Unlike storylines in WWE, professional wrestling careers aren't forever. No matter how well a performer keeps themselves in shape, how safe they are in the ring, and how many/few matches they work in a calendar year, eventually, a wrestler will step out of the ring for the last time and their legacy will become history instead of the present. For Natalya, the last remaining member of the Hart Dynasty in WWE, the finite nature of her career is becoming more and more apparent, as, after 23 years in the ring, the 40-year-old performer is beginning to think about the end of her career and what could come after it.
Speaking with Joel Pearl of Fightful for an interview on WrestleMania weekend, Natalya noted that, while she may not want to become a promoter or coach in WWE moving forward, she's found a pretty incredible avenue to share her experience by way of workshops at her Dungeon, which is a pretty fun tip of the cap to The Stu Hart Dungeon, which hosted the training of some of the best wrestlers to ever lace up their boots, from Bret and Owen Hart, to Nattie, and even external wrestlers like Brian Pillman and Chris Jericho. By Natalya's account, she's putting in some work to make new stars even if she isn't being contracted by WWE to do so.
“What we do is we have our dungeon – we call it the Dungeon. It’s a workshop. So we run a wrestling workshop once a week for people that we know that want extra help,” Natalya said. “Whether it’s Angelo Dawkins—who, by the way, has made a huge body transformation. You see his growth and his change. He’ll work RAW, he’ll work live events, he’ll work Smackdown, he’ll work a pay-per-view and he’ll still be at our ring every Wednesday. He’s lost all this weight. Last week he was on RAW with a six-pack. I was like, ‘D*mn.’ But you see Liv Morgan, the growth that she’s made in WWE. I really feel Liv puts in the work. She comes and she trains with us. Our training is really serious, it’s really intense and not just anybody can be there and do it. Not everybody can handle it because it is pretty grueling.”
After watching Dawkins and Morgan turn in two of the best moments of WrestleMania 39, with the former laying out Braun Strowman on Day 1 and the latter being thrown out of the ring as a projectile by her tag team partner, Raquel Rodriguez, on Day 2, it's safe to say the duo are operating at their highest-level within the WWE Universe.
Natalya has become a go-to resource for the WWE Universe.
Discussing her side hustle further with Pearl, Natalya noted even more of the in-ring performer she has worked with recently and how the process has been just as helpful to her wrestling knowledge as it's been to the Superstars she's helping.
“We’ve had the lovely Raquel Rodriguez at our ring training,” Natalya added. “Like I said, we’ve had Dawkins, Liv, Roxie, Cora Jade. There’s been a lot of people Shotzi’s been there. Nikki Cross. Names that I can’t mention have been there because they’re secretive. Beth Phoenix was there a couple of weeks ago. There have been a lot of people that have been like, ‘Hey, Nattie, we want to keep it private.’ But you’d be pretty stunned to find out. One day I’ll let you know everybody who’s been there. But the ring is so awesome. People always say, ‘Oh, are you going to be a coach after WWE? Or do you want to be a producer?’ For me, there’s a lot of other dreams that I have and I just don’t know if I have the patience to be a coach of a producer, but I love the wrestling workshop that we have. TJ passes on his knowledge and I’m not just passing on my knowledge, I’m learning from the people that I’m working with. So it’s about fine-tuning.”
You know, for not wanting to be a producer or coach, opening a wrestling school of sorts would be a pretty incredible way for Natalya to pass along everything she's learned from her grandfather, her father, her uncles, and her 17 year years as a WWE Superstar to the next generation of would-be wrestlers, from those with connections to her famous family like the Billington Bulldogs of MLW and Brian Pillman Jr. of AEW to adopted family members like Shotzi and Morgan, who have played roles in her career as part of WWE.
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