Fumi Saito comments on Bushiroad-AEW relationship.
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.
Shortly after his departure was announced, AEW and Stardom formed a working relationship and Tony Khan publicly praised Stardom for making the move.
Journalist Fumi Saito, who is a longtime friend of Ogawa's, claims that Rossy was not behind keeping Stardom talent from AEW.
"About the AEW and Stardom business that didn't go well, Stardom asking each wrestler $30,000 for one appearance and sending five wrestlers, that would be $150,000 a night. AEW said, 'Ain't doing that.' That automatically assumed it was Rossy asking. It wasn't even Rossy. It was President Harada [former Bushiroad President Katsuhiko Harada], who got kicked out after that. Bushiroad executive didn't know much about business. 'AEW, that company has money, right? Let's ask them.' $30,000 each for five talents, $150,000 for one night for a pay-per-view. AEW automatically assumed it was Rossy. Rossy wasn't even involved for the past two years on the business end. Rossy, everything he tried to do ended up being overruled by Bushiroad executive. He got sick of it and had to leave," he said on Write That Down.
Harada was replaced by Taro Okada in December 2023.
Ogawa has since started his new promotion Marigold.
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