Natalya on being a heel: ‘I'm still trying to convince the audience I'm bad and not to like me’

Generally speaking, professional wrestlers will tell you they would rather play a heel because it’s far easier to make fans hate you than it is to make them love you. Natalya, however, is finding it difficult to earn that hatred.

From her interview with Channel Guide Mag:

"It's challenging. What feels comfortable to me is being good. What feels normal to Nattie is the way I've been portrayed. I was vulnerable on TV, sympathetic where I have had moments where I have felt overlooked and sometimes where I naturally slipped in the babyface role because that is who I am. I kind of realize that with the struggling to prove myself and prove what I can do, I feel it made the fans sympathetic, and they could relate to me. Now I'm on this other side of the coin as a bad girl. It's challenging because I'm still trying to convince the audience I'm bad and not to like me. When I come out, I want them to boo me. There are times when I come out they don't boo me. I don't want them to cheer me because then I feel like I'm not doing my job. I'm just excited if it leads to a storyline that drives my character to being more of a bad guy. I think that is the opportunity I'm waiting for in the heel role.”

Natalya turned on Becky Lynch to go heel and was subsequently the second woman drafted to SmackDown Live to continue their program. That wrapped up quickly, though, and she’s fallen out of the main event picture in the women’s division. Not only that, she no longer has much direction, what with Lynch tied up with Alexa Bliss and Carmella beating up Nikki Bella at every turn.

She’ll have to get that storyline she’s after to get more opportunity to convince us to hate her.