Marina Shafir looks back on her path into the professional wrestling world.
Following her run in the mixed martial arts world, Marina Shafir began a new venture, officially entering the professional wrestling industry in 2018. During this time, Shafir signed with WWE, making her official debut at WWE Evolution alongside fellow MMA fighter Jessamyn Duke as the two helped Shayna Baszler win the NXT Women’s Championship. Shafir’s stint in WWE lasted three years before she moved on to All Elite Wrestling.
During a recent episode of Taylor Wilde’s Wilde On podcast, Shafir explained what initially led her to join the professional wrestling world.
Ride The Wave
“Towards the end of my MMA career, I had a couple injuries that I was ignoring and they caught up to me. And once I started, I had to like, really take them serious and rehab them, right? Because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to use my left hand. Just some really bad neck sh**, and it spooked me, so I went on the healing path, and getting back into the swing of things, Roddy [Strong] and I were engaged. We were trying to move our relationship forward and our lives together forward. It happened a lot sooner than I was intending it to, but I got pregnant,” Shafir recalled.
“It got me. That’s when I was on the top of the f*cking wave, right? Then I started riding that motherf*cker. So I moved to Florida to just start my life with Roddy and have Troy and figure out what was next in life. Wrestling was never part [of the plan]. I was hustling. I was a stunt worker, so I did a couple indie movies, I did some did some of that. And then I kind of tried to hustle in the entertainment business. I wouldn’t even say a little bit, like less than a little bit, like 1%. I was just getting started.”
Entering WWE
During her pregnancy, Shafir moved to Florida with her husband, Roderick Strong, who was already integrated into the WWE system. Following their move, Shafir was approached with an opportunity to join WWE as well. Upon accepting this proposal, Shafir inked a contract with the company, aligning herself with Jessamyn Duke and Shayna Baszler on-screen. Together, along with Ronda Rousey, the group is known as the Four Horsewomen of MMA.
“[WWE] came to me and they were like, ‘Hey, there’s an opportunity here for you [with] Shayna, Jessamyn.’ Shayna had already been with NXT. ‘Think about it. Let us know what you think.’ And I would have been an idiot not to take it. I was just getting into the prime of my age, and I love being an athlete and I love learning new things. Now we’re here. There’s some people who think ‘How the f*ck did she get into the business? And who did she have to f*ck?’ These are the stories you hear, right? ‘Oh yeah, she definitely took a detour.'”
“The detour was I was a fantastic friend, and when you’re a good friend to someone who is also a good friend to you, you keep them in your life. And it just so happened that my friend was also interested in wrestling, and we got to still be kind of kids together in a sense and have fun.”
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