Natalya shifted her on-screen character and turned into a villain at last year’s Money in the Bank. She acted as a respected veteran for quite a long time and this revamp of character was supposed to be a welcoming storyline for her.
However, in reality, she failed to earn the heat that she needed to generate as a great heel. She admitted it on numerous occasions by stating that she has not received the desired reactions from the crowd.
The supposed reason behind this is her presence on the Total Divas show where she is an integral part of the show and being shown in her real life avatar. Since she is very active in the social media, she has millions of followers around the world.
So, it’s hard for them to hate her for her on-screen personality after knowing her close on the Total Divas show. Recently, Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer has stated the same while discussing the topic. Check out his comments on the Queen of Harts:
“Natalya has been pushed as the leader of the new heel group and is the best wrestler on the Smackdown women’s roster. She and Charlotte have done programs before. Their NXT stuff really helped change the face of the women and put Charlotte on the map in many ways.
Their Raw stuff was a disappointment due to some bad finishes and cut times of the big bouts. Now the roles are reversed, which is okay. But the problem with Natalya is still the people who watch Total Divas like her.
It comes across that she’s this nice pretty woman always struggling with her position in the company and hoping for a break. That makes her someone people can relate to, and is being told to play a bad guy in an attempt to do something with her and is struggling with getting over in that role. That’s not exactly a heat getting heel role.”
As you can see, the veteran journalist pointed out the audience for the Total Divas show. Over the years, the show has earned a lot of attraction from the mainstream media outlets becoming a popular reality TV show around the world. So, we just can’t obliterate the impact of it.
In recent times, Natalya had been able to earn heat after featuring in a feud against Nikki Bella which ended on a highly personal note. Referring her uncle, Bret Hart also helped her a lot. To give her heel gimmick a boost, a new heel faction was created on Smackdown Live and this might help her in future.