Casey Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 I’m pretty sure this is only good news for AEW, since Rossy was the roadblock between Stardom & AEW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Asahi from AWG has passed away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Wilson Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Jesus. Just tragic, she was only 21. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nofuture Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 23 minutes ago, Casey said: I’m pretty sure this is only good news for AEW, since Rossy was the roadblock between Stardom & AEW. Depends on how much of Stardom is left if Rossy did indeed poach talent. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 I'm curious about the poaching news and hope we get more details because feels off. Rossy sold Stardom in the first place because he was getting up in age and felt he took it as far as he could go so it would be odd for him to plan a new promotion. He was also pretty well beloved by the roster. I'm curious how they react. Feels weird for the promotion's biggest founder to be gone and not from death or retirement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonzombie Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 (edited) The rumour mill online had Giulia to WWE. Could end up with exodus of talent leaving with Rossy. Apparently the new bookers of Stardom are that new Taro Okada guy and the Bushiroad Fight merchandise manager Oyama. Taro Okada was part of a pro wrestling club while in college that staged bouts. Edited February 5 by Kang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nofuture Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 According to Meltzer, Mayu is the only one on the roster with a longer term contract, mainly due to her holding IWGP title and whatnot. Most everyone's contract is up in March like Giulia's is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 6 minutes ago, nofuture said: According to Meltzer, Mayu is the only one on the roster with a longer term contract, mainly due to her holding IWGP title and whatnot. Most everyone's contract is up in March like Giulia's is. To that end... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 All of this news feels like it might be the actual beginning of the end though I suppose its still wait and see for how much of the roster leaves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 End, ha. Wrestling promotions never die. Doubt that a 66 year old Japanese man goes to work in a foreign country, FWIW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 30 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said: End, ha. Wrestling promotions never die. Doubt that a 66 year old Japanese man goes to work in a foreign country, FWIW How soon we forget about Triple H’s NXT expansion goal, huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Now that, I can see happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra Commander Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 1 hour ago, Kang said: Apparently the new bookers of Stardom are that new Taro Okada guy and the Bushiroad Fight merchandise manager Oyama. Taro Okada was part of a pro wrestling club while in college that staged bouts. damn... I shoulda kept proof of my TNM7 matches just in case 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Dave's report Spoiler Stardom founder and booker Rossy Ogawa was fired today by Bushiroad after being accused of attempting to poach talent to leave the promotion. The story dates back about nine months when Bushiroad execs started overruling Ogawa to the dismay of both himself and talent and some of the more outlandish booking decisions. Ogawa constantly being overruled on booking and business decisions by Bushiroad Fight President Katsuhiko Harada led to his decision to leave the company. Harada was later replaced by Taro Okada in that position in November. However this continued under Okada and Ogawa had already made plans to leave. He had been under the impression that he would have autonomy on booking and business when he sold Stardom to Bushiroad in 2009. That included a five year-non compete. It was known that the affiliation between the two sides was going to end on 2/18 as Ogawa had given notice some time back. At first, today’s show was to be his final show, but then the sides agreed to sever ties on 2/18. However, Bushiroad decided to get ahead of the story two weeks early and made the announcement publicly that he was fired after the talent was told in a meeting following today's show in Osaka. A lot of the talent is loyal to Ogawa, who founded the company and gave most of the women their career breaks. Expect several departures from the group in March, when most of the contracts expire. The only wrestler under a longer term commitment to Stardom is IWGP Champion Mayu Iwatani, because of the movie on her life coming out. Bushiroad had known about talent leaving and some were given legal threats in recent weeks. Those who are leaving wouldn't be doing so until their contracts expire. This is part of the story of why Giulia will not be wrestling in Chicago and had said she was taking time off in March, when her contract expires. Ogawa is not going to WWE. Okada and Bushiroad Fight merchandise manager Oyama will take over as the bookers for Stardom effective immediately. The two don't have any background as bookers although Okada was part of a pro wrestling club while in college that staged matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matwarz Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Certainly sounds like the end of Stardom. I wouldn’t rule out the WWE talk either; the clear play is obviously for WWE to set up a dojo/promotion in Japan with Rossy as the middle man. 2024 is getting progressively worse for puroresu as we know it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Monday Morning Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Yikes - I was about to place an order for All Star Grand Queendom tickets today. Might have to hold off on that... Can Bushiroad go like, 2 weeks without having some sort of embarrassment? I haven't been watching a super long time but it seemed pretty clear things were not working well last year and it seemed from the outside that was down to Rossy having booking decisions taken away from him / over his head. Doesn't bode well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AverageKong Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Sucks for Stardom. I hope new management will try to push through with Mayu and I'm expecting we'll see more foreign talent and a veteran or 2 show up. I'd be surprised to see most of the March-end contracts stick around. It's going to be a skeleton crew. There's no way Rossy is starting from the bottom again. A new promotion with new licenses and marketing and TV and all that shit? If he is being scouted for a role with WWE-NXT Japan they'll strike a gold mine. Rossy can spot talent and make stars. He'd be a good guy to have in production. I just hope the talent dont fall through the cracks during this transition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matwarz Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 I’d suspect it was more Maya pushing through with bushiroad, not the other way round. Given Ogawa’s support of her when she moved to the big smoke and the careers she’s had, the loyalty must be fierce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 2 hours ago, AverageKong said: There's no way Rossy is starting from the bottom again. A new promotion with new licenses and marketing and TV and all that shit? If he is being scouted for a role with WWE-NXT Japan they'll strike a gold mine. Rossy can spot talent and make stars. He'd be a good guy to have in production. I just hope the talent dont fall through the cracks during this transition. The NXT expansion plan has seemingly been dead for a while now so I don't really buy any rumors of NXT Japan being a potential thing. The Europe expansion that was supposed to happen last year never did after Vince came back and the merger was pushed through. Expansion might be one of the last things on TKO/WWE's minds with the current scandal and lawsuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norwegian Rudo Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 I can absolutely see WWE using this to either get a working agreement with Stardom, or backing Rossy's presumed new company. As for Bushiroad rebuilding around Mayu, that is probably not a good idea as I would expect her to be out the door the second her deal is up. If she didn't have the extended deal because of her movie she would probably be the most likely of all to go with Rossy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanie Sparkleface Posted February 5 Author Share Posted February 5 7 hours ago, Curt McGirt said: End, ha. Wrestling promotions never die. Doubt that a 66 year old Japanese man goes to work in a foreign country, FWIW Joshi promotions close constantly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanie Sparkleface Posted February 5 Author Share Posted February 5 The Asahi news is utterly heartbreaking, especially seeing the reactions to it. Kaho Matsushita's post on Instagram got to me the most - the two were friends dating back to their time in high school, and it was Asahi who got Kaho into wrestling. https://www.instagram.com/p/C29QRCJvdCK/ Just an awful situation all around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Wilson Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Wrestling promotions surprise me but I'd be particularly surprised if Stardom "dies" due to this. Stardom has a really stacked roster, they can afford to lose 10 to 15 wrestlers and the promotion would just keep trucking along, especially if they filled those holes with Freelancers. Also, even with the issues, where are these wrestlers theoretically going if Stardom stops existing? WWE/AEW wouldn't want ~40 Joshi wrestlers (long rumored NXT Japan or not) and outside of TJPW I don't know if there is another women's promotion that pays a full time wage to their wrestlers. So in that hypothetical, the "leftover" wrestlers either would quit wrestling altogether or try the Freelance schedule, which few wrestlers can pull off. I can see some of the OGs leaving (hell, Hazuki has quit twice before) but I just don't expect a grand exodus like All Japan back in the day. Ice Ribbon and WAVE have both survived their stars leaving (even though it shrunk their popularity), Joshi promotions do rarely close, they just shrink. The only way I can see Stardom closing is if Bushiroad just says "fuck it", takes the top ten or so they like and merge them into New Japan/New Japan Strong and not sign the rest. But I feel like that's not a likely outcome. Either way I'm interested to see what happens come March. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefanie Sparkleface Posted February 5 Author Share Posted February 5 6 minutes ago, Kevin Wilson said: Wrestling promotions surprise me but I'd be particularly surprised if Stardom "dies" due to this. To clarify, I don't think Stardom is going to close. That said, in 2002, I didn't think Gaea would be closed a couple of years later, so anything's possible. All it takes is for the people running things to decide "we're done" and it'll be done. There will be a bunch of splinter groups, most of them will fail, a couple will end up surviving, and it'll take years to rebuild things if it does happen. It probably won't, but the possibility is always on the table, even if it seems unfathomable. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 I think it will be more in line when Bushiroad bought the company with a few retirements and a bit of reshuffling the deck. I don't see a mass exodus (cause how many times do talent change their mind at the last second when everyone decides we're going to leave), but I do expect some notable names to be gone on top of it. Closed....probably not. Look way different than it does now? Yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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