WWE Star “Went Home And Cried For Days” After Night Of Champions 2023
Night of Champions was a critical success, but one WWE star left the show deflated.
At Night of Champions, Natalya faced off against Rhea Ripley in an attempt to become SmackDown Women’s Champion. The bout was a one-sided affair, and the Queen of Harts was pinned in just over a minute.
The two faced off again on the July 3rd episode of Raw in a much more competitive match that received heaps of praise backstage.
Speaking on a recent episode of Busted Open Radio, Natalya opened up about her feud with Ripley, calling their Raw match one of her top three favorites in her career.
“When I think about the match that I had with Rhea on Monday night, you know, I went into that match, and for the last month or so my confidence had been rocked. After Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia, it was just a really hard time for me because I was starting to feel like maybe I wasn’t good enough. Maybe I couldn’t hang.
“Then going into that match, and performing at that level, I just stopped and reminded everybody that not only have I fought to be here and I have the right to be here, but I can also hang at the very highest level. I can hang at the very highest level after wrestling since, I mean, I started wrestling when I was 18 years old, and so not only can I hang at the very highest level, but I can lead and I can bring the very top women in WWE to their very best matches of their careers.
“I’m damn proud of that because if I’m going into that match, thinking about my mentality on Monday, if I was going into that match at a low point, imagine now where I’m going to be going because now my confidence is back. Nattie is back and I’m excited. I’m very, very excited where I go from here because now it’s like, okay, Nattie is back. It’s time for me to be at the top of the game again because I am a top level performer in WWE, so I was really happy that I could show that.”
“I think the match that I had on Monday would be one of the top three in my career. Rhea is a dream opponent for me and she proved to me why I wanted to wrestle her so much. She’s truly one of my favorite people I’ve ever been in the ring with, but I wanted to make her feel my bite and I wanted to bring it to her more than I think anybody else has ever brought it. I feel like now I’m excited to see what’s next for me in WWE and I think everybody is like, okay, Nattie’s back.”
Continuing, Natalya admitted that she cried for days following Night of Champions as she didn’t feel she was good enough.
“After Saudi Arabia, after Night of Champions, I went home and cried for days. I just felt like such a complete failure. I thought this was maybe, you know, my last chance to have this moment, especially on a huge pay-per-view in a place that’s so important to me because Saudi is where myself and Lacey Evans made history as the first woman to ever compete there. So it was really special to me. I honestly felt like the lowest I’ve ever felt in my career, and so I didn’t know if I’d ever get the chance to get that back and I did, and I never take it for granted.”
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h/t WrestlingNews.co