Neidhart And Soul

With an indelible family legacy, a die-hard passion, and kick-ass workouts, WWE Superstar NATALYA NEIDHART is helping lead the “Women’s Evolution.”

- Steve Mazzucchi

YOU KNOW YOU’VE made it when your cat has 160,000 Instagram followers. Such is life for Natalie Katherine Neidhart-Wilson, aka WWE Superstar Natalya, or Nattie, whose showstopping strength and style in the WWE ring have won her fans the world over.

“2Pawz is handsome, he’s rich, he’s fun,” she says of her beloved feline. (It’s @2Pawz, if you’re curious.) “What more do you want?”

That playfulness bespeaks a woman brimming with optimism, and why not? The Total Divas star’s popularity (3.4 million Insta-fans of her own) and performance (tag-team dominance alongside “Divas of Doom” partner Beth Phoenix) seem to be peaking just when the WWE women’s division is finally, in wrestling parlance, getting over.

But make no mistake: Her path to the spotlight hasn’t exactly been cushy—she’s earned it. To understand how far Nattie’s come, we’ve got to revisit her roots. And to say wrestling’s in her blood is a massive understatement.

In the 1940s, her grandfather, Stu Hart, founded Stampede Wrestling, a pro wrestling promotion based in Calgary, Canada, where a bevy of future wrestling icons blossomed. Stu’s sons include Bret “the Hitman” Hart and Owen Hart, plus sons-in-law “the British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith and Nattie’s dad, Jim “the Anvil” Neidhart—Bret’s partner in the Hall of Fame wrestling duo the Hart Foundation. Survive the historic Hart house’s basement training complex—affectionately called “the Dungeon”— and spandex-swathed glory just might await.