Natalya: ‘My heart broke for Samoa Joe’ after Tyson Kidd injury
Natalya holds no ill will toward Samoa Joe over Tyson Kidd’s injury — and she feels bad that Joe has had to carry the burden of ending her husband’s in-ring career.
Kidd (real name TJ Wilson) wrestled his final match in June 2015 when a scary in-ring accident ended his career and nearly ended his life. During a routine WWE dark match against Joe, Kidd suffered a spinal cord injury while taking a Muscle Buster. The accident took away Kidd’s ability to wrestle, but he is lucky to have avoided paralysis or death. He now works as a producer for WWE and is highly praised for the work he does in that role.
On a new episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Natalya — who was at ringside when the accident happened — said her husband’s injury was the hardest subject for her to write about in her upcoming book. Along with having to deal with all the difficult emotions that came with Kidd losing something he was so passionate about, Natalya felt terrible about Joe being burdened by the situation.
“My heart broke for Samoa Joe, because nobody wants to ever go through anything like that,” she said. “That was the last thing in the world that he wanted. You know, he is somebody that in the industry — Joe, I believe, and I have a pretty good pulse on the industry, not just in WWE, Joe is very respected. He’s a great guy. The guys love Joe. He’s got a great reputation. He’s a great person. He loves the industry. He’s very honorable.
“It was the last thing in the world that Joe wanted. So my heart also broke for Joe. Because I just always felt so bad that he had to carry that too. And people, you know, people say mean things all the time to all of us on social media, but that’s the last thing in the world that Joe wanted. So it just kind of like, I always had a little spot in my heart for him after that. Because I was like, he didn’t want that, you know? And nobody wanted it. It was a sh*tty situation. Nobody across the board wanted that to happen, but it happened.”
Natalya believes the injury was part of Kidd’s destiny and brought him to a point where he is now able to help other wrestlers as a producer.
“TJ’s injury led him to, I think, the best chapter of his career, because he has been able to reach so many more people in WWE and in wrestling and in the world by doing the stuff that he’s doing now,” she said. “I think it was, unfortunately, it was part of his destiny. And sometimes you can’t — you can’t f*ck with your destiny. You gotta let it happen and then you gotta let it help you grow.”
Joe, who is currently a star for AEW, has called Kidd’s injury the biggest regret of his career.
Natalya’s memoir — “The Last Hart Beating: From the Dungeon to WWE” — will be released on October 28.
