Natalya Talks New Season of Total Divas, Working as a Heel, Recently Losing Teeth

Scott Fishman of Channel Guide Magazine recently sat down with WWE Smackdown Superstar Natalya to promote Susan G. Komen & WWE’s “More Than Pink” campaign. The complete interview can be foundHERE and below are a few key highlights:

Recently losing two front teeth in a match:

“I tend to have a lot of problems with those two teeth, because when I was younger I was in an accident on my bicycle and that impacted them. So they have always been really loose. It was their day. There is a dentist on every corner in Las Vegas, so basically I finished the match and worked through it. I had great girls I was in the ring with. I’m OK. I’m really tough. I’m not sure when I hurt anymore. I was back the next day. I just couldn’t stop laughing after it happened. I was like, ‘Oh my God! My two front teeth are out.’ Of course I grabbed Renee Young and said, ‘You’re coming with me to the dentist to handle this.’”

Working as a heel now on SmackDown:

“It’s challenging. What feels comfortable to me is being good. What feels normal to Nattie is the way I’ve been portrayed. I was vulnerable on TV, sympathetic where I have had moments where I have felt overlooked and sometimes where I naturally slipped in the babyface role because that is who I am. I kind of realize that with the struggling to prove myself and prove what I can do, I feel it made the fans sympathetic, and they could relate to me. Now I’m on this other side of the coin as a bad girl. It’s challenging because I’m still trying to convince the audience I’m bad and not to like me. When I come out, I want them to boo me. There are times when I come out they don’t boo me. I don’t want them to cheer me because then I feel like I’m not doing my job.

“I’m just excited if it leads to a storyline that drives my character to being more of a bad guy. I think that is the opportunity I’m waiting for in the heel role. We saw it initially when I attacked Becky Lynch and turned on her. At this moment now we are waiting for the right opportunity because when that happened with Becky, we were all on the same show and there was one women’s division. Then the draft came, and we introduced all these new girls. SmackDown is interesting because now you have all these new girls that are on this even playing field. I’m playing this new role, Nikki Bella is coming back from injury, Becky is still pretty new, Alexa Bliss and Carmella are still new, Eva Marie is just starting to get her feet wet with her role. We are all kind of starting out, even though I’ve been in the company for a while. It has been six years since I’ve been a heel, and I didn’t last really long as a heel because the audience didn’t buy it. So I’m really excited about the challenge. Hopefully I get a storyline I can bite into that is totally awesome and the fans can totally embrace it.”

Lana on the new season of Total Divas:

“I think it’s great to have new cast members, but you need to have familiar faces for the audience. It’s like watching the Kardashians and not having Kim, Khloe or Kourtney. It’s important to have the new integration, but it’s nice we still have the originals like myself, the Bellas, Eva and having Naomi again is amazing because people feel connected to us. They feel we are their friends. Then you integrate someone like Lana. I think she is really going to pop on this season of ‘Total Divas.’

“She shows a wide range of emotions and personality traits. She damaged one of my vehicles. I’m not going to say what she did, but it was pretty bad, and my dad was with her when it happened. I wanted to body slam her and put her in the sharpshooter on my front lawn. I didn’t but came very close. Then she sent me about 15 text messages after where I just wanted to get a new phone at that point or throw it in a lake. She really cracks me up. When I think about the moments we had on the show she is a walking reality show herself. Poor Rusev. It takes a lot of man to put up with Lana. I actually told the twins this. I actually like Lana. She is very real and honest. She is very honest with her feelings. That is what you need on a reality show.”

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