Natalya Teases More Independent Appearances

WWE veteran Natalya appeared on the Ariel Helwani Show to discuss several topics, including if there are plans for her to have more bookings outside of WWE.

Natalya said, “There is, yes. That will be the next stop for the Natty World Tour. But there is, and that’s why doing NWA is so important to me. Not only is Billy Corgan a really good friend of mine, I met him in 2006 at Bret’s Hall of Fame ceremony, and he introduced himself to me. He was with Mick Foley, and he came up to me, and he was like, ‘I’m a huge fan of wrestling.’ He’s a fan of all wrestling, he loves wrestling. So it was no surprise to me that he bought the NWA library. He loves old-school wrestling. He’s a student of the game, but he is also an artist. So Billy is all about the art. I went to one of his NWA shows, and I was so impressed by how it was run. I was like, of course it’s run like this, of course it’s super professional because Billy’s a rockstar, he’s a massive rockstar. He knows what it’s like to put on a beautiful production. So being at his show a little while ago, I was like, ‘I really want to do Billy’s show.”

On her Bloodsport and Crockett Cup appearances:

“Now with the vibe being so different in WWE and us being allowed to do more stuff and have more opportunities, I want to show what I can do in all sorts of different spaces. I want to show what I can do in a Bloodsport space, I want to show what I can do with NWA, and again more things are coming. But it’s exciting. I love giving back, I love it, I will never not say that. But I want more. I want to do more, I want to be more, I want to be better, but I also want to help other people be better. I think when we all work together to be better, it just makes for a better product. So whoever I work with in NWA, I want them to go, ‘Wow, holy shit, I just learned so much.’ When I do stuff in NXT, I had this incredible Underground Match with Lola Vice, I had so much fun. It was probably my favorite match that I did last year, and after the match, I wanted it to be such a learning experience for her, but also for me. That’s the thing. Fit Finlay told me this, the second that you stop learning and the second that you don’t think you need to learn or that you don’t need to grow or that you’ve got it all figured out is the second that you need to hang it up. So I always thought about those words that Fit told me. Fit was our producer for the Underground Match, and I learned so much. I was like, wow, Fit opened my eyes to things that I never knew, and I was able to transfer that to Lola, and she was able to grow out of it. It’s about growing everyone and growing myself.”

You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.

(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)