Dream Star Fighting Marigold: Grand Opening Wars 2024 Noon Show

Welcome back for some Marigold reviews, and after the tremendous success of their opening show in Korakuen, we’re in the much more humble Shin-Kiba 1st RING which has a whopping 284 people in it. Well, small building, small crowd, let’s hope they bring the energy. Up first we have the afternoon show.

Nao Ishikawa vs. Kouki Amarei

Background: So we saw both of these women before and I was not overly impressed but perhaps it was nerves. Nao remains with the orange/peach/yellow/saffron robe and the flower headband with orange gear that has a little half-skirt thing. Kouki has the white and purple lace entrance robe, she’s tall and has some highlights in her hair and wears various shades of purple gear including these weird half pants/chaps things around the side of her legs. Kouki was apparently pretty well pushed in AWG and is seen as a big prospect. Nao I think is supposed to be an also-ran who is looked over and has a complex about it.

The Match: Both ladies pander to the audience for a bit and then we get a lockup which Kouki wins and gives a clean break on. Nao wins the second lockup and gets a ‘cheap shot’ into a headlock. Kouki does a cartwheel and a kick and then Nao gets a cartwheel and a bad crossbody. And then Nao gets a cheapshot (yay) but then biels Kouki (boo). We get some rope-submission stuff from Nao and Kouki sells and sells and sells. Amarei makes the comeback with a big body slam (on a lady a foot shorter than her) but that doesn’t last long before Nao gains control again and gets an armbar. Kouki with a spinning bodyslam and a falling splash to make the comeback legit this time. And then Kouki botches an over-the-shoulder backbreaker or Nao countered it or Nao is ‘too heavy’ to lift and they fall on their butts. Eesh. They repeat the spot, double eesh, but they don’t mess it up this time and Kouki goes up but gets cut off and gets slammed off the top. Slugfest that Nao wins with a bad codebreaker and then she goes up and crossbodies Kouki, suplex from Nao, really bad cutter from Kouki and then Nao is up first (?!). Anyway Kouki hits some stuff and then hits the 180 splash that is more like a 160 splash cause she lands knee first on Nao’s face.

½*

This was really bad, and as terrifying as it is to say I think that Kouki is somehow worse than Nao. Nao at least has decent instincts and was trying to heel it up and play the bitter jerk. Kouki just has no idea of what she is or what she should do. She’s bumping a ton for her smaller opponent, doing moves to bring her away from physical contact and messing up moves left, right, and center. She’s got a great look but so far she has nothing in the ring that I see that’s worth a push.

Myla Grace vs. Zayda Steel

Background: So these were our resident gaijin and they don’t have much of an indie career to speak of. Zayda is wearing pretty generic black and white gear with Zayda written on it and has long, platinum blonde hair and sunglasses. Very generic heel mannerisms. Myla has a pink and purple aesthetic and pigtails and a pink bedazzled bucket hat and is doing the peppy babyface thing. They have a very similar height and build so no obvious physical components to the match.

The Match: Some shoves and an awkward brawl start the match but eventually they do an international and reset and they both do taunts and Myla lowbridges Zayda to the outside before Steel responds and drops Grace on the apron. They brawl outside of the ring and I do appreciate that they’re heated. I mean, I don’t get why they’re so angry but at least they’re angry! Myla gets a tornado DDT on the mats to win that exchange and goes back in and eats a boot from Zayda and some more stomps as she’s playing heel at least. Some decent heel work from Zayda follows. Myla makes the comeback with the diving seated senton but we get some more trickeration and they just start trading moves, badly. Zayda at least gets exasperated on these kickouts and her selling is pretty decent. Fisherman’s neckbreaker from Myla, cutter from Zayda, backdrop driver from Grace…they do some more pinfall sequences and then Myla lands the Rolling Cutter except instead of her going under her opponent’s body she goes over their body and lands on Zayda’s head in a scary spot.

*½

Rough opening but they settled down and Zayda seems a tolerable heel. Myla definitely tried stuff she couldn’t do however. Steel didn’t try to do much of anything and she botched less. There’s a lesson there I think.

Utami Hayashishita vs. Bozilla vs. Victoria Yuzuki

Background: So we know Utami and she’s doing her job to run a triple threat where she’s managing two greenhorns. Yuzuki has the yellow outfit and the long blonde hair, she’s the star rookie they have and is likely going to get the snot beaten out of her for a while. Bozilla is the gaijin hoss monster and she’s wearing her basic gear again.

The Match: Boz challenges them both to a test of strength and easily wins and she brushes that dirt off her shoulder. Both Japanese women bump like crazy for the Euro and the crowd is 100% behind her. Boz even gets a Three Amigos (Drei Freunde?) on Yuzuki. Victoria goes for the springboard facecrusher but gets swatted out of the air and we get Utami vs. Boz 1v1 to little success. Eventually Yuzuki and Utami toss the Euro off the top rope and we get a nice double-team submission on her. ‘Zilla breaks up their next double-team and is back to some hosseration on the two Japanese ladies. We’re back to just Utami and Bozilla and they slug it out with Hayashishita getting destroyed. Yuzuki interferes again and they manage to get one up on Bozilla for a while. But the Japanese ladies get cut off again with a double chokeslam. Nasty Alabama Slam on Yuzuki and I saw the whiplash on that bump. Yeowch. Boz has Utami dead to rights with a powerslam but picks her up at 2 to obliterate Yuzuki some more and these bumps look baaad. Vader Bomb and the destruction is complete.

**¼

Well, a giant hoss wrecking people and Utami trying to organize a fight back is always gonna be somewhat fun for me. That said, some of the bumps Yuzuki was taking scared me a bit. Bozilla is strong as heck but still green and I’m worried about her hunting somebody since she was already involved in the breaking of Giulia’s wrist. That said, I really wanna see Utami slay the monster. Yuzuki remains an accessory as opposed to a wrestler I care about.

Post-match Bozilla tells Utami that size does in fact matter. Though I don’t know if she’s going to go behind on the bump and grind or make the earth rotate on a 45 degree axis so Utami can feel the big dipper.

Utami also responds and challenges Boz to a singles match and she sounds far more confident on the mic than she ever did in Stardom.

Miku Aono & Natsumi Showzuki vs. CHIAKI & Misa Matsui

Background: So I think these are the AWG wrestlers Marigold got that are like…actually good. Miku CHIAKI and Misa are out first and the dark and light and power and speed thing they could have going is already interesting to me. CHIAKI is the Dark Wolf of the Ring and has gear with a ton of leather, fur, and chains on it and a nice wolf tattoo on her arm. Misa is the Speed Star and wearing filigree and lace of cyan, or maybe teal, or perhaps turquoise, might even be seafoam. Miku and Natsumi both have kick gimmick if I recall Natsumi has a sort of imperial design with gold embroidery on red and black. Miku has a nice cape and is wearing red and scarlet gear.

The Match: Natsumi and Misa start with a modified international and lots of quick covers and armdrags. Miku comes in to get a surfboard on Misa as the two uh…vets I guess work over the Speed Star. Misa gets a cazadora and a stomp and brings in CHIAKI to shoulderblock some fools and get a double iron claw in the ropes. Some facewashes from the Dark Wolf and in comes Misa again with some snap suplexes and speedy moves. CHIAKI back in and she hits a handspring knee drop and a big backbreaker before Showzuki counters a crab with a rollup and some kicks and a kneedrop into her own crab. Miku comes in to keep the kicking happening with a nice hesitation dropkick into the corner but she can’t get the butterfly suplex. CHIAKI gets a slam and a spear and then an argentine rack facebuster on MIku as Misa runs interference until tagging in. Badly missed moonsault by Matsui is broken up but the vets continue to eat double-teams from Speed Wolf, or Dark Star…hrm. A sneak kick from Natsumi lets Miku get control of Misa and get stereo submissions. More relentless double-teaming but Misa gets a few hope spots and flash submissions before CHIAKI comes in and they clean house. MIku and Misa trade some stuff and we get run-ins from CHIAKI and Natsumi and we reset to Miku and Misa. Miku finally gets the butterfly suplex and then counters a rana into a Styles Clash for 3.

**¾

Decent fast-paced stuff and a hot finish gets this there. There’s still not a lot of meat to the match but it had a lot of sizzle and a decent story.

Nagisa Nozaki & Sareee vs. Mai Sakurai & MIRAI

Background: Nagisa is dressed up in the raver animal print technicolor camo gimmick and Sareee has the red and gold sun goddess thing. Mai is in her knockoff Gucci trunks with pink fur fringe and MIRAI has the blue and white flame pattern deal. So Mai and MIRAI are Stardom ex-pats and Nagis and Saree are more freelance types. In addition Sareee wants to murder all of Giulia’s friends and Mai basically owes her career to Giulia and while it’s been a while, MIRAI actually was in Donna Del Mondo (GIulia’s old stable) for her debut in Stardom.

The Match: Hot start as Team Stardom jump Team Freelance and we get rapid tempo control shifts as Sareee and MIRAI throw shots with Sareee getting the advantage until Mai comes in off of a cheap shot and looks in control for 5 seconds before Sareee does some ground and pound and her and Nagisa get a double Muta Lock. Back to the torment as Sareee just eats Sakurai alive. Nagisa comes in and curbstomps Mai and kicks her around a bit dismissively before Sakurai explodes with a big kick and her offensive flurry is stymied as Nagisa just no-sells some forearms and chokes her in the corner and Sareee comes in to destroy Mai with a dropkick. Mai gets the jump kick and the pumphandle suplex though and MIRAI comes in to do some of her technical power wrestler bit and her and Nagisa have a good sequence. Nozaki outbrawling her but MIRAI maneuvering to find a new way to set something up. Sareee comes in and trades stiff shots with MIRAI until a Mai rope-assisted neck snap sets up MIRAI’s sunset flip can-opener. Rope-break but MIRAI stays on the neck, corner lariat, sliding reverse STO, standing neck-twist thing with the feet (needs a snappier name). Sareee muddies it up again with some strikes though, but after a big lariat of her own MIRAI brings in Mai to uh…get fed to the wolves. But Mai sees the forearm coming and trips up Sareee and gets a nice double-team wheelbarrow facebuster/bulldog with MIRAI before the STF. Hey, some actual strategy here. It doesn’t last long as Sareee is soon back to brutalizing Sakurai, but Team Stardom keeps the doubles coming when MIRAI grabs Sareee’s leg so Mai can boot her off the top turnbuckle and then Sakurai gets a…plancha? Wow. Lariat/jump kick combo from Team Stardom! Gourdbuster! But it’s only for 2 and Nagisa gets a superplex to set up a Sareee diving stomp…for 2. Huh. Sareee misses the second stomp and we get more MIRAI interference as Sakurai spams pinning combinations. The clock strikes midnight for Sakurai though and Sareee just dropkicks her to death and hits a third diving stomp for the win.

***¼

Well this was pretty good! I’m not a huge fan of Sareee or Mai Sakurai (as a worker) but both of them played their parts very well. I do wish that Sareee could have found more natural ways to take over in a match other than “okay I’m just going to shrug off your stuff and beat you up now” but she’s an intractable monster and Sakurai is just not on her level at all. But MIRAI is a technical wizard and tag expert and Sakurai is canny enough to cheat and claw to gain some advantage. And Nagisa is a very competent brawler as well. A downright good tag-match and if this main-evented a show I wouldn’t be disappointed.

Post-match people yell at each other and I assume insult each other’s honor, I don’t speak Japanese so I don’t know.

Well, all in all this show was not very good, but at least the top of the card should be able to bring something for the fans. Now the lower-card stuff is pretty dang dreadful and I’m legitimately worried for the company’s future if this is what they’re mustering for it. Well anyway that was the afternoon show, I should have the evening show up later on.