WWE’s Natalya Talks ‘Vulnerable’ New Memoir, Hart Dynasty & The Rock

On the surface, one would think the life of stalwart women’s wrestler Natalya is an open book. The granddaughter of Stu Hart, daughter of Jim Neidhart, and niece of Bret Hart has spent almost 20 years and counting working for WWE. She also appeared on all nine seasons of the popular reality series Total Divas. However, the six-time Guinness World Records holder dug even deeper for her new memoir “The Last Hart Beating: From the Dungeon to WWE.” 

“Nattie” reflects on a unique upbringing and pressures she felt in keeping the respected Hart family dynasty alive. The 43-year-old also relives dark times from her late father’s battles with addiction and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) to her husband TJ Wilson’s career-ending in-ring injury that could have been fatal. This raw and inspiring read comes at a time of reinvention for Natalya. 

She has embraced the “Low Key Legend” moniker by testing her skills against talent inside and outside WWE. The former multi-time Women’s Champion showed a grittier side. Fueled by past frustration and renewed confidence in her abilities, the Raw superstar feels like she has a lot left in the tank. Natalya and Wilson, now a WWE producer, also bring generations of wrestlers together at their unique training space The Dungeon 2.0, carried in the tradition of her legendary grandfather. 

Here the trailblazer gets candid about writing her “vulnerable’ new memoir and her next chapter. 

John Cena recently paid a visit to Natalya and TJ Wilson’s training facility, The Dungeon 2.0. (Natalya)

Now that the book is out does it feel freeing with your story out there? 

Natalya Neidhart: You are literally reading my mind. This morning I was flying back from Boston and thinking about how I feel such a sense of relief. The feedback and response from people who have read the book or listened to the audio book, people are really resonating with it. I haven’t gotten anything negative. The only negative I received was that people wish it was longer because they wanted to read more and didn’t want the book to end. It was such a  compliment to me because people are loving the story. They are seeing a reflection of themselves in the story. To write the book, I had to go to the most vulnerable places of my entire life. But I made a vow to myself that if I were to do a book and tell my real, raw story that I needed to be able to go there. You can’t write about all the good things because that’s not real life. I can’t just write about the nights I won a championship or great times with my family or only happy times in my relationships. That’s not real or how life works for anyone. Especially, when it comes to deep relationships like the one I had with my dad. 

I know he meant and still means a lot to you. 

I dedicated my book to my dad, but the thing is with my dad and I is he is a main character in my story. But he and I had a complex relationship, so a lot of people ,including my own family members, are seeing relationships with their dad in my story. It’s a sense of relief that people are relating to it and that it’s making them feel something. It’s funny because I did give the book to John Cena the night he came to The Dungeon. I didn’t expect him to read it because he is one of the busiest people ever, and he has a million things going on. 

He read my book in one day. He said, “just opened this, somehow I’m halfway done with your book. Wow, amazing read so far. I can’t put it down.” Then later on that night he wrote me a text saying, “I just finished the book. Nattie, I balled my eyes out. Wow.” That was one of the biggest compliments I could possibly get because John is somebody I respect so much. I respect the person he is, not just the wrestler he is, but the person that he is. He is the true measure of greatness within our industry. Everyone loves John so much, but the fact he took time to read the book and felt something strong from it. It made me think I was validated because there were times I was scared to tell the story because I didn’t know how people would receive it. 

You also open up about a career-ending injury for TJ. I know he is a reserved guy, so how did he feel about sharing your perspective and reliving what happened to him? 

We’re very opposite. I think it’s why our relationship works so well. He is very private. He is actually very shy. He doesn’t do a lot of interviews. Unless he gets to know people, he is really reserved. But that’s another thing about the book is there is this really awesome love story that you can’t even make up. You can’t make up a love story like this. TJ was very much, “you do you and tell the story you want to tell. I’ll support whatever it is you want to share about our relationship or my career. You tell the story the way you want to.” I did let TJ read chapters. I wanted him to feel good about it. I wanted him to feel comfortable with it. He did help me write the chapters on his injury because I didn’t want to get those wrong. I wanted to get details from that night and exactly the way it happened. 

That’s why I put in my book a little disclaimer. Listen, I’ve been body slammed a ton and up and down and back again in the Hart family and have my own version of this story. If you don’t agree with it, this is still my story. I actually got that from Becky Lynch, who had a disclaimer in her book. At one point I wasn’t sure if I was going to talk about the injury because this was TJ”s stuff, but it was one of the darkest, hardest, and most challenging times of my life too watching TJ lose his career. But we had to go there in the story because on the other side of his injury was this insane amount of progress and hope and light and this cool new journey that began for him that I had to share with the world. I think that is something people are messaging privately to say that made them feel so good and look at their own situation differently. It was powerful and gave them hope. You can’t have stars without darkness. You have to show the hard times because on the other side are some of the best moments of TJ’s life, which people are loving too. 

Tyson Kidd and Natalya (WWE)

How was it having Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson write the foreword? He doesn’t do these things very often, but that’s a testament to the respect he has for you and your family. 

When I asked Dwayne [Johnson]  to do the foreword, he didn’t hesitate for one second. He has so much respect for my family. I have a great relationship with him, and he is somebody when he was first coming into WWE, he was close to my Uncle Owen and my Uncle Bret. I think Owen and him had a very special relationship. They had that generational bond. Bret and Owen saw Dwayne coming in and were like, “we know what it’s like coming from a wrestling family where people think you got here because of your family name.” There was that instant connection. I’ve always felt like Dwayne has never forgotten that, even though he is the biggest star in the world. His grandmother was a wrestling promoter. My grandfather was a wrestling promoter. My grandfather and his grandmother Lia [Maivia] would exchange talent. Many of my uncles would work for Lia in Hawaii. Lia would send talent to work for my grandfather. Dwayne’s dad Rocky Johnson worked for my grandfather as well in the 1960s. We still have original programs from when Rocky was first welcomed into Stampede Wrestling. My grandmother made them. One day when I see Dwayne again, they’re his. 

Dwayne has been so incredible to me and supportive. When he took on the project of doing the foreword, he actually took the time to research it. We had several conversations about how he was going to do it. He wanted to write it and wanted to write it from his heart. I love that because in doing the research for it he asked me, “Nattie, what does legacy mean to you? I really want to know that because it’s a big part of my foreword.”  At the same time, I was stuck on the last chapter of the book. I couldn’t quite understand what he wanted the ending to be. When he asked me, it came to me. I really credit Dwayne for helping me find the ending to my book because it was his question that prompted it. In wrestling, it’s always about the big finish. I was able to wrap the story up in such a beautiful way. 

WWE

When it comes to Total Divas, if the reality show was around now do you think it would have been the same sort of storytelling approach or be more like Unreal on Netflix in terms of approach? 

One thing WWE is good at is modernizing things that feel fresh. They always have a fresh approach. Every single week, we’re never just resting on what we just did. Everything could be better every week. I think it’s about growing and continuing to build. The thing with Total Divas is we had a cool format for the show, but it would be nice to modernize it a little bit. I’m always digging deeper, even on Unreal. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was captivating. 

I want even more. I want to figure out what’s really going on behind the stories. Like when the R-Truth stuff went down and Ron [Killings] had that little hiatus in my mind I thought, “I hope they’re covering this because I want to see these backstage conversations. We’re hearing things backstage and it’s hearsay, but if we’re going to unlock reality let’s really unlock it. I like the show delving into that. I think it’s the same with Total Divas. If I’m having a conflict with someone on the show like Summer Rae, who I had a heated rivalry with, I want to dig deeper. I want to unlock more if we could without anybody getting arrested. 

“Low-Key Legend Natalya (Bloodsport)

When it comes to the “Low-Key Legend” that was born out of the book and finding your identity. 

I’m passionate about bringing the “Low-Key Legend” to WWE. I took a chance at myself. That’s one of the things John Cena focused on when he came to The Dungeon and gave this masterclass. He talked about taking a chance on yourself and not waiting for people to give you stuff. You have to come up with your own ideas and find inspiration and build yourself. He talked about what worked for him in his career and things he could have done better. I loved that he was so self-deprecating because it’s just who John is. He doesn’t think he is better than everybody else. I thought about what he was saying. I look at Natalya and think she has been so rock solid and so reliable and steadfast for almost two decades. I knew I needed to make a change and that the audience wanted to see a change. Our audience is so important to me, but more than anyone, I needed to change for me because if you keep doing the same things you’ve always done, you’re going to get the same result. 

I’m so proud of myself, that I took that chance on myself, and the company was super supportive of it. It made me feel so good. I can’t be under a WWE contact and go work outside on the indies without the blessing and support of the company. So, I got that. I think that is because there is a strong level of trust between myself and WWE, which I’m very proud of. I had this whole vision of what I wanted to do. The vision came from writing the book. This is who I wanted to be, and thought, “why can’t I be her?” I got to work on it and created this low key legend persona that is really an extension of me and my roots in The Dungeon. People are very interested in it because I’m really the first person in WWE under a WWE contract to build a character on the independents. I saw Mick Foley at an event and said I got a lot of inspiration from him.

This has been pretty much outside of WWE. Is there talks of bringing more of that into the WWE space?  What would it take? 

So to bring her to WWE would be a dream come true. I’d say as long as we could capture the essence of the “Low-Key Legend” in WWE, I’d want to go full steam with it. I’d like to see anyone go toe-to-toe with the “Low-Key Legend.” I would probably beat all their asses and then some just as I did with the girls on the indies. Just like Miyu ]Yamashit], Kenzie [Paige], Masha [Slamovich], and Promise [Braxton]. They went nose-to-nose with the “Low-Key Legend” and learned who the “Low-Key Legend” is. I can tell you they probably don’t want to see that side of me again because I left them with a lot of bruises and maybe a little blood in their mouth. 

Meet Natalya on her current book tour as it stops in Orlando November 23 from 3-5 p.m. at Dave & Busters.

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