AEW Star Recalls Jon Moxley Conversation Before Joining Death Riders

Published: Mar 15, 2026 by Jamie Toolan | Last Updated: Mar 15, 2026 by Jamie Toolan

Jamie has been covering the world of wrestling for four years and currently holds the position of Assistant Editor of WrestleTalk.com. During his time working for WrestleTalk.com he has written and published over 4,000 news and feature articles covering events and happenings from WWE, AEW, TNA and a variety of international and independent wrestling promotions.

AEW Star Recalls Jon Moxley Conversation Before Joining Death Riders

An AEW star has detailed the influence of Jon Moxley on her career and what led to her joining the Death Riders faction.

While Jon Moxley may not rule over AEW as the Men’s World Champion anymore, the Death Riders’ presence is still felt across the company and there has perhaps been no greater beneficiary of the group than Marina Shafir.

Since aligning with Moxley, Shafir has transformed into one of the most feared stars in AEW and has been regularly featured on television, contesting for championships and often breaking gender barriers by mixing it up with many of AEW’s male stars.

Speaking with New York Post Sports, Shafir opened up about how her relationship with Moxley came about, revealing that the Death Riders was “not even existent” at the time she first approached the four-time AEW World Champion for help backstage.

Shafir said:

“No, no, no, no. When I had asked him for help, this was not even existent. I needed to develop and I knew I wasn’t getting the reps that I needed. I needed to be pressured to really fortify myself.

“Like I said I didn’t come up through this business I haven’t been doing this forever. A lot of people like to say I have an interesting situation and I just needed to figure it out for myself, and I didn’t need anybody telling me what to do, I just needed encouraged to be me. And that’s where it started.”

Marina Shafir Recalls Jon Moxley Approaching Her With Death Riders Idea

With their relationship already established, Shafir recalled Moxley preparing her ahead of the beginning of the Death Riders:

“Once I started going to the indies that he (Moxley) sent me to and feeling it and then eventually he just called me one week and he was like, ‘Listen, s**t’s about to pop off and I just need you to be ready. And I said, ‘Okay,’ because I’ve been ready. And then we just took it like week by week, it was not this grand conversation of, ‘So I’ve got this thing that I’ve wanted.’ No, no, no, no. This was like week by week. Brick by brick.

“I like to say that a lot. Mox gave me one brick every week and it was up to me what the f**k I did with it. Some days I wanted to smash it over my own head, some days I laid it down behind me and it looked like it was starting to form something. Other weeks I was throwing that motherf**ker across the room. But that was my one percent every f**king week.”

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Following their recent mixed tag team feud alongside Wheeler Yuta and Orange Cassidy, Shafir will compete against Timeless Toni Storm one-on-one at AEW Revolution 2026, with “everyone banned from ringside” for the match.