Natalya Says It’s ‘Very Cool’ To Have John Cena At The Dungeon, Reflects On Dad’s Brain Injury

Natalya appreciated John Cena’s visit to her and TJ Wilson’s Dungeon training facility, talking about the visit in a recent interview. Cena visited the facility last week as he nears his final match next month. Natalya talked about the visit during an interview with CTV News promoting her new book. She noted that the visit meant a lot to her in terms of Cena paying gratitude to Wilson in particular.

Natalya has spoken a lot about her father Jim Neidhart, who she wrote about in The Last Hart Beating: From the Dungeon to WWE. She touched in the interview on her belief that Neidhart’s brain injury started before he was in wrestling when he was playing football. You can see highlights below:

On Her Early Days Wrestling At Small Shows In Canada:

“That’s a great part of the journey, was starting there. My uncles, my grandfather, they all had to start like that, too. You’ve got to build. Success doesn’t just come to you, you got to chase it. But I do remember a road trip that we had to Cold Lake, and our ring truck didn’t quite work properly. We had to set up and build our own wrestling ring. Once we got to the show, we all — it was a big labor of love where you go to the show, there wasn’t a big house, so nobody really got paid.

“But I remember those times as being some of the best times ever. My uncles, Bruce Hart and Ross Hart, they were promoting the shows back then. And they were my first teachers in professional wrestling, Bruce and Ross. And so they those two actually taught me so much about surviving the industry and especially my early stages in the dungeon.”

On Believing Father’s Brain Injury Started With Football:

“Well, and and here’s the thing. I can’t — I’m not a scientist, so I don’t know all the particulars and all the ins and outs of that. But my dad started playing football when he was 11 years old. And so back then, they weren’t playing with proper helmets. My dad was a defensive tackle, he was a nose guard and he played very hard. And he would talk about that when we were growing up. My dad would playfully brag about how hard he would play football. And he would say like, ‘When I’d get my bell rung, you know, we would just keep going back out and playing. And the coaches were so proud of me because of how much heart I had.’

“But now we understand that if you get your bell rung, so to speak, it’s not a good idea to continue to play. But back in the ’60s and ’70s, nobody had that kind of information. We didn’t have that kind of knowledge. So, my dad had started exhibiting behavior that was not normal per se when he was in his early 20s. But again, like I’m not saying that I would totally disqualify all of his activities and his lifestyle. It’s just hard to say because I’m not a scientist. But I do think that playing football without a helmet, especially in a very, very competitive way, I really do feel like it kind of contributed to my dad’s brain injury.”

On John Cena Visiting The Dungeon

“TJ [WIlson] is a producer for WWE. He produces — you know, we’re with WWE, we’re on Netflix. Monday Night Raw and Smackdown are the longest running episodic TV shows in history, and TJ produces weekly television on a global scale. And he loves what he does. He loves the the talent that he works with.

“And just last week we had John Cena come to our ring. He came to our ring and he was just like — it’s very cool, but he’s he’s always just been in awe of what TJ does. And it was so nice to see that mutual gratitude paid back to TJ. Because now he’s in this great point in his life where someone like John Cena is saying, ‘Hey, this is awesome.'”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit CTV News with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.