Marina Shafir

[7.0] "If you told me 10 years ago that Marina Shafir will be one of the most important women of a wrestling compagny, i would have not believe you. But right now, she is one of my favorite in AEW, she is so important for the Deathriders lore, since she joined Jon Moxley to creates this stable, she became a very solid worker, first as a manager, were she was clearly a really dominant figure in the stable. Her matches after this were pretty solid, she is absolutly fantastic in brawl matches, like her match at Blood And Guts 2025 were she was clearly the real MVP of the match. I'm really looking forward for her match against Mercedes Mone, and i hope she will proves once again that she deserves to be an important part in the women division."

[4.0] "Her matches are not better. Her promos are not better. What has gotten better is her role in wrestling and within the group she's a member of. It was smart to put her with Moxley. She has changed nothing about her matches but she's been able to get over due to her association with the D Riders. That sounds like a left handed compliment but it's not. That's what the move was intended to do. This strange perception that she's suddenly great at everything and it's the fault of the "IWC" (the made up boogeyman for insecure opinions) that fans aren't falling over themselves to praise her is absurd."

[8.0] "Her presence is top notch. Moxley does his part to make Marina special, for sure, but she knows her character and sticks to it. There are wrestlers who are better in-ring whose presence bores me, but Marina in her limited, but impactful role works really well. In-ring and promo can still be rough, but she has improved every year for multiple years now. She has really stepped up her game and I like seeing her in AEW."

[8.0] "Really underrated in my opinion. Give her a mid-card title run and more opportunities to show off how good she can be and she could be top level no nonsense badass. She doesn't need to cut loads of promos she just needs to turn up and make people tap out."

[7.0] "Unsurprisingly Marina doesn't deserve the overwhelming hatred she seems to get from the IWC. She plays her bodyguard role in Death Riders perfectly, and she has actual fighting credentials. Very good heel character work, and not that bad in the ring. She brings legitimate judo and submission grappling to her matches and her offense feels more real, like shoot fighting. Her charisma, sellling and psychology seems to be improving. Her best showing so far has been her tag match during the PAC tribute show."

[8.0] "Marina Shafir has become a guilty pleasure of mine she warrants it with really good character work but also improved ring work. She's definitely a major part of the Death Riders now and I like her interactions with all the other members."

[7.0] "Like most, I really didn't rate Marina very highly at all for a long time but in the last 18 months she has grown and developed into a really solid in ring performer , and her already decent character work and aura has really matured into something memorable. My turning point was the blood & guts match, but she's just carried on incrementally improving every week since. She's one of the best strikers active today, especially in the woman's scene, and her technical wrestling has matured from sloppy to incredibly reliable. Her fellow Death Riders have really helped her become the wrestler she always could have been and she has really found herself as a performer. Big up Tony, Jon and everyone involved for seeing the vision and giving her the chance. She's going to carry alot of Pac's legacy, and if the tribute show was anything to go off I think that is going to help her go up yet another level. I can confidently see this rating going up in the coming years, she's not a generational talent or anything but her journey in pro wrestling has been a story of resilience, hard work & passion for the art and I just can't help but respect that."

[8.0] "I'm likely to revisit this in the future to increase the number because WOW has Marina made some impressive strides in 2026! She has evolved into a totally new person and I am loving it. She still can't do amazing promo work but the character is so much richer and more complex now. The ring work is crisp and brutal as usual, maybe a little more so than last year which is great for her style and character. The crowd is behind her and she is putting in the hard yards so I think there should be some gold in her future!"

[7.0] "Marina in Death Riders is amazing. She brings so much to the group while also being a decent in ring performer. Her martial arts background help her a lot, even though she still needs work which will come with time."

[7.0] "Over the last year and change, Marina has improved in all the important spots that make her very desirable to a wrestling company looking to add someone with more than one positive trait. Good wrestling, maybe not great, but very much good/very good wrestling. Great promo work, believable character; she's taking the steps and working towards her strengths. Obviously this Death Riders run is doing her justice. I had her a 3 or 4 for a long time. Times have changed."

[7.0] "Feel like Marina is noticably improving over the course of this year. She's always been great as an intimidating presence by Moxley's side, but ever since she started to get more opportunities in the ring after Blood and Guts last year, she's really came into her own. Hopefully things keep going that way and she gets more and more opportunities, as her character work without saying a word is brilliant."

[8.0] "Sending her home with a report card: Does not play nicely with others, no options for tag team gold at the moment. Credible threat. Mean TBS champion material. NOT World Champion. 8/10, despite some pretty low rating matches - I see her as more of a violent valet than a wrestler, though when she turns up for the hardcore stuff, her highs are VERY high, and her lows don't really stick in my mind. Great snake, always a treat, in my opinion."

[7.0] "While I can't say that her matches are something that really excite me greatly, Moxley and co. managed to build her into a quite credible badass, who enhances the shows whenever she shows up. Has very good presence as a live performer."

"I wasn't sure if she belonged in the Death Riders, but go watch her thumbtack spot... toughest member of the group."

[5.0] "She's 100% improved over the years, but I still think she's lacking in a one-on-one fashion. Does great work as an enforcer of the Death Riders and is probably one of the best women on the roster to be involved in intergender conflict. I don't ever think she'll be amazing, but I think she'd found her niche and she just needs to work at it."

[6.0] "Four years ago, I wrote: "I've been watching Marina Shafir since NXT and I'm tired of waiting for her to improve. There are plenty enough women on the AEW roster to fill the role of dangerous heel. Just because Leyla Hirsch is injured doesn't mean we need a replacement shoot fighter gimmick." I'm glad to finally be able to change this. Marina's time with the Death Riders has finally solidified her character, and given direction to her in ring performance. I think she's got a long way to go before she's great, but the overall package is entertaining and serves a purpose."

[8.0] "I think people who low rate Marina Shafir don't Get Her or don't Get the best parts of pro wrestling. In a world where everyone in pro wrestling are trying to be perfectionists, trying to wrestle like everyone else. A world of modern wrestling where everyone is trying to be polished and rounded wrestlers that can do literally anything or any style. Where everyone is inspired by high fliers who also want to be great strikers and power wrestling highlight reels every match. Marina Shafir is Different. She is unique. She does what she can do what she is best at and sticks to that. She doesn't try to do more that would make her come off as less. She doesn't blend in with the crowd of so many people who try to wrestle the same like a grey mush of mass produced main stream pro wrestling. Is what she does always pretty? No, not really, but that's what wrestling is missing. It's people with unique qualities and different skillsets. Paraphrasing what Minoru Suzuki said about Jon Moxley (fitting to be honest seeing who Marina is paired with in AEW) "He's not a perfect all rounder, grey blob that has filled in all their flaws. He's not good at shit, and because of that it is what makes him a good wrestler.""

[8.0] "Look, she's someone that's surely undervalued just because she nedeed some time to figure things out. As of now, I think that Marina Shafir is an acutal good talent that can work pretty well from bell to bell. Granted, her style is not for anyone, but it's also kinda rare and she proved to be very capable of using it in a believable way. She's got a really good character, aura and can also cut good promos when nedeed, at this point, therefore I feel she should be pushed and showcased more on national television."

[7.0] "Pre-Death Riders, a 4 rating was fair, if not maybe being too generous, but joining Mox in the the group has benefitted Marina far more than the rest. The TBS title is probably her ceiling right now, but even saying that would have been crazy before the Death Riders came along."

[7.0] "Marina has really grown as a performer over the last 2 years to the point where I am comfortable boosting her rating to this extent. Every match she has now is decent to generally good. Hope this continues to the point where she becomes a great wrestler."

[9.0] "Marina pre-and-post Death Riders are basically different talents. Before she joined up with Mox she was yet another ex-MMA wrestler who looked legit but never really put it together in a new environment, leading to a number of pretty dull matches in her first few years. However, some small exceptions were during her matches in Bloodsport and the rare indie match that allowed her to work in that style, so I always kept my eye out. Once Mox hooked her up with more indie bookings and put her in the Death Riders though, you can absolutely see her break out of her shell and become the best wrestler she could be. Her sadistic, petty, asskicker self as Mox's right-hand woman was a great spot for her that she slotted into naturally (corpsing when staring down Roddy notwithstanding, they are married after all), and recently she's been translating that more and more into her ring work with multiple excellent performances in Anarchy in the Arena, Blood & Guts, and a few tag matches. Now that AEW is trusting her to let her ring work speak for itself with the tag title tournament and an impending Statlander feud, I think we're going to be seeing some great things out of her. EDIT: The past ~8 months since I left this comment have shown significant improvement from Marina to the point where she's one of the most surefire things in the AEW product and shows out more and more when she has an indie match. I'd put her in the conversation for the best TV worker going today (she's not THE best, but she's in the conversation). I think AEW are caught in a rough spot since they don't seem to want her to run roughshod on the women's title scenes but also don't want to pull the trigger on full-blown intergender matches but wherever she slots into the Death Riders' angles she's excelled at elevating everything she's onscreen for. I really don't see why a lot of this site still seems to think she sucks."

[2.0] "even after years of wrestling, marina has yet to show little improvement since her character is basically an mma fighter and she wrestles like she is goldberg hence why there is no improvement in this woman."

[8.0] "I'm not ranking her based on her entire career, rather the growth she has made over the last 18 months. Marina has significantly improved her aura as a vicious badass (the stomping on broken glass to use them as weapons is nuts), her in ring work (matches with Toni Storm and Alex Windsor were miles better than her 2023 offerings, and her mic work has dramatically improved. Being allowed to speak in her native language gives her vibes of a killer, and you can tell that she has picked up a lot of tips to sharpen her game by working with Mox and the Death Riders. I'm hoping to see Marina win the TBS championship and go on a tear in 2027. Admittedly, her string of losses in 2026 have hurt her standing as a contender, but that's not the hardest thing to remedy."

[7.0] "Honestly marina has put in the work to become a fierce wrestler. She had raw potential to be a great wrestler. Her style though must ask a lot of her opponents to go against their instincts to let her throw them around. But styles makes fights and marina might just be the example of that"

[6.0] "look. even if some of marina shafir's work is clumsy and unpolished, the fact that she is a woman working a style i very rarely see is quite cool. if her matches aren't "good", they're "interesting", and they're mostly fine now in AEW! she brings something fun to the table and i appreciate her for it."

[0.0] "The most blandest women's heel in AEW, just a generic badass without a real character and just horrible in the ring, she's never had a single good match in her entire career with AEW or NXT. Oh, and how can I forget that God awful promo she had a few years ago"

[7.0] "Marina Shafir is a very difficult wrestler to properly rate as quite frankly, she still isn't a very good bell to bell tradtional wrestler, however what she lacks in traditonal boots and trunks wrestling she makes up for in her unique blend of MMA and Wrestling, incredible strikes, an unbelievably intense persona, that quiet charisma that you can't teach, this woman has something, and unfortunately due to stopwatchers viewing short matches for women bad is probably never going to fully get there as she shouldn't be having long matches, she's very much like a Goldberg."

[8.0] "The most intimidating aspect of the Death Riders by far, brings way more menace than Moxley imo. I wish she got more chances in ring, but her couple of showings against Willow have been solid. Also such a babe, would let her suplex me into the steel stairs. 2026 edit: Has had a couple great singles matches this year. Fills a very unique niche in the women's roster as a striker/grappler."

[7.0] "[6.6] It took a while, but Marina's really come into her own with the Death Riders. Her more shoot-inspired style really makes her stand out among the AEW women, and her run as DEFY Women's Champion has been great. She's still not the best talker which unfortunately kind of comes with the territory of English being a second language, but there's a charisma to her when she chooses to play quiet or cut promos in her native Romanian, and in situations where she's not talking. Overall, very heavily improved wrestler, solid #2 pick out of the MMA horsewomen for me. Come a long way from that promo on Dark."

[6.0] "Not bad at all. She is finally improving and i'm fine with her "MMA style" in ring. I'm really enjoying her rivalry against Toni Storm. She's making me very interested in her character. She no longer seems to be just the Death Riders' "bodyguard" who interferes in matches, but is showing that she can do a lot even against opponents of Toni Storm's caliber. I think that a 6/10 is a right grade."

[7.0] "I think the ratings for Marina Shafir are quite harsh though understandable prior to her Death Riders run. She brings something unique in the sense that she can actually fight when most wrestlers can't."

[7.0] "We're well past the "sun hat" promo days and I think it's fair to acknowledge the work she's put in. She found a role in AEW. She's entertaining. Her reign in DEFY as women's champ has been fun as well to watch at Washington Hall."

[1.0] "She's still bad. She's going in the right direction in terms of improving but there's still much left to desire. Her matches with Toni Storm and Mina shirakawa prove just that. There's several heels in the company who I feel should be getting the spotlight that she's been getting man."

[2.0] "People say she's improved, but I don't see it. She hasn't gotten better, it's just that now she's only booked to ever do the three moves she knows how to do: Awkward stomp, solid judo throw, weird submission that doesn't look like anything. Add in that she's still a middling promo at best, and I really don't see where the "improvement" is."

[6.0] "YOU GOT NINETY NINETY ANSWERS BUT YOU CAN'T SOLVE ONE PROBLEM. I've liked Marina for awhile before the general consensus turned around on her because the fake shoot stuff rocks. Her current presentation has actually gotten her positive crowd pops which is very interesting, I think that AEW should continue to push her and have her presumably be part of the post Mox death riders. Big fan."

[6.0] "I wasn't a fan of her at all for a long time but I think 2025 was easily the best work of her career. She's showing more personality, getting a good reaction and her stuff with the Death Riders has been very fun. She comes across as a legitimate badass."

[6.0] "Yeah, I completelly understand why most people had a low rating on her but we need to evolve as a humans and understand that her time at AEW with the Death Riders has been amazing. She is not perfect in ring, but now she clearly understand much better the basic stuff. Pairing her with Jon Moxley literally saved her entire career."

[8.0] "I don't understand why Marina gets so much hate. Sure, she's not absolutely perfect, but personally, I like her martial-arts style, similarly to how I like Speedball Bailey's martial-arts style. Additionally, Marina's really grown into a badass as a result of Jon Moxley and the Death Riders. I can forget about that one awful promo she did a while back because she's improved greatly over the past year. You got 99 problems but you can't solve this one...."

[8.0] "I have to say, she's really blossomed and come into her own (thanks Mox). She's got a new lease of life, perfectly fits her character and her brawling style is super exciting. A shame it just took so long for her to find it."

[7.0] "Shafir got shit on for her early run in AEW and her stuff in NXT, and honestly you can't find fault with that. She was green, somewhat of a charisma vacuum, and struggled to fully adapt into the wrestling game as opposed to MMA. Her run with the Death Riders has revitalised the interest I had in her. She works her role there to perfection, serving as a great valet type for John Moxley whilst improving her actual fundamentals when she rarely gets in the ring. I'm excited to see where they take her character once the Death Riders inevitably run their course. UPDATE: After her performances in the Tag Division and especially in Blood and Guts, I gotta put her up to a 7. Mox really can turn around anybody's career."

[7.0] "Just as Dean elevated the other Shield members, Mox has elevated many of the Death Rider talents. But none have benefitted quite like Marina. She went from a forgettable background character and black hole of charisma into a very respectable "holy shit" talent. Sometimes a little character work really goes a long way into building up a wrestler. She may not be any ol' The Rock, but she has undoubtedly improved and I hope she remains a staple of AEW's hardcore matches going forward."

[7.0] "Marina shafir has become someone i really enjoy watching. I think her work with the death riders has really let her lean into a real feeling badass character. I will say my up in score is totally influenced by last nights blood & guts match which she looked amazing in. There's still things that could be elevated in her work but she's someone i'm excited to watch more of"

[8.0] "Sometimes, it takes a while for a wrestler to find something that works. For the bulk of her career, I would have rated Marina much lower - but since being brought into the Death Riders, she has truly found a place to belong in professional wrestling. Her character work has become great, her in-ring ability was never bad given her judo background, and when placed into a chaotic match - she will more than hold her own time after time. Marina doesn't show a lick of fear in any situation, has taken some nasty bumps, and is just someone I love to see on AEW TV."

"She's growing into who she should be. It's taken its time and her MMA background and success has meant a lot of eyes on someone who's still very much at the beginning of her wrestling journey - her stint in WWE and close comparisons to Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler have not helped for numerous reasons. The Death Riders have grown as a unit which has benefitted her greatly. She could play a very important role in AEW shortly so let's hope this growth continues."

[2.0] "Was wondering who the ugly chap always hanging around with Mox was. No not PAC. With all due respect to Roddy Strong. she's a generally awful and miserable downer whenever on screen with a permanent expression of a bulldog chewing a lemon flavoured wasp. Also rubbish in the ring, see the mixed tag against Swerve and Willow. Her omnipresence is a factor in the DR's dead crowds and general shut up and go away feel they evoke."

[5.0] "Marina Shafir gets a 5/10 from me--a perfect score for someone who feels like the wrestling equivalent of decaf coffee. You don't hate it, but you're definitely not wide-eyed and buzzing for more."

[2.0] "It is horrifying to me that someone with 6 years under their belts, training in multiple disciplines, and is as world traveled as Marina is is also as clumsy, slow, and charisma less as she is. DEFY put a belt on her and it hasn't helped."

[1.0] "There is not much good at all to say about Marina Shafif I dont feel like shes had 1 good match in her entire career and she struggles massively on the mic and lacks any type of character. The MMA style gimmick just doesnt work with everyone and it doesnt work with Marina"

[7.0] "Really good at shoot style technical wrestling, excelling on bloodsport shows. She's been having better matches of a more traditional style recently as well. Her match against Shoko Nakajima in Defy was great. Really good at carrying herself and looking like someone to fear as well."

[10.0] "10/10 aura. She had a great run of squashes leading up to her match with Jade. I like that she throws her socks in the crowd when she works indies. She is much better than Britt Baker. Very happy to see her paired with Karate Moxley to get the best possible reaction out of Boogie."