Natalya had been on NXT for the past few weeks where she has helped Karmen Petrovic and defeated Lola Vice. Since then, she became the first championship opponent to Roxanne Perez after Perez won the NXT Women’s Championship at Stand & Deliver.
Perez made her first ever appearance on Raw and defeated Indi Hartwell but ran into Natalya backstage. They had a championship match the next night on NXT. She lost after an interference by Vice which les to Perez retaining.
While speaking with The Big Show with Rusic & Rose, Natalya spoke aboit
“I jumped at the opportunity to go to NXT. Some of the greatest moments of my career were at NXT, like my match against Charlotte Flair in 2014. NXT is also primetime television. Anytime you’re on the USA Network and it’s during that timeslot, it’s primetime TV and we’re one of the highest rated shows on USA. When I was asked (to go to NXT), it was a huge honor for me. I really wanted to go to NXT to work with more women. I probably have the world record for working with the most women in WWE history.
I really wanted to work with women who are hungry and love this as much as I do like Roxanne Perez. I met her in the parking lot outside of a live event for a WWE show when she was a teenager, she was like 13. She came up to me, it’s on tape because we were filming Total Divas, we shared this on social media, she came up to me and said, ‘I want to be a WWE superstar like you. How do I become that?’ Fast forward to all these years later and I’m wrestling her and she’s the NXT Women’s Champion. We had a beautiful match. She was such a fantastic opponent and everything I had hoped for as an opponent. Our chemistry was amazing. I loved every second in there with her. It was magical. It’s why I love what I do in WWE and why I jumped at the opportunity to go to NXT,” she said. (Fightful)
What have you thought of Natalya’s recent return to NXT?
