This is MASSIVE…Stardom has just fired founder/head/executive producer Rossy Ogawa. A quick translation of the statement on Stardom’s Japanese-language website suggests it was due to his being involved in the departures of many wrestlers & staff (most recently, and notably, the possible impending departure of Giulia, although she is still with Stardom as a freelancer, but she may have just disbanded her Donna Del Mundo faction, that being said there are constant rumors she is potentially headed to WWE, and more recently Stardom let Kairi return to WWE for a second time [as Kairi Sane]).
Ogawa has been involved with wrestling going back to the days of All-Japan Women in the 20th century and was part of Stardom’s event earlier today (yesterday Japan time) in Osaka. Staff and wrestlers were informed of the move yesterday per Stardom’s English-language Twitter..
The full statement is at the below link (in Japanese):
https://wwr-stardom.com/news/20240205-4/
More as it becomes available.
UPDATE: There are now rumors that a mass exodus of wrestlers from Stardom could be coming soon after this as most if not all contracts are up in March, and the split between Stardom & Ogawa was reportedly going to happen at the end of this month before the announcement. The rumors also are that Stardom felt Ogawa was “poaching” talent for WWE, but that may be the view only of one Tony Khan, AEW owner/head, who thinks he can’t get Stardom talent to work with AEW because of that (AEW does have a working relationship with fellow Bushiroad-owned promotion New Japan Pro Wrestling). Stardom also believes Ogawa will create another new promotion. And some US reporters believe Kairi left to go back to WWE because she knew Ogawa was leaving this year.
This story is far from over.
UPDATE 2: Tokyo Sports has picked up the story and they claim Ogawa announced last November that he was going to retire this spring (Ogawa is 66). And he confirmed his intent to create a new promotion. Translation of the article sounds like a lot of he said, they said. Link below (in Japanese):
