WWE has a stacked women’s division. There’s no debating that point. Some of the best talent in the world are among the names who perform on SmackDown and Monday Night Raw. Plus, there’s a plethora of young talent ready to make a name for themselves in NXT. The cupboards are not bare. However, there’s still space for an icon in women’s wrestling like Natalya. But in order for her to regain momentum and the respect of fans, she needs to turn to her indie-ego known as Nattie.
“I really want to bring Nattie to WWE,” Natalya said while speaking with the Cauliflower Alley Club. “I definitely want to bring her to WWE. I think Nattie has to be handled very carefully because the second we bring her to WWE and we don’t have a good game plan, I think we can lose the character, so we have to handle her very carefully.”
Natalya is spot on with that comment. Nattie has been booked as a high-level threat whenever she performs on the independent scene. This is especially true with her run in Bloodsport, where she’s picked up wins over the likes of Masha Slamovich and Miyu Yamashita. She may not be undefeated under this persona, but she is certainly presented as someone who comes ready to fight and cannot be overlooked.
This isn’t the same when it comes to how Nattie is presented in the WWE. In fact, she’s rarely featured on main roster shows at all. In 2025 she’s had two matches on the main roster. One was the Money in the Bank qualifying match on Monday Night Raw on May 19. The other was the Women’s Tag Team Championship gauntlet match on April 11. WWE clearly doesn’t value what Natalya brings to the table for their current roster, so it is hard to assume the company would value Nattie any differently under that persona.
This speaks loudly to how the WWE women’s division is leveraged. Someone as valued as Natalya openly questioning the promotion, treating her character with care, shows that she knows there’s a strong chance it will not happen. She’d be thrown into a match for a “moment” only to be beaten clean by someone like Tiffany Stratton or Rhea Ripley, without a follow-up story to tell. Right now, it doesn’t seem like WWE’s creative plans are focused on the long term, so it is understandable that she’d be worried about how she is used.
Natalya is a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee across wrestling. She deserves all the respect and praise she gets from her peers. WWE may not book her in such a way that shines a light on her, but the world recognizes her contributions and longevity. It is fun watching her do her thing as Nattie on the independent scene, but that is the best place for that character because WWE would not treat it with care.