Marina Shafir is still learning that pro wrestling requires vulnerability.
Marina Shafir much like Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler transitioned into the world of professional wrestling from Mixed martial arts. Currently regularly being featured on AEW, Shafir also had some seasoning in the NXT system.
Asked on the latest AEW Unrestricted what the hardest part of her transition to wrestling from MMA was, Marina said it was keeping her ego in check and understanding just how vulnerable you need to be in professional wrestling.
“My own ego, learning to swallow that motherfucker was real hard,” she said. “It still is sometimes. I'm starting to realize where the real levels of competitiveness come from in pro wrestling and I am not there yet, but I know that, and just being vulnerable, that was hard. It still is hard. It's hard for me in relationships. It's hard for me everywhere. I think it's hard for everybody. I think in pro wrestling, the biggest transition is understanding how much you need to be vulnerable. Because you’ve got to know yourself."
Tony Schiavone chimed in saying that everyone is consistently learning about themselves, noting that he has learned a lot about himself in the last year.
“Yeah, it's really understanding that every time you put yourself in that arena, you have to be taking like somewhat of a step forward, you have to whichever way you think it is, like, you really have to,” Shafir added. “That freedom. That's difficult. Because in fighting, it's easy. Like you go three rounds. If you spar for three three-minute rounds, you will learn a lot about yourself. In nine minutes, you can figure out, ‘My conditioning sucks. I need to work on my jab. I leave this open, I need to make sure that I know how to circle this way.’ Like you can find out so many things. It's a little bit more elusive and pro wrestling because of how you're looking at it.”
Recently, Marina competed against Thunder Rosa for the Women's World Championship. In that match, Rosa was accused of “sandbagging.” She addressed those accusations and you can read her comments at this link.
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