174. Natalya Neidhart - Casual Conversations - TWC Show

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Like, this is how I heard it, and this is
the way I remember it, and this is how my
grandfather told the story. So you guys are going to
read the book Heart Family. You're going to read the
book with everyone else.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
And we are back for another casual conversation with the
classic guy. I'm here with the boat the low key
legend herself, Natalia. How are you doing today?

Speaker 1 (00:35):
I'm doing great? Good morning or good sorry, good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
It's almost afternoon. I guess it's eleven twenty six.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
I guess it's Oh, yes.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
I am in Vancouver, that is right. How are we
doing today?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
I'm doing great.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
So let's talk about the book, The Last Heart Beating
from the Dungeon to the WWE. I have to ask you,
what did it feel like for you to finally be
able to tell your story because I feel like for
many years, obviously there's a little bit of Sea Natalia
on Total Divas, but to really dive into your story,
what does.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
That mean for you? I think for me, I realized
that after being in WWE. You know, last year when
I was signing my new deal with WWE, so I
had some big bucket list items that I wanted to
do and I was like, this is the time to
really like, this is your chance to like ask for
all these things that you want to do. And I
asked WWE if I could write a book and I

(01:25):
wanted their blessing on it, and they were so supportive,
and I was like, listen, I I've worked in the public.
I've worked for WWE for almost two decades, which is
unprecedented for a female in the company, because you know,
you don't see careers that go even for men. You know,
there's Miz, there's Randy Orton, there's Shamus Kofee, and like me,

(01:45):
you know, they're still in the company, still doing this
at this level for this long And so I realized
that across all these interviews that I had done total
divas and I've had, you know, close to two thousand matches,
I realized that people, I said, my husband TJ. I
was like, people don't actually really know me. I said,
they don't really really know my story. And I feel,

(02:07):
you know, I felt before I even wrote the book,
I was like, my story is so powerful that I
feel like it could really inspire others. And that was
enough motivation for me to start writing it.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
It's interesting because Yeah, I feel like there's been always
a little breadcrumbs of like who Natalia has, but never
the full story. Like I even remember being in Cowgary
myself and I think I took a picture of something.
You're like, oh, I used to work there, and I
was like, oh, I never thought about you, like working
a nine to five as a waitress somewhere ross. It
didn't cross my mind. Right, So let me ask you
this because obviously the Heart family, you guys are a

(02:38):
big family. There could have been a whole book just
on your childhood with them. How did you choose what
stories to tell that really formed you as a person
because there could have been a million Heart stories.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
I thought, that's the thing is that there's so much
with my family. There's so much meat on the bone.
You know, when your uncle was Bret Hart and your
other uncles Owen and you know you got the British
bulldogs and my dad being a legend, did my grandfather
being a legend? And you grew up in a family
full of Hall of famers, you got to figure out
what is what stories are worth telling and what stories

(03:09):
like there was so much meat on the bone. But
I realized, like in writing my book. I was like,
I'm Brett's story is not my story. Owen story is
not my story. The British bulldog stories like you know
my grandfather, like I do. We do mention them, we
do talk about them, But my story, no one's heard
my story. It's a story that's never been told. And

(03:31):
I was like, I really think people are going to
be inspired by this.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
One of my favorite things about reading wrestlers autobiographies and
athletes and entertainers everybody's autobiographies is I feel like, if
you're already a fan of them, you're pretty well aware
of the career that they have in the sport that's doing,
or the singing or acting or whatever. But it's always
that early part of their life that you're so intrigued by.
And I think you did a really good time of
capturing that tell us a little bit. Like I was

(03:57):
really intrigued about the stories of you know, the restlers
hanging out at your house when you were a kid
and your dad and you know, Savage driving into a
poll or Rick rude, Like, do you have a story
that you left out there that you really wish you
got to add in there?

Speaker 1 (04:08):
I mean, there are some stories that I just there's
so many stories growing up with my family because my
dad was a wrestler that all the wrestlers love my dad.
He was the best. He was so much fun to
hang out with. My dad. You know, he was drinking
Buddies with Andre the Giant. That's how he ended up,
you know, That's how he and Bred ended up getting
into WrestleMania, being the last two at a battle Royal WrestleMania.

(04:30):
But I mean, there's just you know when growing up,
like we would have Miss Elizabeth Over and Randy Savage,
and you tell the story about Iron Chic in our
backyard and even my you know, one of my favorite
stories was when I was a kid. Gosh, you asked
me such a good question. Now I'm like getting excited
when my dad came to my kindergarten class and I

(04:52):
tell that story of like it's bring your parent to
work day, and you know, I remember one of the
kids their mom was an accountant, and the other kids,
you know, dad was a dentist, and you know, they're
they had all these all the kids in my kindergarten class,
their parents were all so nice and normal, it seemed,
and then my dad comes in. You know, no shirt on,
fanny pack, Rolex watch, ray band, sunglasses, air Jordan's sweat

(05:15):
dripping off his chest, shows up on a Ninja motorcycle
and you know, comes in barges into my kindergarten class
and just basically the kids were all gravitated towards this
character that looked like he should have been a member
of zz Top and I mean, like he I think
my dad was wearing knee pads too, if I'm not
mistaken and spandex. And I was like, you know, my

(05:39):
dad gave this talk to the kids about school, and
he's like, I'm here to tell you that school it's
about doing. School's not important. He's like, do well in sports.
He's like, do well in sports. Everything I have is
from sports. He's like, just do well in sports. And
my kindergarten teacher was trying to pull my dad off
stage because she's like no, my Dad's like yes, yeah,
like and they my dad never came back to my

(06:01):
class after that, but my dad was so excited to say, like,
you know, my dad was When my dad was eighteen
years old, he was the number one shot put her
in the US and he was ranked number five in
the World, and so my dad also played for the
Dallas Cowboys, he played for the Oakland Raiders. He did
all this before he ever came to WWE or he
ever got involved in wrestling. But my dad was just

(06:22):
such a unique character. So we had so many cool
people growing up around our house as kids, and like,
those were great childhood memories.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
What's up everybody does? RB Here from Rade City Toys.
Hope you guys enjoyed the show. Make sure you guys
subscribed to our YouTube channel, The Wrestling Classic. Check out
the TWC shows that Justin and I do weekly. Also
subscribed to jesse yappin Justin and I talk about wrestling
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(06:49):
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It's the followers, So I'll just get those subscriber count up. Subscribe, like,
comment and share and you, guys, go back to the show,
and I hope you get enjoyed.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
How much of this was? Like, obviously, as you get older,
you also start thinking a little bit more about yourself.
This is a stow by yourself. But when you think
about yourself, you have to think about your immediate family,
your siblings, and your parents. And then also like, I
also lost my dad a couple of years ago, so
I kind of get it. How much of this was
kind of like putting pen to paper, like putting it
intowards kind of like you also like, oh, I think

(07:31):
I finally understand my dad.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah, that's a great question. I dedicated my book to
my dad.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
I when I was thinking about who I wanted to
dedicate it to, he was the first person. He was
the only person that I could dedicate my book to.
He was the one that you know, shape me, and
he scared me. He was somebody that I loved so much,
but it also just I was really my dad was
like a very pivotal person in my life and taught

(08:00):
me so many valuable lessons. But like, also he wasn't perfect,
and so I was able to learn so much from
my dad about persevering and my dad was very, very
disciplined as a professional athlete. Taught me a lot about discipline,
but he also taught me about things I wanted to
do and things I didn't want to do. And so
you know, I just I think for my family. I

(08:21):
think when my family reads it. By the way, none
of my family have read okay, so I I want
I want them to read it when it comes out
with everyone else. I don't want to. I want my
family to read it together, because what I was afraid
of was people will start reading it and go, no,
that's not how it happened, or that's not what I

(08:43):
This is how I remember it. This is my the
way I remembered it. And you know, my family, everybody,
for example, with my grandparents meeting in New York, everybody
has a different perspective on how my grandparents met. And
it's like, this is how I heard it, and this
is the way I remember it. That is how my
grandfather told the story. So you guys are going to
read the book heart family, You're going to read the

(09:05):
book with everyone else, But then you're not going to
text me on the side and go Natty, I need
to be you know, mentioned I just want them to
enjoy it and read it. And it was Brett's book.
I mean, you've read Brett's book. Brett's book is I
think you know, it's like the Its. It's just a
masterclass in books. It's so, so, so good. And so

(09:26):
I told Brett I was telling him about a little
anxiety I was having. I was like, I just you know,
I want to make sure everybody again recovering people Pleaser.
I was like, I just want to make sure everybody
loves the book. And I know it's not going to
be like your book, but your story's different than mine.
And I was having anxiety because again I wanted the
book to be so good and people to love it.
And Brett said, Brett gave me the best advice of
anybody in writing my book. Brett said, just write the

(09:48):
book for you. He goes, don't worry about anyone else.
You can't make everyone happy. He goes, write the book
for you, and then you'll you can't go wrong. And
Brett has been he's been such a light in my life.
You know, he's been such a guiding stables. He's he's
somebody that isn't just an uncle to me. He's really
one of my one of my dear friends. So I

(10:08):
was very grateful to you that the very first words
that you're going to read in my book are from
the Hitman. Yeah, good words. Open up the whole book,
Adam be for this true.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Like Brett's book, there's a lot of things that other
people argued, but it's like that's how he remembers it.
That's his story, and this is how you remember. This
is your story. Hey, yo, it's your boy, The Wrestling
Classic Justin and I'm here to tell you guys about
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(10:39):
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(11:00):
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Check them out. Keep doing the things the Leader. Yeah,
that to my point, I always also felt like it
allowed you to actually see and this is something that

(12:04):
happens when you get older too. It's just like you
actually see your parents as humans and you realize, oh,
I'm probably around the same age they were at this time,
and that's crazy. Now I understand what they were going through.
So it's cool. But what was really cool about this
book because as also a kid that grew up on
like Bollywood movies and love stories and et cetera, we
finally got to hear the love story between you and
TJ a little bit more in depth, how it started

(12:24):
and how it's how we're progressing. Word is today, Like
we saw you guys in total EVAs. We got to
be part of the wedding and stuff, but we never
like I was curious myself, like, Okay, we know, we
know you've known each other since kids, but like what happened?
And I think that really at the end of it all,
Like I don't want to get too many spoilers, wrestling
really brought you two together.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
It really did.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
What did it mean to you to actually be able
to tell that part of the story because everone knows
you guys have been together, Nobody really.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Know guys nobody got more black guys than TJ did
for me. Holy moly, That's how I fell in love
with TJ, truthfully, is that he wanted to wrestle with me.
TJ was the person it told me to get into wrestling.
He said you should try it, and then he was
so good. I learned how to wrestle from him, and
so he wanted he you know, he really wanted to

(13:10):
coach me and train me and teach me, and so
I was The first wrestling move I ever learned was
called a dragon rana. And what a dragon rona is
is that it's a front flip onto It's a front flip.
You do a front flip onto the person's shoulders and
then you do a backflip where they spiked like their
head goes into the turnbuckle. I did. That was one
of the first moves I've ever learned, and I swear
I gave TJ five black eyes trying to learn that move.

(13:32):
And every time I would hit DJ by accident in
the face, I would like, do this somersault and land
on him, and I knew it would knock the wind
out of him, but like he kept on. He's like,
just keep going you can do it. You can do it.
You can do it, you can do it. I knew
then that it was true love because he was will
He was just like he didn't care that I was like,
you know, giving him black eyes, landing on him the
wrong way. He was he just wanted me to succeed.

(13:54):
He's always been my biggest ally, my biggest supporter, my
big my best friend. He's been the most insistent, stable,
steady person I've ever met in my life.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, and you really get that through this book. You
can really tell how much like him believing in you
motivated you to go after being the first woman in
the Heart family to pursue professional wrestling. What does that
mean to you? Because I didn't really It's weird. Actually
I should have known that, but then I put put
it together when I was like, oh, yeah, that's that's true.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
Well, and it's funny because my grandfather didn't really want
us girls doing it, so my aunts, you know, they
they were kind of discouraged from, you know, wrestling because
it's a hard business back in the seventies and there
wasn't really that many women doing it, you know, so
it's definitely a hard business. I just was so intrigued
by it since the first time I was a little

(14:44):
girl and I held my dad's you know, I write
this in the book, but I held my dad's Tag
Team championship. I remember my dad coming home and winning
the title and me holding his belt up over my head,
and I was so fascinated by that. My sisters they
they they thought the championship was cool, but I felt
something different when I held it, and that feeling never

(15:04):
left me. And then it just kind of TJ was
the first person that really said to me. He's like,
you can do it. You should do it, you should
try it, and it just sparked a fire in me
that from the very first day that I trained in
the dungeon, snuck into the dungeon without my grandfather knowing,
I fell in love with wrestling and it was like
a drug, honestly, Like it was just training for wrestling
was just like this wonder drug that just made me

(15:26):
feel so good and made me feel so alive. And
like if there was a feeling that you could bottle
up that feeling and sell it. I've heard people talk
about that, like the Rock is kind of said similar,
but like if you could bottle up that feeling and
sell it of what wrestling makes me feel, and competing
and performing and doing it. It's just it's inexplainable. It's indescribable.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
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I actually relate the jau.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
So.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
We got some legends. We got some guys like Hull Coke,
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Speaker 1 (16:22):
Now.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
There's Sean Michael Stoneclad, Steve Boston, the Undertaker, CM Punk
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(16:42):
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(17:04):
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(17:26):
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There's a ton more. Make sure you get them all
before they do another drop so you don't miss out.
You came in as the girl that wrestled in a
world of you know whereas a situation in the industry,
whereas about you know, models getting hired, athletes, very fit girls.

(17:47):
You came in as a girl that wrestled, and you
had a lot of insecurities that you had to overcome.
It's so many years later and you're still the girl
that wrestles and you're still here. And a lot of
those other girls either come and gone or whatnot. Speak
on your longevity knowing that like you came in thinking
that you weren't what they wanted, but yet you've been
here the longest, well into what was the perseverance come from.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
I love what I do, I love I love my career.
I cherish my career, I love the people that I
work with, and I've never I've never stopped. Sorry, that's
where my bosses waving. I've never I've never stopped loving it.
And I just one of the things I learned from
working in WWE, especially from my bosses, and I learned

(18:28):
it from Vince at a very very early in my career.
Never get comfortable with like being you know, don't ever
rest on your last match. You know, I was always
striving for greatness. And we see that now, like we
don't just rest on our last pay per view. We don't.
We We're Monday Night ron smack down to the longest
running episodic TV shows in history. It's not because we
got comfortable. And So I love my career. I love

(18:49):
what I do. I love the people that I work for,
and I and that I work with the girls in
the locker room. And I'm just so grateful and so lucky.
But I also feel so good, Like my body feels incredible.
So I just I want to keep doing the stuff
that makes me happy, but then also pursuing things like
you know, my book, writing my book. I want to
do stuff that also sets my soul on fire. There's
just so much to do. I love. I love that

(19:11):
I'm able to really explore all these opportunities and wrestle how.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
Much is it you being able to roll through the punches,
through the hearts and loves Because you talk about the
highs and the lows of your career, the farting gimmick,
being champion then being on dark matches, Like, how much
of that is part of your longevity?

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Do you It's it's you know, for me, like all
those highs and lows, they they're part of my story
and they've made me strong and and so that's that's
the thing is, I've never met anybody that's had a
career long or short where they had to do stuff
that like to me, like it was like there's tons
of things. Even when I was a waitress, there was
stuff I hated about waitressing, but there was stuff I

(19:47):
loved about waitressing. You know, I hated when a table
was done, you had to clean up this mess and
you have to at the end of the night, you
have to clean up and put all the chairs. But
then when I was working, I loved the people. I
love the interactions. I loved like if I worked hard
and I had a lot of tables, I would get
a lot of tips. And I think that in my
career in WWE, it's like there's things that I absolutely
loved and there was things that I didn't. But it
wouldn't be a good book if I just sugarcoated everything,

(20:10):
and that wouldn't be a good story. It would not
be a good story if it was just smooth sailing.
Have you ever met? That's what Hard stuff makes people strong,
and hard things make like For me, I learned a
lot about grit from overcoming stuff, not from having it
smooth sailing, you know. So to me, I'm grateful for
all of it, the weird, bad, crazy, all of it.

(20:30):
You know, the good, the bad, all of it.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, I want everybody to check with the book. It's
the last heart beating from the dungeon to the wwe
last two questions that will make it one question because
we're gonna wrap this up. Was a pleasure doing this.
One what's one thing you want people to take away
from this book? And two you ended it off in
twenty seventeen. Well, there potentially be another book in the future.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
So I did end the book in twenty seventeen because
there's a lot more work that I'm working on. It's
to be continued. Yeah, the spoilers, but big, big, big
projects and the second thing is is that you know
what I want from people. The biggest takeaway of the
book is I want people to look at the way
they define success. It'll redefine the way that you look

(21:12):
look at success. And I want everybody to look at
themselves in the mirror and go ask themselves, why not me?
Why not me? Why can't I have all the things
I've ever dreamed of? And So it's just about redefining
the way that you look at success. It's not always
in what you think it is. It's sometimes in a
much deeper area.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yeah, And to wrap it up, I do think you're
correct on that because I think sometimes people see someone
that is successful and they see that, but they don't
see the journey that got them there. And sometimes when
they see the journey and that got them there, they
can relate to it and be like, oh, I can
I struggle with these same issues or things in my family.
I can also maybe get to my dream too if
I put in the work and I persevere through all

(21:51):
the hard times and the good times. Thank you so
much for doing this, Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
This is great.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yeah, this was great. This was great. I hope we
can do this again down the road and I want
to checks out the book. No, of course, I appreciate
you sending it out a blast reading it, like I said,
like I love as a wrestling fan. I know a
lot of the wrestling stuff sometimes, but then when I
get to read about the early life of people, I'm like, oh,
that's so cool. It feels like it's better. So it
was really great. Thank you so much, see down the road.

(22:16):
I want to check out the book. You can order
it now and make sure if you aren't already following
naddie but like you know, yeah, yeah, thank you, so
see you later, I won't you doing the thing.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
Time to say good night. Well, sincerely appreciate your patronage
and hope we've succeeded in bringing you an enjoyable evening
of entertainment.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
Please drive home carefully and come back again soon.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
Good Night,

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174. Natalya Neidhart - Casual Conversations

Episode Transcript

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}174. Natalya Neidhart - Casual Conversations