Monday, March 02, 2015

STARDOM suspends Yoshiko indefinitely

Here's the match video of Yoshiko vs Act Yasukawa from the Feb. 15 STARDOM show. This started as a World of STARDOM Championship match and as you probably already know, Yoshiko's actions turned it into a big scandal. The video includes the pre-match build and STARDOM's press conference the following Wednesday. I didn't see anything in the pre-match build to suggest that Yoshiko was going to do what she did in the match. The press conference scuffles and contract signing disputes are standard. But whispers behind the scenes indicate that Yoshiko may have been concerned about losing her spot as STARDOM's top heel to Yasukawa who is physically more attractive than Yoshiko. Yasukawa was out of action for part of 2014 due to thyroid problems. But she returned in the fall and she wrestled Yoshiko in September with no problems. Yoshiko won the World of STARDOM Championship in August. One would think that after five years in pro wrestling, Yoshiko would be more confident of her position than that. But STARDOM's big flaw is trying to build itself around green wrestlers sprinkled with a few veterans that hopefully will mentor these girls. Kyoko Kimura was mentoring Yasukawa. But after Natsuki*Taiyo retired last June, there was no one to mentor Yoshiko. Things go wrong at the start of the match when Yoshiko breaks Yasukawa's nose with real punches and then takes her down and continues to pound her. There's a lot of blood so I warn you don't watch it if you don't want to see that. This is obviously not in the script. It takes a while but the ref finally pulls Yoshiko off Yasukawa. He should have stopped the match right there because Yasukawa was badly hurt. But he didn't stop it until Kyoko Kimura threw in the towel. The ref didn't do his job. Yasukawa screamed at the top of her lungs while being dragged to the back. Meanwhile, Kimura entered the ring and went after Yoshiko. But she was restrained. Yasukawa has had surgery on her broken nose and will be out indefinitely. The Japanese media went crazy. This kind of thing is very unusual. STARDOM held a press conference the following Wednesday attended by STARDOM owner Hiroshi Ogawa, Yoshiko, storyline GM and ring announcer Fuuka, trainer Nanae Takahashi and Kyoko Kimura. I presume she represented Yasukawa. Yoshiko apologized and then Ogawa announced that she is stripped of the title and suspended indefinitely. I would have fired her because she can't be trusted now and I think it will be very difficult to rehabilitate her. Kimura said Yoshiko's problem is she doesn't know how to separate herself from her character. She hasn't been taught proper professional behaviour. That indicates promotional failure at the training level. So that's the story for now. I would not be surprised if Yoshiko quits the wrestling business and I will have that for you if that happens.
World of Stardom Championship: (Champion... by Mosquitopilate1

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