WWE legend Nattie appeared on Wrestling Life Online to discuss various topics, including how debuting her Nattie Neidhart character at the Royal Rumble PLE in Saudi Arabia was a “full circle” moment for her.
Nattie said, “It’s so crazy. It’s so crazy that like we were — you know, this was my ninth Royal Rumble. Liv and I tied for doing the Rumble now nine times, all of them. And I was the first woman to ever wrestle in Saudi Arabia. So to to be a part of debuting the new character in Saudi, it was amazing. It was so cool because it was a very full circle moment. And I love our Saudi fans. You know, Nikki was talking about that, but Nikki and I did a lot of meet and greets backstage. And like, the fans there are so passionate. And of course, WrestleMania attracts like a global audience, but I want the women in WWE to get as much visibility as they can over in Saudi Arabia.”
On the change she has seen there:
“From 2019 when I had the very first match in Saudi Arabia till now 2026, in six years we’ve seen so much more visibility for women. I had to wear this really long shirt to wrestle in [in 2016] and [be] fully covered, and the match had to be very, very — you know, it was it was our first time there. So we wanted to make a great impression. It couldn’t be too violent, it had to be extremely — like we had to make the best impression ever, and and we did. But you just see now it’s like, the last show that we did in Saudi — not Rumble, but the one before that — we had three women’s matches there. And I remember being like, ‘This is just extraordinary.’ It’s just really extraordinary. I think WWE in a big way has helped bring more visibility for women in their culture. So we’re not going to try to change them overnight, but it’s nice to see that positive things are happening over there, that like make me feel very excited about going back to Saudi Arabia.”
On the WWE fanbase in Saudi Arabia:
“I love going to Saudi. All of us do. I just enjoy it. The people are very kind. Our fans are very passionate. They’ll let you know if they love you, They’ll let you know if they hate you. Um but they’ll let you know they care. And so I think that’s the biggest thing, is that people are making noise. They give a s**t.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
