AEW Going Full-On Intergender After Roderick Strong’s Brutal Spot on Wife Marina Shafir

AEW may be entering a bold new era — and it all started with Roderick Strong nailing a backbreaker on his wife.

According to Bryan Alvarez, AEW is fully leaning into intergender wrestling, following the intense reaction to Roderick Strong’s stiff spots on his real-life wife, Marina Shafir, during AEW Worlds End and the December 31, 2025 edition of Dynamite.

“Roderick — he chopped his wife in the back so hard at the pay-per-view — she had a gigantic handprint. He gave her a big backbreaker — and it got the biggest pop of the night. They’re going full-on — it’s intergender now.”

Alvarez added that AEW’s creative direction tends to follow fan reaction — and the crowd’s explosive response to Strong hitting Shafir with a brutal backbreaker was impossible to ignore.

“If you saw that reaction — you know they’re going to do more. They teased it — and when he finally did it — the crowd went crazy. So now we’re going to see more of it… they do it a lot. And that’s why we’re going to see a lot more backbreakers on wives.”

This comes after a viral moment from Worlds End, where Shafir posted a brutal photo of her back on January 1st. The image showed a massive handprint and visible welts — all from a stiff chop Strong delivered during their Mixed Nuts Mayhem Match, after Shafir kicked him square in the face. Her caption? “Motherf******.”

With fan reactions off the charts and social media still hyped over the Shafir-Strong spots, AEW seems ready to push the envelope on intergender wrestling in 2026. If these moments keep landing with the crowd, we may be seeing more real-life couples throwing down in the ring—and not holding anything back.

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