Natalya talks about training people in her own "Dungeon" and says that she doesn't think she'll ever be a WWE producer.
For the Hart family, wrestling is second nature. With a bloodline that has impacted multiple generations of professional wrestling, the Harts are just as well-known for their ability to help other wrestlers hone their craft as they are for their skills between the ropes. Edge, Chris Jericho, Lance Storm, and more were all helped along the way in some form or fashion by the Hart family, carrying on the teachings and wrestling style made famous in the fabled Dungeon.
In 2023, Natalya Neidhart is continuing on the Legacy started by her grandfather, Stu Hart, by helping fellow wrestlers find their footing and sharpen their skills inside a new-era Dungeon.
During an interview with Fightful's Joel Pearl, the former WWE Women's Champion detailed what she and her husband, Tyson Kidd (TJ Wilson), hope to accomplish with their wrestling workshop and also detailed why she believes she will never work for WWE in a coaching or producing capacity.
"I don’t think I’ll ever be a coach or a trainer or a producer," she began. "Now, listen, I’m one of those people who say, ‘Never say never.’ I think coaches and producers have the hardest job in the entire company. They’re literally training the superstars of tomorrow. When you’re a Hart, you get a wrestling ring, and you put it in your backyard. Bret has a ring, I have a ring, Edge has a ring. I consider Edge a Hart. We got a ring. TJ and I, a lifelong dream of ours was to have our own wrestling ring. So we got our own ring, and it’s a WWE ring. We love it. It’s big, it’s beautiful. It’s so special to us. We take care of it.
"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," she continued. "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, ‘Damn.’ 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."
Naming more women that have trained inside the new Dungeon, Natalya singled out Roxanne Perez, Shotzi, Cora Jade, Raquel Rodriguez, and even her former tag team partner, Beth Phoenix.
"We’ve had the lovely Raquel Rodriguez at our ring training," she 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."
Fans can read what Liv Morgan and Angelo Dawkins have to say about training with Natalya and Tyson Kidd.
Natalya was also recently quoted as saying working with Cora Jade was her favorite part of 2022. Read more here.
