Marina Shafir directly asked Jon Moxley for help in AEW.
For almost a year, AEW’s programming has been dominated by Jon Moxley and The Death Riders. When the group was rebranded from The Blackpool Combat Club, Marina Shafir stood alongside the former AEW World Champion, and the she quickly became a huge part of the main event scene alongside her stablemates. Now, Shafir has reflected on how a meeting led to her working more closely with Jon Moxley.
Speaking on Rulebreakers with Saraya, Shafir discussed the time she directly approached Jon Moxley to ask for help in AEW.
“There was a leak in the building to the dirt sheets or whatever. We would have meetings, they would address that and then it turned into a lot of people needed the reps and a lot of people needed to stay wrestling. Wrestling is forever changing and if you’re not working, you’re not really adapting to the atmosphere. They were just like, ‘Hey, we know you guys want to do indies, we’re trying to find some indie promotions that we can work with just cause not all promotions get along and there’s politics. Everybody wanted to keep things kosher, so there’s a handful of promotions we’re trying to build relationships with so you guys can get developmental work. If anybody wants help, ask one of us, we’d be more than happy to help.’ This is, I’m talking the Young Bucks, Jericho, Mox, Bryan, Kenny, I think maybe one or two more. Once the meeting was over, everybody got up and everybody left and they just all stood up there and they were just like, ‘Oh, okay, whatever.’ I was one of the last people to leave because I was in a really weird spot in the room. I just went right up to Mox and I just go, I need help. I know I have something that’s different but I know the nature of this beast will dilute it and it’ll just be, you know, here one day and gone the other. If we can do something with it, cool. I’m willing and ready to learn. I know I need the reps, I know it’s not tailored. I just need help.”
-Marina Shafir
Shafir continued by talking about Moxley giving her on-the-job learning, eventually leading to them working together.
“He took my number down and watched a few of my matches and he was like, ‘Okay, yup.’ Connected me with Defy, connected me with Revolver, and I just started getting those reps and he helped me. With every match, we made little tweaks. It was just on the job learning and then it just kind of evolved into, ‘Hey, I’m gonna need you to be ready for this.’ I’m like, ‘Do you think I’m ready?’ I think I’m ready, I won’t know until I do it. Then, when it happened, there was a lot of excitement and there was a lot of people that were mad, so I guess we got the good reaction.”
-Marina Shafir
Shafir remains a key part of The Death Riders as they look to bounce back from Jon Moxley losing the AEW World Championship to Hangman Page at AEW All In. As of writing, it’s unclear what the group’s next direction will be, but, after such a dominant spell on top, it’ll certainly be interesting to see where their story goes from here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Marina Shafir as soon as we hear more.
H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
