Jon Moxley has praise for Marina Shafir.
Moxley isn't an official coach in AEW, but as a respected veteran in the locker room, he gives advice to talent if they are looking for it. Moxley's style has a heavy MMA influence, both in match structure and physicality.
Marina Shafir is a former MMA fighter who has made the transition to wrestling, and Moxley sees big potential in her.
"Marina Shafir, so much potential there," Moxley said to Renee Paquette on The Sessions. "She is the only one of our species that we have at AEW. There is nobody else, we only have one of her. I see her wrestling differently than everybody. Looking, talking, acting differently than everybody. She has all these martial arts skills and high level judo and MMA experience. She is such a natural at so much of it. She is new at the pro wrestling stuff, like the running, ducking, selling, and bumping. I saw her wrestle at Bloodsport and it was like she was a different wrestler than I have seen on Dark and Elevation. It was like she was totally different because she was in her element. She wrestled Masha Slamovich, very talented girl. She was wrestling barefoot and moving around. Her footwork and kicks and movement were totally different because she was in her element. I was like, 'We need to bring that to TV.' That brings a whole new element to the division."
Moxley continued, "Just as a suggestion, I was like, 'On Bloodsport, you wrestle barefoot. I'm not saying you should wrestle barefoot, if you don't want to, then don't, it's all good, but the fact that you were barefoot drew my eyes to your feet and it made me notice how good your footwork was. It made you look way more athletic. It added a whole new dimension.' It created a whole new dynamic. I'm just trying to get her to loosen up, and she has. She works really hard to work on these little things. She goes out there to get better every single time. I'm just trying to get her to be loose and do what she knows how to do. She already knows how to do everything she knows, it's just putting it where it needs to go and all these little things. That just takes experience. One of the matches she had, I think it was against Athena, they had a good amount of time, not just four or five minutes. Once they hit halfway through the match and were in a good sweat and warmed up, you saw her change gears. Seeing that, that's what I've been waiting to see. It's so subtle, but I could notice it, and when she got into the zone and changed gears, it pumped me up."
Shafir does currently wrestle without shoes in her AEW matches, even throwing her socks into the crowd before her match.
Shafir and Moxley will both compete at Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 9. Fans can check out the lineup for the event by clicking here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
