Three years ago, Natalya and her husband TJ Wilson opened The Dungeon 2.0, an invite-only professional wrestling training facility in Florida that focuses on providing high-level practice as well as rehab for those returning from injury. The concept is based on the original Hart Dungeon, a famous wrestling school located in the basement of the Hart Family's home in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Today, Natalya has helped younger stars like Maxxine Dupri in The Dungeon, and during an interview with"The Joe Vulpis Podcast," she commented on her admiration for the facility.
"I love our dungeon. It's like a luxury car. I say that because it's not cheap to keep it going. You know, we spend a lot of money keeping it. We rent out the space with electricity and insurance and cleaning," she explained. "There's no other place in the world that is doing what we're doing. There's no other place in the world that is giving back in the way that we're doing, but we're doing it because TJ and I, we've said it before, it's our love letter to pro wrestling ... We just have this one night a week that we train and sometimes we'll open up the ring if people need to go over matches or if IYO SKY says she needs to use the ring, we'll make the ring available for Io or Liv Morgan or whomever it is."
Natalya also reflected onIlja Dragunov wrestling at The Dungeon before returning to "WWE SmackDown" and winning the United States Championship, stating that she was beyond impressed with in-ring talent and was performing as if it were WrestleMania. She added that the entire Dungeon was inspired by Dragunov's passion that it resulted in everybody producing a better effort.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Joe Vulpis Podcast" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
