Champion also shared that while there were a few prominent female wrestlers like Sensational Sherri and Miss Elizabeth, most women in the industry were valets or had more limited roles.
"Growing up my dad [Jim Neidhart] didn't really want us (because I've two sisters) being wrestlers because back in the '80s there wasn't really that many women wrestlers. There was like Sensational Sherri [Martel], and Miss Elizabeth (...) There wasn't a lot of women wrestlers, so it was more women like Luna Vachon, and there was valets, but it just was more of a man's world. So my dad kind of sheltered us from that and didn't really want us doing it or really being around it because he felt like he had to protect us from the business," Nattie said. [04:05 - 04:38]
You can watch the full episode below:
Natalya further explains which female WWE legends inspired her to get into wrestling
During the same interaction on the Growing Up Von Erich podcast, The Queen of Harts revealed that she discovered her passion for the sport while watching female wrestlers like Trish Stratus and Lita in WWE.
Inspired by their performances, the former WWE SmackDown Women's Champion began training at her grandfather's wrestling school, The Dungeon, at the age of sixteen. Natalya shared that this experience solidified her love for wrestling and made her the only female wrestler in her family:
"As I became a teenager and women's wrestling became more prevalent and we started seeing Trish Stratus, and Lita, and all these different women in WWE, then all of sudden I kind of got the itch. When I was sixteen, I was watching Trish and Lita, and I was like, 'I wanna do this.'"
The 42-year-old WWE Superstar added:
"I ended up going to The Dungeon which is where my grandfather — he would train people in The Dungeon, and I had one practice session in there and I was just hooked. I had so much fun, and I was like the only girl in our family to wrestle," she added. [04:40 - 05:24]
Natalya returned to Monday Night RAW after 105 days. She defeated Zoey Stark of Pure Fusion Collective on the September 16, 2024, edition of the red brand. It remains to be seen if The Queen of Harts will shift her focus to a singles title anytime soon.
Please credit Growing Up Von Erich and provide an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.