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Natalya has had a truly unique career in WWE. She started out in an era when the women’s division was marginalized, with relatively few highly skilled colleagues to work matches with and in an era when women were often lucky to get more than five minutes of ring time on a major show. So she was a veteran presence when the Women’s Revolution took hold, perhaps past her physical prime, but nonetheless an experienced hand fans were familiar with to help usher in a new era for women’s wrestling.
Related: 10 Storylines That Hurt The Women's RevolutionAn interesting sub-plot of that transition has been Natalya’s connection both in real life and on screen with Ronda Rousey, the former UFC champ who has been positioned as a top star in the WWE women’s division for the length of her pro wrestling career.
The Real Life Connection Between Ronda Rousey And Natalya
It makes intuitive sense for Ronda Rousey and Natalya to get along. While they’ve had different paths in life and their careers, Rousey grew up with her mother, a champion judoka, and as an avid pro wrestling fan. Natalya was also born into wrestling as the daughter of Jim Neidhart and niece of the Hart brothers, including Bret and Owen, not to mention that she's Stu Hart’s granddaughter.
In a conversation with Corey Graves on the After the Bell podcast (h/t Fightful) Natalya said she worked with Rousey and helped train her before she even signed a contract with WWE, working with her at the Santino Bros facility in California. In that process, Natalya recalled the two of them becoming “really close friends,” and that there was something special in The Baddest Woman on the Planet’s ability to pick up on what Natalya showed her in the ring very quickly. “Everything came very easy for Ronda,” Natalya explained, “and in my experience, it was the complete opposite.”
From there, when Rousey did sign with WWE, Natalya described that she both took the former MMA star under her wing to show her the ropes on the road, and vouched for her with their fellow talent in the locker room. Though Rousey’s credibility as a real life combat athlete was beyond reproach, having a well-respected and well-liked veteran speak on her behalf contributed to Rousey making a smooth transition into the WWE women’s roster.
Ronda Rousey And Natalya’s Friendship Translated On Screen
When Ronda Rousey first got started wrestling for WWE, she focused on her feud with The Authority, in particular teaming up with Kurt Angle against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon at WrestleMania 34. From there, Rousey promptly transitioned into the title picture on Raw, feuding with Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss.
One of the more interesting dimensions of how WWE chose to present Rousey at this point was positioning Natalya as her on-air best friend, sidekick, and implicit mentor for her greater experience in WWE. The Queen of Harts accompanied Rousey to the ring for a number of matches, including backing her up in a feud against The Bella Twins that culminated in Rousey defending her title against Nikki at the Evolution PPV.
Many fans suspected WWE was setting up the two friends to ultimately feud. Whether they didn’t see it being a draw, plans changed, or Rousey simply didn’t stick around long enough, the feud never came together in Rousey’s first run with WWE.
The WWE Feud Between Ronda Rousey And Natalya
In 2022, WWE finally delivered on the long-awaited feud between Ronda Rousey and Natalya. Natalya played the heel at this point, winning a Six-Pack Challenge to become the number one contender and face her real-life friend at the Money in the Bank PPV in July.
In her same interview with After the Bell, Natalya shifted gears to kayfabe to sell that since returning to WWE in 2022, Rousey had grown arrogant—The Queen of Harts herself playing the jealous, overlooked veteran out to make her ungrateful protégé pay.
Related: 10 Times Wrestlers Competed Against Their TrainersIt may have been a testament to Rousey’s respect for Natalya that The Baddest Woman on the Planet not only picked her for an opponent, but did so for a deceptively important match. Even though Rousey won, decisively and predictably, she also offered the beginnings of her heel turn in the match, including striking a Shawn Michaels pose after she put Natalya in the Sharpshooter, in a nod to the Montreal Screwjob. Additionally, Rousey sold that she was badly enough beaten up by a strong challenger that, even in victory, she was vulnerable to a Money in the Bank cash-in. Liv Morgan made short work of Rousey in the minutes immediately following the Natalya match.
WWE made the friendship between Natalya and Ronda Rousey a focal point for the early stages of Rousey’s run with the company in kayfabe, not to mention that Rousey and Natalya’s friendship was highlighted on the last of the nine seasons of Total Divas that aired in 2019. By all indications, the two are legitimately friends, throughout their on-screen alliance and feuding, and remain so to do this day.
