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.
Utami Hayashishita has announced that she is leaving Dream Star Fighting Marigold.
The company held a show at Korakuen Hall on Saturday, April 25, where Marigold World Champion Miku Aono successfully defended her title against Hayashishita in the main event.
After the match, Hayashishita addressed the crowd and announced that she would be departing the promotion. She said the decision had been made some time ago and was not related to her loss against Aono. Hayashishita also announced that her final match for Marigold will take place on May 23.
In an interview with Tokyo Sports after the show, Marigold owner Rossy Ogawa said that Hayashishita notified him in January of her decision to leave.
The 27-year-old Hayashishita debuted for STARDOM in 2018 and won the promotion’s Rookie of Stardom award that year. In 2021, she was voted Women’s Wrestling MVP in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards. In March 2024, Hayashishita was one of several STARDOM wrestlers to announce they would be leaving the promotion that month, and she joined Ogawa’s new Marigold promotion the following month.
Utami announced that her final Marigold match will be on May 23 at Ota Ward Gym. Maddy Morgan challenged Miku Aono to a World title match next month at Korakuen Hall. pic.twitter.com/5w7mOQE5Hw
The former WWE Women’s Champion wrestled in the co-main event of Saturday’s Marigold Summer Destiny event at Sumo Hall. She defeated Utami Hayashishita following a tombstone piledriver and a moonsault. After the match, she thanked Hayashishita, WWE, and Marigold.
In the main event of Marigold Summer Destiny, Sareee became the first Marigold World Champion defeating Giulia, who will take part in Marigold events before eventually heading to WWE.
SKY’s appearance comes as WWE has begun lending talent to several promotions, including TNA and Pro Wrestling NOAH. SKY wrestled her match prior to AJ Styles facing Naomichi Marufuji in the double main event of Saturday’s NOAH Destination event. It was also announced on that show that NXT’s Josh Briggs and Tavion Heights will be competing in this year’s N1 Victory tournament.
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.
Former Stardom titleholder Utami Hayashishita will make her Ring of Honor debut on Thursday’s ROH on HonorClub.
The 24-year-old will take on Trish Adora. Hayashishita has held the World of Stardom title, the Goddesses of Stardom title, Artist of Stardom title and the Future of Stardom title in her five years there.
Thursday’s show will be the go-home before Friday’s Death Before Dishonor — a card that has been in flux due to unforeseen injuries, according to Tony Khan.
The Friday opponent for ROH TV Champion Samoa Joe will be determined as former ROH World Champion Dalton Castle will take on former ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champion Shane Taylor in the finals of a four-man tournament.
Ahead of his shot at Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata on Friday, Daniel Garcia will take on Jason Geiger.
ROH Women’s Champion Athena will face Nikita in a Proving Ground match ahead of her title defense against Willow Nightingale on Friday.
Here’s the full six-match lineup:
The Righteous (Vincent & Dutch vs. The Boys (Brandon & Brent Tate)
The Kingdom (Mike Bennett & Matt Taven) vs. The Bollywood Boyz (Gurv & Harv) vs. The WorkHorsemen (Anthony Henry & JD Drake) vs. Action Andretti & Darius Martin
Daniel Garcia vs. Jason Geiger
ROH Women’s Champion Athena vs. Nikita in a non-title Proving Ground match
TV title eliminator tournament final: Dalton Castle vs. Shane Taylor
Updated coverage on SummerSlam and early word on Survivor Series is the lead story on this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
We look at the location, the time of the show and why they are limited in time, the new stadium, talk about top matches plus more on Dwayne Johnson and WrestleMania, Survivor Series and a plan for an August Takeover.
Also in this issue:
Dominion, the Shingo Takagi title win, with match-by-match coverage, star ratings, poll results, business notes and booking direction.
Plans for a WWE draft, a WWE TV show on verge of being canceled, Bret Hart documentary, Stephanie McMahon talks WWE business, WWE ticket sales, Miz talks injury, UK & Canada viewing numbers, WWE looks a changes in how it does house hows, WWE autograph new rules, most watched WWE videos of the past week and WWE market value.
The next two WWE major events with lineups, notes about the Takeover crowd, matches announced and not yet announced for Hell in a Cell and more.
Full coverage of this past Saturday’s UFC show.
Cyber Fight show combining NOAH, DDT, Ganbare Pro and Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling. We look at Keiji Muto’s title loss, why he got the title in the first place, why Marufuji wasn’t the guy who should have won, plus match-by-match coverage with star ratings.
The death of controversial wrestler Angel o Demonio.
More into detail on the ratings than any other source, how many different viewers the shows had which is very different from the television number, breakdown of who watches the shows, how they watch, DVR numbers and how long the average fan watches.
Results of the major pro wrestling events of the past week.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.
For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
MONDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight taking Raw and the latest wrestling news. You can also send questions to the show tonight to [email protected]
Raw tonight has Drew McIntyre vs. A.J. Styles, New Day vs. Randy Orton & Riddle and the debut of Eva Marie vs. Naomi. Rumor has it Eva Marie will have some muscle with her and with a debut against Naomi, that would put her on the heel side as we talked about the last few weeks.
We’ll have all the details in the issue, but the key ratings notes are that on Friday, Smackdown did 1,944,000 viewers and 0.48 in 18-49. AEW did 487,000 viewers and 0.19 in 18-49. AEW did 160,000 viewers on Saturday via DVR of the show.
SummerSlam tickets for 8/21 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas moved extremely well in today’s presale. We don’t know how many tickets were put on sale, but it appeared a large percentage of the planned total 41,000+ seats were put on sale because while there are empty sections not sold, most are. Of those put on sale, there were 1,085 left as of our last report. It’s pretty clear they’ll do a very healthy total. The general public on sale isn’t until Friday.
Saturday’s Utami Hayashishita vs. Syuri match for the Wonder of Stardom title is more than worth going out of your way to see. The negative is that if you don’t like hard-hitting matches with women, you won’t like this. But for technical skill, hard-hitting, and drama, this is one of the best matches of the year and in a completely different category than any women’s match in years. The match will be available on Wednesday or Thursday on Stardom World. You can watch it right now on PPV here. It didn’t have the crazy moves and blood of Britt Baker vs.Thunder Rosa but as a technical match it’s very much like a Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin mixed with Shinobu Kandori vs. Akira Hokuto. If you are a fan of women’s wrestling, now that they have English commentary on the shows, you really should subscribe to Stardom world. The storylines are good, emotional, work from top to bottom is very good and the people involved in the training of these women have a magic wand in getting people so good so quickly.
Scott Smoot, who had been Vice President of Live Events Production, who was let go in cuts, is being brought back since they are back to doing live events.
Regarding the return of Samoa Joe, who will be working in NXT it could be as a replacement for William Regal if he’s leaving, working with Regal in some fashion, and God knows they need a new opponent for Karrion Kross right now and Joe would certainly fit that thing and garner some interest there.
Kim Wood and I tell the story of Brian Pillman and Terry Funk’s idea of chaining him to the post during the Super Bowl in Phoenix.
Friday’s Lamar Odom vs. Aaron Carter Celebrity Boxing PPV did roughly the same number of television PPV buys as a good Impact PPV show.
New Japan at Korakuen Hall tomorrow morning at 5:30 a.m.Eastern time
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Yuya Uemura
Taichi vs. Yota Tsuji
Sho & Yoh & Toru Yano vs. El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori & Jado
Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Evil & Yujiro Takahashi & Gedo & Dick Togo
Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & Sanada & Bushi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Master Wato
WWE
An analysis piece saying WWE stock with last week’s rise is now overvalued. It’s probably fairly valued now, it was undervalued the past few months.
WWE is doing cameos based around this weekend’s Hell in a Cell show. The most expensive are Shawn Michaels at $750, Seth Rollins at $600, Rey Mysterio at $500, Kevin Owens at $500, Charlotte Flair at $500 and Drew McIntyre at $450.
UFC
Get ready for the return of the mouth of Colby Covington as he gets groomed for a rematch with Kamaru Usman. With Dana White confirming him for the next title shot, Colby Covington joined Submission Radio and reacted to Leon Edwards’ win over Nate Diaz: “I think that’s hilarious. I think Edwards Scissorhands, he’s out here claiming to be this god and he’s ready for a title shot. Dude, you’re struggling with a lightweight journeyman who has double-digit losses on his record, and this guy is almost finishing you? And you think you need to be in a title shot? That guy needs to go win ten more fights or 20 more fights if he can’t get by Nate Diaz like that. The guy’s a Stockton soy boy. He’s been finished by everybody. The guy has no gas left in the tank. He’s even saying himself he has no motivation left to fight. So, if you’re struggling with a guy like Nate Diaz, there’s no way you belong anywhere close to a world title fight.”
Andre Fili vs. Daniel Pineda is earmarked for the 6/26 show.
AEW
Dark Elevation tonight:
Scorpio Sky vs. Alex Reynolds
QT Marshall & Aaron Solow vs. Deonn Rusman & Joe Keys
Nyla Rose vs. Megan Bayne,
Wardlow vs. Jason Hotch
Shawn Spears vs. Falco
Dustin Rhodes & Lee Johnson vs VSK & Travis Titan
Julia Hart vs. Dani Jordyn
Orange Cassidy vs. Cameron Cole
Penta & Eddie Kingston vs. Arik Cannon & Kevin Blackwood
Angelico vs. Mike Sydal
Private Party vs. Dean Alexander & Carlie Bravo
OTHER NOTES
Vice will be running a documentary on Thursday night on Chyna.
NWA Powerrr tomorrow night has JTG vs. Fred Rosser vs. El Rudo in a tournament match for a National title shot, Aron Stevens vs. PJ Hawx, Melina vs. JennaCide vs. Kenzie Paige plus appearances by Trevor Murdoch, Kamille, Tyrus and Austin Idol.
Impact is building around the idea that Sami Callihan was fired by Don Callis but he’s showing up for Impact on Thursday.
Pro Wrestling Phoenix on Friday night in Omaha: Moonshine Russell b JD Parker, Omar Pachecco b El Bigote, Lars Metzger b Tim Boston, Seto Kobara b Johnny Ruckus, Seta Kobara & Tim Boston b Lars Metzger & Johnny Ruckus in a body bag match, Brandon Nytroe & Aiden Brooks b Paul & Joey Daniels, Jack Darling b Omar Pachecco-DQ, Brett Bishop b Duke Cornell. The next show is 7/3 at the Waiting Room Lounge in Omaha.
Pro Wrestling Havoc from Saturday night in Jackson, MI: Brutus Atwell b Walking Nightmare, Jontae Keith b Dre Jacobs, Capital Vices b Nomads to win tag titles, ZDP b Sledge Gibson, Cassidy Keith b JP Ono, Ace Evans won three-way over Matt Cross and Jake Crist (thanks to Leonard Brand)
Combate Globo has a show this coming Friday night on Univision and Univision Deportes at midnight featuring Jordan Beltran (11-6) vs. Erick Sancehz (906) and Axel Osuna (3-0 vs. Junior Cortez (4-1).
Black Label Pro from yesterday in Australia: Charli Evans b Cherry Stephens, Kingsley & Jack Bonza b Michael Spencer & Kai Drake, Unsocial Jordan won over Ricky South and Carter Deams, Will Kiedes b Jimmy Townsend, Aussie Open b Light Speed Express, Matt Rogers b Lyrebird Luchi-DQ, Shazza McKenzie b Big Fudge, Sam Osborne b Jessica Troy to win PWWA title. Main event said to be really good. The Velocities, who had the killer match with Aussie Open on the previous iPPV show, issued a challenge for a rematch. Their first match is worth searching out if you haven’t seen it.
At a PFL press conference, Tom Lawlor was asked about being in a do or die situation for his next fight and said, “Do you know something I don’t? Am I doing to die? I thought I would just miss the playoffs.”
Dragon Lee will be doing a seminar for Pro Wrestling Revolution in Northern California. For more info write to [email protected]
CWE announced that due to COVID restrictions its 7/2 to 7/4 shows in Winnipeg, Morden, and Gladstone, Manitoba are being moved to 9/3, 9/4, and 9/5.
Pale Pro Wrestling on 6/19 in Arlington, TX at the 360 Elite Arena has Sam Adonis defending his title against Jeff Cobb, Cam Cole vs. Jake Something, Mike Bennett vs. Chandler Hopkins, Fuego del Sol vs Jastin Taylor and Mysterious Q vs. Travis Titan.
Stardom has announced two matches for the second night of Wrestle Kingdom 15.
During tonight’s Stardom Year End Climax 2020, the promotion announced onsocial media that not one, but two dark matches will be held on the second night of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 15 on January 5. The two matches will be Mayu Iwatani and Tam Nakano vs. Giulia and Syuri in a tag match, and Saya Kamtani, Azumi, and Utami Hayashishita vs. Maika, Natsupoi, and Himeka in a six-woman tag team match.
Stardom held their first dark match at the Tokyo Dome during last year’s Wrestle Kingdom 14 on the January 4 card. In that match, Mayu Iwatani and Arisa Hoshiki defeated Hana Kimura and Giulia.
For 2021, Stardom will hold their 10th anniversary show on March 3 at Budokan Hall, a much bigger venue for their anniversary show. It will also serve at Mayu Iwatani’s 10th anniversary.
Stardom announced this morning that they will be running their 10th anniversary show at Budokan Hall in March.
During intermission of the Sendai Cinderella show that ran on Sunday morning, Stardom announced that their 10th anniversary show will run on March 3 at Budokan Hall. This will be a big change of venue compared to last year’s show, when they ran at Korakuen Hall. This will be their first time running Budokan Hall.
No matches or names were announced for the event.
Last night’s show featured Utami Hayashishita defeat Mayu Iwatami to win the World of Stardom title, Giulia defeating Konami to retain the Wonder of Stardom title, Syuri defeating Bea Priestley to win the SWA Undisputed World Women’s title, Momo Watananabe defeating Himeka, ZAM defeating Gokigen Death to retain the High Speed title, Cosmic Angels defeating Oedo Tai in a six-person tag team match, Starlight Kid defeating Hanan, Hina, Riho, and Saya Kamtani, and Maika defeating Saya Iida to retain the Future of Stardom title.
Stardom also held a match earlier this year at the Tokyo Dome, prior to the first night of Wrestle Kingdom 14. In that match, Mayu Iwatani and Arisa Hoshiki defeated Hana Kimura and Giulia.
