6. Natalya Reveals How Chris Benoit Helped Her & Tyson Kidd In Getting Signed To WWE
During a recent appearance on Edge & Christian’s “Pod Of Awesomeness” podcast, SmackDown Live Superstar Natalya talked about how the late Chris Benoit helped her and her husband, Tyson Kidd, get signed to the WWE. Below is the story:
“Tyson Kidd and I got hired by WWE and it took us five years to get hired. It was a really big production. For years and years I kept getting try-outs and sending in tapes and you know, when I look back at some of the tapes I was submitting they were terrible. I didn’t have an ounce of makeup on, I had my hair pulled back in a ponytail with a wife beater on. And I thought those were great promo pics. I didn’t even think anything of it. I was very wholesome and like I didn’t know. I was just Nattie.
So I had a really hard time getting hired and at the time things were different. It was more like the Attitude Era. I was sending in stuff and trying to get hired but I wasn’t really fitting into the mould of what they wanted. And so I basically didn’t get out of their face, I stayed in there. And John Laurinaitis was the one who hired me. I just kept on persisting, and finally, finally, finally then I got hired.
I don’t know if you’ll include this or not, but I was lucky enough that there were people in the industry, at this time when I got hired Bret Hart still wasn’t talking to WWE. They weren’t on good terms, or they just weren’t talking at all. And everybody knows what they’ve been through, Bret and WWE after the Montreal Screwjob so it was a tricky time for the Harts to get hired.
So Chris Benoit, who was a good family friend and our family helped him break into the industry. So Chris Benoit is actually one of the people who helped me get hired. And he really pulled for myself and Tyson Kidd and put pressure on Johnny and said ‘I want to help these two people get hired.’ So I feel like it was really Chris that helped us get hired.”