More has come out on the shock exit of Rossy Ogawa from STARDOM.
On February 4, news broke that Rossy Ogawa, who cofounded World Wonder Ring STARDOM in 2010, had had his contract terminated by Bushiroad. In the official statement, it was alleged that Ogawa had been poaching STARDOM wrestlers and staff, but the extent of this has not yet been confirmed.
To provide an update on Ogawa’s STARDOM exit, Dave Meltzer has spoken on Wrestling Observer Radio to say that Bushiroad had been overruling Rossy’s booking for some time, and that the wheels had been in motion for his departure for a while.
“They (Bushiroad) were overruling his booking, but before (Taro) Okada even came in, Rossy (Ogawa) was already gone. All these wheels were in motion a long, long time ago. He was going to go, and he had given his notice. So I mean the whole thing of him being fired Today, and he was, was them… I mean like he was originally, this (STARDOM) 13th Anniversary was gonna be his last show. Then they made an agreement basically that he would stay until February 18th, he’d stay two more weeks so it wouldn’t be on the anniversary that they do it. Then they decided that to get ahead of the story, they were gonna fire him and publicly go that he was poaching wrestlers. And they were very mad about that.”
-Dave Meltzer
Not long after the news broke, Meltzer stated that, of the active roster, Mayu Iwatani was the only one to he tied down to the company long term, only down to the biopic that is being made about her. On this, he later said that Bushiroad were of the opinion that Rossy was set to start a new company given that most of STARDOM’s roster has a deal ending in March.
“They (Bushiroad) were of the impression that he (Rossy Ogawa) was gonna start his own company and that it may happen, and I would expect that it will happen. Its not official or anything like that, but if you’re talking to talent, talking about them leaving, most of the (STARDOM) contracts are up in March and we’ll see who goes and we’ll see who stays. The one we know is going is Giulia, the one we know is staying is Mayu Iwatani because she’s on a longer term contract. As for as everyone else, come march we’ll see who signs and who doesn’t sign.”
-Dave Meltzer
As it stands, it will be interesting to see who stays with STARDOM and extends their contract past March in the absence of Rossy Ogawa. Given that he was pivotal in starting the promotion 14 years ago, it’s possible that at least some of the roster will feel loyalty to him, and thus it’s worth keeping an eye on whether or not the 66-year-old does indeed start a new wrestling company in the near future.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Rossy Ogawa’s STARDOM exit as soon as we hear more.
