Once again in the wrestling world it looks like there could be a huge spat of Japanese talent signing with American promotions, which seems to have riled up certain companies a little. But what has caused this? Why do American promotions keep signing these wrestlers? And why do the wrestlers accept these offers?
Across 2023, there’s been a lot of news stories surrounding Japanese promotions, namely New Japan Pro Wrestling and Stardom, both of which are owned by the same parent company, Bushiroad. There’s been rumours and reports surrounding multiple wrestlers, including top names such as Will Ospreay, Giulia, Sareee, Kairi, and more.
All of their futures at point or another were looking uncertain, with their next career moves looking likely to take them to American shores. Will Ospreay has competed at the top level for New Japan Pro Wrestling for many years, while also in 2023 alone working for multiple indie promotions, AEW, Impact Wrestling, and also registering interest in WWE. Interest which was reportedly mutual.
Kairi worked for Stardom years ago, before her first WWE run as Kairi Sane. She left the wrestling side of WWE in 2020, returning to Japan but remaining as an ambassador for the company until 2021, when she left the promotion entirely. She would return to Stardom in 2022, but then returned to WWE again in November 2023 at Crown Jewel.
Sareee, or Sarray as some may know her, made a name for herself in Pro Wrestling Diana, before being signed by WWE in 2020. Following her brief run in NXT, she left WWE in May 2023, reportedly due to creative differences, with her last match coming nearly a year prior in July 2022. After rumours and reports of interest from American promotions, with WWE reportedly interested in reaching out to her to entice her back, Sareee signed with Sukeban, an American joshi promotion in November 2023.
Giulia has been regarded as one of the top names in Stardom for a long time, garnering interest globally, and it was reported in November 2023 by Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that “WWE made [Giulia] an offer and she had not decided what to do.”
Mariah May had been rumoured to be signing with an American promotion for months before her signing with AEW in November 2023, after she’d grown in recognition in Stardom as well.
You may notice that the discussion around all of these names is pointing one way: talent moving out of Japan and into America. This has been the case in the wrestling world for decades. Aside from one name that made headlines: Megan Bayne.
Megan Bayne had started wrestling for Stardom in July 2023, after previously working for AEW from 2021 through early 2023. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reported that Bayne was still under an AEW contract, but had been sent to Stardom to continue working and improving.
But that brought about this since-deleted tweet from Stardom:
“No wrestler has ever been sent by AEW to come to Stardom. Not once.”
Further reports clarified that Stardom was refuti