Marina Shafir admits that Raw Underground was just a blatant rip-off of Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport events.
In August 2020, WWE was experimenting with different ways to present pro wrestling due to the restrictions due to COVID. One of these was Raw Underground, a faux-underground fighting league taking place in the basement of the Thunderdome.
It featured a ring in a dingy space, with the ropes removed and wrestlers surrounding the ring. The scantily clad dancers gave it a very seedy vibe, which apparently is what Shane McMahon was going for.
AEW star Marina Shafir was one of the wrestlers who was featured on Raw Underground, although she admits it wasn’t exactly an original idea. Shafir spoke with Chris Jericho on a recent episode of Talk is Jericho. The AEW star talked about taking part in Raw Underground, which she said was fun but was a clear rip-off of Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport events.
While she enjoyed it, she admitted that the concept fizzled out before it was killed off completely during the pandemic.
“Underground was like Shane McMahon’s fight club.” Marina Shafir said (H/T Fightful). “They tried to rip off Josh’s Bloodsport and do the no ropes thing. It was interesting. When I did it, the shit was fun. I got to wrestle one chick, and it was kind of a squash match, and it was nothing like my Bloodsport stuff. The production is different. It was just different. I got squash one girl, and then we did a run-in with Nia Jax, and it just fizzled out. Fizzled out, and COVID happened not too far after that,” Marina Shafir said.
