More Details on STARDOM Founder’s Contract Being Cancelled By Bushiroad

A new report has additional details on Bushiroad cancelling the contract of STARDOM founder Rossy Ogawa. As noted last night, Bushiroad, the parent company of NJPW and STARDOM, announced that they had cancelled Ogawa’s contract after they found he was “poaching” talent and staff from the company. The Wrestling Observer has some more on the matter, noting that the latest development came to a head after several months of issues between the two.

According to the report, the issues began about nine months ago when executives from Bushiroad began overruling Ogawa regarding booking and business decisions, which upset both Ogawa and some of the talent. Ogawa’s being overruled regularly by Bushiroad Fight President Katsuhiko Harada led to Ogawa deciding to leave the company. While Harada was replaced by Taro Okada in November, the issues continued and Ogawa was already planning to leave.

The report notes that Ogawa had been under the belief that he would have autonomy when it came to booking and business decisions when he sold STARDOM to Bushiroad in 2019, a deal that included a five year non-compete clause. Ogawa had given his notice some time ago and it was known that he would be exiting on February 18th. Bushiroad reportedly decided to get ahead of the story, and made the announcement on Monday. Talent was told in a meeting after yesterday’s Osaka show.

The report notes that a number of talent is loyal to Ogawa, who founded the company and gave most of the roster breaks in their career. Several exits from the company are expected in March, which is when many contracts expire. As of now, the only talent under a longer term commitment is IWGP Champion Mayu Iwatani due to the biopic about her coming out. The report notes that Bushiroad was aware of talent leaving and some have been given legal threats in the past several weeks.

The report notes that Ogawa is not going to WWE, and that Taro Okada and Bushiroad Fight merchandise manager Oyama will take over as STARDOM’s bookers effective immediately.