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After spending the longest continuous period of time as a member of the WWE roster of any female Superstar and/or Diva in the promotion's history, it would make sense if Natalya started to slow down and prepare for her inevitable call to join the WWE Hall of Fame, but even at 41, the second-oldest female wrestler on the main roster behind only Shayna Baszler, it's clear the “BOAT” isn't slowing down any time soon.
And the best part? She's not just doing it in the WWE Universe.
That's right, while Natalya has never turned down a chance to go down to NXT for a match against a young, ascending star like Lola Vice, she's also putting in work at her Dungeon in Tampa Bay, where she and her husband TJ Wilson/Tyson Kidd help to train other wrestlers, both in the WWE Universe and from outside of it, as she detailed in an interview with Ring The Belle.
“So with our Dungeon, it's like a workshop. It's for intermediate to advanced people that just want to kind of work on things and fine-tune and hone their craft, but TJ and I have so many friends in the industry that I'm not going to be like, listen, you don't work in WWE, so we can't talk. If you love this and you have a passion for this, we can make it work. TJ and I love helping,” Natalya told Ring The Belle via Fightful.
“We love to help people that love this. When I look at Moose, for example, I know Moose just won the TNA championship. I think I have so much respect for Moose and how hard he's worked in his journey. And when Moose asked us to train, I thought, why not? Why not? He loves this. Billie Starkz asked me if she could come train with us, and I was like, yeah, I would love to get in there with you and mix it up. I love being able to help people do what they love. It's hard because we only have a small space. So I try not to have more than 15 people there at a time. But it's so cool to be able to work with women and men that love this. From Angelo Dawkins to Ashante Thee Adonis to Moose to B-Fab. B-Fab puts in so much work. She works so hard. I told her, I said, we don't get ready, we stay ready. She's somebody that's really going to blow everybody away. I'm so, so, so proud of her. I'm excited. Love having Shotzi in our Dungeon. Shotzi works so hard. Of course, Liv Morgan's an OG of the Dungeon and Liv is one of my favorite people to be in the ring with so I love working with Liv. It's amazing. I just love people that have passion for this, and we want to help them in whatever way we can.”
Whoa, could you imagine a match between Liv Morgan and Billie Starkz, or Moose against Angelo Dawkins? Sure, they might not be the greatest bouts of all time, but the fact that they're going down in a ring somewhere in Florida is a pretty incredible thing to learn and an even more welcomed service Natalya offers to her fellow wrestlers free of charge.
Natalya describes a surreal return to NXT for a match with Lola Vice.
After making her surprise return to Orlando to answer Lola Vice's open challenge at NXT, Natalya stopped by the backstage area to do a special digital exclusive segment for the brand.
Asked how it felt to be back in the Performance Center, Natalya noted she was incredibly excited, as she loves helping out the next generation of Superstars.
“Honestly, I’m speechless because it feels just surreal being back here. Even though I’m one of the most winning women in WWE history, and I do have the world record for that [laughs], it’s been a minute since I’ve actually had a victory in WWE,” Natalya said on NXT via Fightful. “These moments, I don’t take for granted. I just feel so honored to be here. I almost got choked up when I heard the crowd. It just made me emotional because it brought back so many memories of some of the best moments of my career that were at NXT, truly. Being in the ring with Lola, I realized more than ever that she is one of fastest-rising stars in NXT. She’s amazing, but she’s not the BOAT. Knowing that she’s so talented, but also seeing how cocky she is, it just felt really good putting her in her place tonight. I don’t know, I think I need to go celebrate with a glass of wine and some chocolate.”
Will Natalya be back in NXT any time soon? Theoretically, she should, but in the end, fans will have to see what happens on Shawn Michaels' show moving forward.
