Dream Star Fighting Marigold
After getting released from STARDOM, Rossy Ogawa announced his new promotion, ‘DREAM STAR FIGHTING Marigold,’ or ‘Marigold’ for short. The roster includes Giulia, Utami Hayashishita, Mai Sakurai, MIRAI, and Victoria Yuzuki (FKA Yuzuki) who all left STARDOM on March 31st, as well as Nao Ishikawa, Nanae Takahashi, and 6 former AWG talents.
The debut show occurred on May 20th as Marigold held ‘Marigold Fields Forever’ in front of a sold-out Korakuen Hall crowd that was aired live on Wrestle Universe. Marigold announced an attendance of 1.539 fans, which is the highest attendance of a Joshi Promotion at Korakuen since January 2020 when STARDOM drew 1.602 at their 9th Anniversary show. The show was a big success not only in the box office but also the show itself was great.
Marigold kicked off its first event with a lights show in a packed Korakuen Hall as all the wrestlers entered through the crowd. It was a tremendous way to introduce the roster & the promotion with the Wrestle Universe production doing a fantastic job throughout the whole night. It elevated the enjoyment of the show drastically and made everything feel & look big.
The first match in the history of Marigold was a “Passion Injection” match as Nanae Takahashi faced Victoria Yuzuki to open the show. Nanae was part of the first match in Stardom as she teamed together with Iris to face Natsuki Taiyo & Yuzuki Aikawa in a special tag team match. 13 years later, she opened once again a first-ever show of a Rossy Ogawa promotion as she faced another Yuzuki, but this time Victoria Yuzuki.
The match took place because Victoria Yuzuki called out Nanae at a press conference. In an interview with WrestlePurists, Yuzuki said the following about why she wants to fight Nanae:
“I have been watching the Passion Injection matches since STARDOM, and I knew I would eventually do it. I was looking forward to it and happy to be able to start working with Nanae-san at Marigold, even though we didn’t cross paths at Stardom. Then, at the press conference, Nanae-san said that she was going to retire soon! So I asked her to fight me!
Passion, always passion! Passion! You keep saying it, but I’m going to inject some passion into you, Nanae Takahashi!”
-Victoria Yuzuki
Yuzuki made the first entrance of the show as she debuted a new theme music and a Marigold-colored gear. It was an amazing struggle with Nanae just beating the crap out of her. The ‘Bridge to the Future’ performed well and showed great fire as she wanted to prove that she will be the Ace of Marigold in the future. She stepped up to this and gave it her all, but it wasn’t enough to defeat the veteran yet as Nanae was just a level above her. Overall, it was a good first match and a great outing for Yuzuki, who had the best performance of her career here.
Miku Aono defeated Nao Ishikawa in the second match of the night in a fun outing. Aono, who was the ace in AWG, teamed together with Ishikawa in Ice Ribbon during the pandemic, so it made sense for the two to face off here. It was a fun outing for both, as Ishikawa showed a new side of herself and hit good kicks. Aono won the match after around 9 minutes with her own version of the Styles Clash to gain momentum for the upcoming shows.
MIRAI faced CHIAKI in the third match and this was just a nice little outing to not only introduce CHIAKI but also the new MIRAI, who was the most over wrestler on this show as the fans cheered loudly for her and threw a ton of streamers in the ring. She debuted a couple of cool moves and won the match with a Lariat to defeat CHIAKI, who also killed it in this match.
Next up was likely the worst match on the show as Nagisa Nozaki & Myla Grace faced Zayda Steel & Mai Sakurai. Zayda & Myla did fine in their Japan debuts. They will need time to figure it out, and with the help of the Marigold roster, they can do it. There were a handful of miscommunication spots in this match as Grace & Steel weren’t able to click with each other. The match went to a 15-minute time limit draw.
In a match between four former AWG wrestlers, Chika Goto & Kouki Amarei faced Misa Matsui & Natsumi Showzuki in the semi-main event of the show. It was a good spotlight match for the four as they knew each other well & wrestled against each other a handful of times during their time in AWG. The standout was Showzuki, who showed that she’s a killer with her experience, while Matsui showed her potential. Goto & Kouki picked up the win as Marigold is seemingly high on Amarei and will put her in focus in the upcoming months.
The main event between Utami Hayashishita & Giulia against Sareee & Bozilla was a godly spectacle. Bozilla, who only has around 20 matches in her entire career, stepped up and was amazing in her first match in Japan next to three of the best wrestlers in the entire world. She made Utami bump for her life at points, which was ridiculous and incredible to watch. Giulia & Sareee went at each other whenever they interacted and brought violence to the match.
It was built up as a typical epic Joshi tag team match, but with the crowd atmosphere and the quality, it didn’t feel long at all and was another fantastic edition to the genre in 2024. After 28 minutes, Sareee was able to pin Giulia with a Uranage in an amazing match that is the must-watch match from this show.
Post-match, Giulia challenged Sareee to a singles match and Sareee accepted the challenge, confirming their first one-on-one encounter in five years. After the challenge, a confrontation developed between the four wrestlers for the Marigold World Title (Red Belt) and the Marigold United National Title (White Belt), who were brought into the ring. Bozilla grabbed the Red Belt while Hayashishita tried to take it from her. At the same time, Sareee grabbed the White Belt and stared at Giulia. Before she left the arena, Bozilla was celebrated by the fans as loud “Bozilla” chants were hearable.
At the end of the show, a video was played, showing the blooming of several marigolds as the company announced ‘Marigold Summer Destiny 2024’ for July 13th, 2024 in the legendary Sumo Hall, with Giulia vs. Sareee being the first official match on the show. Rossy Ogawa confirmed backstage that the two inaugural title matches will be on the Sumo Hall Show. Sareee said backstage that she’s aiming for the United National Championship (White Belt) since Inoki held the original NWA United National title and brought it over to Japan.
Overall, the show was a huge success as Marigold officially is here to stay and take over the Japanese wrestling scene!
STARDOM
STARDOM presented Flashing Champions on May 18th in Yokohama Budokan. It’s the first major PPV after All Star Grand Queendom and was the next big test for STARDOM under Taro Okada, who has been struggling lately as the head of creative, which was not only seen in the build-up to this show but also by the match announcements. The nine-match card featured a good mix of special tag matches and multiple championship bouts, with Ami Sohrei & Saori Anou main eventing the show with the Wonder of Stardom Championship on the line.
Overall, the show drew a disappointing number of 927 fans in Yokohama Budokan, which is down 600 from the opening night of this year’s Cinderella Tournament in the same venue. The quality was still what fans can expect from a B PPV of STARDOM.
The highlight of the undercard was the opening match between Crazy Star & Mutual Love. Poi & SLK only have teamed up once in a straight-up tag team match, where they defeated the 02Line at All Together Again. They have shown that they have good chemistry as a duo and have begun introducing some tag team moves already, and it continued here. The match was great as four of the best just went out there and had great sequences for 15 minutes straight as the match went to a time limit draw.
As part of her retirement tour, Arisa Nakajima stopped by in STARDOM to team together with Tsukasa Fujimoto against Hanan & Mayu Iwatani in a special tag team match. This match was set up after Tsukasa Fujimoto, who is the Ace of Ice Ribbon, appeared after Iwatani’s match against Sareee and challenged her to a tag team match, and it certainly delivered on expectations. The Best Friends beat the hell out of Eye Contact for the majority of the match with Iwatani & Hanan trying to fight back, but Arisa & Tsukasa didn’t give them the opening that they needed and defeated them after Tsukasa pinned Hanan. Post-match, Mayu Iwatani challenged Tsukasa Fujimoto for the IWGP Women’s Championship, and Fujimoto accepted the challenge. It’s a Joshi Dream Match that will happen with the IWGP Title on the line.
Tam Nakano challenged Willow Nightingale for the TBS Championship. Willow is the first AEW wrestler to wrestle in Japan for STARDOM outside of Megan Bayne since Riho in 2020, and this is another step into a deeper AEW-STARDOM partnership. Both had good chemistry in the match and while it took a bit to get into the next gear, the final few minutes were really enjoyable. Nightingale picked up the win after 17 minutes to retain her championship for the second time.
In the main event of the show, Saori Anou defeated Ami Sohrei to retain her Wonder of Stardom Championship for a third time. This was a career highlight for Sohrei as this match over-delivered and was much better than anyone could have expected it to be, especially due to a fantastic Ami Sohrei performance. She was great in the build-up as she’s been playing the disrupter in the Anou-Natsupoi story and continued that in the biggest match of her career. The final five minutes were incredible as Sohrei & Anou gave it all. Incredible match to close a really good STARDOM show.
