Natalya has opened up about one of the most challenging times in her WWE career, reflecting on the immense pressure she faced during the Divas Era and the toll it took on her confidence. The former Women’s Champion revealed that she once felt undeserving of success and even agreed to one of WWE’s most notorious gimmicks in an effort to stay relevant.

Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Natalya admitted that she struggled to meet the physical expectations placed on female talent at the time. “It was so difficult because I realized that I couldn’t dance to save my life. I tried so, so hard,” she confessed. “I was like, I gotta try to lose weight. I gotta try to be thin. I gotta look like Torrie Wilson. I always had Torrie on this pedestal because she’s to me, I love her physique and she’s so beautiful. I was like, I always wanted to look like Torrie, but I couldn’t, because my body’s not like Torrie’s.”

As a result, Natalya shifted her focus to making others look good instead of herself. “I realized that all these things that I thought that they wanted at that time, I was like, I know what they’ll like. What if I made every single girl I worked with look like gold? What if I was the, maybe not the star, but you know what I can do really well, I’ll be the star maker.”

That mindset, however, deeply affected how she viewed herself. “I started to look at myself the way that I felt like they were looking at me, where I was like, I don’t really know if I’m worthy of being the champion, I don’t think I am,” she explained. Feeling grateful just to have a job, she convinced herself she did not deserve more. “I started to feel like I was just lucky to have the job,” she recalled. “I started to almost talk myself into, ‘Do you know how lucky you are to even have this contract with WWE that so many people are fighting to even just get their foot in the door?’”

It was not until fellow WWE star Beth Phoenix encouraged her to speak up that Natalya began to change her perspective. “Beth really urged me to fight. So I did, and I pled my case,” she said, recalling how difficult it was to advocate for herself. “I felt so embarrassed that I was trying to tell my bosses that I wanted to be champion when it’s like, no, we all should f*cking want to be champion.”

Natalya also reflected on her infamous “Nattie Neidfart” gimmick, which saw her character suffer from uncontrollable flatulence. She revealed that the creative direction came straight from Vince McMahon. “I remember with that idea, when the writer came out of the production meeting, he pulled me aside, and he made it very clear this was not his idea,” she said. “He came out of the production meeting and he just kept saying over and over and over again, ‘This is not my idea, but this is Vince’s idea, and he really loves this idea.’”

The gimmick was designed to make her more “entertaining.” Natalya explained, “Well, the thing with Vince is that he liked to do things that were a lot about entertainment, and he wanted to do something. I think he saw me as being kind of a serious wrestler. So he’s like, let’s do something that’s gonna make Nattie entertaining. And it was this character, you know, eventually what I’m getting to is this Nattie Neidfart character.”

Despite her discomfort with the storyline, she accepted it as a test of professionalism. “But I was like, I don’t want to fart. I just don’t want to do that,” she admitted. Still, she put her best foot forward. “But in true Natalya form, I smiled. I said, ‘Of course, I’ll do it. Not only will I do it, I’m going to make this amazing.’ I’m going to own it. I’m going to show Vince that I’m not going to be I’m not going to be difficult. I’m not going to be difficult like my dad. I’m going to go out there and I’m going to make it great.”

The sound effects used for the storyline lasted for about six weeks before fan reaction led to the idea being dropped.