Unless you were a pretty big fan of Japanese women’s wrestling (aka joshi), you may not have ever heard or seen the name Rossy Ogawa before Tony Khan threw a GIF party to celebrate his exit from Stardom earlier this year.
But with Ogawa showing up besides Giulia at NXT Stand & Deliver over WrestleMania weekend, and his new promotion Marigold reportedly (and fairly obviously) having ties to WWE, he’s become a more prominent figure in wrestling and for wrestling fans.
That’s probably why he became a topic on Kenny Omega’s April 20 Twitch stream. Omega, who has deep roots in Japan and connections on the joshi scene, responded to an initial question about Ogawa by saying:
“From someone who lived it, breathed it, who has very close friends in the industry — I don’t mean necessarily wrestling industry… I mean like the government-issued press, and the information that they know. [shakes head] I… just gonna leave it at that.
“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. But 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.”
That wasn’t all he had to say, however. Another viewer brought up the apparent ties between Marigold and WWE, which Omega says was “no big deal”. He then went on to hint at one allegation about Ogawa by referencing how at Marigold’s introductory press conference they put out a call for “healthy unmarried women between the ages of 13 and 30” to join the new company:
“I don’t care about Rossy bring an E-Drone [internet wrestling “war” slang for a WWE fan or loyalist, apparently used first by the viewer]. That’s not even the tip of the iceberg. Guys… just you freaking wait… when it finally comes out… there are a lot of people who refuse to work with him for the very same reason. Some of those people even in WWE. Some of those people are in AEW. They have a very good reason, it’s not just like, ‘Yeah, I decided to wake up and not like this guy…
“If you want to know sort of along what lines they tread amongst, the dude just flat out said, ‘Hey, we’re looking for girls from like 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. And I wish that’s all he did. Let’s put it that way.”
After that, Omega clarified that he wasn’t “going on record to say anything” and didn’t want this to result in his getting calls from lawyers. He wasn’t quite done yet though, adding:
“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.”
The sidelined AEW star, who made headlines on his Twitch stream the previous Friday by unexpectedly weighing in with his account of Brawl Out and some comments about CM Punk, agreed with viewers that he should probably delete the video. But he had one more comment on Ogawa, which seemed to be in reference to a Twitter thread from WWE’s Asuka last summer where she wrote that the Ogawa-founded Stardom was “created to destroy me” and that she was “especially concerned” for Stardom wrestlers Syuri and Mina Shirakawa:
“My only comment, I’m just gonna say I’m with Asuka. That’s it. I’m with Asuka. Always have been — we bros. And she’s got her reasons, and it’s probably the same one as mine.”
As of this writing, neither Ogawa nor anyone from Marigold or Stardom has publicly addressed Omega’s comments.
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