Marina Shafir on the WWE vs. MMA Four Horsewomen Feud
The highly anticipated clash between WWE’s Four Horsewomen (Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Becky Lynch) and the MMA Four Horsewomen (Ronda Rousey, Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke, and Marina Shafir) is a dream match WWE fans were eager to see — but it never actually happened.
Why? Marina Shafir recently shed light on the reasons this epic match never made it to the ring during an appearance on Chris Jericho’s Talk is Jericho podcast.
How It All Started
The concept of this showdown really heated up when all four MMA Horsewomen joined WWE. Ronda Rousey quickly became a huge star, while Shayna Baszler made her mark dominating NXT.
Meanwhile, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir worked as a tag team in NXT and often appeared with Baszler. Despite all the teases and fan excitement, the big match never progressed beyond teases.
Shafir was pretty candid about what went wrong — although she acknowledged that the idea was exciting. She admitted that her partnership with Duke just wasn’t clicking. “We weren’t hitting a mark as a tag team”, Shafir explained.
The lack of direction and inexperience held them back, while Baszler’s success as a singles competitor naturally placed her in the spotlight, leaving Shafir and Duke trying to figure out their roles within the group.
The crossover appeal between MMA and WWE is pretty obvious when you look at careers like Rousey’s and Baszler’s, who successfully transitioned from MMA to WWE. On the flip side, WWE superstars such as Brock Lesnar made it big in MMA after WWE and then returned even more popular than before.
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Challenges in WWE – Shafir and Duke’s Development
Shafir didn’t shy away from talking about the challenges she and Duke faced. They were still “green” in NXT and hesitant to step outside their comfort zones. “We didn’t want to give up things we knew to learn new things”, she admitted, which likely slowed down their development as performers capable of competing at the highest level.
She also pointed out how Rousey’s star power shaped everything around them. As WWE’s “golden goose”, Rousey was featured in major storylines, including her historic WrestleMania 35 main event with Lynch and Flair. This intense focus on Rousey might have overshadowed efforts to establish Shafir and Duke as serious contenders.
Could It Still Happen?
Despite all the setbacks, Shafir sounds interested in reviving the idea someday. She’s curious about what the WWE Horsewomen thought about the situation and what might have been done differently. “I’d be very interested in hearing what their perspective is on this”, she shared.
For now, this remains one of wrestling’s biggest “what if” scenarios — a dream match that got stuck in the planning stages but still has potential for the future.