Natalya didn’t land in WWE NXT because someone handed her an assignment. She went looking for Jaida Parker herself—and once their program started hitting its stride, Natalya asked to stay longer so they could keep working together.
During an appearance on Busted Open After Dark, Natalya made it clear that she approached Shawn Michaels with the idea. Nobody inside WWE sent her to NXT to take a younger wrestler’s spot.
“A lot of things were accomplished tonight, and this is exactly why I asked Shawn Michaels to please come and work with Jaida Parker at NXT. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: not a single soul asked me to come to NXT. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, she’s being asked to go down there because she’s trying to take someone’s spot.’”
Natalya specifically wanted Parker because she saw an edge in her that she hadn’t found in many other women. She even compared Parker’s intensity to Jacob Fatu, Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan.
“I said to Shawn, ‘I want to work with Jaida because I see something in her that is so special. She’s got this dog in her that I’m like, I’ve gotta test the Natty character out against her.’”
“I feel like she’s the female kind of Jacob Fatu. She’s just got this edge about her that is very, very different from the other girls.”
“I think of dog, I think of Rhea Ripley. I think of dog, I think of Liv Morgan. I think of the toughest, baddest-ass women in the industry, and I see that in Jaida.”
Once the program started, Natalya felt there was still more they could pull out of it. She said working with Michaels and the NXT team gave her room to pitch ideas, make changes and eventually request more time with Parker.
“That’s what I love about coming to NXT. Working with Shawn Michaels and the team at NXT, I finally feel like I have a voice. I feel like I have ideas that I can collaborate with them on. I can say to Shawn, ‘I love this,’ or, ‘What about this?’”
“I actually—again, a little inside—I asked if I could stay a little longer and work with Jaida because, again, I see so much in her.”
Natalya also admitted that their on-screen exchanges were landing closer to home than she first realized. Calling Parker soft, comfortable and complacent wasn’t just another round of wrestling trash talk. According to Natalya, those words got under Parker’s skin and brought out a different side of her. Natalya wasn’t shy about how strongly she felt about Parker’s improvement.
“I love her, but I also feel like I hit a nerve with Jaida. I hit a nerve when I called her soft. I didn’t realize how sensitive she was about that. I had no idea that it really ran deep with her.”
“I hit a nerve when I called her comfortable. I hit a nerve when I called her complacent. But guess what else I did? I have brought out the best work that Jaida Parker has ever done.”
“She has done her best f*****g work at NXT. And yes, I just swore on our show, but tell me that she hasn’t done her best work.”
The veteran’s goal isn’t simply to beat Parker or remind everyone how long she has been around. Natalya wants Parker to knock her down, pass the test and prove she can eventually run the entire NXT women’s division.
“My ultimate goal is that I want to see Jaida Parker knock me on my ass and show me that she can take over the entire women’s division because I believe she can.”
“I see something in her that I don’t think she actually saw in herself, but I actually believe that she can run the entire women’s division at NXT. I think that she’s capable of beating me.”
Natalya didn’t wait for WWE to manufacture this pairing. She saw something in Parker, chased the program herself and then asked for additional time when she realized they were only scratching the surface.
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Do you think working with Natalya can turn Jaida Parker into the next leader of the NXT women’s division? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
