Four wrestlers revealed to be leaving Stardom, joining Rossy Ogawa’s promotion

  • Ian Carey
  • By 

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.