Marina Shafir comments on the MMA Horsewomen vs. NXT Horsewomen match that never was
When they were all signed by WWE, a match between the MMA Horsewomen (Ronda Rousey, Jessamyn Duke, Shayna Baszler, and Marina Shafir), wWE NXT Horsewomen (Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Becky Lynch) was heavily teased, and seemed like a guarantee, but never actually occurred.
Speaking to Chris Jericho on a recent episode of the Talk is Jericho podcast, Marina Shafir reflected on her time in NXT, gave her perspective on why she believes the match never occurred, and left the door open for it to possibly happen in the future.
Not very far. We really wanted to do the Four Horsewomen of MMA vs. the Four Horsewomen of wrestling. I’d be very interested in hearing what their perspective is on this. I know what mine was. I just came in to do my job and thinking that was the goal. Me, Shayna, and Jessamyn were a unit on NXT for a while, but we weren’t hitting a mark, me and Jessamyn weren’t hitting a mark as a tag team, and I knew that. I feel like we needed a specific direction or maybe we just didn’t understand the job. It just kind of fizzled out and Shayna was the top one because she rightfully should have been the top one. She had been doing indies and Josh [Barnett] had been mentoring her and preparing her for all of these situations. It just didn’t happen like I feel Hunter would have liked it to happen. Things that haven’t happened yet are still a possibility. In retrospect, reflecting on that, if all of us could have just gotten out of our own assholes."
Shafir went on to say that she and Duke worked on some NXT house shows, but their careers never really took off. She does take responsibility for some stubbornness that could have gotten in the way, but she says she really wanted the match to happen.
"Just figuring out how to be a team. We were doing a lot of trios stuff in NXT. Me, Shayna, and Jessamyn were doing road loops against Candice [LeRae], IYO [SKY], and Kairi [Sane]. I don’t know what else we needed to do in order to really get the shit rolling. I feel like we’re all still very insecure and green, and we didn’t want to give up things we knew to learn new things. I may be wrong. I could be wrong. [Ronda] was the golden goose, and rightfully so. It just didn’t pan out. I really would like to know Becky’s, Charlotte’s, Bayley’s, and Sasha’s perspectives on it. Maybe it’ll make some sense for me. I know we really wanted it."
Fans can read Shafir's comments on working with Jon Moxley in AEW at this link.
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