It was Vince McMahon who wanted Natalya on the show.
For nine seasons over the span of six years, WWE’s Total Divas reality series aired on E!. Natalya was a main cast member throughout all nine seasons.
Her husband, WWE producer T.J. Wilson was consistently featured on the show. Wilson was a guest on the Going Postl podcast with Dylan Postl (Hornswoggle). He shared that originally, Natalya was not going to be a part of Total Divas but it was Vince McMahon who wanted her on it.
And what’s funny is originally, Nattie — and Nattie’s talked about this in a lot of interviews. She wasn’t supposed to be on it. It was gonna be The Bellas, Eva (Marie), JoJo (Offerman) but it was like, they weren’t gonna do — I think some people thought Nattie was too wrestler-y and Vince (McMahon) was the one who said, ‘No. Actually, Nattie will be the glue of this thing because she comes from a wrestling background and this will be the thing that ties it together to our audience…’
Wilson spoke about a time when he hit a breaking point with the show. It occurred when a hearing-impaired dominatrix showed up to he and Natalya’s home. Just days prior, Wilson had been sporting a hoodie with cat ears on it and he ran into Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque.
Levesque explained to him that he should not let things get too comedic because once it becomes that, it can be difficult to revert back and at the time, Wilson and Claudio Castagnoli were WWE Tag Team Champions. Wilson thinks the dominatrix situation was a breaking point because he was on the road most of the week and then the one day he was home, Total Divas was being filmed.
100 percent, 100 percent (there was a point during filming of Total Divas when I was ready to be done with it). Yup, the biggest one was the one where a deaf dominatrix came to my house for some kind of sexual education or something. At this point, we’re Tag Team Champions, Cesaro and I. I had a hoodie and I had cat ears sewn on the hoodie. I had it from before and Hunter saw me with it on and he said, ‘Hey, just be careful.’ He said, ‘Don’t go too far, where it becomes almost comical with that stuff. Otherwise, it’s gonna become that’ and so, I appreciated his advice and so now, here’s this woman like three days later in my living room. She’s telling me to, ‘Meow like a cat’ and I was thinking of Hunter in my head and I said, ‘No, I’m not gonna do that’ and she whipped me with one of my cat’s toys, in my ass. It stung. I looked at Nattie. We’re on all fours. She’s saying, ‘Meow.’ I said, ‘No.’ She said, ‘Bad boy’ or something and whipped me twice with the thing. I just looked at Nattie. I stood up, I looked right in the camera, I took the mic and I said, ‘Absolutely not. Nope…’ Russell (Jay) was the producer. I said, ‘Russell, you and I are gonna have a serious, serious talk when I see you next. We’re gonna have a serious talk’ and Nattie’s like, ‘No! No! No!’ I said, ‘I’m out of here. Hell no’ and I got in my car and left. That was definitely a ‘had it’ moment and Russell’s texting me because obviously, he got word right away. He wasn’t there.
And Russell’s great. He was always so great with us. At the time when Cesaro and I are Tag Champions, I’m wrestling five days a week and then the day-and-a-half I’m home, are filming Total Divas. The woman hitting me with the cat toy was almost just the breaking point of not just that situation but maybe, I just need a little bit of a break. That’s where Nattie’s crazy. She loves that workload. I don’t mind it in spurts and then I need T.J. time.
July 3rd was Natalya’s most recent match on Monday Night Raw. She challenged Rhea Ripley for the Women’s World Championship. Ripley bested Natalya in a 12-minute bout.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Going Postl with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
