AEW Possibly Signs Marina Shafir

Marina Shafir seems to have landed in AEW. The Women’s Division in AEW is getting quite a wee bit of attention these days and that’s for very good reason. The addition of this former NXT star can only catapult quite the impressive division even further.

The Moldovan former mixed martial artist wrestled in NXT from 2018 until her untimely release from WWE, which came in June of 2021. She subsequently spent some time in Game Changer Wrestling and elsewhere on the independent circuit and now this.

The announcement was made in an indirect way, Wrestling Inc Reports. It was made known that her T-shirt would be available on the ShopAEW website. It was further reported in the same piece that her T-Shirt was promoted the first time yesterday by Pro Wrestling Tees.

Looks like the cat was let out of the bag a tad early, because AEW did not make the announcement officially as of yet, or rather as of this writing. Yet the acquisition of this impressive athlete is big news regardless. She had some matches in AEW – specifically on Dark in December and in January…matches against Kris Statlander and Reka Tehaka, but hasn’t been officially signed.

She unfortunately got lost in the shuffle in WWE…NXT primarily, but that happens a lot more often than people or rather WWE are willing to admit. So many stars hit the Performance Center and some wrestle on NXT but they aren’t seen for that long until their release becomes public knowledge, which in this case occurred in June of this year, as mentioned. Her husband, Roderick Strong, still works for the WWE, on NXT of course.

Her martial arts background sets her aside but makes her a tailor-made opponent for mixed martial artists already on the AEW roster like Thunder Rosa and of course Tai Conti. We can all look forward to her official debut and her first rivalry.