Natalya recently spoke out about how deeply the passing of “The Butcher” Andy Williams affected her and how it pulled her straight back to one of the most painful moments in her family’s history.
In conversation with the Toronto Sun’s “No Holds Barred,” Natalya said the thought of Andy’s passing carried her back to the loss of her uncle, Owen Hart, who tragically passed away in 1999 following an accident during a WWE pay-per-view.
When Owen passed away, it was so hard. Like, our family was just, it was a very, I’ll never forget it. It was just a very hard moment for our family. It was the hardest thing that we’ve ever gone through.
Natalya said news like Williams’ passing stops the entire wrestling community in its tracks regardless of company lines, and highlighted the wave of tributes that followed as proof of how respected he was.
You get stopped in your tracks when you hear about, like, something as shocking as, you know, one of our fellow wrestlers. And that’s the thing about the wrestling community. There is, there is a big, huge wrestling community out there that when something like this happens, it doesn’t matter where you work, we all come together.
She also noted that colleagues sharing photos, memories, and even messages from Williams painted a picture of someone who was genuinely kind and humble behind the scenes.
Loved seeing everybody come together for, you know, just like, to celebrate, to honor, to share their memories of Andy, to share, you know, what he meant to them, how he impacted them. And just like photos, you just realized, like, even people were sharing their DMs from him and you just realized, like, man, like, what a nice, genuine, humble, like, great person this guy was.
