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Former WWE star Natalie Eva Marie is returning to WWE.
Marie is in Orlando, Florida for this week's WWE TV tapings and was seen yesterday undergoing medical testing needed in order to enter the Thunderdome today. PWInsider.com is told that Marie and the company came to terms for a return the week of 9/20. There is no word whether she is returning to wrestle or simply appear as a personality on TV.
Marie, 36, initially signed with the company in 2013 to take part in the first season of Total Divas. During a WWE Where Are They Now? segment that aired over this past summer on the WWE Network, Marie recounted that WWE was developing the reality series and she was invited to a meeting, although she wasn’t told what it was for. At the end of the meeting, she was told that if she was picked, her life could be changing in the next 72 hours. That was a Friday. On Saturday, she was told that she got the job and was getting on a plane to Wrestlemania.
Marie debuted as a "newbie Diva" for the series and began wrestling for the NXT brand in 2015 after initially training under Brian Kendrick in California, where she lived. She was moved to Smackdown with an excellent creative rollout that saw her constantly coming up with reasons not to compete but just as that was getting underway, was suspended for a violation of the WWE Wellness Policy in August 2017 days before a Summerslam match. She never returned to the company and was later released. At the time, it was presented that Marie was exiting in order to concentrate on her film work.
During a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, Marie admitted she was probably put into the ring too soon in her training, commenting, "You know what? Yes. For sure, the inner athlete and perfectionist in me wishes I was able to train the multiple years these wrestlers are able to before they get on TV. However, if that opportunity never came up, then I would not have been put in front of the WWE universe, dyed my hair, been put in front of my [management] team. Everything happens for a reason. For me, it all played out pretty damn good. "
Since departing WWE, Marie has done acting for several projects, launched a podcast and completed on CBS' Big Brother: Celebrity Edition. She has long stated that she felt she had unfinished business with the company and expected to return at some point.
British wrestling website Cultaholic was the first to report on Marie's potential return to WWE.
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