STARDOM Fires Rossy Ogawa

World Wonder Ring STARDOM founder Rossy Ogawa has been fired by the promotion's parent company Bushiroad.

Bushiroad announced the firing on Sunday night, claiming that Ogawa had "poached many STARDOM players and staff."

Bushiroad wrote (translated via Google Translate):

"Since 2019, our company has entered into a contract with Rossy Ogawa, the founder of STARDOM, and has appointed him as an executive producer and outsourced work related to STARDOM. However, we would like to inform you that we have come to know that he has poached many STARDOM players and staff, and we have decided to cancel this contract.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you. As a company, we will continue to aim for the further development of STARDOM, and the players and staff will continue to work together to deliver excitement to all the fans, so we will continue to receive the same compliments as before. I am very fortunate."

Ogawa has since stated "the truth of the matter may be told someday" and he is worried about talents in the promotion. AEW CEO Tony Khan seemed happy with the news of Ogawa's firing, tweeting "Bye Rossy!" with a GIF of Larry David. Khan also tweeted a GIF from Adam West's Batman of The Penguin saying "It's a clear case of industrial espionage." Another GIF tweeted by Khan was a clip from The Sopranos with "The feds had an undercover agent in Dr Shreck's office."

Rossy Ogawa founded STARDOM in 2010 and sold the company to Bushiroad in 2019. Bushiroad are also the parent company of New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that issues between Ogawa and Bushiroad started nine months ago when Bushiroad executives started to overrule Ogawa and became more involved in booking, much to the dismay of Ogawa and STARDOM wrestlers. Ogawa had already made plans to leave STARDOM on February 18 but the promotion fired him on Sunday instead.

Several talents are expected to depart STARDOM in March when their contracts expire as a lot of the wrestlers are loyal to Ogawa. Bushiroad reportedly knew about talent planning to leave and legal threats were sent to some in recent weeks. One talent expected to depart is Giulia, who is believed to be heading to WWE later in the year.

Stardom's new bookers will be Bushiroad Fight President Taro Okada and the Bushiroad Fight merchandise manager. Neither has a background in booking professional wrestling, although Okada was in a pro wrestling club at university that put on matches.