Hazuki Reveals She & Koguma Decided To Leave STARS After Mayu Iwatani Departed, Wants To Take FWC Worldwide

By: Lewis Carlan

On May 11th at STARDOM’s event at Korakuen Hall, the STARS team of Hanan, Hazuki, Koguma, Momo Kohgo & Saya Iida defeated Hina, Kiyoka Kotatsu, Ranna Yagami, Saki Kashima & Tomoka Inaba of God’s Eye in a ten woman tag team match.

What the sold out crowd at Korakuen Hall and everyone watching on STARDOM World didn’t know was that this would be the last time they witnessed a match with Hazuki & Koguma a.k.a. FWC as members of the STARS unit. Following their victory, HANAN assumed the leadership role of STARS, which was previously held by the departed Mayu Iwatani. Hazuki and Koguma decided to leave the faction and branch out on their own, leaving STARS a three woman unit.

Hazuki recently spoke with Tokyo Sports and revealed that the decision for her and Koguma to end their time with STARS was made when Iwatani decided to leave STARDOM. Iwatani had formed STARS back in 2018 and was the leader of the unit up until her departure from STARDOM on April 28th.

From Hazuki:

“I always watched Mayu-san’s defenses from ringside, and I could feel the passion she had for the IWGP Women’s Championship, so I wasn’t surprised about her leaving. But now that our leader is gone, I don’t think there was any need for us to stay in STARS. Also, I started to want to see the outside world more and more.”

Hazuki admitted that she began thinking about leaving STARS for a while prior to May 11th before making the final decision:

“I started thinking about it after the conflict (with Hanan) happened. At the signing ceremony (before the Goddess Championship match), we said that we would confront each other with our feelings in the match. The fans may have thought, ‘They’re pro wrestlers, so if they confront each other in the match, things will work out.’ But I’m human too. Mayu-san set up a place for us to talk, but in the end, our views were so different that I couldn’t bring myself to face them in the match.”

In terms of FWC, Hazuki hopes that she and Koguma can compete all over the world and wear belts from various promotions:

“I want to raise the value of FWC all over the world, and women’s tag teams don’t get as much attention as men’s. That’s why I want to wear the belts of various promotions and become the first women’s team to win the Best Tag Team Award at the Tokyo Sports Pro Wrestling Awards and make it exciting.”

While it may have been sad from a fans viewpoint that Hazuki & Koguma are no longer part of STARS, one can feel that great things lie ahead for FWC.

(H/T goes to meraWRESTLING for all the above English quote translations)