Earlier this week, Utami Hayashishita made waves by returning to Stardom after a two+ year absence, confronting Saya Kamitani during the promotion’s card at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall.
That meant the former World Champion was leaving Marigold, the promotion Rossy Ogawa created after being fired from Stardom, the promotion he co-founded.
Ogawa spoke to Tokyo Sports and the media after Marigold’s Thursday show about her move (translated) where he admitted that “I knew she was going to leave. It happened exactly as expected.”
“She should go wherever she wants to go and do whatever she wants to do. She’s already going on tour with them, right? Stardom was very well prepared,” he said.
Hayashishita last wrestled in Stardom in April 2024 before debuting in Marigold a month later. She held their World title for nearly 300 days, last holding it in October 2025. Her final match for Marigold was earlier this week.
Ogawa appeared to be skeptical of how Stardom could use Hayashishita given their roster, and that he wants her to “devote herself completely to Stardom and wrestle with the mindset of burning herself out there.”
“While the promotion is clearly trying to get younger, it’s difficult in many ways for the veteran group to figure out their place. Even the key wrestlers over there aren’t exactly at the center anymore. All she can do is work hard wherever she goes. But this time, she really has to commit herself. Going all over the place isn’t really a good thing,” he said.
Marigold’s Rossy Ogawa has issued an apology after an investigation found that he violated the copyright of his former employer.
Back in January, Stardom accused rival promotion Marigold of intellectual property violation over a Mayu Iwatani card collection it was selling. The collection, which celebrated Iwatani’s 15th anniversary in pro wrestling, included photos of Iwatani during her time with Stardom. Marigold launched an investigation into the situation — which has now concluded with Ogawa issuing an apology to Stardom:
Upon investigation, we discovered that our Representative Director, Rossy Ogawa, had used data obtained and retained in connection with his past work at Stardom Co., Ltd. in the production of the Products without Stardom Co., Ltd.’s permission. This constituted an infringement of the copyrights and publicity rights held or managed by Stardom Co., Ltd., as well as an act of unfair competition.
Consequently, we have immediately ceased the manufacture and sale of the Products. Some of the cards in this product are the property of Stardom Co., Ltd., and therefore the notation ‘Marigold Co. Ltd.’ was incorrect; we hereby correct this error.
We sincerely apologize to Stardom Co., Ltd. and all related parties for the significant inconvenience this matter has caused. This incident was caused solely by our company’s lack of awareness regarding intellectual property rights, and we are committed to taking measures to prevent a recurrence.
We sincerely apologize for this.
Ogawa was one of the founders of Stardom but departed the company in 2024 amid a contentious split. He started up Marigold after that, with Iwatani coming with him as one of the company’s top stars.
Stardom is keeping its options open after allegedly being the victim of intellectual property theft.
The all-women’s Japanese wrestling promotion issued a statement on Monday announcing that it has completed an investigation into the intellectual property violation — which concerns another company selling trading card products featuring photos of wrestlers when they were still with Stardom. While the offending party is not named in Stardom’s statement, it appears to concern a Mayu Iwatani card collection that is being sold by rival promotion Marigold.
Iwatani departed Stardom for Marigold in 2025, joining the new promotion one year into its existence. Marigold was founded by former Stardom boss Rossy Ogawa in 2024 following his contentious split from Stardom.
Stardom’s full statement concerning the alleged intellectual property violation can be read below. It does not state that legal action is being taken but appears to keep the door open for that.
To All Concerned Parties and Fans,
We sincerely thank you for your continued support of Stardom.
Currently, card products utilizing the likenesses of former Stardom wrestlers (hereinafter referred to as ‘the subject products’) are being manufactured and sold by another company.
Following an investigation conducted by our company, we have confirmed the following facts regarding the advertising copy for the subject products and some of the cards enclosed within them:
The products bear the advertising text ‘Stardom Memorial’
They use portraits of wrestlers from their time under our management
They utilize intellectual property managed by our company, such as belts and logos
They use photographic materials shot by our company for product use, and incorrectly display copyright notices attributing copyright to the other company
However, as the company managing the rights to the aforementioned intellectual property and past athlete portraits, we have neither been requested to grant permission nor have we been involved in any way regarding the sale of this product.
Moving forward, we intend to consider necessary measures to protect the intellectual property rights we hold or manage.
We would appreciate your understanding of the above. Thank you for your kind attention.
Marigold has not commented publicly on the situation.
Marigold Dream Star Fighting has unveiled its championship belts.
On Wednesday, the promotion revealed images of its United National Championship belt and the Marigold World Championship belt. Similar to the Wonder of Stardom and World of Stardom title belts, the National title will have a white strap and the World title will have a red strap.
“For a long time, when we think of women’s pro wrestling belts, we have images of red and white. We will carry on the history of women’s pro wrestling from the Showa era,” said Rossy Ogawa.
Rossy Ogawa, “For a long time, when we think of women's pro wrestling belts, we have images of red and white.We will carry on the history of women's pro wrestling from the Showa era.” Red and White is a tradition carried on from All Japan Women’s pro wrestling. pic.twitter.com/SZKyTlscdW
“The United National championship is an homage to the title first worn by Antonio Inoki, and held by greats such as Jumbo Tsuruta, Genichiro Tenryu and so many more,” the promotion wrote on X.
Marigold will also have the Twinstar Championships for tag teams and the Super Fly Championship for wrestlers under 55kg (121 lbs).
Marigold Fields Forever lineup for Monday, May 20, 2024 —
Giulia & Utami Hayashishita vs. Saree & Bozilla
Mai Sakurai & Zayda Steel vs. Nagisa Nozaki & Myla Grace
Tokyo Sports reports about 80 fans were in attendance for today’s event in Tokyo.
“We will stir up the women’s professional wrestling world, aim to be a more and brighter women’s professional wrestling, and an organization that reaches the world,” reads a translation of Giulia’s comments from today’s fan event.
The future of the new promotion was also addressed recently on Pacific Rim with our own Jim Valley and Fumi Saito. The full episode is available for subscribers here.
Marigold Fields Forever lineup for Monday, May 20, 2024 —
Giulia & Utami Hayashishita vs. Saree & Bozilla
Mai Sakurai & Zayda Steel vs. Nagisa Nozaki & Myla Grace
Yes, the Pacific Rim Pro Wrestling Podcast still exists.
Longtime wrestling journalist Fumi Saito and I discuss his trip to Philadelphia last month to see Bull Nakano inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. He talks about how it happened, his thoughts on the ceremony, and WrestleMania 40 itself. (You might recognize him and a famous wrestler in the picture above).
From there, we talk about Rossy Ogawa, Stardom and Rossy’s new Marigold situation.
Other topics include this year’s Hana Kimura Memorial Show, Fumi’s interview with Giulia, his appearance on the John Tenta episode of Dark Side of the Ring, and much more.
Former AEW World Champion and longtime Japanese star Kenny Omega made some strongly-worded comments toward Stardom founder Rossy Ogawa on Friday night, indicating some negative revelations exist about the Marigold founder that is already known by others.
During his Twitch stream Friday, Omega was asked about Ogawa and said he would caution against listening to praise “for that individual” based on what those in the wrestling industry and “government-issued press” in Japan know about him.
“I would say, ‘Don’t be so quick to listen to praise for that individual’ because someday, I’m not sure when it will be, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday, people will know the truth. What they do with that truth, I don’t know. Will they share it? Maybe. A lot of the higher-ups in Japan, they know exactly what business he’s up to and what he’s been up to for decades. That’s all I gotta say,” he said.
However, that wasn’t all he had to say.
Omega was then asked about Ogawa being an “E-drone” (a backhanded reference to WWE fans on social media) since Marigold has a partnership with WWE. Omega said he didn’t care about that as it’s “not even the tip of the iceberg.”
He said there are “a lot of people” that refuse to work for Ogawa “for the very same reason” who are currently both in WWE and AEW. He then alluded to what the allegations are about without specifically making accusations.
“If you want to know along what lines they tread amongst, the dude just flat out said, ‘Hey, we’re looking for girls ages 13-to-21 that don’t have a boyfriend and aren’t married.’ We already know he puts underage girls in very revealing swimsuit calendars and books. I wish that’s all he did. Let’s put it that way,” he stated.
Despite saying all that, he then clarified that he didn’t know anything and that he was “not going on record to say anything” as he didn’t want lawyers “barking at my door.”
“I don’t have any sort of video evidence, I just have the good word of people that are very close. I’m outside of it. If those people feel like commenting or saying something, whatever. For now, I’ll say that people going to Marigold, good luck. I hope you have a great time. I hope it works out for you. For me, I would be very hesitant. I would be very hesitant. That’s it. That’s all,” he said, before saying “redact my comments” and that “I didn’t say anything” before again questioning Marigold’s desired age range and then agreeing with a commenter that he should delete the Twitch video.
He finished by saying he supports current WWE star Asuka and that “she’s got her reasons, probably the same one as mine.”
In a new exclusive report for subscribers, we have details on what’s to come with Rossy Ogawa’s new Marigold promotion, including their working relationship with WWE, and Giulia’s immediate and long-term future with both companies.
During a press conference Monday morning, Ogawa announced the formation of Dream Star Fighting Marigold, or Marigold for short. Their first show, Marigold Fields Forever, will take place on May 20 at Korakuen Hall. It will stream on Wrestle Universe with both Japanese and English commentary. The main event will feature Giulia & X taking on Sareee & X.
The start of the press conference revealed the first seven roster members: Giulia, Utami Hayashishita, MIRAI, Nanae Takahashi, Mai Sakurai, and Yuzuki (now going by Victoria Yuzuki), formerly of Stardom, and Nao Ishikawa. At the end of the press conference, Natsumi Sumikawa, Miku Aono, Misa Matsui, CHIAKI, Chika Goto, and KOUKI, formerly of Actwres girl’Z, announced they will also be part of the roster.
Ogawa was fired from Stardom in February after the promotion accused him of attempting to poach talent on his way out. Ogawa denied the accusations but did say that he was going to form a new promotion. Giulia, who appeared at NXT’s Stand & Deliver event during WrestleMania weekend, will help Ogawa with the promotion before departing for WWE.
One of the biggest issues of the Observer is out this week. Tons of interesting information on current news and lots of historical figures. It’s full coverage of a weekend of major events.
Poll results on all the major shows
Historical nature of WrestleMania 40 including business notes in depth, gate, PPV, attendance, merch, it’s all there.
Ticket demand
Historical nature of Rhodes’ win
How WWE has changed due to Dwayne Johnson
A look at the booking of both nights
Internal talk on Rock vs. Rhodes
More changes from WWE to TKO
How many WWE PPV buyers watched Revolution and Hard to Kill
How the WWE/AEW dynamic has changed
Future WWE direction
A look at Dynamite with the Jack Perry/CM Punk footage and Will Ospreay interview
Whose ideas these were and what the background was
Different lines and why they were said
Full Stand & Deliver coverage
The life and times of Akebono, a Japanese cultural figure
The early 90s heyday of sumo
The Bob Sapp fight and doing kickboxing and MMA
The long pro wrestling career and his various roles
His brief WWE run
UFC 300 looked at
AEW 2024 PPV plans
New Japan Sakura Genesis coverage and next major shows
Bryan Danielson vs. Blue Panther singles match looked at
ROH Supercard of Honor coverage
Gary Shaw, a controversial figure in MMA and his role in promoting Kimbo Slice and putting women’s MMA on the map against major opposition
Jon Jones’ latest incident
A look back at Al Zinck and the heyday of pro wrestling in the Maritimes
The most detailed look at the ratings of the past week, weekly standings, placings for the night and time slot, major competition for each show, segment-by-segment numbers and more.
Rey de Parejas tournament from Dragon Gate
One of the greatest U.S. amateur wrestlers in history may retire in a few weeks, or this summer
A look at the Olympic trials
Wrestling TV show headed to Netflix
Indie Hall of Fame
The Boys answer back at charges they were fired for no-showing
International TV ratings
Ticket sales for all the upcoming WWE & AEW shows
Update on lawsuit filed by former MMA superstar against Disney, backed by Elon Musk
Vince McMahon’s stock sales, how much cash he’s made, value of current shares and how much does he still own
How much Dwayne Johnson has made for his being on the TKO Board thus far
Changes in WWE management
Why so many wrestlers today as compared to the past get busted mouths
– Both of our weekend shows are already up. On Friday night, Garrett and I covered the week’s news and talked about New Japan Windy City Riot. Last night Bryan and I talked with Paul Fontaine about the 2024 Hall of Fame ballot and how the modern ballot is ridiculously tough and Cody Rhodes as a candidate, plus UFC 300, Collision, Smackdown, and more.
– UFC 300 was one of the great shows in company history. The show did a $16.5 million gate, the third largest of all time and the largest without Conor McGregor. Max Holloway vs. Justin Gaethje was a match of the year and knockout of the year contender. Jiri Prochazaka vs. Alexander Rakic, Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan, and Bobby Green vs. Jim Miller were outstanding as well. We talked about the show in-depth on the audio show last night.
– The show did 2.3 million Google searches, and for all we talked about how much interest there was last week in Mania, this did about double, with Holloway, Tsarukyan, and Holly Holm all in the top 20 yesterday. Conor McGregor, who faces Michael Chandler at 170 pounds on 6/29 officially, was No. 6 as of today. Nothing else in combat sports cracked the top 20 for any specific day.
– As far as the two split decisions on the show went, media scores were 86 percent for Jessica Andrade (who won) vs. Marina Rodrigues. Adelaide Byrd gave Andrade the first two rounds. Derek Clearly gave Andrade only round one. David Lethaby gave Andrade the first two rounds. I felt Andrade won 29-28.
– In Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan, it was very close and could have gone either way. I had rounds one and three for Oliveira due to the near submissions, although Tsarukyan won more of the round but Oliveira was close to finishing both. 71 percent of media scores were for Tsarukyan. Michael Bell had the same rounds that I had. Byrd gave Tsarukyan rounds two and three and Ron McCarthy had the same, so it ended up coming down to round three.
– Islam Makhachev defends the lightweight title against Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 302 on 6/1. Dana White also last night announced Sean Strickland vs. Paulo Costa, a fight Strickland had gone public with a few days ago.
– I was devastated to find out last night about the death of Tony Jones, a long-time independent wrestler in the Bay Area, who was also an avid reader and listener to our shows. On almost every show I went to in the Bay Area, he’d come up and we’d talk, usually right after the show or right before, as well as at times at MMA shows. I’ll always remember how he kept such a brave face when his daughter, Selina, was battling cancer from a young age and passed away at the age of 14 in 2014. Wikipedia lists that he beat Stephen Neal (a Hodge trophy winner and considered the best wrestler in the world in 1999 regardless of weight), but he told me it was just that he once took down Neal in a practice match. He was in tournaments with Kurt Angle but they never wrestled each other.
Tony was nicknamed Shooter because he was a good college wrestler at San Francisco State University before pro wrestling. Tony died Thursday night of a heart attack while watching a movie. He was 53, having celebrated his birthday by watching day one of WrestleMania. He was a big MMA and pro wrestling fan. I didn’t know of him having any health issues and he always kept in good shape. He was always very proud of his son, Tony Jr. He was probably best known for appearing in Beyond the Mat and having a tryout match in Sacramento in 1998 that Vince McMahon and Jim Ross commented on including Ross telling him he should try and add muscle to his chest and shoulders.
– Rossy Ogawa’s new women’s promotion in Japan has a press conference at 3:30 a.m. Eastern late tonight/early a.m. on both YouTube and Wrestle Universe. They will both introduce the new promotion with its name, the roster and announce the first shows. It being on Wrestle Universe would indicate that the big events will be on that platform. (thanks to Jose Gonzalez)
– Voices of Wrestling had a poll where the Action Dean show was listed as the best show of Mania weekend in Philadelphia. Night two of Mania tied with ROH Supercard of Honor for third place. The top five bouts were voted as Demus vs. Mad Dog Connelly dog collar at Action Wrestling Dean, Mark Briscoe vs. Eddie Kingston, Kyle Fletcher vs. Lee Johnson was third, Daniel Makabe vs. Timothy Thatcher at Action Wrestling Dean was fourth and Adam Priest vs. Slim J from Action Wrestling Dean was fifth. The highest WWE bouts with Gunther vs. Zayn at No. 7 and Rhodes vs. Reigns at No. 10.
– Sheamus returns on Raw tomorrow night in Montreal, which wasn’t sold out today but is close enough that it should be by tomorrow. Jey Uso vs. Finn Balor, Chelsea Green & Piper Niven vs. Katana Chance & Kayden Carter and Sami Zayn vs. Chad Gable are announced, plus Cody Rhodes will be there.
– Riho is in Japan getting her visa renewed.
– On last night’s show, Bryan mentioned the AEW show in Highland Heights, KY, drew 1,800. We don’t have a final figure at press time but WrestleTix had the number at 2,511. It was 1,759 in the Observer that came out Thursday night but that was the advance number. It’s not a good number, but it’s the largest crowd ever in that city for wrestling. There were only three prior significant shows, a WWE show that did 2,000 in 2011, a TNA show that did 500, and an NXT show that did 1,500. I’m not saying it’s good, but it does appear to be the city record.
– Atsushi Onita, who went to Amarillo to put flowers on the grave of Terry and Vicki Funk, said that he wanted to run one last show at Kawasaki Baseball Stadium for an explosive barbed wire match against Dory Funk Jr. Dory is 83 and I strongly suspect that one isn’t happening.
– Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toru Yano & Oleg Boltin won today’s tournament for the vacant Never trios titles that Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii & Kazchika Okada held when Okada left New Japan. They beat Evil & Sho & Yoshinobu Kanemaru in the finals in Taiwan.
– WWE wrestlers taped a Celebrity Family Feud episode on Friday. The teams were men vs women with Sonya Devlle, Jade Cargill, Michin, Bianca Belair, and Zelina Vega against LA Knight, Bobby Lashley, Austin Theory, and The Street Profits.
– Akbebono was honored last night at the sumo world championships at The Theater in Madison Square Garden.
– The Fairmont Hotels issued an apology to Chelsea Green after kicking her out of the hotel last week in thinking she was an escort.
– There will be a Wrestling at the Chase event on Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the Mirowitz Center in St Louis. Ed Wheatley, who wrote a book about that era, will talk about the glory days of St Louis wrestling. The event is free but you have to register at [email protected] or call 314-733-9813.
We are getting closer to an official announcement regarding Rossy Ogawa’s new promotion.
Tokyo Sports caught up with the Stardom founder upon his return to Japan after spending the weekend at WrestleMania in Philadelphia. Ogawa told the outlet that a flag-raising press conference for his new promotion will take place within the next week.
A translation of Ogawa’s comments reads:
I’m going to be very busy from now on. We’ll be holding a press conference to launch the organization within the next week, so I hope to be able to show everyone an overview of our organization. Please look forward to it.
Giulia, who is expected to help kickstart the new promotion, did not travel back from Japan along with Ogawa. However, she is expected to wrestle for Stardom at Korakuen Hall on April 12. While she is no longer under contract to the promotion, she is scheduled to team with Syuri against Hanan & Mayu Iwatani on Friday’s show.
Giulia is also scheduled to wrestle for Pro Wrestling Noah at Wrestle Magic on May 4.
Ogawa was fired by Bushiroad in February and publicly accused of poaching Stardom talent for his new company. Dave Meltzer published a detailed look at Ogawa’s ousting from the promotion he founded shortly after in an article up now for subscribers. Fumi Saito and Jim Valley also addressed Ogawa’s release and future plans in an episode of Wrestling Observer Live from February 10.
The names of four wrestlers expected to leave Stardom and join Rossy Ogawa’s new promotion have been revealed.
Tokyo Sports reported on Thursday that Utami Hayashishita, MIRAI, Mai Sakurai, and Yuzuki will be leaving Stardom at the end of the month. Our own Dave Meltzer has confirmed the news. As previously reported, Giulia is also expected to be part of the promotion as well before eventually signing with WWE.
Hayashishita was voted the 2021 Women’s Wrestling MVP in the annual Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards and currently holds the Goddess of Stardom titles with Saya Kamitani.
MIRAI won the Cinderella tournament two years in a row (2022-23) and is a former Wonder of Stardom Champion.
Sakurai is a former Artist of Stardom champion along with Thekla and Giulia. Thekla has been on hiatus since January and it’s not clear where she might end up.
19-year-old Yuzuki won the 2024 Rookie of Stardom tournament earlier this year.
Stardom announced several names for next month’s Stardom American Dream show, basically confirming those wrestlers as staying with the promotion.
Mayu Iwatani, Momo Kohgo, AZM, Starlight Kid, Momo Watanabe, Syuri, Mina Shirakawa, Saya Kamitani, Tam Nakano, Saki Kashima, Maika, Ram Kaicho, Saki, and Mei Seira are all advertised for the April 4 show in Philadelphia. Additionally, so are Willow Nightingale, Mariah May, Xia Brookside, and Stephanie Vaquer.
Our own Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer spent time on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio discussing the situation.
“There’s a lot of people who had committed to leave that are staying, so that’s interesting,” Meltzer said on the show.
“Mayu Iwatani (is staying) who we knew because she’s on contract for another year although she was not happy with what happened to Rossy Ogawa,” Meltzer continued. “A year from now, who knows? Right now people think she’s going to leave in a year. In a year, like I said, who knows? Things change a lot.”
“AZM is a good one that they got to stay because she’s so talented and young, great future,” he added.
It’s the Pacific Rim Pro Wrestling Podcast. Fumi Saito and Jim Valley are back. Fumi sets the record straight about Stardom and the split with Rossy Ogawa. We talk about what happened, what brought it on, and what to expect going forward. Fumi also clarifies the situations with Kairi Sane and Giulia’s exits from the company. Plus details on Rossy’s new company, titles and vision going forward. After that, we talk about John Laurinaitis, his career in Japan, and his connection to Billy Jack Haynes. Check it out.
Dave Meltzer and I are back with Wrestling Observer Radio going over all the news in the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
We opened up the show talking about WWE’s WrestleMania Kickoff press event. We talked about the chaotic feel to the event, the changing of the booking and overall story, and where things may be going.
We also discussed the following:
Dave’s story on Ashley Massaro
The new sports streaming company
Early ticket sales for AEW’s Big Business Boston event
