The infamous “Montreal Screwjob” paved the way for WWE’s “Mr. McMahon” character and swung open the doors for the Attitude Era, but it also resulted in deep animosity between Vince McMahon and the Hart family. Despite the years-long hatred between the parties, McMahon would still go on to sign Natalya, who would become the longest-tenured female wrestler in WWE.
During a recent episode of “Busted Open Radio,” she looked back at her early days in the promotion, when the resentment between McMahon and Bret Hart was still red-hot. “For me, it was very hard to get my job in the WWE,” she claimed. “People always feel like, ‘Okay, Nattie’s family, Bret Hart’s her uncle, Stu Hart’s [her grandpa], you know Jim Neidhart, the British Bulldogs — yada, yada, yada — but when I was trying to get hired, my family had a lot of conflict with WWE.”
Natalya explained that despite Hart’s 2006 WWE Hall of Fame induction, he and McMahon were still not on talking terms and there was a time when members of her family weren’t even allowed backstage at WWE shows. “After the Screwjob happened, I mean, it was an explosive time for everyone,” she explained. “Bret physically assaulted Vince. … Everybody knows the story, so it’s like — the Harts weren’t exactly being met with a fruit tray backstage! It was very, very hard for me to get the job, and I was relentless for, like, five years.”
Despite this, Natalya doesn’t believe the heat between McMahon and her family was what kept her from being hired during that time, instead admitting that she simply wasn’t what the promotion was looking for. Ultimately, she’d overcome that barrier and prove herself to WWE, leading to her now near-twenty year run with the promotion.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Busted Open Radio,” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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