Natalya has revealed how the infamous farting gimmick was pitched to her.
During an appearance on the INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast, former WWE Women’s Champion Natalya recalled the infamous flatulence gimmick she portrayed in early 2012, and talked about how the idea came directly from Vince McMahon.
“I remember with that idea, when the writer came out of the production meeting, he pulled me aside, and he made it very clear this was not his idea. And I remember being like, what’s the idea? I thought I was so excited, because earlier in the day, it was like, hey, this head writer wants to talk to you after the production meeting. They have something they want to talk to you about creatively. I remember I had butterflies in my stomach because I was like, Finally, I’m gonna get this cool idea. They’re gonna have a plan for me, and this is gonna be what I need.”
“He came out of the production meeting, and he just kept saying over and over and over again, ‘This is not my idea, but this is Vince’s idea, and he really loves this idea.’ Well, the thing with Vince is that he liked to do things that were a lot about entertainment, and he wanted to do something. I think he saw me as being kind of a serious wrestler. So he’s like, let’s do something that’s gonna make Nattie entertaining. And it was this character, you know, eventually what I’m getting to is this Nattie Neidfart character.”
Plenty of WWE Superstars have overcome goofy gimmicks
Natalya further said that she decided to portray the character, stating that even stars like The Rock, Kurt Angle, and Trish Stratus did goofy gimmicks.
“You think about Kurt Angle. He’s an Olympic gold medalist, but he’s done goofy stuff. The Rock did goofy stuff. Trish Stratus did goofy stuff. I didn’t think anybody was trying to bury me. I think it was just an outlandish, outrageous, kooky, crazy, wacky idea. But I was like, I don’t want to fart. I just don’t want to do that. But in true Natalya form, I smiled. I said, ‘Of course, I’ll do it. Not only will I do it, I’m going to make this amazing.’ I’m going to own it.”
Natalya revealed that Vince McMahon was heavily involved in the character development, but he had to change his mind after the negative fan reactions.
“So he (Vince McMahon) was very helpful with it. I was like, wow, this is so cool. Vince, this is his baby. He’s really getting involved. I think he initially cared about it, but I think feedback from people that were watching the product and stuff, they didn’t like it.”
“So one of the writers came up to me again and was like, ‘Hey, we’re not going to do the Nattie Neidfart character.'”
READ MORE: Natalya Highlights Why Debuting In WWE’s Divas Era Was So Difficult
