By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Former IWGP Women’s Champion Mayu Iwatani announced that she is leaving Stardom. Her final date with the Japanese promotion was on Sunday, and she announced her decision to leave the promotion at a press conference. Read more about her comments via Walker Stewart’s Twitter page.
Powell’s POV: Iwatani dropped the IWGP Women’s Championship to Syuri on Sunday at the Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom event. It is widely assumed that the 32-year-old intends to sign with WWE or AEW.
I don’t know who is assuming she’s signing with AEW or WWE, but I’d be happy to put a decent amount of money on them being wrong. She’s regularly talked about Rossy being the person who took her in when she moved to Japan, paid for her living expenses and looked after her. She’s signing with Marigold.
Fair enough. I don’t follow the Joshi scene, but what you wrote seems logical. Everything I saw on it this morning included speculation that she was leaving for WWE or AEW. I know Dave Meltzer said he thinks she is WWE bound. It’s certainly possible that the rest of the speculation I read stemmed from Dave’s take.
Dave’s sources in the joshi scene are notoriously dodgy. Much like when he talks about lucha, I’d take everything he says about it with a pinch of salt.
That’s not to say it’s an impossibility she signs elsewhere (there’s every chance she’ll make me look silly), but she consistently talks about how she basically owes her whole life to Rossy. If she appears in WWE, I’d imagine it’s more likely because of their relationship with Marigold rather than her signing with them full-time.
Agreed with Doug, the much wider assumption in the joshi community is she signs with Marigold
Both AEW and WWE overloaded with women anyway to the point they need their own show.
Doug’s right, most of us who follow the scene suspect Marigold. Aside from what Doug wrote, she turned down AEW in the past and has stated multiple times she really doesn’t want to live outside Japan.