Nattie Neidhart: “I Don’t Want To See Natalya Ever Again”

Neidhart shared a big inspiration for the persona.

Dating back to April 2025, when Natalya competed at GCW/Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XIII, she rebranded herself as ‘Nattie Neidhart’ and has taken on a more serious and physical approach to her on-screen presentation.

That was further discussed coming off the heels of the persona being shown in a training video on Monday Night Raw. During Nattie’s appearance on Busted Open, she said she never wants to see the Natalya character again.

“When I look back at Natalya, I was like, over the last couple of years, I’m like, ‘She’s done everything. She’s done everything. She’s really run the gamut. What can I do on my end with my control to make things exciting, to feel reinvigorated, to be refreshed?’ And it wasn’t until after I wrote my book and I had this whole epiphany of like, oh my God, why don’t you do what you always wanted to do? Why don’t you be who you always wanted to be? I had to look at myself in the mirror and go, ‘I don’t want to see Natalya ever again,’ and it’s not sh*tting on that character. She did great work, she’s f*cking awesome. I don’t wanna see her again. So how do I change? How do I do this from a very authentic way that’s still very true to me?”

Elsewhere during the chat, Neidhart revealed that five-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Kōji Kanemoto is a big inspiration for the ‘Nattie’ persona.

“Do you ever remember Kōji Kanemoto? Kōji Kanemoto is one of my biggest inspirations for this new character, Nattie… Kōji Kanemoto has this level of ‘f*ck you’ in him that I’m just like, that is so inspiring to me because he doesn’t give a sh*t…”

Nattie was asked if there would be another training video with Women’s Intercontinental Champion Maxxine Dupri on the 12/8 Raw. She stated that people will have to tune in to see.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Busted Open with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.