An angle that was teased in WWE but never happened was the Horsewomen of MMA vs. the Horsewomen of NXT. The NXT contingent consisted of Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Bayley and Becky Lynch. The MMA side featured Ronda Rousey, Jessamyn Duke, Shayna Baszler and Marina Shafir.
On a recent episode of “Talk Is Jericho,” Shafir talked about her current AEW angle with the Death Riders, balancing family life with her career, and she also shed light on why the Horsewomen storyline never happened during her stint with NXT.
“We really wanted to do the Four Horsewomen of MMA vs. the Four Horsewomen of wrestling,” Shafir told Jericho (as transcribed by Fightful). “I’d be very interested in hearing what their perspective is on this. I know what mine was. I just came in to do my job and thinking that was the goal.”
Shafir continued: “Me, Shayna, and Jessamyn were a unit on NXT for a while, but we weren’t hitting a mark. Me and Jessamyn weren’t hitting a mark as a tag team, and I knew that. I feel like we needed a specific direction, or maybe we just didn’t understand the job. It just kind of fizzled out and Shayna was the top one because she rightfully should have been the top one. She had been doing indies and (MMA and wrestling veteran) Josh (Barnett) had been mentoring her and preparing her for all of these situations. It just didn’t happen like I feel Hunter would have liked it to happen. Things that haven’t happened yet are still a possibility. In retrospect, reflecting on that, if all of us could have just gotten out of our own *ssholes.”
Shafir went on to say that the MMA side of the potential angle didn’t take off because the group was perhaps unwilling to get out of their comfort zones.
“We were doing a lot of trios stuff in NXT,” she said. “Me, Shayna, and Jessamyn were doing road loops against Candice, IYO, and Kairi. I don’t know what else we needed to do in order to really get the sh*t rolling. I feel like we were all still very insecure and green, and we didn’t want to give up things we knew to learn new things. I may be wrong. I could be wrong. Ronda was the golden goose, and rightfully so. It just didn’t pan out. I really would like to know Becky’s, Charlotte’s, Bayley’s, and Sasha’s perspectives on it. Maybe it’ll make some sense for me. I know we really wanted it.”
Listen to the full TIJ episode with Shafir here.
