donsem43
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Quick and dirty about Rossy Ogawa's new promotion Marigold. It's Stardom before it was sold to Bushiroad but with a yellorangey aesthetic. As more time passes, the more it looks like Rossy just pulled a Bert Prentice. Also, six wrestlers from Actwres girl'Z, which still exists somehow, have jumped along with Fuka, who was helping run the company. So now Marigold reunites the original management team of Stardom (Rossy, Fuka and Nanae Takahashi) because that ended so well last time. Don't ever let anyone tell you the joshi wrestling isn't as carny as any other part of pro wrestling. Rossy was asked about more talent joining, he replied that there might be a couple more joining but that's it so don't wait around expecting another wave of Stardom defections in the near future. First show is on May 20th with the main event being a tag match Giulia and a mystery partner vs. Sareee and a mystery partner.
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Over the last week or so, there have been Japanese fans tweeting publicity shots of the Stardom roster to Starlight Kid asking her why she's not in them. There is a poster for All-Star Grand Queendom that doesn't feature either SLK, Koguma or Ami Sohrei. So, were any of them on their way out only to be talked into staying in the last few weeks. It's weird that advertising for one of the companies biggest shows of the year doesn't have arguably the most marketable wrestler in SLK or the woman who just got a push to the Cinderella final in Sohrei. It's possible that either of contracts are expiring at a later date but at the moment this comes off as a weird coincidence.
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Unemployed 30 year old layabout crashes Noah show.
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Not quite TV but still: If you want the definitive "Rossy is gone, Stardom is under NEW management!" match booking:
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So, Tokyo Sports is reporting that five members of the Stardom roster will be leaving at the end of March. Following the previously reported Giulia are Utami Hayashishita, MIRAI, Mai Sakurai and rookie Yuzuki. All are expected to join Rossy Ogawa's new group, with Giulia eventually moving on to WWE. Earlier this week, Stardom announced that they had signed Saori Anou to a one year "exclusive" contract, although she will still be able to take some outside bookings. Edit: Stardom has officially confirmed the departures.
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AEW TV - 3/13 - 3/16 - Big Bu Dollar Signs Ine Dollar Signs
donsem43 replied to Timbo Slice's topic in AEW
Stardom president Taro Okada is at Dynamite. -
Pretty interesting episode of the Pacific Rim Pro Wrestling Podcast with Jim Valley and Fumi Saito. The points that I took away from it: Rossy's new promotion will be self-funded. No corporate investor, no WWE. Everything is setup on the legal/government end. Title belts already designed and ordered. Wants to try to run big buildings and set up a dojo for the wrestlers to train. Cited Rossy's main reason for leaving as corporate interference. Gave the Halloween show and shows full of gimmick matches (I assume the Showcase shows) as things he hated. Would also have finishes of matches switched on him. Apparently, Bushiroad suits order around the Stardom wrestlers in ways that they don't or wouldn't even try with New Japan wrestlers. Has been approached by about a dozen wrestlers about leaving Stardom. At the start, Rossy will only have six "main event" wrestlers because their contracts will be up by that time. Although it's assumed that the rest will leave when each of their contracts run out at a later date. Fumi went out of his way to say that this is not a Noah-like situation because it has only been the dozen or so wrestlers that have expressed interest in leaving, expects the rest to stay put. Given the size of Stardoms that would still give them about 20 wrestler, give or take. This was a bit confusing but I think out of the wrestlers that are waiting out their contracts there are two "jr. heavyweight" if they were men type wrestlers (I assume he ment High Speed.) "One cute one and one with a hood." Also two "golden rookies." New promotion will have five "American" wrestlers at the start. Rossy wants more foreigners. Mayu Iwatani isn't taking the situation very well but she's under contract. With Bushiroad having just made a movie about her life, they're unlike to let her go early. Giulia gave her notice in November. She wants to move to the U.S. and join WWE but has not signed yet. She must have no understanding of how to use leverage in a contract situation. They mention Tam Nakano staying with the belief that this will allow her to firm up her main event spot with Stardom.
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Well on the February 4th show, right before Rossy got fired, it was announced that there would be a IWGP title defense between Mayu Iwatani and Mina Shirakawa on the February 23rd show. The first on a New Japan show in Japan since last April. Then it was announced that Starlight Kid and Ruaka would be on the Fantastica Mania show on the 17th. The first time Stardom wrestlers have had a match against CMLL wrestlers in Japan. So either Rossy was blocking Stardom wrestlers from working New Japan shows or their office didn't want to deal with him.
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Tam Nakano has told Tokyo Sports that she is staying in Stardom.
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Imagine paying $300 for ringside tickets to that Stardom show Mania weekend...
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Don't know for sure, but I would imagine TJPW pays well enough. Maybe some of the lower level members of the roster would still need some sort of side hustle.
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Another thing to consider is that Bushiroad is paying everyone on the roster enough to be a wrestler full-time, not needing a second job. If Rossy ends up somewhere that isn't capable of doing that then how many members of the roster are actually going to follow him.
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So, theoretical, this would be like Jim Crockett selling JCP to Turner. Then Turner contracting out the booking of WCW back to Crockett for four-ish years but ultimately giving him the boot for trying to steal talent for that WWN/NWA deal that he tried to start up in 1994.
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There are many shoes yet to drop. Knowing specific examples of what Meltzer referred to as "outlandish booking decisions" would probably explain a lot.
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So Meltzer reported Rossy isn't going to WWE. If he was fired for trying to poach talent then I would imagine that he would end up at either end up at Actwres girl'Z, which seemingly has a partnership with AJPW now, or Evolution, which had Shuji Ishikawa quoted as saying “Our aim is to overtake Stardom." Well the easiest way to do that is to literally take Stardom's talent.
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Nobody should be going "Oh poor Rossy" here. He sold the company to Bushiroad and since at least WWE was interested in buying probably got at least full market value for it. Then Bushiroad contracted him to help run the company, it doesn't look like he was an employee on the payroll, for over four years. This isn't like he brought Bushiroad in as an investor then they forced him out in a hostile fashion leaving him nothing. Also, Bushiroad brought in a new president to Stardom late last year so that there is a house cleaning going on in the office side of the business shouldn't be surprising. Rossy being in league with WWE after not selling Stardom to them would be incredibly hilarious!
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The name you wanted to use there is Tod Gordon.
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Well what do you know, TJPW threw this up on their YouTube channel
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She debuted in the early days of the pandemic and right before Stardom ramped up the number of shows that they ran. So she got ran out there more often then she should have with less training than she should have had at that point. Plus, her debut came right at the start of Stardom bringing in a lot of outsiders that they eventually signed. Hemika got a big debut right around the same time. She's not much smaller than Lady C but a much more convincing power wrestler. Ami Sohrei is a comparable because she debuted roughly around the same time in Actwres girl'z but since they run less shows Sohrei probably got to train more to work on fundamentals without being exposed working matches. Then when she came to Stardom she had enough of a handle on the basics that she really benefited from the increased show schedule. With every new wrestler they would sign from other groups, Lady C would get further pushed down the pecking order even further. Her height is just a novelty now. There is a trend developing in the Bushiroad era of Stardom that the in-house rookies haven't nearly developed as well as some of the wrestlers that they brought in from the outside that had a little experience beforehand. Something to keep an eye on with the women who have debuted in the last year.
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Donna Del Mondo is no more, Giulia has disbanded the unit. So...
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If you're making an all encompassing match of the year list, make sure to check out Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Natsupoi from Sendai Girls 7/16 show which has now been uploaded to Sendai Girls YouTube channel. Also, if you have Wrestle Universe, check out the main event of the 12/1 TJPW 10th Anniversary Show which is a 2/3 falls 10 woman tag match.
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Apparently, there were issues with the PPV stream so Stardom uploaded the two singles matches just hours after the show.
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Well, they didn't livestream it but Stardom have put up the whole 11/28 show up on YouTube.
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Good and bad news on the Stardom injury front. First the good news, Starlight Kid (ankle) returned on the weekend working the PPV in a 3-way with Suzu Suzuki and AZM. Both Utami Hayashishita (cervical hernia) and Saya Kamitani (elbow) are returning on the November 28th show at Korakuen Hall. The bad news is that Tam Nakano (knee) has vacated the World of Stardom title, while Natsupoi (cervical hernia) and Saori Anou have also vacated the Goddesses of Stardom tag titles. Kidani stated at PPV that Stardom won't run non-tournament related shows during their tournaments going forward in an effort to try and reduce injuries. There will be a mini-tournament at the November 28 to determine one of the challengers for the vacate World of Stardom. The two semi-finals matches are Maika vs. Ami Sohrei and Mina Shirakawa vs. Momo Watanabe with the winner advancing to the main event on the December 29th show at Sumo Hall. While Suzu Suzuki does have a contract to challenge for the World of Stardom title, Hazuki challenged her for that contract on the same November 28th show. So, in a sense, they are running a six woman tournament with Suzuki and Hazuki getting a bye. For the Goddesses titles, recent tag league winners Maika and Megan Bayne will face a team to be announced (Hayashishita and Kamitani?) at the PPV in Nagoya on December 2nd. Surprising that they are doing the world title stuff at Korakuen rather than at the PPV in Nagoya. Stardom has usually draw pretty well at Korakuen under Bushiroad ownership, although this show is on a weekday where they don't typically draw quite as well as they do on the weekend. Still, they need more help trying to draw outside of Tokyo and this be an easy way to do that. Granted, if you really wanted to hype up the Sumo Hall show, you could quickly whip up a YouTube livestream even if it's just the typical 2 or 3 camera setup that they use for Stardom World exclusive shows. That would be a good way to attract non-regular fans, especially foreign fans that are flying in early to watch Wrestle Kingdom, to get tickets for that show.
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There seems to be a weird stigma surrounding age in Japanese culture concerning women in entertainment. A woman can be seen as stale in her early 20's and washed by her mid-20's. There's a few of the other women in Stardom who give the month and day of their birth but not the year possibly for that reason. Personally think the biggest beneficiary of Giulia leaving would be Maika. She seems to stuck in Giulia's shadow at the moment and her moving up to being the leader of DDM could provide the jolt that she needs to get to the next level. While I'm not the biggest Mina fan, she deserves a more consistent push than what she has gotten this year, that is much more likely to happen if Giulia leaves. Speaking of Stardom, another weird story was that something went down between the wrestlers and Bushiroad staff at their show on the weekend. They had to postpone the show with Kidani and Bushiroad Fight president Harada showing up to apologise and promised to interview the employees and the wrestler in order to prevent something like whatever happened from happening again.