With its recent introduction, Rossy Ogawa’s new promotion Marigold already promises to shake the joshi wrestling landscape from a product and business standpoint.
Ever since the news of his release from Stardom broke up, many fans started to speculate about the possibilities of having Stardom founder and former Executive Producer Rossy Ogawa creating a brand-new promotion from scratch once again. And the speculations turned out to be true with the recent announcement of his latest project, a new joshi promotion named Dream Star Fighting Marigold.
During the inaugural press conference, which also introduced us to the first main talents of the roster, Rossy Ogawa made it clear that he expects a huge success from this new project and hinted potential associations with other interesting promotions, some of them local and others from overseas.
Even though it actually seems pretty difficult for any other promotion to surpass Stardom in terms of product and success, Dream Star Fighting Marigold has the enough potential to become the biggest competitor for Stardom so far. So, for this article, I will be covering the main reasons why I consider Marigold will probably shake the entire joshi wrestling scene and take it to a whole different level.
DISCLAIMER: Please keep in mind that this is just my personal opinion and that it doesn’t necessarily reflect the company’s point of view as a whole.
A Solid Roster With Established Stars & The Development Of New Younger Talents
Ever since Rossy was released from Stardom, some of the promotion’s main talents immediately expressed their loyalty and support to the former Executive Producer. This would eventually lead to the departure of some of Stardom’s main stars, like Giulia, Utami Hayashishita, MIRAI, Nanae Takahashi, Mai Sakurai and Yuzuki.
The truth is that most of Stardom’s talents have a huge feeling of respect and loyalty to Rossy Ogawa, which got many fans to think that the promotion would surely suffer a massive exodus of talents. However, I highly consider that Marigold has enough high-caliber stars to fulfill their initial goals with the previously mentioned signings.
And in addition to this, the possibilities of seeing new joshi talents emerging from the dojo are also very high. I personally think that Yuzuki is the perfect competitor to lead the younger stars of the future, since she already has a lot of potential and still has less than a year of experience, which would make it easier for the new rookies since Yuzuki was in the same spot as them not so long ago.
New Strategic Associations With Other Joshi Promotions & Streaming Platforms
Another key factor for Marigold’s success is definitely the associations with other promotions and the potential new partnership deals. During the same press conference that served as the official introduction of the promotion, it was revealed that Marigold’s first live show would be streaming on CyberFight’s official streaming platform ‘Wrestle Universe’, which is also the home of other big promotions such as DDT, NOAH, TJPW, GanPro and GanJo.
I personally am a huge fan of Wrestle Universe, since it is truly one of the best pro wrestling streaming services in the world right now. We must wait to see if the partnership between Marigold and Wrestle Universe continues after ‘Fields Forever’, but there is no doubt that this can bring benefits to Marigold, whether it is for joint shows or allowing their talents to compete in matches against TJPW or NOAH competitors occasionally. On the other hand, Wrestle Universe could also gain even more subscribers or interested viewers by associating with Rossy Ogawa’s Marigold, so in the end both parties would gain benefits from the deal.
In addition to the streaming deal, this potential partnership with CyberFight could open the door for new associations with other promotions such as Sendai Girls, who has recently joined the Wrestle Universe lineup. However, Rossy Ogawa could also push for associations with other overseas promotions such as Spark Joshi Puroresu, so the options are truly many.
Giulia, Marigold & The Business Relationship With WWE
Despite everything that I stated in the previous points, this one is perhaps the most important subject surrounding Rossy Ogawa and Marigold in general. It is no secret that WWE has been interested in signing former World of Stardom & NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion Giulia, and that the good business relationship between Triple H and Rossy Ogawa played an important role in the scouting process.
And the recent appearance of Giulia at NXT Stand & Deliver during WrestleMania weekend boosted these speculations even more. The truth is that whether people like it or not, it is actually understandable that Rossy sympathizes with WWE after the great showcasing of former Stardom champions IYO SKY and Kairi Sane in their shows, with the last one playing a key role in getting more eyeballs into Stardom after her return to the company in 2022.
In addition, the possibilities of having Rossy aboard whether as a producer or even to scout Japanese talents for WWE reignited the seriousness of these rumors. And we are all very aware that WWE has been wanting to increase their exposition in Japan for a few years now, so this partnership could be their most accurate way of doing it, with Marigold also getting benefits by showcasing WWE Superstars occasionally on their shows.
And last but not least, if Marigold’s association with Wrestle Universe was not a long-term deal, this could also open the door for the featuring of their shows in the WWE Network. Again, there is no solid proof yet, but I highly envision that WWE and Marigold’s paths will cross even beyond Giulia’s potential signing.
Conclusion
Despite being in its early stages, many fans (me included) already envision Marigold as a solid competition for Stardom’s supremacy in the joshi wrestling business. In addition, the constant rumors about the association with the WWE are often seen as a way to compete against the partnership between NJPW, Stardom and AEW.
However as fans we must not forget that despite our personal likes or biases, when a big company just focuses on selling the best version of their product and contributes to the growth of the industry, it is the sport in general who is winning. It is not bad to have rivals or competitions, but there’s a difference between doing something to boost your business and doing it to keep up with the competition.
I personally wish nothing more than the greatest success to Marigold on this journey, just the same way as I do with Stardom. Because at the end of the day, the joshi business just keeps evolving and the showcasing of its main talents on the international wrestling scene does nothing more than helping the industry to grow. And similar to what happens between WWE and AEW, the competition should only motivate them to always bring their absolute best for the wellness of our beloved sport.
Thank you for reading this article and make sure to stay tuned to Wrestling Republic for more contents like this.
