Natalya Reacts To AEW's Owen Hart Memorial Tournament

With AEW Fight Forever set to be released soon with Owen Hart as a playable character, and the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament kicking off a few days earlier at Forbidden Door, the memory of the late wrestler has been a big topic of conversation of late. Most of that conversation had been among fans and on the AEW side, but on Wednesday, that changed when ABC reporter Dearon Smith asked Owen's niece, WWE star Natalya, about the tournament during an interview promoting the July 14 "WWE SmackDown" taping in Raleigh, North Carolina.

"It's a great question and one that I don't get asked very often," Natalya replied. "For me, any way that we can keep my uncle's legacy alive — I don't know all of the particulars of why we can't do that in WWE. I have a deep amount of respect for [his widow,] Martha because I know that she's gone through so much trauma and she lost so much. When you have to raise your kids without a dad, it's something I'd never wish upon anyone to experience. So I always feel deeply for her, especially as a woman, but just as a person and knowing what kind of person my uncle was. Owen was such a special person."

The multi-time champion added that honoring Owen in any way "is a win," and that she'd love to honor him herself, but obliquely acknowledged that her employment situation gets in the way of that. "I work for WWE ... but it's not my place, because, of course, I'm not Martha," Natalya explained. "So it's not my place to say 'this is what should happen' or 'this is what I'd like to happen.' It's her call. It's her life, and she's had to endure so, so much.  And I am just so happy that he is being honored, and he is being recognized, for not just the person he was in the ring, but the man he was outside the ring."