Natalya wonders what could've been.
Heading into Ronda Rousey's RAW Women's Championship match against Alexa Bliss at the 2018 SummerSlam pay-per-view, Natalya's father, WWE Hall Of Famer Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart unfortunately passed way. Natalya was able to make the SummerSlam pay-per-view in Brooklyn to be in the corner of Rousey to watch "The Baddest Woman On The Planet" capture her first championship in WWE. Prior to that, WWE Hall Of Famers who reviewed the product along with fans called for Natalya to be the one to turn on Ronda Rousey which would set up a RAW Women's Title match at 'Evolution'.
Natalya threw that idea out there herself when she joined Busted Open Radio and shared that she wanted to turn heel on Ronda Rousey and wonders how that heel turn could've changed the women's title scene going forward. Nattie did question how how she would've been able to carry a heel persona at the time of her father's passing.
“For me, when I look back, especially internally working in the company and my husband’s a producer and T.J. was also a superstar/wrestler for twenty years. Looking at the ins-and-outs of especially what happened with that main event, it was all a series of circumstances. I don’t know if that was ever supposed to be… obviously I don’t think that was ever supposed to be the original game plan. I think that when I look at it, it’s like, Becky was supposed to have that match with Ronda at Survivor Series. Nia knocked Becky out, Becky got a concussion and she couldn’t compete, and all of a sudden, it turned into Charlotte versus Ronda on four days notice, and then Becky’s momentum really, really started to pick up and I really wasn’t involved in that other than the fact that I was just coming back from… at that point in November, I think it was just a few months after my dad passed away, so for me it was a very strange place to be because I think… and this is just me speaking from the heart, off the cuff, I would’ve loved to turn heel on Ronda and done a program with Ronda." Natalya shared. "At that point… if my dad hadn't passed away, and I didn’t have that situation around me, I probably would’ve turned heel shortly after SummerSlam and who knows? I maybe would’ve been involved in that situation. But I think for me to be inserted into that angle, like I said, all the stuff with the main event was just a series of circumstances and I don’t know, especially after going through that extreme emotional trauma of losing my dad, who knows if I would’ve been strong enough to immediately just turn heel on Ronda and if I turned heel on Ronda, maybe I would’ve somehow, somewhere been a part of this main event. But it turned out, with everything with Becky and the concussion that was never supposed to happen and all of sudden, this crazy feud."
It was during the 2018 WWE Superstar Shake-Up that Natalya was moved from SmackDown Live to RAW and tonight is the first of two nights of Superstar Shake-Up maneuvers.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Busted Open Radio with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
