Natalya recently spoke with Yahoo Sports and talked about WWE bringing the recent death of her father, WWE Legend Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, into her current feud with Ruby Riott.

“A lot of people have asked me, girls that I work with backstage, other superstars, people at home, if I’m OK with this storyline and how do I feel about it,” Natalya said. “For me, this is what is going on in my life, this is the elephant in the room.”

Natalya also said this storyline is a chance for her dad to get a proper sendoff in WWE.

“My dad was a professional wrestler,” she said. “He was a WWE superstar, he was a WWE legend before he passed away and I feel like in some crazy way this is like my dad is having one last run. I feel like if I asked my dad right now, ‘Daddy, how do you feel about me doing this storyline?’ My dad would say go for it. He understood pro wrestling, he understood how, for fans to become emotionally invested in stories, there has to be emotionally charged content.”

Natalya also talked about how her dad would have wanted the Total Divas cameras at his funeral and how the show covering his funeral was really important to her. Natalya admitted she has a unique grieving process and it was noted that she quickly returned to work after her dad’s passing, participating in a storyline that focused on the loss. Natalya said it has been therapeutic.

“In some weird way, this storyline has been strangely therapeutic because anything I’m feeling I can get it out,” Natalie said. “If I need to cry, I can get it out. I can let everybody see it, hear it and I can take the WWE universe on this journey with me. I need to speak the truth and I need to remind the world that my dad was a WWE star, he was special and everyone can feel that with me.”

Natalya will face Riott in a Tables Match at Sunday’s WWE TLC pay-per-view in San Jose. “On Sunday, it is going to be one of my most powerful performances and it’s going to be for my dad,” she said of the match.