Nattie Neidhart

In this engaging conversation, Dr. Cliff Redford interviews WWE superstar Natty Neidhart about her new book, 'The Last Hart Beating.' They explore the dual meanings of the title, the emotional journey of writing the book, and the healing power of storytelling. Natty shares insights into her family dynamics, the impact of CTE on her father's life, and the progress of women in wrestling. The discussion emphasizes the importance of grace, resilience, and the lessons learned through life's challenges.
To learn more about the book and to discover when Nattie is touring in your area, visit https://lasthartbeatingbook.com/

First, if you haven't watched my film and live in Canada (or have one of those VPN things), you can watch it here:

https://youtu.be/oMUx3yuyznc?si=oagpg7bGnpbuyXlJ

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @drcliffworldwidevet.com and on Twitter at @drcliff_vet
Listener questions, episode suggestions, or if you have a good idea for a guest, email me at dr.redford@vet905.com
Additional information can be found at drcliff.ca

Transcript

Dr. Cliff Redford (00:00)

Hey everyone, welcome to a wonderful episode of that life with Dr. Cliff. we've got a great guest today. We're going to get right to it. She's been on the podcast before. ⁓ her name's Natty Neidhardt. She is the boat, the best of all time, the number one WWE female wrestler, but that's not why she's on the show. She is a cat lover. She is a cat rescuer.

taking care of all the local stray cats in her area. She's a good friend of mine and she has written a book called The Last Heart Beating, H-A-R-T, that is her family last name. The Last Heart Beating and it is coming to all bookstores online, Brick and Mortar, October 28th. So stay tuned for this wonderful, wonderful interview with my friend, Nattie Neidhart.

All right, well everyone, welcome back as promised, my good friend, Natty Neidhart, how are you?

Natalie Neidhart (01:08)

Good! Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me.

Dr. Cliff Redford (01:11)

I am very, very excited. Let's get right to this, your book, The Last Heart Beating. ⁓ It comes out, I guess the day this podcast comes out, October 28th, worldwide, all across US. What are we talking about?

Natalie Neidhart (01:27)

It's out worldwide.

Dr. Cliff Redford (01:30)

So exciting,

so exciting. ⁓ First of all, this title, I'm gonna talk about how much I love this book for so many reasons, but to me, this title has two meanings, two kind of separate meanings. I like going Shakespeare on that and thinking too much of that or? Yeah, yeah, can you explain to everybody?

Natalie Neidhart (01:46)

You're... You are correct.

The title for the book, mean, when I was coming up with what I would call the book, I actually didn't struggle with it at all. I was thinking, man, in a family that's done everything, a family that's been in the main events of WrestleMania, I've got four Hall of Famers in my family, ⁓ a family that's won all these incredible championships, one of the most notorious.

one of the most famous families in wrestling, a family that's it all. I'm still doing it in WWE and I'm the last one standing. So I was like, but the last heart beating, it's like that Tupac song and I am a huge Tupac fan. His song, Breathing. I'm the last heart beating, I'm the last, as Booker T would say, the last mother ever breathing. So beating.

Dr. Cliff Redford (02:23)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ha ha.

Natalie Neidhart (02:47)

Beating has a connotation, it's about still fighting, but also like a heartbeat, you know what I mean? It's like a pulse, it's fighting, it's still, last heart's still standing, last one's still doing it. In a world where I was probably the least likely to make it in my family as a woman, I'm still here. So it's a very cool meaning, but I love the title of the book.

Dr. Cliff Redford (02:51)

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah, it was, ⁓ it struck me right in the heart. H E A R T, ⁓ for sure. ⁓ you know, this book, I, you know, I was texting you while I was reading it and, and sometimes with tears in my eyes and a lot of times with a bit of a sore belly from laughing out loud. I literally laughed out loud in some of these, ⁓ when you, when you, and it was, you have this wonderful self deprecating humor in the book.

Natalie Neidhart (03:35)

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (03:39)

where you talk about how you were described as the dumpy diva and you had your father's rhino body and without the goatee but occasionally a mustache. I mean, for someone that's, very athletic, you're very beautiful, you're very ⁓ accomplished and you have this great sense of humor. it was, what a wonderful roller coaster ride. So this book for everyone who's gonna read it, like,

It's not just a biography in the sense of, know, I was born and you know, now here I am. Like it's this great, one chapter is hilarious. Another chapter's infuriating, to be honest with you, in some of the things you had to deal with. And then another chapter is so heartfelt and sad. And then you go back to another section that's hilarious. I mean, it's life. This is a great story of life.

Natalie Neidhart (04:23)

Thank

Yeah, and I wanted to, I really, in writing the book, I wanted a couple things. I wanted it to have range. I wanted it to make people laugh. I wanted it to make people cry. I really wanted it to make people feel something. And then also heal. And that was really big for me is I want people to read it and heal from it. Like they can look at their own story, whether they love wrestling, whether they've never watched wrestling, whether they...

hate wrestling, whatever it is, they will understand the story in the book. There's a very strong story. So it's really a book that wrestling is more the backdrop. It's not a book so much about wrestling. It's more that wrestling is the setting in my life. I've got some very cool people in my life that I'm able to explore. I dedicate the entire book to my dad because he's the biggest, most important character in my life as far as where I've...

you know, how I turned out. ⁓ He's shaped my life so much. So I dedicated the book to him. But, you know, my dad and I had a complicated relationship. I love my dad, but my dad also, you he struggled. So it was cool being able to share stuff like that. The other thing when I was writing the book is I really wanted it to be easy to read. I wanted to write a book that everybody would understand. That it was like, I wanted no reader.

Dr. Cliff Redford (05:30)

Mm-hmm.

Natalie Neidhart (05:55)

to get left behind because sometimes, you know, even for myself, like I'll open up a book and be like, holy shit, this feels like daunting. Like this is a lot. And people nowadays, I know for me, I want simple. I want simple, I want it easy to understand, and I wanna basically get to the end of the chapter and I want people to go, have to get to the next chapter, I have to see what's next. So I think creating a book that's easy for people to read, people are reading it very fast.

Dr. Cliff Redford (06:03)

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Natalie Neidhart (06:23)

I love that your dogs are barking. I think they're so cute.

Dr. Cliff Redford (06:25)

She's a little embarrassing, but it's vet life. That's what, that's what the life of a vet is. There they go. There you go. Yeah, it was, uh, it was a page turner. was a quick read, not cause it was simple, but it was just, uh, it was very relatable. Uh, certainly very enjoyable and, um, great teasers at the end of each chapter. I was like, well, there's more to come up, you know, like we think this is solved, but there's more coming up.

Natalie Neidhart (06:28)

And you know what? You're doing what you have to do.

Dr. Cliff Redford (06:53)

⁓ And that's how that's how life is. You know, you talked about, my goodness, you talked about healing. ⁓ Like this, this book had to be very therapeutic for you.

Natalie Neidhart (07:07)

It was very therapeutic and it was, it was just, it was something that like even in writing it, I ended up developing this new character that I'm now doing outside of WWE and hoping one day to bring it to WWE. But I, I was, you know, when I, when I wrote this, I was, I was really sorting through my life and I was like, there was, there was some chapters that were harder to write than others, but I was also like able to write my feelings out, sleep on them.

Dr. Cliff Redford (07:20)

Ruff!

Natalie Neidhart (07:36)

And then decide, okay, do I want to share this with the world? Should I share this with the world? Is this harmful? Is it beneficial? Is it something people can grow from? And then because I took a year to do it, to write the book, I was really able to sleep on my feelings. then basically at the end of the day, the stuff that I kept in the book was extremely important to the story. And also I felt was beneficial for other people to relate to and heal from their own stuff, from their own trauma.

One of the girls that I work with Bianca Belair, she read the book in just a couple days. She was one of the first people to read the book and she's a woman. She's a top WWE star. She's a woman who's main event at WrestleMania. She's also a friend of mine. And she read the book in two days and she said to me when she was done reading the book, she goes, Natty, she goes, I wish that I had this book when I first started my career in WWE. She's like, because this book was so healing. She goes, really learned so much from this book, but I also like.

It was very healing for me. And I loved hearing that from her because that's a big thing about the book is I want people to get something from it. You always remember when somebody makes you feel a certain way. And I think that's why the work that you do, Cliff, is so extraordinary because, sorry to go off into a different tangent, but you'll never forget the way somebody makes you feel. And so when we see, like I see your social posts about saving animals and the work that you do around the world to help.

Dr. Cliff Redford (08:42)

Hmm.

Natalie Neidhart (09:02)

animals of every walk of life, not just dogs, like animals in general. And I'm just so blown away by it. I'm so compelled by it. And it just, makes me look at you differently as a person because I'm like, this guy is, there's not a lot of financial gain for him to go around the world saving animals that are tied up in barbed wire, animals like a, you know, an owl with a broken wing or

You do such great work that people, I get emotional even seeing your posts, knowing the work that you're doing for animals and it's so unsung. So I think what you do makes people feel a certain way, especially if you love animals.

Dr. Cliff Redford (09:39)

Yeah, well, I appreciate that. Thank you very much. I am going to save that for when my book comes out in a year and I'm going to, ⁓ I'm to use that. And when I do a book tour, maybe I'll be in Florida and we can, we can meet up. ⁓

Natalie Neidhart (09:45)

Yes!

Yes, that'd I would love that.

Dr. Cliff Redford (09:55)

be at some Gator sanctuary or something. That's where the signing will be maybe only a sanctuary, not a, not a street side zoo. yeah, you know, you talked a bit about it before how wrestling is just sort of the, the method to tell the story. And obviously wrestling is a huge part of your life. But, ⁓ for all those people out there, look, if you're a wrestling fan, they're going to buy it and they're going to love it. But I am not.

myself a huge wrestling follower. mean, I did as a kid, know, Randy, Macho Man Savage versus, ⁓ versus, ⁓ Jimmy the dragon. ⁓ you know, like I remember all those, ⁓ I remember your father. I remember your uncle well, well, but I'm only reading two wrestling sort of type books probably in my life and it's yours and it's Drew's because you guys are my friends and I would not have picked this up.

Natalie Neidhart (10:46)

.

Dr. Cliff Redford (10:52)

if I didn't know you personally. And that would have been a travesty because for those who are going to read this and please do if you're not, you know, even though you don't follow wrestling, the story about, you know, the relationship between you and your father and his alcoholism and his drug addiction and then his, ⁓ you know, the way he aged and some of the, the CTE and the brain damage that he suffered and

It's going to help so many people out there. ⁓ even if, know, I have a great relationship with my father and he's not a wrestler, you know, and I don't have to worry about that stuff, but you know, there are other people in my life that, that, you know, you have other challenges. There is one point in it. Like you wrote, you wrote essentially, ⁓ I wrote here, you gave up a lot as a kid. The most powerful for me was it when you wrote about giving up who you wanted to be. And instead.

Natalie Neidhart (11:25)

Yeah.

Dr. Cliff Redford (11:50)

became what your family needed you to be. that's like every kid's, especially the first born, which I know you're not, but every kid's sort of challenge is growing up and somehow you sometimes have to change who you want to be for what other people need from you, but you end up finding yourself in this life and in this career.

So the people who will read this, they're gonna get so much way more. This is not a wrestling book. This is just a book about challenges and love. It's definitely a love letter to your father. It's a love letter to the heart dynasty. ⁓ I got near the end though that I think it's a love letter to you as well. I get emotional thinking about it. Like, I hope.

Natalie Neidhart (12:27)

Thank

Dr. Cliff Redford (12:42)

You must have gotten so much out of writing this because what all of us, your friend and myself, and I'm sure everyone who's going to read it, you know, we just fell in love with Natty. We fell in love with the challenges that you had to overcome and it truly does inspire us. that's, you know, that's, there's not a lot out there that does that. ⁓ so, so well done. Bravo. For sure.

Natalie Neidhart (13:07)

Thank you.

I mean, thank you so much. I appreciate that so much because it's so easy and it's such music to my ears to talk to people that have actually read the book. you know, they, because so many people just, I think people think that they know me and that's a really big reason why I wanted to write the book is because I was last June when I started writing the book.

Dr. Cliff Redford (13:25)

you

Natalie Neidhart (13:29)

Prior to that, was like, I don't think people know my story. They think they know me because I've worked in WWE for almost two decades. ⁓ I was on a reality show, Total Divas, for seven years. My whole family has been in the public eye with WWE. And I was like, just think people don't know my story. And so I was like, I think my story could change the way people define success in their own life.

They could change, like even with my dad, I was so frustrated with my dad for so long growing up because I couldn't understand why he couldn't figure it out. When I was a kid, I was like, does he just not love us? Does he just not care about us? Like, why can't he just get his shit together? And I always took it so personally because I was like, I just thought my dad, you know, I was like, he's a drug addict, he's...

Dr. Cliff Redford (13:56)

Mm-hmm.

Natalie Neidhart (14:21)

you know, an alcoholic, he's just somebody that just keeps making these mistakes over and over and over again. Does he not love us enough to know that what he's doing to us is hurting us? You know, because we, you know, when I was a teenager, we lost our home, we lost our car, we had to move in with my grandfather. My mom and my sisters and I shared a bed at my, and granted we weren't homeless because we had that room in my grandfather's house, but it was four people sharing a bedroom.

Dr. Cliff Redford (14:28)

Mm-hmm.

Natalie Neidhart (14:47)

you know, and sharing a bed for a couple years because my dad just couldn't figure it out. But then the rest of the world thought we were these rich, famous wrestlers that were, you know, my dad was this rich, famous wrestler on TV. Then when my dad passed away through mutual friends, somebody asked me, would you like to donate? A very close friend of mine, actually, Chris Nowinski, was like, do you want to donate your dad's brain to the concussion legacy foundation for research? And so I didn't want to at first. And then immediately I was like,

You know what? I had to make a decision that day. And I was like, if this can advance science, I'll do it because I also kind of want to get the answers. I struggled. was like, this is worth mentioning. I struggled with the idea of writing about my dad's brain injury because I was like, what if people attack me? What if they attack my dad? What if they start going off on this whole tangent about CTE? I realized that I had to.

talk about my dad's brain injury because if I didn't, people would judge my dad and look at him in a different way. were where they would say after reading the book, wow, he wasn't a good parent. And I was like, once I learned about my dad having a traumatic brain injury for most of his adult life, it made me look at him differently, where I was able to forgive my dad for so much because I was like, he was he was just doing the best that he could with what he had because of what he was going through.

Dr. Cliff Redford (16:02)

Mm-hmm.

Natalie Neidhart (16:09)

You know, my dad started playing football when he was 11 years old. And he was a defensive tackle, he was a nose guard. They weren't using helmets. And so when we were kids, my dad ⁓ would tell us story, like football stories about when he was playing football, would get his bell rung. That was the way he described it. He goes, I would get my bell rung, but my coaches were so proud of me because I kept on playing. Years later, know, decades later,

Dr. Cliff Redford (16:34)

Mm-hmm.

Natalie Neidhart (16:37)

we would all learn and realize that when you get your bell rung as a teenager, especially because my dad was playing, he started out in Pop Warner, you know, he would brag about getting his bell rung and then pushing through and playing in his teens. But we know now that that's not good. And those decisions and those, that lack of knowledge back then with concussions and all that, it led, you know, it led to my dad later on in his life going through, you know, being haunted by it. And so...

Dr. Cliff Redford (16:54)

Mm-hmm.

Natalie Neidhart (17:06)

I, you know, being able to discover that he was going through something so serious like that, I forgave my dad because I realized he wasn't able to make great choices because he just didn't have the capacity to do it. So that's why I wanted to explain it early on. And I think it was chapter five that I explained my dad's traumatic brain injury because I was like, I need the audience to not turn on him because I love my dad so unconditionally. want them to, I want them to like fall in love with him too, but also understand his struggle.

Dr. Cliff Redford (17:17)

Yeah.

Yeah, and you did a wonderful job doing that. And you know, you I don't remember the exact phrase, but right near the end, I might have even read it last night. Right near the end, you talked about the last few periods with your father were so much better as far as your relationship, because you're able to understand, he just can't remember, or he can't process. He's trying, but he like he just hasn't doesn't have the ability. You know, it's like

having someone with a broken leg and saying, can't you run a marathon? No matter how hard he tried and how hard he wanted to, ⁓ all the way from when he was 11 years old, we know so much more now that there must have been so much damage. I remember reading at the beginning, as you're describing some of the early troubles, ⁓ I was just thinking, I hope like,

There must have been some CTE. I hope she checked that out. And then obviously on chapter five, you confirm that. ⁓ Look, this story, as I said, is quite funny as well. You talked about moving to the Hart House from this big mansion in Florida. ⁓ And when you're famous and rich, and then you lose your money, everyone still sees you as famous. So they assume, ⁓ must be her life must be so nice. She's famous and rich.

Natalie Neidhart (18:55)

Thank

Dr. Cliff Redford (18:59)

No, you're just famous now and it's even worse because you everyone assumes, but you wrote

in there, what do we have here? You leave the mansion in Florida and you downsize to the heart house and you wrote, I really felt safe there. Even if the whole house did smell of cat pee, that was part of the charm. ⁓ That was so funny. It's so hilarious. ⁓ I could, I could smell it coming from the book almost. I knew exactly what you're describing.

Natalie Neidhart (19:18)

Hahaha! ⁓

Well, because my grandfather had so many cats. so we, I'm a huge animal lover, we are very specific. We love our cats. my grandfather had, he would rescue every animal. He had like six dogs and he had a, you know, he had a man, he had a big house. The Hard House was a big house, but it was built in 1902 and ⁓ it was a big home, they only had like, there was like five bedrooms in the house. And so every room was occupied.

Dr. Cliff Redford (19:32)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Natalie Neidhart (19:58)

So there was one room that was left. It was my mom's old room. The room that we moved into was my mom's old bedroom when she was a little girl. it had an original fireplace in it from 1902. It had one little closet. It had a dresser. But I loved living at the Hart House. I loved it so much because my grandfather lived there. So my grandmother and grandfather lived there and my grandfather would make us.

really nice meals and he always made us this special tea and there's always cats everywhere and the cats ran the house. There was no question about it. Like the cats were like gods in that house and they they like this.

Dr. Cliff Redford (20:37)

It happens.

It happens. Yes, it definitely happens. They do like doing that.

Natalie Neidhart (20:40)

It's a nostalgic smell for

me. I don't know why my own cats are well behaved, but cat peeve or whatever reason it just takes me right back to the heart of us

Dr. Cliff Redford (20:48)

Well, is.

mean, scientists will confirm that out of all your senses, the scent of the smelling a certain scent brings back the strongest memories if it's linked to something. For me, it's a mix of gasoline and oil, which is what we would put in our tiny little four horsepower outboard motor, which we would take to the cottage.

Natalie Neidhart (20:59)

Yes. Yes.

Dr. Cliff Redford (21:14)

And the cottage was very simple. was basically a cabin that my father, the accountant built. So it was not architecturally sound. It died after about 20 years. It fell apart. But I have these memories and that anytime I smell a mixture of gasoline and oil, it brings me right to round Lake and little Sprucedale, Ontario. ⁓ the other, you know, the, the other great part, I couldn't believe it. And I, and I texted you right when I read it.

Natalie Neidhart (21:25)

my

Dr. Cliff Redford (21:44)

You open the book with you and arguably your father committing a felony together.

Natalie Neidhart (21:50)

Yes, well, my dad wasn't alive at that moment, but when we were spreading his ashes, we were filming Total Diva's and my dad that night was getting inducted into the into WWE Hall of Fame. So it's a really funny story about this crazy day of like, okay, we're gonna honor my dad. But of course, in true Jim Neidhart fashion, we almost get arrested because we decided that we were gonna you know, I didn't we didn't know that it was illegal to dump ashes in a public park.

So there was this beautiful oak tree and we were like, this tree just symbolizes my dad. My dad's favorite place in the world to wrestle was MSG. We wanted to kind of, you know, find something very close to, to MSG that we could, we could take spread his ashes. And then of course that night he was getting at the Barclays Center is where he was getting inducted. No, I mean, no sooner than just, you know, dumping out a 300 pound man's ashes on the ground under a beautiful oak tree. Are we...

all of sudden being screamed at and told, we're gonna get arrested if you guys, we were like, you guys can't do that, you can't do I'm like, why didn't somebody tell us this? And then I joked about it, but it's true, I was like, do we pick up the ashes on the ground and try to get, it was such a, it was a total shenanigan, but like I said, in true Jim Neidhart fashion, we were like, my dad was not, ⁓ it was not abnormal for him to get arrested. He had been arrested many times.

Dr. Cliff Redford (23:17)

I

am sure he was up at the pearly gates sitting on his Harley cackling away in his classic Jim the Anvil laughter saying, a girl. Just do it and then run. Just do it and run. It didn't make it onto the screen, it?

Natalie Neidhart (23:28)

Yes.

Yes!

The I'm Total Divas? No, they didn't put it in because they were like, I don't know how everybody missed it. I don't even think the producers knew exactly that we were gonna do that. They were following us around that morning before the ceremony. And so my sisters and my mom and I were like, we're just gonna do this really quick. It was very personal for us. And then next thing you know, we were like, my God, we're gonna get arrested. All I could picture was.

Dr. Cliff Redford (23:41)

Okay. Darn it.

Okay.

Natalie Neidhart (24:03)

the headlines of WWE superstar Natalya arrested for a felony. And I was like, I'm about to go and present in front of the world. I'm about to induct my father into WWE's Hall of Fame and I'm committing a felony in the afternoon right before.

Dr. Cliff Redford (24:18)

Beautiful. No, was a wonderful opening for sure. ⁓ As we wrap up, mean, this book, you're quite a feminist. You have changed ⁓ the way women have been looked at and treated. You talk about in your book how at the beginning during the Diva Championship era, and I'm paraphrasing, of course, the female athletes were looked at as sexy models.

Really very little time screen time, no real story. ⁓ and then by the time the women's championship belt is created, ⁓ you know, finally they're getting their due. you, are you a hundred percent satisfied now with the way women are portrayed in WWE? Is there more work to be done? I gotta be honest when I do watch WWE, I'm watching the women. ⁓

I do appreciate their athleticism a whole lot more, ⁓ among other things. Are you happy with like how things are going?

Natalie Neidhart (25:25)

think that the way that we are in WWE because it's ever growing, it's ever evolving, I think that we never stop striving for more. I think that that's just the way we are. The girls that I work with, that's why the girls matches I feel are so exciting because the girls care so much. And so I think we're always striving for greatness. I'm one of those types of people that I don't rest on my last match being like, okay, I had a great match, now I can stop working. I'm on- ⁓

Dr. Cliff Redford (25:40)

Mm-hmm.

Natalie Neidhart (25:53)

I'm an overachiever, but a lot of the girls I work with are overachievers too. We always want our next performance to be the best and then, and to be able to continue to pay it forward with a lot of new women coming in. And I love working with new talent, new women. I've worked with over 65 different women in WWE and we're all like, feel like we're all hungry. We're all hungry to make the division better. We're all hungry to make ourselves better. We're hungry to make the product better. ⁓ But we can always be better. Like I look at every performance that I have and I always think of how I can improve it.

I mean, even when I finished writing the book, I always think of like, maybe I should have tweaked that or maybe I should have like ended the story there. Maybe I should have like, I just, I'm just such a perfectionist that like, that's why I finally had to like just walk away from the book. Cause I was like, I gotta leave it alone or else we're never going to get done with it. It's never going to end if I don't leave it alone. So I had to walk away from it. But like the perfectionist in me always wants to keep tweaking and fine tuning and retouching.

Dr. Cliff Redford (26:38)

Yeah.

There'll be ⁓ a second heart-beating ⁓ addition maybe, like an extension in a couple of years for sure. mean, you are, this book does, you do a great job telling the story about how you were quite the leader and still are in the wrestling world. you really, I remember a couple of years ago, I was messaging you, you were...

⁓ wrestling against, I can't remember her name, but she's a Puerto Rican woman. She used to fight in MMA, ⁓ Miami vice, something, something Miami. ⁓ and I remember even saying like, she's in the next, in the NXT world. And yet the Lola Lola Lola vice, there you go. She's in the ⁓ NXT world. And here's this best of all time, Natalia Knightheart that's gone down in his.

Natalie Neidhart (27:31)

Lola, Lola Vice. Yeah, yeah, yes.

Dr. Cliff Redford (27:41)

and is fighting with her. And now I understand why like they put you in there to make this future champion all the better. And you and TJ are teaching at the dungeon in Florida and you're just constantly giving back to the wrestling world. ⁓ It must be so inspiring. Are there any like you have a nephew that's kind of getting into it? Like he's quite young.

Natalie Neidhart (28:04)

Yeah,

my nephew Maddox, he's 13, gonna turn 14 next month and he's an amateur wrestler. So he's doing amazing in amateur wrestling and he's got the itch to wrestle. He's a huge fan of wrestling and WWE and he loves coming to the shows and he loves Jey Uso. But he's doing amateur wrestling, he's crushing it and he's doing amazing. So I mean, he could be a fourth generation heart for sure.

Dr. Cliff Redford (28:13)

Beautiful.

Yeah, yeah. We can wear the black and neon pink, hot pink ⁓ outfit would look fabulous for sure. ⁓ As we wrap this up, if I don't ask my friend's question, he's going to be very disappointed. Dr. JJ is a veterinarian from Mexico that works with me at Shades of Hope. He will be seeing you ⁓ at the Indigo ⁓ book signing in Toronto, November 1st. So if he goes, hey, I'm Dr. Cliff's friend, JJ.

Natalie Neidhart (28:58)

What just happened?

Dr. Cliff Redford (29:03)

you're going to know who he is. So he asked you, said, you've inspired so many of us, not just with your, ⁓ not just with your in ring career, but with your resilience and kindness outside of it. Looking back, what's one piece of advice you would give to your younger self that you think could inspire your fans today?

Natalie Neidhart (29:23)

That's a great question. would say it's such a tough one, but I would say to give yourself grace. And that's the thing is that when you're young, when you're just trying to figure it out, I would get so frustrated when I would make a mistake. And now I've realized as I've gotten older, especially after writing the book, that mistakes and failing and hardships and...

Dr. Cliff Redford (29:24)

That's a great question.

Hmm.

Natalie Neidhart (29:46)

a rocky road. Like life is not linear. It's not like, you know, it's part of what builds strong characters, part of what builds strong people, part of what builds really successful people are people that go through stuff. And so when you're going through stuff, you know, try to give yourself grace and to recognize, you know, what you could do better, what you, you know, what you did well with and then also know that like part of life is just figuring it out.

Like that's you got to figure it out because figuring out is what makes you strong. I wouldn't be in WWE today. You know, in January, it'll be 19 years that I've been uninterrupted wrestler in WWE for almost two decades, the longest of any woman in the company's history. I wouldn't be as strong as I am today if I hadn't gone through stuff that was challenging. I needed to go through those things. And if I could go back in time, I would have been a little kinder to myself. So that would probably be the lesson that I would.

Pass on just to give yourself grace when you're going through stuff that's hard.

Dr. Cliff Redford (30:48)

Beautiful, beautiful. And, ⁓ you know, I, I would like to say, you know, I hope your life is smooth sailing moving forward, but you know, no, maybe it's okay if it's a little rocky, as long as we know nobody gets hurt and, it's enough that we know that you can overcome it. ⁓ so you are showing up in Toronto, November 1st, you have a charity event, ⁓ October 31st in Kingston with the boys and girls club. ⁓ but you're touring, you got a world book tour.

⁓ coming out. How can people find out where you're going to be?

Natalie Neidhart (31:17)

Yes, yeah.

they can go to the webpage, which is lastheartbeatingbook.com.

Dr. Cliff Redford (31:28)

Beautiful. And that's heart,

H-A-R-T. I'll do a little link. Yeah.

Natalie Neidhart (31:32)

Yeah,

lastheartbeatingbook.com. And so all the tour dates are on that page. yeah, so it's a great spot for people to just check it out. can see every, you know, I'm excited to do the, I'm doing a signing on November 1st in Toronto ⁓ at, where is it? Chapters? Indigo, sorry.

Dr. Cliff Redford (31:38)

Love it.

Yes. It's at the Ingo Indigo chapters, pretty

much Eaton center, downtown Eaton center, Indigo chapters. Yeah.

Natalie Neidhart (31:56)

Yeah,

it's at Indigo ⁓ and then the night before, ⁓ yes, so Toronto, November 1st and then October 31st, we're doing a really cool event with the Boys and Girls Club where it's all proceeds for people that come to, they get their book signed, they get a couple pictures, they meet with me and then if they wanna bring extra items, I'll sign those too. But I wanted to make sure we donated all the proceeds to the Boys and Girls Club.

So it's great. helping, we wanna raise as much money as we can for that organization, because they're awesome. They give back so much to the community. So I was like, let's do that. I wanna go straight from the media that I have on Friday and go to the Boys and Girls Club and do that for them.

Dr. Cliff Redford (32:43)

I love it. You're always giving back and you're a true leader both inside and outside of the ring. So we all appreciate you very much, Natty.

Natalie Neidhart (32:51)

Thank you, Cliff. Thank you so much for making the time and go get back to your puppies.

Dr. Cliff Redford (32:56)

Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you

very much for joining ⁓ me and everyone be kind to animals and yourself and each other and give yourself grace and permission to fail and check out this book. Thank you very much.

Natalie Neidhart (33:12)

Thank you so much, Flip. I will talk to you soon.