Marigold
Marigold’s first-ever round-robin tournament, the Dream Star Grand Prix, kicked off on August 31st in Osaka. It’s set to last for a month and will end on September 28th in Nagoya. The first-ever line-up features 16 of the best female wrestlers on Marigold’s roster facing each other in a two-block system. In the tournament, there are many first-time-ever singles matches and some that fans haven’t seen in a long time.
It’s a major test for many wrestlers who are getting their first shot at competing in a round-robin tournament. With Rossy Ogawa’s tournament booking set to come into full effect, many interesting results could happen in the Dream Star that will shape the next couple of months in Marigold. It’s yet to be said what the winner of the Grand Prix will get, but, realistically, they could get a title shot of their choosing whenever they want – likely on January 3rd, 2025, at Ota Ward.
This past week featured three shows, including a show in Sendai, a show in Morioka, and the last show in Korakuen Hall before the tournament’s final night in Nagoya which features not only the tournament final but also the last block matches of the Dream and Star League.
The biggest shock was the elimination of MIRAI after two major losses, first against Kouki Amarei in the main event of the Sendai PIT show and secondly Natsumi Showzuki at Korakuen Hall. Both matches were fun as the Kouki match had a simple layout pitting MIRAI’s chops against Kouki’s big boot, and the Showzuki match was set to the speed of the Superfly Champion, leading to Showzuki getting the surprise roll-up on her opponent. While MIRAI’s chances to win ended here, her run in the Dream Star was great, and she ranks high as one of the MVP candidates alongside Takahashi and Sareee.
The Korakuen Hall show featured not only the best match of the tournament so far, but perhaps the best match across any tournament in wrestling this year, as Nanae Takahashi and Sareee fought to a 15-minute time limit draw. The story of the Star League was about who could stop Sareee, and while Aono was able to force a draw, she wasn’t close to beating Sareee and got dominated just like every other wrestler Sareee faced in this tournament so far, until Takahashi came along. No one was a tougher task in the Dream Star so far for Sareee than Nanae, and this match showed why. In their first real singles match in nearly a decade, Sareee struggled from the very beginning against the veteran and found herself in the rare position of being the one fighting back instead of being the one dominating the match. The intensity and hatred right from the bell is amazing, and Nanae’s leg work, which played into the later stages of the match, was tremendous
The final fast minutes were out of this world and showed exactly why they are two of the best wrestlers in the world right now. It was an incredible moment when the crowd was chanting for Nanae as Sareee was fighting to escape the figure four. It was great to show both how much the wrestlers dislike Sareee and also that the fans want the Marigold wrestlers to get the win over the outsider that disrespects them every time she steps into the ring. Unlike the Aono match, here it was Takahashi, who got the visual pinfall over Sareee and would have won the match if it had gone just five seconds longer. A Marigold World Championship match between them will happen sooner rather than later, and it could end up as the best match of the entire year.
Heading into the last show of the tournament, the majority of the line-up has been eliminated with just seven wrestlers combined still having a chance to advance to the final of the first-ever Dream Star Grand Prix. In the Dream League, Utami Hayashishita, Kouki Amarei, and NØRI are the only wrestlers who can still go through, as Nozaki and MIRAI could only force a four-way tie situation that would lead to a four-way playoff situation as they only could reach possible total of 9 Points. The scenarios in this block are easy to break down as Kouki Amarei is through if she beats Utami and NØRI loses to Yuzuki or if she draws with Utami and Nozaki/MIRAI ends with a win. NØRI advances if she wins her match against Yuzuki and Hayashishita doesn’t win her match against Kouki, while Utami goes through if she beats Kouki or if her match and the match between Yuzuki and NØRI ends in a draw.
In the Star League, it’s a bit more complicated as Sareee, Bozilla, Nanae Takahashi, and Mai Sakurai all still have a chance to go through. Sareee has the easiest path to the final, who needs to win her match. Nanae Takahashi must hope that Sareee loses to Bozilla while she beats Miku Aono in their match. Mai Sakurai must win her match, while Bozilla beats Sareee and Miku Aono steals at least one point from Takahashi. Bozilla has it the toughest as she needs to beat the undefeated Sareee and hope that both Sakurai and Takahashi lose their respective matches.
Official Dream Star Grand Prix Standings after Night 7:
Dream League –
8 – Utami Hayashishita (4-2-0)
8 – Kouki Amarei (4-2-0)
8 – NØRI (3-1-2)
7 – MIRAI (3-2-1)
7 – Nagisa Nozaki (3-2-1)
5 – Natsumi Showzuki (2-3-1)
3 – Victoria Yuzuki (1-4-1)
0 – Chika Goto (1-5-0)
Star League-
10 – Sareee (4-0-2)
9 – Mai Sakurai (4-1-1)
9 – Nanae Takahashi (4-1-1)
8 – Bozilla (3-2-0)
8 – Miku Aono (3-1-2)
2 – CHIAKI (1-5-0)
2 – Misa Matsui (1-5-0)
0 – Kizuna Tanaka (0-6-0)
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling
TJPW presented Wrestle Princess 5 in the Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall #6 in front of 756 fans, which is down from 868 last year and 1,007 in 2022. Another disappointing number for a major event of TJPW after Summer Sun Princess drew 873 fans, which was down from over 1,200 fans in Ota Ward last year. While the new generation has worked on screen, the numbers speak for themselves as they show that it will take a longer time than expected for Miu Watanabe to have the star power the older generation had. It shows the consequences thr mistakes made years prior, where they chose to wait another two years to go with Watanabe and didn’t establish her earlier so she got thrown into the deep end when it was time for her major push and this is the result. The logical consequence is to continue pushing her until it works out because it takes time to create a star, and that is what TJPW needs to do here.
Emi Sakura picked up the win over Shoko Nakajima in a special singles match that was the first really good match on the show. It had fun action with a great finishing stretch, where the strengths of Nakajima shined. The final 3 minutes were just tremendous pro wrestling with counter after counter in front of a crowd that woke up for them. Great match with a great finish as Emi busted out the Queen’s Gambit to pick up the win.
Miyu Yamashita & Maki Itoh won the Princess Tag Team Championships from Daisy Monkey when Yamashita pinned Arisu Endo after the Crash Rabbit Heat. One of the best matches in TJPW this year with a tremendous Miyu Yamashita performance in the veteran role. Her interactions with Suzume & Endo were by far the highlight of this match as she got the best out of Daisy Monkey. The struggle of Endo and Suzume to get the ace down was fantastic to watch, and it created a great atmosphere. The final minutes with Endo trying somehow to get the upset over Yamashita were amazing to watch and was truly thrilling.
The result was the definition of ‘the wrong team won’ as this was Daisy Monkey’s match to win to solidify them as the top team in TJPW. It’s a returning problem with TJPW that whenever it feels like talent is making the next step, one of the pillars gets booked to slow them down, and this was the perfect example of it. While it was a fun tag title run, the reign of Daisy Monkey wasn’t booked to its full potential as it didn’t feel that they gained as much as fans would have hoped coming out of it. Once they had their first tough challenge, they lost. Any time the younger generation gets put in an important match with the older generation, they rarely have any chance to win it with only Miu Watanabe escaping that in recent years. The tag titles won’t get defended regularly since Itoh is often in America, while the tag division is left reeling, with only three active teams left (121000000, Daisy Monkey, and Toyo Mates) that aren’t either busy with another championship or out injured.
Miu Watanabe retained the Princess of Princess Championship against Ryo Mizunami after Three Tear Drops in the show’s main event. It was an exciting match with a simple layout as Watanabe worked from underneath trying to overcome the veteran. Unlike in their first match, Miu was able to use her power to near full effect from the first moment and didn’t struggle at all with her power moves. The finishing sequence was with Miu throwing everything at ‘Aniki’ that she could as it needed two Tear Drops, a Double Sledge to the back of the head, the Laserbeam chop, and then a third Tear Drop to put Mizunami away. This match showed the growth of Watanabe their first encounter, as she went from having no chance against ‘Aniki’ to beating her by going all out.
It was a great fourth defence for Watanabe, who is heading out of Wrestle Princess with a lot of momentum, breaking the cycle of two consecutive title changes at this show after winning the belt at Grand Princess. Lot of respect for Ryo Mizunami as well. She came in as a replacement to face Watanabe around two years ago at Summer Sun Princess and has had great matches with most of the young girls before putting over Miu in a big title match here. She didn’t need to do that and could have just done her regular work, but she decided to do it and it helped the promotion as it gained a reliable veteran who has elevated everyone she worked with.
