Natalya Says TJ Wilson’s Injury Was Hardest Topic Of Her Book To Write About, Remembers Claudio Castagnoli Becoming Emotional At Hospital

Writing about TJ Wilson’s injury led to some sleepless nights for Nattie.

The newest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet featured a chat with WWE’s Natalya. She is promoting the release of her biography titled ‘The Last Hart Beating.’

One of the chapters in the book is centered around her husband, WWE producer T.J. Wilson’s career-ending neck injury. She stated that it was the hardest chapter to write, and she lost sleep writing about it.

“I think the most difficult topic to cover was TJ’s injury. I had sleepless nights writing about those chapters. Those were the chapters that I just — they pulled at my heart… We think about the Hart family, you think about all the things. There’s been highs and lows. Owen’s death was very tragic. My dad and his struggles… My dad struggled his whole, entire adult life, and so I had so much instability that when I was a kid that I’ve never shared. I’ve never shared any of it, until writing this book that people were like, ‘Oh, I had no idea that –’ for two years, my sisters and my mom and I lived at my grandfather’s house and we shared a bed. We shared one bed, and we all four slept in that bed for two years, because my dad, he lost everything, and so, my mom was trying to create some stability for us and we were never, ever homeless. We lived at the Hart House, but there was only one available room, and so it really taught me about, like, I gotta sink or swim. Those were hard chapters to write about because I talk a lot about my dad’s addiction and the things that we went through and it was just those were hard, but they were nothing like writing about TJ’s chapters of his injury and what we went through.”

She spoke about the aftermath of Wilson’s injury. She remembers him being very angry after he was able to get up and move around despite his neck being broken.

Natalya recounted being at the hospital with T.J. and his former partner Claudio Castagnoli. She said Castagnoli had a tear rolling down his eye when Wilson was advised to step away from the ring. Natalya added that her heart breaks for Samoa Joe as well, because she knows that he never meant to hurt Wilson.

“He was very angry, and it was because he was scared, and so that’s the thing is that people deal with trauma in different ways. So, for example, I had broken my ankle many years ago, 2016. Small, little injury but, I remember just being so scared, I wanted the whole match to just end right then and there. T.J. (Wilson), I think because of being paralyzed, it scared him. It scared him in a way that he was like, it went from fear to rage. So, once he was not paralyzed anymore, the fear turned into rage. So people really didn’t know that he had a broken neck, because he was walking around like normal. He was walking around, and he was just very, very angry and scared and all of it was just coming out all at once but, those were hard chapters to write about because I just knew once we found out from the doctors that T.J. had this type of injury — the one doctor was so blunt. He was like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re never, ever wrestling again. You’ll have to find another profession.’ He was very, very cold and blunt and I wrote about it in the book but like, I just looked at Cesaro, because Cesaro was with us at the hospital. Cesaro had a tear rolling down his face. Everybody that knows T.J. just knows that he loves this, and Cesaro just knew that that was like a death and losing something that you love so much, there was a grieving there too, and I also will say, just adding this, and I wrote about this in the book, my heart broke for Samoa Joe, because nobody wants to ever go through anything like that. That was the last thing in the world that he wanted. 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. So 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. 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… I always had a little spot in my heart for him after that because I was like, he didn’t want that, and nobody wanted it. It was a sh*tty situation. Nobody across the board wanted that to happen but it happened, and it was something that we had to go through and I will say, and I’ve said this before on your show, 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. I think it was — unfortunately, it was part of his destiny… you can’t f*ck with your destiny. You gotta let it happen, and then you gotta let it help you grow.”

Wilson has been publicly recognized by talent and his colleagues for his work as a producer. Back in 2020, Wilson shared that he looked into participating in the men’s Royal Rumble match.

He trains and works with talent at him and Natalya’s Dungeon wrestling school in Florida.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.