Natalya went on to speak about NXT and praised Cora Jade and Tiffany Stratton.
At WWE Night of Champions, Rhea Ripley bested Natalya in quick fashion to retain the SmackDown Women’s Championship. They had another match on the July 3rd episode of Monday Night Raw and it was a lengthier match with the same result.
Natalya joined Busted Open Radio and shared that her confidence had been rocked coming out of their first match and she went into their bout on 7/3 with that same feeling.
When I think about the match I had with Rhea (Ripley) on Monday night, I went into that match, for the last month or so, my confidence had been rocked. After Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia, it was just a really hard time for me because I was starting to feel like maybe I wasn’t good enough, maybe I couldn’t hang and then going into that match and performing at that level, I just stopped and reminded everybody, not only have I fought to be here and I have a right to be here, I can also hang at the very highest level. I can hang at the very highest level after wrestling — I mean I started wrestling when I was 18 years old and so not only can I hang at the very highest level but I can lead and I can bring the very top women in WWE to their very best matches of their careers and so I’m damn proud of that because if I’m going into that match, thinking about my mentality on Monday, if I was going into that match at a low point, imagine now where I’m gonna be going, because now my confidence is back, Nattie is back and I’m excited. I’m very, very excited to see where I go from here because now it’s like, Nattie’s back and it’s time for me to be at the top of the game again, because I am a top-level performer in WWE and so I was really happy that I could show that.
As the two-time WWE Women’s Champion was speaking about what could be next for her, she heaped praise onto Cora Jade and NXT Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton. Natalya said she’s not opposed to going back to NXT and facing Stratton.
I love working with Cora Jade at NXT. I love her character development and how she’s really kind of evolving her character and also Tiffany Stratton. Never judge a book by its cover. I’m like, damn, Tiffany has really kind of embraced her character and she’s very interesting to watch but I like that she’s open about, hey, these are things I need to work on. She said recently in an interview a couple months ago, she wants to get better in the ring and she knows she’s still not there yet but she wants to grow and it’s like, yeah, she stepped out of character to say that she wants to get better and I was like, damn, I really respect that and so one day, I’d like to have a match with Tiffany and I’m not opposed to going to NXT to do that so, there you go Tiffany.
Both Jade and Stratton are scheduled to be in action on the July 11th NXT on USA Network. Click here for more information.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Busted Open Radio with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
