Various: Taro Okada on Why He Felt Stardom Had to Dismiss Rossy Ogawa, Dark Side of the Ring Ratings, Indies

Apr 26, 2024

Tara Okada Comments on Why He Felt Stardom Had to Dismiss Rossy Ogawa

As noted before, Stardom founder and head booker Rossy Ogawa was fired by Bushiroad this past February over allegations that he was he was poaching Stardom talent and staff for a new Joshi promotion later revealed to be Marigold.

Encount held a recent interview with Stardom President Taro Okada. One of the topics discussed included Okada’s thoughts about why he felt that Stardom had to dismiss Ogawa from the company.

“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.”

English translation via Fightful.com

Dark Side of the Ring Ratings – April 23, 2024

Tuesday’s episode of Dark Side of the Ring drew 148,000 viewers on VICE TV, up from last week’s 108,000 viewers.

It drew a 0.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic, up from last week’s 0.03 rating.

This episode focused on Sensational Sherri.

Source: Spoiler TV

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

As noted before, a plagiarism lawsuit against WWE and AEW was dismissed without prejudice this past November and an amended lawsuit was filed this past February by a man named Anthony Wilson. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that the United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Youngstown issued a ruling on May 19th allowing Wilson to have his lawsuit amended with a new filing based on recent court records. Johnson reported that this meant that the court had rejected both WWE and AEW’s attempts to have Wilson’s lawsuit be dismissed and will now have to file new motions related to the new version of the lawsuit.

WrestleCon recently announced that they will be holding another WrestleCon convention this year called WrestleCon: Destination Cleveland during WWE SummerSlam 2024 weekend on August 2-3 in Cleveland, Ohio.

The National Wrestling Alliance recently announced that they will be holding a new “Back To The Territories”NWA Powerrr television taping on June 1st in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Game Changer Wrestling recently announced that Markus Crane is the next official inductee for this year’s class for their Deathmatch Hall of Fame.

GCW recently announced that Timothy Thatcher will be making an appearance for the company at their Rather You Than Me event on May 3rd in Tampa, Florida.

GCW also recently announced one new match for the card of their Rather You Than Me event on May 3rd in Tampa:

GCW World Championship – Danhausen vs. Blake Christian

GCW also recently announced one new match for the card of their Most Notorious event on May 18th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

Megan Bayne vs. Joey Janela

PROGRESS Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their Chapter 169: The Devil on My Shoulders event on July 3rd in London, England: