Taro Okada Explains Why He Felt Stardom Had To Dismiss Rossy Ogawa

Taro Okada gives his side of Rossy Ogawa’s departure from Stardom. 

On February 5, STARDOM and Bushiroad announced that they had terminated the contract of founder and executive producer Rossy Ogawa. The announcement stated that Ogawa had been poaching talent during his time as executive producer.

Speaking to Encount, Stardom President Taro Okada explained the situation when he took over Stardom and what led to Ogawa’s departure. 

 “It was more complicated and serious than I had expected. Considering sales, I felt that the organization was unstable. It was like a venture company that was aiming for sales of 100-200 million yen, but was somehow managing to do everything by handouts. What became clear to me through these interviews was that matters related to wrestling had been left to the players and Mr. Ogawa. But I would occasionally interject in important areas. This led to dissatisfaction and complaints among the wrestlers. Then, I learned from a few players that they wanted to leave the organization and that Mr. Ogawa was planning to quit Stardom and start a new organization.

One of them said, ‘If Ogawa-san quits, I’ll follow him. I’m not going to quit if he quits! I thought, ‘I’ll follow you if you quit,’ so I first sought a direction to work together (with Mr. Ogawa). However, Mr. Ogawa told me when we first met that he was quitting. At the time, he said it was a matter of physical strength. Then, in January of this year, I heard that Mr. Ogawa was going independent and that he was talking to a number of wrestlers. If we were to split up, it would be an unstable business for a subsidiary of a publicly traded company. If that happens, the business could be downsized or even separated from the group. Since we were doing something damaging while we were under contract to work and pay for Stardom, we had no choice but to stop this chain of events, so the decision was made to terminate the contract.”

Stardom began a working relationship with AEW following Ogawa’s departure. 

Ogawa has since announced his new promotion Marigold.