Natalya Reflects On TJ Wilson’s Injury, Says It Was The Hardest Part To Write About

Natalya recently opened up about TJ Wilson’s injury and noted that it was the most difficult part to write about in her new book. The WWE star recently appeared on Insight With Chris Van Vliet for an interview to promote her new book, The Last Hart Beating. During the conversation, she talked about the hardest part to write about and named Wilson’s injury.

Wilson wrestled as Tyson Kidd for WWE until he suffered a career-ending spinal cord injury in a match against Samoa Joe in June of 2015. Kidd suffered the injury taking a Muscle Buster during the dark match. Wilson now works backstage as a producer in WWE. You can see highlights from the discussion below:

On the Most Difficult Chapter To Write:

“I think the most difficult topic to cover was TJ’s injury. I had sleepless nights writing about those chapters. Those were the chapters that they pulled at my heart because they were really [tough]. Even with the stuff that, you know, we think about the Hart family, you think about all the things, there’s been highs and lows. Owen’s death was very tragic. My dad in his struggles, growing up with a parent that my dad struggled his whole, entire adult life, and so I had so much instability that when I was a kid that I’ve never shared.

“I’ve never shared any of it until writing this book, that people were like, ‘Oh, I had no idea,’ that for two years my sisters and my mom and I lived at my grandfather’s house, and we shared a bed. We shared one bed, and we all four slept in that bed for two years, because my dad lost everything, and so my mom was trying to create some stability for us. We were never, ever homeless. We lived at the Hart House, but there was only one available room. So it really taught me about like I got to sink or swim. Those were hard chapters to write about, because I talk a lot about my dad’s addiction and the things that we went through, and it was just those. Those were hard, but they were nothing like writing about TJ’s chapters of his injury and what we went through.”

On If She Knew He Was Injured

“I knew TJ couldn’t move. Because Cesaro was trying to talk to him, and he [TJ] couldn’t move, he literally just wouldn’t. I knew he wasn’t okay. I knew by the way his hands, everything just was like almost curled for a split second. I don’t want to get too dramatic, but it didn’t look like a normal landing. His body just looked different. Sometimes if you hit a spider, they kind of curl up a little bit, it looked like he landed in a way that his body didn’t look natural and at ease. Because when TJ first landed, he was paralyzed for like 10 seconds, and so Claudio tried to grab him, to pull him out of the ring, and TJ said, ‘Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me.’

And then after being paralyzed for 10 seconds, TJ was able to regroup. He got up, he launched himself out of the ring. And that’s the thing, is that when you saw the way that TJ was, and I write a lot about it, and I go into detail again, don’t want to give it all away, but when I saw how TJ was acting, he wasn’t acting like someone that broke his neck. When you think of somebody that is injured, they’re limping, they’re vulnerable, they’re crying. TJ was angry.”

On Wilson Walking To the Back After That Match:

“He was very angry, and it was because he was scared. So that’s the thing, is that people deal with trauma in different ways. So, for example, I broke my ankle many years ago, 2016 small, little injury. But I remember just being so scared. I wanted the whole match to just end right then and there. TJ, I think because of being paralyzed, it scared him in a way that it went from fear to rage. So once he was not paralyzed anymore, the fear turned into rage. So people really didn’t know that he had a broken neck, because he was walking around like normal. He’s walking around, and he was just very, very angry and scared, and all of it was just coming out all at once.

“But those were hard chapters to write about, because I just knew once we found out from the doctors that TJ had this type of injury, the one doctor was so blunt. He was like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re never, ever wrestling again. You have to find another profession.’ He was very, very cold and blunt, and I wrote about it in the book. I just looked at Cesaro, because Cesaro was with us at the hospital. Cesaro had a tear rolling down his face. Because everybody that knows TJ just knows that he loves this. And Cesaro just knew that that was like a death and losing something that you love so much, there was a grieving there too.

On Samoa Joe’s Reaction:

“My heart broke for Samoa Joe, because nobody wants to ever go through anything like that. That was the last thing in the world that he wanted. He is somebody that in the industry, Joe, I believe, and I have a pretty good pulse on the industry, not just in WWE. Joe is very respected. He’s a great guy. The guys love Joe. He’s got a great reputation. He’s a great person. He loves the industry. He’s very honorable. So it was the last thing in the world that Joe wanted. So my heart also broke for Joe, because I just always felt so bad that he had to carry that too. People say mean things all the time to all of us on social media, but that’s the last thing in the world that Joe wanted.

“So I always had a little spot in my heart for him after that, because I was like, he didn’t want that, nobody wanted it. It was a sh*tty situation. Nobody across the board wanted that to happen. But it happened, and it was something that we had to go through. I will say, and I’ve said this before on your show, TJ’s injury led him to, I think, the best chapter of his career, because he has been able to reach so many more people in WWE and in wrestling and in the world by doing the stuff that he’s doing now. I think it was, unfortunately, part of his destiny, and sometimes you can’t f*ck with your destiny. You gotta let it happen, and then you gotta let it help you.”