A tenured member of the WWE women’s division reportedly just re-signed with the company, according to PWInsider. Although she’s currently not on television and hasn’t been for quite some time, the new deal could bring her back on-screen sooner than later. Reports have been flying about the status of Natalya as her contract inched closer and closer to the end. There was reported interest from outside companies that may be looking to bring her to their rosters as she has a lot of experience training and coaching young wrestlers with her husband TJ Wilson, a former wrestler turned WWE producer.
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Natalya has been with WWE for nearly two decades, first signing back in 2007 where she was quickly paired with Victoria. She went through several tag team partners the first few years, eventually sticking it with Beth Phoenix. She was also part of The Hart Dynasty stable around this time with Wilson and David Hart Smith. She eventually began souring on her own, winning the Divas Championship in 2011. She was a critical part of many of the women’s during that era thriving on television as they had little to no wrestling experience.ย
As she had grown up around wrestling her entire life and had actually been trained in the sport, she was able to give advice to the locker room, becoming a locker room leader which she appears to still be. Years later she won her second championship, the SmackDown Women’s Championship, in 2017. Fans had believed that she had earned it after all the years she put in WWE, selflessly putting other women ahead of herself. She won her most recent championship in 2021 with Tamina, the Women’s Tag Team Championships.
Back in April, Comicbook spoke to former Women’s Tag Team Champion Jade Cargill about Natalya as she had a hand in helping her train for her big WWE debut. Cargill explained how thankful she is to have someone like Natalya is in the locker room, and how integral she was in her development. “It was great. You know, she’s a veteran in the game. She gave a lot of advice. What I can do better, what, you know, what I can enhance and [she’s] very vocal,” Cargill said. “Very kind, very sweet. You know, I think it was last week, I came in with an erect house against Damage CTRL. She was the first person that text me and say, ‘hey, you did phenomenal, you look great.’ You know, she’s a locker room leader. I’m excited. I’m thankful to have her in our locker room.”
Natalya joins a number of WWE superstars who have recently signed new contracts after originally inking new deals in 2019 right around the time AEW was forming. Top superstars Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Finn Balor, Chad Gable and Cody Rhodes have all signed multi-year deals while one star opted to leave at the end of their contract, presumably to sign with AEW.
Stay tuned to Comicbook for updates on WWE and Natalya.