Giulia Set To Leave STARDOM at the End of March

The current NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion looks to leave STARDOM by the end of next month

By: James Carlin

It was at the end of STARDOM’s 13th Anniversary show, Supreme Fight 2024, that the announcement was made of Rossy Ogawa’s dismissal from the company that he founded alongside Fuka Kakimoto and Nanae Takahashi. It shocked the wrestling world, and even moreso the revelation that he had planned to start another wrestling company following reported unhappiness with Bushiroad Fight’s involvement in his work as executive producer.

Now, it seems that Ogawa’s new company may have its first confirmed name in Giulia as the Dangerous Queen is set to leave STARDOM at the end of March according to Tokyo Sports.

In November last year, Giulia spoke out about how “the place that Rossy Ogawa has built is being destroyed” and that she was frustrated at management herself, saying that she “just wanted to have a normal match”. An investigation into Bushiroad Fight was made, which led to the resignation of President Harada; replaced by current President Taro Okada, who has assumed executive producer duties since Ogawa left.

While there are still no concrete names given for who could leave STARDOM for Ogawa’s new organization, Giulia looks to be a probable candidate. Her recent No DQ match for the NJPW STRONG Women’s Title against Natsuko Tora ended in a sign of respect between the champion and Oedo-Tai’s leader, and Giulia’s unit Donna del Mondo was dissolved after it had “fulfilled its purpose”, according to its leader.

Another one of the likely places for her to land is WWE. During her reign as STRONG Women’s Champion, she has defended her title multiple times outside of Japan against the likes of Trish Adora and Hyan, as well as in a four-way match against Momo Kohgo, Deonna Purrazzo and Gisele Shaw at Multiverse United, promoted by IMPACT Wrestling and New Japan.

Last November, Paul Levesque (Chief Content Officer of WWE) was asked about Giulia, who said: “The funny thing is, I didn’t even know there was a term ‘joshi’. If somebody’s talented and we think that they can hang on the biggest stage in the world, we want them to come here and see if they believe in themselves as much as we do”. In the past, WWE has hired both Io Shirai and Kairi Hojo from STARDOM, with Hojo leaving in 2017 and Shirai the year after.

Giulia is a former Wonder of Stardom champion, two-time Artist of Stardom champion, and a former Goddess of Stardom champion. She still currently reigns as the NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion. She won the 2022 edition of STARDOM’s round robin tournament, the 5★STAR GP,  which allowed her to challenge (and defeat) Syuri for the World of Stardom championship at that year’s Dream Queendom event. In 2020, she won the Cinderella Tournament that gave her entry into a Wonder of Stardom championship tournament, successfully defeating Tam Nakano in the finals to win the belt that was vacated by Arisa Hoshiki in May of that year, who Giulia was originally supposed to challenge.

The future looks to be exciting for the world of joshi puroresu as the world wonder ring continues forth without any of its original founders, and a Cinderella Tournament that is set to highlight the new and younger talent that are prepared to make the jump forward when and if any of STARDOM’s top stars leave to follow Ogawa to his new organization.

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