WWE Superstar Natalya was the recent guest of Lilian Garcia’s ‘Making Their Way to the Ring,’ which you can listen to the entire podcast at this link. Below are a few of the highlights from the podcast:
On Her Second Career as a Writer:
I’m writing a national newspaper column for the Calgary Sun Newspaper, which is distributed across seven different newspapers in Canada: The Calgary Sun, the Edmonton Sun, the Vancouver Sun, it’s crazy. I write about anything. It’s a one-page column, and it’s getting rave reviews. I can post a picture and I have the entire page, every single week in this national newspaper to write about whatever I want, like Carrie Bradshaw [Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City]. I’m also writing a column for OK Magazine. I love writing, and I have always loved writing. Ever since I was young and in school I got a letter from President Bill Clinton for the Presidential Fitness Award for writing so writing has always been one of my passions. These two columns have been great. They make me realize that I am really good at something else besides headlocks and dropkicks.
On Her Close Relationship with Beth Phoenix:
It’s been great and overwhelming. I was talking to my mom this morning; it’s like this roller coaster and now you are starting to get off the roller coaster of last week’s events because WrestleMania is the biggest show of the year. Last week I was inducting Beth [Phoenix] and worked vicariously on her speech. I would wake up in the middle of the night and something would come up for me and I would always have to make sure to put whatever is on my mind in, and just wanted to do her justice. I am very biased of course, but I really believe Beth stole the show. Kurt Angle was phenomenal, but remember, I’m biased. I love Kurt Angle, he’s an inspiration to me, but nobody really knew Beth Phoenix can talk like that. No one really knew how eloquent and poised she is, and I knew that because I have been friends with her, but even Stephanie McMahon was like, I didn’t know you and Beth were that close. She said that she didn’t want anyone else to induct her but me. I thought she wanted her husband [Edge] to induct her but she said no, she’s like you were my best friend on the road, and we worked together. We were like sisters and still are. I text Beth multiple times a day. We visit each other when we can and are a big part of each other’s lives. I did the makeup for her wedding. I think people were just blown away by her and what she said, but Stephanie McMahon said that she didn’t know we had this connection with Owen [Hart] either and that he brought us together. That was the thing with her DM’ing me on MySpace, I thought she was a fan, so I was like, you know, you get a message from a fan and I was always flattered by fan messages, and she was saying how she can try and train at the Dungeon, but that the Dungeon had closed down and only wanted to be trained by my family. She said that your Uncles [Bret and Owen Hart] are the only reason why I do this. Their match at Madison Square Garden at WrestleMania 10 with Bret and Owen was amazing, and I thought that her comment was really cool but when I finally had met her she was in OVW, and when I saw her I thought that she was the real deal and then the 10 years I have known her it has always been the same thing; your Uncles are the reason I am doing this, your Uncles have been my inspiration so I always feel that Owen Hart was the reason we became friends.
On Bret Hart Beating Cancer:
It was so incredible at the reception that Owen Hart received at the Hall of Fame when his name was brought up. Bret Hart is completely healed from Cancer, but I will forever be indebted for Bret to be by my side at that pay per view after the previous WrestleMania dealing with just having beaten cancer. He had surgery just months prior, like two months prior and he didn’t feel good at all. Cancer, as you know, as you have dealt with it first hand, just really takes a lot out of a person, and I could see that it really took a lot out of Bret and not just physically but emotionally, but he was by my side during that match where he didn’t feel good because he was still recovering but he was there for me and I will always remember that. I think that this last year he just started getting his sea legs back because there was alot he had endured and it was very scary for him. I can tell he was really scared by everything, it scared him so much. Cancer really doesn’t run in our family. We really don’t have that much of a history of it, so Bret really wanted to use his situation with Cancer as a platform for others who are dealing with the same thing so it’s funny because after Bret announced that he had Cancer, there was a surge and stories were ran in the Paper. Thousands of men across the providence of Alberta where Bret lives went to get checked for Prostate Cancer and they did a special on the news that Bret Hart inspired so many people to come forward with Cancer so all these men were going to go get checked and it really is the power of prevention. Bret had said to me before he ever even annoucned he had Prostate Cancer that he really wasn’t sure if he wanted to announce it or not because he wasn’t sure that it was something he wanted to discuss; he is very private, but then he realized that if he spoke about it he can help others, which is really the kind of guy Bret Hart is. He wants to be able to pay it forward and that he did.
