Rossy Ogawa

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Chiba, Japan

**Hiroshi Ogawa** (小川 宏, *Ogawa Hiroshi*, born May 1, 1957) is a Japanese businessman, promoter, photographer and manager born in Chiba, Japan, better known by the ring name **Rossy Ogawa** (ロッシー小川, *Rosshi Ogawa*). He is the founder and CEO of the World Wonder Ring Stardom. Ogawa is also known for his work in AJW (All Japan Women) holding many different jobs inside the promotion and booker and promotor for Hyper Visual Fighting Arsion (ARISON).

## Early life

Ogawa attended Tokyo College of Photography, before starting to work for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) as a photographer for the promotion. After graduated from college in 1978, Ogawa joined AJW as public relations executive and as a on-screen manager for The Beatuy Pair and Crush Gals.

## Business career

In 1997, Ogawa left All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling, following conflicts with the Matsunaga family over the direction of the promotion. In July, Ogawa formed his own promotion Hyper Visual Fighting Arison (ARISON), taking with him inportant wrestlers in AJW such as Aja Kong, Reggie Bennett, Yumi Fukawa and Rie Tamad and trainer Mariko Yoshida. The following year, in order to boost then attendance numbers of the promotion, Ogawa began promoting their younger wrestlers such as Ai Fujita, AKINO, Ayako Hamada and Candy Okutsu, which formed a pop group called Cazai as a way to recreate the success of previous teams such as The Beatuy Pair and Crush Gals. Aja Kong was also a huge supporter behind Ayako Yamada. In time, after disagreements with Aja Kong in 2001 over the management of the promotion, culminating in Kong leaving the promotion. Subsequently, Ogawa was sued by Kong for falsely advertising her for upcoming events. The following year, Ogawa signed Lioness Asuka as the promotion's new booker, as an attempt to fill Kong's departure. However, due to internal conflicts within the promotion, due to Asuka's centralized booking, the promotion ceased operations during the summer of 2003, after Yumiko Hotta bought the promotion and renamed it AtoZ.

On April 10, 2010, Ogawa approached a former JDStar wrestler Fuka about forming a wrestling promotion and built it around her student Yuzuki Aikawa. On September 7, Ogawa held a press conference announcing that his new promotion's would be named World Wonder Ring Stardom. Originally, Ogawa had contemplated naming his promotion Bito (美闘, "Beauty Battle"), before deciding to go with Stardom, with Bito being given to one its wrestler Yoko Arai. In late 2011, Ogawa signed the young top prospect Io Shirai to join Stardom full time. On February 22, 2015, Stardom's event in Korakuen Hall ended in controversy, when the main event, where Yoshiko defended the World of Stardom Championship against Act Yasukawa, had to be ended prematurely. The match reportedly saw Yoshiko shooting on Yasukawa, legitimately beating her to the point that the match had to be stopped. Following the match, Yasukawa, with a bloody and badly swollen face, was rushed to a Tokyo hospital, where she was diagnosed with fractured cheek, nasal and orbital bones, which would require surgery. Yasukawa had just two months earlier returned from a long injury break brought on by thyroid issues, during which she had also underwent cataract surgery. Stardom's president Rossy Ogawa publicly apologized for the incident and called an emergency meeting for February 23 with General Manager Fuka and top wrestlers Nanae Takahashi, Io Shirai, and Kyoko Kimura to discuss the situation. The following day, Ogawa also had a meeting with an apologetic Yoshiko. On February 25, Stardom held a press conference with Yoshiko, Ogawa, Fuka, Takahashi, and Kimura, where Yoshiko publicly apologized for her actions, before being stripped of the World of Stardom Championship and suspended indefinitely. Ogawa, Fuka and Takahashi also announced they were taking a 30% pay cut for the next three months. The incident received mainstream attention in Japan and became known as *Seisan Matchi* (凄惨マッチ, "Ghastly Match"). On May 31, Ogawa announced that Yoshiko would not be returning from her suspension, but had instead decided to retire from professional wrestling.

On October 17, 2019, Ogawa sold the promotion to Bushiroad's subsidiary Kix Road, who renamed itself to Bushiroad Fight Co, Ltd. as part of the acquisition, making it a sister promotion of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, while also being announced that the promotion would use its main name Stardom instead of the World Wonder Ring Stardom. Despite the acquisition, Ogawa remained as the promotion's Chief executive officer. Bushiroad's founder Takaaki Kidani had been interested in buying the promotion since February 2019 and began negotiations for the acquisition of the promotion since April, due to WWE's increased popularity of women's wrestling in North America. WWE also attempt to purchase Stardom as part of its plan to expand to the Japanese market in July, but Ogawa ended up refusing WWE's offer and accepted Bushiroad's offer instead with the deal being completed in August, with Bushiroad taking over the operations on December 1.