Natalya reflects on working with Roxanne Perez in The Dungeon and her brief NXT feud with Cora Jade.
Natalya is one of the longest-tenured women's wrestlers in WWE history. Now, her role is mostly that of a veteran who wrestles young stars and helps wrestlers sharpen their skills. Recently, Natalya worked with Cora Jade on NXT.
Speaking about that experience to Spencer Love of Love Wrestling, Nattie said working with Cora was her favorite part of 2022.
“[She's] a bit more of a bad girl, Cora, but I think my favorite thing that I did in 2022 was that storyline with Cora. It was so much fun. She wanted to soak up as much information as she could. She was really a pleasure to work with, and I loved our program together. It was so much fun, and I think that there's a lot of great things to come for her in the future, too. I think she's a student of the game. She is also somebody that I pointed to in the crowd! She has this photo of us that we took a selfie in the audience, and she like made it. So, it's really cool again, like Roxy, Cora's a fan. She's a fan, she loves this, and she's here. She made it. Cora and Roxy are a great message to little girls, and guys, everywhere, that you can have big dreams and you can accomplish them. You can achieve them. With hard work, dedication, and not ever taking no for an answer, you can achieve your dreams."
Natalya also addressed working with Roxanne Perez in The Dungeon 2.0 and their interaction from a decade ago that was preserved on Total Divas.
"Roxanne, it's funny, she was a fan! I was walking into a live event, and she was there and she was just like, so cute. She just asked this question about 'what do I need to do to be a Diva?' it was during the Divas Era, of course. That's when we were all called Divas. We weren't allowed to be called women wrestlers, even though now we're referred to as Superstars. In all honesty, as much as I love wrestling, I think when Vince McMahon wanted us to be called Superstars, he wanted us to feel bigger than just wrestling. He wanted to know that we were like all these big stars. I digress. Roxy is so sweet. I feel like she's very hard-working, and she genuinely loves wrestling. She genuinely loves WWE. She genuinely loves the industry. She also came from a really good upbringing. She worked with Booker T, and you can see her progress and her growth. Every time I see Roxy on NXT, I just see that she gets more and more confident. She's actually trained with us a little bit in The Dungeon, too! She's very hard-working, and she's a good person. I think that's one thing that the Audience really can resonate with Roxy is that she's very genuine."
Now, Perez has full confidence as the reigning and defending NXT Women's Champion. As for Cora Jade, she's still waiting for her time to capture gold in NXT.
Fightful has live coverage of WWE NXT as it airs on the USA Network, beginning every Tuesday at 8 p.m. eastern time.
Thanks to Spencer Love for the above quotes.
