June 6, 2024Andrew ThompsonNEWS
It means a great deal to Shafir.
In late 2023, there were three separate occasions that Ronda Rousey and Marina Shafir tagged with one another. The longtime friends shared the ring for Lucha VaVoom, The Wrestling REVOLVER and Ring of Honor.
That meant a lot to Shafir and she expressed that while on Teasy’s Table. She never thought she’d get the chance to tag with Rousey. One day, Rousey called Shafir out of the blue and things went from there.
She remembers AEW President Tony Khan coming up to them after their Ring of Honor bout. Shafir excitedly told him that she never thought the opportunity to team with Ronda would come about.
Well right from the jump, I never f*cking thought that it was ever gonna happen, to be 100 percent honest with you (Shafir said about teaming with Ronda Rousey). I thought that-that ship had sailed and you know, it’s always going to be a part of my identity in wrestling and I’m so proud of that. That sisterhood, and everything that sisterhood has encompassed. I get to have those memories for the rest of my life and that is literally something that I — being able to tag with her and being able to wrestle with her, I never thought that was gonna happen. It just wasn’t meant to be like that for me, especially with how things went down and she called me out of the blue and was like, ‘Whatcha doing?’ And then we started talking and then we started, uh, just talking (she laughed). Ronda, I’m very lucky to have somebody in my life who very rarely makes any excuses. She wants to achieve some personal greatness and this has nothing to do with what people think or this has nothing to do with other people’s anticipations and you know, when she has a personal legend that she’s gotta live out, it’s so wonderful watching her work towards it and I got to be a part of that and like I said, I just never thought it would have ever happened and it did I’m — I still buzz about it. I still buzz about all of those moments, all of the little things, all of the bullsh*t leading up to that f*cking moment and just… how much we gelled and we were like a well-oiled machine and that was our first time wrestling together. We looked like a unit and we didn’t even have to try. We didn’t even have to f*cking try. One of my favorite moments was when she’s walking out, I think this actually happened on The (Wrestling) REVOLVER show. Sami (Callihan), I know you had a big f*cking migraine the day after and you’re the man, for helping put that together. But there was a moment in our entrance where she was taking off her Gi — or she was walking into the ring and she just goes, ‘Marinaahh!’ And it was just such a callback. It was just such a callback to all of our, just, camaraderie over the years. Everything you’ve done in your life up until this point. It was like the rolodex of all the f*cking memories we had together and then boom. Like, we’re doing this together. It was f*cking awesome.
I literally got to do something I had put out of my brain and yeah, the magic of pro wrestling, right? The magic of stars aligning and timing and even Tony Khan after the match just coming up to us and he just walked up to me and was just smiling and he just goes, ‘Well’ and I just looked at him and I just go, ‘I never thought that was gonna f*cking happen.’ I just kept saying that over and over again. I was in disbelief. Just disbelief. It was cool as sh*t. It was hectic and stressful and just wild day, you know? But, like I said, we got to let our crazy out and got to do it together.
In addition to working dates for the Ring of Honor brand, Shafir is continuing to wrestle on the independent scene.
In May, she defeated Vert Vixen to become the DEFY Women’s Champion. This past April, Shafir won GCW/Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport X tournament in Philadelphia.
If the quote(s) in this article is used, please credit Teasy’s Table with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
