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>Rossy always -wanted- to be the bookerman. He was actually given a chance to book two shows in 1996, as the Matsunagas were preoccupied with their investments going up in smoke due to the financial crisis. The first one was a gimmicky "Junior All-Star" rookie tournament that drew a solid number at 5000 seat Ota-ku Gymnasium. The second (and last) was a two-day Budokan event that was a humiliating disaster for the company - potentially their biggest money-losing event of all time (I have no information on their financials, but it has to be a contender).
>The biggest issue with Rossy achieving his bookerman dream, however, was the fact that referee Bob Yazawa and PR staffer Masa Matsunaga were the sons of Matsunagas and had been helping with booking finishes for years by this point. As the Matsunagas scaled back their hands-on involvement as the 90s progressed, it became increasingly clear that they were handing the booking/producing/training over to Bob and his crew (cousin Kahoru Kage, Ujie, Ando, Sakazaki, etc) and not Rossy. (This turned out to be the right choice, as Zenjo flourished in 99-01 while Arsion slowly fell apart)
>This is when Rossy started plotting his exodus, and went around covertly poaching talent to jump ship with him. This gained him a lot of enmity in the industry, because at the same time he was doing this, Kyoko Inoue had been doing the same - except she was doing it out in the open, making transfer agreements with the Zenjo office, etc. A lot of people soured on him after this.
