Dream Star Fighting Marigold: Marigold Fields Forever May 20th 2024

Welcome back to some more reviews and today I am tackling the debut show of the brand new joshi promotion Dream Star Fighting Marigold, which thankfully is just going to be called Marigold from here on out. If you don’t know, Marigold is founded by Stardom’s (and Hyper Visual Fighting Arsion) former owner and founder, Rossy Ogawa. He got fired/quit and recruited/was recruited by (it’s spicy and it’s all hot messy drama right now about what actually happened) some wrestlers to found a new promotion. They’re attached to CyberFight which is the parent company of NOAH, DDT, and TJPW and are now streaming on Wrestle Universe. Anyway, this is the debut show in a sold out Korakuen Hall and let’s get to the action.

We start with a big roll call of the entire roster and they’re wearing Marigold t-shirts. The production is pretty sick as we get a light show and some smoke machine action to bring ‘em all out. Utami says a few words in Japanese and we have Stu Fulton on commentary and translation duties for us. Well anyway that’s the intro and now onto the matches.

Starting Over Passion Injection 2024 – Nanae Takahashi vs. Victoria Yuzuki

Background: Nanae is a veteran wrestler and one of the co-founders of Stardom. She’s been around since the All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling/Zenjo days and well, she has a rep for representing a lot of the bad parts of the hierarchical and brutal seniority system of joshi wrestling. Anyway, she’s got a big thing where she wrestles rookies, beats them up, and tests their passion for pro wrestling. Victoria was a star rookie for Stardom before taking the leap and joining Marigold. So you have the old crusty vet versus the spunky rookie. Yuzuki is dressed in yellow gear and has some bedazzling happening with silver and bronze, c’mon lady, gotta go for gold on the gear. Anyway, she has long blonde hair. Nanae is decently tall and solidly built with short hair, she’s wearing the regular color explosion graffiti jumpsuit gear and has a pretty incredible white leather jacket that has fur fringe and a nice airbrushed logo on the back. She has short hair and it’s two-toned with a red streak across her bangs.

The Match: Lockup that is easily won by Nanae and a clean if dismissive break. Funnily enough commentary is not at all shy about talking about these wrestlers’ history in Stardom. Yuzuki kind of wins the second lockup and slaps Nanae out of the break which fires up the vet beats her down with pretty dismissive stuff, dodging dropkicks and just stomping and slapping her. Yuzuki does some athletic stuff to hold her own. Next up is the test of strength that’s easily won by Nanae and then they trade some wristlocks and headlocks. Nanae breaks the opening match stuff with a sidewalk slam and a scoop slam. More walking and stomping from Takahashi until Yuzuki gets the back and goes for a sleeper. Nanae quickly reverses that and then gets a single-leg crab. Yuzuki reaches the ropes and Nanae keeps the hold on, drawing boos from the fans and now Nanae chops away while jawing with the crowd. Yuzuki goes for a comeback that is cut off and they get into a pretty weak slugfest. Yuzuki finally gets the wrist-clutch springboard setup…but slips off the ropes and eats it on the mat, luckily Nanae sells it like she countered Yuzuki and drops a leg, good recovery from the vet. Takahashi crossfaces the rookie and calls a spot. They fight over a body slam and Yuzuki finally gets Nanae up for it and the crowd pops big of course. They do some ground and pound reversals as commentary is putting over Yuzuki’s judo background. Victoria gets a few dropkicks as she fires up. Nanae finally has enough and just clubs Victoria down. The rookie stands up and slaps wildly at the vet, and then Victoria ducks a jumping Nanae kick to get some kicks of her own before a small package gets 2.9 for Yuzuki. Backdrop driver from Nanae gets 2.9 and then Takahashi goes up and the Refrigerator Bomb (diving splash) gets the win.

**

Eh, it was a good story and the two of them definitely played very iconic roles in the match, but neither really gave much flavor to the match beside “vet beats up overmatched rookie.” I still don’t see much in Yuzuki as this future ace but I’m a sucker for this style of match.

Post-match Yuzuki slaps Nanae again and gets stomped out.

A vs I Ideological Showdown – Miku Aono vs. Nao Ishikawa

Background: So from the match tagline, I assume they are indeed battling about letters. Both are new to me as wrestlers but I’ll try to figure this out. Nao seems to be an ex-Ice Ribbon wrestler who then worked with Prominence. She’s got mid-length hair with flowers in it and a multi-colored robe with yellow, peach, saffron, and orange areas. Ishikawa’s ring gear keeps with that theme and is white and orange with a half-skirt deal. Speaking of orange, Nao ordered the extra crispy at the tanning salon. Miku was one of the wrestlers poached from AWG and I think was an upper-card talent for them. Miku has longer hair than Nao and a pretty cool entrance robe. It’s a deep scarlet and has a black and red feather fringe on it. Aono’s gear is red and white and has a lace thing around her shorts.

The Match: So commentary explains that A vs. I isn’t just about letters. Nao was an original Marigold member but Miku showed up with the AWG wrestlers so I guess it’s an invasion-ish deal cause Nao feels resentful that Miku is getting more focus and buzz than she is. Okay then. International to start but Nao gets grimy and pulls some hair and facewashes Nao in the corner. Miku’s had enough however gets some big dropkicks on Nao before Ishikawa gets her own kicks. More kicks from Aono sets up a kneecrusher. Nao responds with a dragonscrew and none of this has any flow so far. Nao gets a bad-looking ankle lock and then a bad looking double-arm suplex. Miku comes back with a spinning scoop slam to set up a missile dropkick. Nao gets the slap of defiance and they might be overusing that spot this card. Nao gets a German and then a fireman’s carry spinebomb. Nao sets up a bridging wheelbarrow dragon suplex and completely botches it, good lord. Miku gets a few clotheslines but Nao gets a rollup out of a kick attempt, but the second kick from Miku sets up a Styles Clash for 3.

*½

Well Nao seems terrible, like…she can’t be trusted to do moves in the ring, terrible. Nobody really sold anything worth a damn either. Miku seems a bit generic in terms of how she works but she has some charisma/presence and I don’t want to blame her when Ishikawa seems that bad in the ring. Not good.

The Power Contest – MIRAI vs. CHIAKI

Background: Well I think this match tagline explains itself. CHIAKI has short hair with some blonde tips on it and is wearing a pretty badass coat with metal plates, fur, and chains hanging off of it, notably and shockingly for a Japanese wrestler, she openly has a wolf tattoo on her forearm. She’s from AWG as well and is The Dark Wolf of the Ring according to commentary but beyond that I haven’t seen her before. CHIAKI is searing gray-blue baggy pants that have tons of patches and dangling bits on them and has a top with more of the fur fringe on it and a sort of collage vibe. MIRAI is from STARDOM but was originally in TJPW. She’s a power wrestler but has a very solid foundation of technical skill as well and has a boatload of slick counters and reversals. She’s wearing a blue coat to the ring with some white flame patterns on it. She has three-colored hair, with blue in the back, dark orange on the side, and black in front. MIRAI is wearing dark blue gear with the white flame pattern on it as well, and helpfully her name written on her belt so she doesn’t forget. MIRAI is still taped up on her shoulder.

The Match: Shoulderblock goes nowhere to start as they trade forearms next. CHIAKI catches MIRAI with a spear off of an irish whip however and MIRAI fires back with a high elbow and then a low-bridge to get CHIAKI outside but doesn’t get anywhere as she grandstands and showboats and CHIAKI comes back in with an Iron Claw?! CHIAKI gets some facewashes and a handspring knee drop and uh, I dunno if this is a Power Contest so far. More non-power stuff happens as MIRAI responds with a jumping kick that is apparently called the MIRAIDER Kick, okay, I laughed. MIRAI uses more speed to take over and I feel a bit betrayed by the Power Contest name. CHIAKI has enough of this and goes back to the slugfest and they trade chops. Much better. And then when it’s CHIAKI’s turn to chop she uppercuts instead and then shoulderblocks. Ha! A headbutt from CHIAKI then sets up a slipping spear to cut MIRAI in half. Rolling Fisherman Suplexes by CHIAKI are awkwardly broken up by MIRAI’s jumping reverse STO. Looks like CHIAKI just didn’t know what was going to happen and took a weird bump. CHIAKI blocks a lariat and gets the third Fisherman’s to set up a pretty nice Argentine Backbreaker Facebuster for 2.9. CHIAKI loads up something but MIRAI reverses that into her can opener submission. Ropebreak from CHIAKI but MIRAI gets a backdrop driver and a lariat to set up a snap Death Valley Driver and CHIAKI’s head take a scary bump there. One last lariat finishes it for MIRAI.

**½

Definitely some miscommunication but a solid match. CHIAKI is green but she has something and MIRAI is a very good worker as well. Still, not as much of a Power Contest as I’d have hoped for.

Post-match, MIRAI gets a giant bag of caramel corn from some middle-aged suit. MIRAI and CHIAKI hug as well and CHIAKI eats some caramel corn.

World Beauty Showdown – Mai Sakurai & Zayda Steel vs. Myla Grace & Nagisa Nozaki

Background: Nagisa is somebody I recognize from NOAH’s shows, she’s wearing purple and green camo gear and has a few braids in her hair. Myla is Irish, worked NXT UK and has long poofy pigtails that stick out of her bucket hat.. She’s wearing a lot of pink, purple, and fishnets and seems to have some sort of chipper, upbeat gimmick. Mai Sakurai is one of the wrestlers that jumped from Stardom, she was a late starter as a wrestler but has a gimmick where she talks like a feudal aristocrat and calls people commoners and peasants. She’s coming out to the ring with a big shiny robe robe and has some sort of cat gimmick with her. As ring-gear Mai is wearing a knockoff Gucci print with pink fur accents. Zayda is wearing pretty plain black and white gear with Zayda written on the chest and is wearing sunglasses and is doing flouncy “I’m bad” mean girl mannerisms during the entrance. Commentary is telling us that Zayda and Mai went to boarding schools together since they come from rich families so I think we have our heels.

The Match: Mai talks some trash before the bell but it’s Zayda and Myla to start. Steel calls Grace short and we get some wristlock stuff won by Myla as the Irish woman is portrayed as the better technician to start. Heels fail a double-team and a sloppy flying headscissors almost ends with Myla landing on her own head. Yeowch. Nagisa is in as Mai tries to pose and gets clobbered with a curb stomp (the Indian Deathlock into a stomp version, not Marufuji’s move). Nagisa works over Mai who flops around and pantomimes and generally plays the foolish heel role. Sakurai’s only offense are some forearms that don’t go anywhere and Myla tags in to keep the beating going with a swinging neckbreaker but Mai gets a ‘jumping’ kick and then the Paradise Lock and tags in Zayda to talk copious trash…while Grace just breaks the hold and rolls her up for 2. Ha! Steel gets some chops in the ropes on Myla though and a Codebreaker. Myla does some weird flippy stuff that ends with a splits legdrop and everybody is just stutter-stepping around. Grace gets a 619 and a tornado DDT to bring in Nagisa. Nozaki and Steel battle it out and end up on the apron until Steel wins and gets a weak tope on Nagisa. Heels get something like a heat segment on Nagisa with basic stuff, but Mai gets a standing leg choke that’s pretty cool at least. Mai’s taunting fires Nagisa back up who just demolishes Mai some more. Sakurai finally gets something with the standing legdrop into a suplex and a gourdbuster but Sakurai misses the diving elbow and Nagisa keeps kicking her face off and we get a time limit draw.

*

Well, Mai is bad at offense and can’t really base but she’s a fun character and a good seller. Zayda is painfully generic and Myla can’t do all the moves she tries to do. Nagisa is fine but not much more than that. No reason to do a draw here but I guess the match was so unimportant that you might as well.

Post-match Mai cuts a promo and she’s clearly a confident and talented speaker. She puts over the show and the wrestlers

Actress New Time – Misa Matsui & Natsumi Showzuki vs. Chika Goto & Kouki Amarei

Background: So these are all Actwres girl’Z (AWG) wrestlers that jumped to Marigold and I guess are trying to establish themselves before a new audience. Kouki and Chika are out first. Chika has pretty generic bright sparkly white gear and a cutoff jean jacket as her entrance attire. She’s smiling, has black hair in a ponytail and is quite tall. Kouki has dirty blonde hair and is wearing a big frilly purple deal. She’s tall too and is the Amethyst Butterfly so well, I get the purple. Misa is also wearing a frilly deal but turquoise colored to at least give us something distinctive for gear. Matsui is the Speed Star according to commentary. She has short hair with some blonde highlights. Showzuki apparently used to team with Kairi 15 years ago and is wearing red and gold gear with an embroidered black and gold jacket over it that is very nice. Natsumi has dark red hair. I literally know nothing about any of these wrestlers at all beyond that.

The Match: Kouki and Misa start and Kouki does the “you’re too short” test of strength start. Both girls work quick to start which uh, doesn’t quite follow with the “you’re too short” thing to start. We get Chika and Showzuki in next to trade strikes until Natsumi takes her down with an armbar. Misa tags in to keep with the arm stuff. Back with Natsumi getting a springboard double knee drop but Chika catches a followup with a giant swing and in comes Kouki who accomplishes nothing for like 30 seconds before getting a Dominator for 2. 180 splash by Kouki misses and we get more Natsumi kicks and a diving double kneedrop to set up the Misa tag. Misa then gets a draping DDT on Kouki to really put over that she’s the Speed Star who wrestles fast and athletically. We get 45 seconds to set up a cazadora by Matsui and then repeated victory roll pins with some light Misa stomps in between them. Cute idea but awful execution. More quick tags and double teams from Misa and Natsumi but Chika finally comes in with a chokeslam and then a fun double team press drop on Misa. We reset to Misa and Kouki trading stuff and Matsui finally gets some speedy stuff going but it’s all breaking down and we end with Kouki trying to hit a double backdrop suplex on the vets but it goes pretty horribly wrong. Samoan Drop from Kouki on Misa and she goes up for the 180 splash for the win.

**½

Well, Kouki is definitely not any good. Natsumi seems to be good, I’m not sold on Misa at all. Chika is green but has promise with her charisma and presence and an idea of how she should wrestle. It was fast-paced but sloppy. I’m not at all a fan of Kouki doing “too small” stuff in the beginning of a match and then doing handsprings and dives as finishes. Pick a lane.

Marigold’s Strongest Tag Team Legend – Giulia & Utami Hayashishita vs Sareee & Bozilla

Background:So the first team is of Stardom ex-pats and it stars somebody we know in Giulia, and if we don’t know her, well she’s slated to show up in NXT very soon unless something weird happens like she gets hurt in a match. She’s crazy charismatic, to the point where the pre-match video is even calling her Crazy Charisma Giulia. She’s wearing gold and turquoise gear with a fur jacket on and really long cornrows. Giulia of course remains very, very tan. Utami is another vet, she was a super rookie who basically won everything there is to win in Stardom but for whatever reason she decided to leave and go to Marigold. And considering they’ve named her the Talent of the Century methinks that her loyalty might be rewarded by them. She’s wearing a combination white tuxedo top and robe and is rocking the red rose motif to the hilt. She has short feathered hair and apparently a tongue stud now. Her ring gear is red and white and has a cool asymmetrical styling on it, with an epaulet on her left shoulder, a wrap on her left forearm, and a half-pant leg on her left leg.

The other team is Sareee, we also know her! She’s the Sun Goddess as told to us by the video and she was in NXT for a spell. She’s considered to be one of the best joshi in the world by people who aren’t me, who finds her to be boring as heck but maybe this will change my opinion. She has a red and gold feathery robe with a flame deal and red and gold ring gear and chin-length red hair. Bozilla/Bojira is the daughter of Ulf Herman and she’s The Biggest Kaiju which should be self-explanatory as a nickname. She’s huge, European, and screamy. She’s wearing a black sleeveless robe and pretty basic gear. Blue and white and she really is just…huge. Just a big lady.

Whew, I think that’s everybody. Anyway this is the Strongest Tag Team Legend or whatever and this is clearly going to be about these four ladies establishing themselves as top dogs in the company.

The Match: Giulia and Sareee start the match and it’s certainly weird to hear commentary openly talk about how long Giulia is going to be in the company and her future in NXT. Commentary also puts over Sareee as an outsider who is resentful of the ‘soft’ attitude of Marigold and wants to ruin Giulia’s debut in the company as the golden child of Rossy. Anyway enough chit-chat about that stuff and let’s get to the wrestling. Lockup to start and they get tangled in the ropes where Sareee throws a cheap shot, both ladies throw strikes which are dodged until Giulia grabs a boot and gently puts it down before they both tag out. Lockup and Bozilla just tosses Utami around until Giulia distracts Bozilla to land a dropkick. The Marigold natives fail to whip the German but a flurry of kicks take the giant down…for a second. Bozilla’s fireman’s carry is countered for a second but the European catches Utami as well and just tosses them both around. Boz follows up by press slamming Saree onto Utami and Giulia on the outside and then we get folks being whipped through the chairs and I can see Giulia clutching her wrist, ah it’s probably nothing. As Sareee and Utami brawl outside Boz gets a delayed brainbuster on Giulia and then Sareee comes in to keep the pain going with a Muta Lock. Rope break and Giulia gets space with a snap suplex.

Utami comes in and we get some of her smooth stuff and she foils the Saree and Boz double-team with a low-bridge and some sidesteps. Sareee tries to get it going with forearms but they don’t go anywhere on Utami. A cazadora into a double stomp lets Boz come in to wallop Hayashishita with a corner avalanche and a huge elbow drop. Utami tries to match power with power but it gets nowhere and she pinballs for the German for a while with small comebacks to keep the crowd in it. Massive superplex from Boz and a crazy shoulderblock gets 2.9 on Utami and the crowd is rabid for Hayashishita. Utami finally gets a sleeper but can’t lock it in and Boz gets a massive senton to keep the heat. Vader Bomb from Boz and Giulia breaks it up. This lets Utami get a German suplex and in comes Giulia and Sareee for a slugfest. Sareee gets a dropkick and then her low dropkick in the ropes. Giulia responds with her Stealth Viper submission and they call spots on the mat. Giulia’s cradle Northern Light’s Suplex lets her go up but Bozilla cuts that off and Sareee pops up with a headbutt and then a super fisherman’s buster. Sareee goes up and GIulia gets the super double-arm suplex. Giulia rests on the mat and shakes off her right hand and grips it with her left in what is not foreshadowing. Utami comes in and we get a slick double-team combo of a missile dropkick from GIulia while Utami drops Sareee with her Rack Samoan Drop. Giulia tries to lock in her Bianca armbar but Boz breaks it up with a powerbomb. Diving double stomp from Sareee that Utami breaks up. Boz and Sareee set up a double team where the German does a senton bomb off the top rope but Giulia rolls out and Utami gets some Germans on Sareee.

We reset with Sareee and Giulia slugging it out again on their knees as they slowly rise. Giulia just clocks Sareee with elbows and is notably wincing after each one. Headbutts to follow it up by Crazy Charisma but Sareee’s enzuigiri gives her space. Both trade suplexes and 1-count kickouts. Giulia’s Glorious Driver is broken up by Boz but the followup Northern Light’s Bomb is broken up and everybody is taking out everybody. Guilia and Utami fail at the double whip on Boz and Sareee’s backdrop driver needs an Utami breakup to save Giulia. Sareee drops Giulia on her head three times with uranages but the Italian gets a weak kickout. Boz gets a bad moonsault and another sloppy uranage from Sareee pins Giulia.

****

Well that ending mostly sucked but the match was still cracking with a ton of crowd heat. Obviously this was to set up a match for Sareee and Giulia 1v1 later on and put some monster heat on Boz but Giulia did break her wrist pretty early in the match and will be out for probably 2 months. Anyway, this match has done nothing to change my mind on Sareee but a motivated Giulia is still top-tier, Bozilla seems to have a ton of potential, and Utami is massively underrated and is probably going to be the workrate god in Marigold. Also appreciated how they had a time limit draw earlier in the show to tell people that yes, those can happen here and they teased it in a match with four people who ‘shouldn’t lose.

Post-match Sareee taunts Giulia, and Giulia requests a rematch to redeem herself and the roster. And then we get a nice video of some flowers blooming I think as a metaphor for life and time and death and the invincible power of womanhood.

Well anyway, that was the inaugural episode of Marigold and while there are some flaws with the promotion as of right now they clearly have a real plan and some real resources for the company. Hopefully the promotion settles into itself and some of these wrestlers can find their footing. Pretty decent debut show with a whatever undercard and a popping main-event.