Dream Star Fighting Marigold: Grand Opening Wars June 2nd 2024

Hey we got some more of Marigold here as the promotion is trying to find its legs as a weekly, touring product. Let’s see if they surprise us.

Myla Grace vs. Chika Goto

Background: These are our lowest on the totem pole girls, with Chika being tall and Myla being ‘fast’. Haven’t been super impressed with either of them but hopefully they change my mind.

The Match: We get a Myla headlock and then some trips to stymie Goto, but a 619 is countered with a slam by Chika and we get some running hipchecks into the corner and hairpulling from Chika. Strikefest and more Myla ‘trips’ take Chika down, but when Grace goes up Goto brings her down with a giant swing and then the inverted giant swing. Goto gets the gutwrench powerslam for 2 and I guess that move isn’t her finish, I kind of thought it was. Myla gets a low back suplex, Chika gets a rollup, Grace gets a thrust kick and Goto gets a chokeslam for 3.

*¼

Moderately more competent than their last match. Myla really needs to wrestle ‘fast’ without doing anything high-flying, but this was a match between green wrestlers, least it was shorter than the last one.

Nagisa Nozaki vs. CHIAKI

Background: Two rough-and-tumble brawlers, this is gonna be a slobberknocker bah gawd. Oh and CHIAKI has tape on her ribs and back.

The Match: They toss each other around to start with Nagisa stomping out CHIAKI in the corner until the Dark Wolf bites Nagisa’s wrist! Nagisa keeps with the abuse though, chopping CHIAKI in the corner and sets up a camel clutch and transitions into a deathlock to get the curbstomp. CHIAKI dodges a Yakuza kick though and fires back with a corner spear and a running facewash. CHIAKI loads up a slam but Nagisa hits the ribs again and then goes to an abdominal stretch to keep the abuse on the midsection going. Nagisa does her wind-up kicks on the apron and then kicks the younger wrestler down some more. CHIAKI finally gets a scoop powerslam and the cartwheel kneedrop but she can’t get the argentine rack as Nagisa counters to a sleeper…and that’s countered to the rack and the facebuster! CHIAKI’s ribs are too bad to get the fisherman’s…something and Nagisa boots her down and gets the sleeper again. CHIAKI makes the ropes and Nagisa keeps the kicks going but we have a SPEAR OUTTA NOWHERE! But Nagisa gets the double wrist kick, a low dropkick, and a sleeper and CHIAKI is out.

**½

Man I think I really like CHIAKI, she’s fun, has charisma, and she gets the little touches you need to be a good underneath power wrestler. I’m less convinced Nagisa is the best, but she controlled the match well, do think she could stand to sell a bit more.

Nanae Takahashi vs. Misa Matsui – Passion Injection Match

Background: So we’re getting more of Nanae wrestling younger wrestlers to test their PASSION. I’ve been interested in what Misa can do in a real singles match and while I don’t love Nanae, Takahashi is an interesting obstacle for Misa to overcome.

The Match: Hot start from Misa who gets a dropkick and a flurry of strikes to keep the pressure going on Nanae. Takahashi eventually overpowers Matsui but when stomping on her in the corner gets her foot bitten on, huh, is this gonna be a thing now? Nanae slows things down with a bodyscissors. Misa fights to her feet but Nanae knocks her down again and cranks on a headlock and cranks on some more wear-down submissions on Misa. Matsui makes her way to her feet but whiffs on a diving crossbody, but a second crossbody, caught by Naane is countered into a DDT and Misa spams some stomps on Nanae. Misa gets a stretch muffler but Nanae gets the ropes and then a powerslam sets up a crossface on Misa. Matsui gets up again and does some nice wobble-leg strikes on Nanae and keeps getting knocked down in one blow but making her feet again. Misacanrana! But Nanae gets the backdrop driver and loads up the Refrigerator Bomb…and misses to set up a Misa reverse leg-cradle for 2.999. Misa gets cut off going up though, and a Takahashi superplex gets only 2 and after a few strikes Nanae gets her Nana☆Racka (falcon arrow) for 3.

**½

Well I was impressed by Misa. I’ve realized that she’s not really a speed star in sense of being this mindblowingly fast junior, but she does have some Mayu Iwatani vibes, this Gumby-esque underdog babyface who is tricky and fiery and won’t back down even when overmatched. Nanae is pretty decent in this role too and I have never historically loved her.

Post-match we get some yelling about passion and a handshake.

Mai Sakurai & MIRAI vs. Bozilla & Zayda Steel

Background: Bozilla is our monster heel, Zayda is our annoying heel, Mai is our comedy…uh…face I guess this match, MIRAI is our clever technician. Boz is assuredly going to destroy some people.

The Match: Zayda and Mai start with some comedy stuff and Steel is playing up the annoying foreigner thing. They do some pretty weak stuff with both doing goofy sells of shoulderblocks and forearms and biels. Mai’s bulldog sets up a paradise lock and a dropkick, but Zayda comes back with either a senton or a leg drop that she botches as she lands hip-first on Mai’s face in a hideous spot. Zayda’s running neckbreaker brings in Bozilla who shoulderblocks Sakurai out of the ring. Boz trucks a cazadora attempt and gets a senton. Sakurai uses her speed to dodge a corner charge and gets a necksnap on Boz and Mai is a lot more effective here than I would have thought and nevermind as she gets tossed off the top and bodychecked. Sakurai gets a crucifix attempt but Boz is too strong so MIRAI comes in to help with a dropkick and Boz botches the bump and lands on Sakurai instead of being knocked over for the crucifix bomb. MIRAI tags in anyway and gets her flurry of offense but can’t get a slam. MIRAI scrambles and Mai comes in for the double-team…that fails as Boz suplexes them both at once. Boz gets a hanging choke on MIRAI and some more power stuff. Zayda comes in to get weak kicks on MIRAI who comes back with the sliding flatliner and the corner charges. Wheelbarrow slam on Zayda as it breaks down a bit but resets to MIRAI taking heat. The white ladies get a diving cutter/electric chair combo that’s broken up. Zayda goes for an Unprettier that gets reversed into a MIRAI armbar and then a back suplex but Boz comes in to toss everybody around as MIRAI and Zayda just kinda stand around. We get Mai and MIRAI low-bridging Bozilla and Mai keeping her distracted as we get Zayda and MIRAI goind 1v1. Zayda gets her weak offense but a whacky MIRAI Samoan Drop sets up the kimura and Steel taps.

*¾

Well the idea of the match was strong with the faces isolating Steel but Boz was out of position a ton and it didn’t quite come together like it should have, still a good idea for a match and MIRAI remains very talented.

Miku Aono & Natsumi Showzuki vs. Utami Hayashishita & Victoria Yuzuki

Background: So this is kind of an AWG vs. Stardom main with Miku and Natsumi being the more experienced AWG wrestlers against Utami (former world champ and super rookie) and Yuzuki (the current super rookie).

The Match: Miku and Utami start and they both have a cool red and white gear that contrasts with each other as they trade wristlocks, MIku gets a kick that Utami ducks and they tag in their partners and Natsumi immediately counters a rollup into a crab on Yuzuki. Springboard knee drop from Showzuki follows and Team AWG kick away at the rookie in the ropes and it’s back to Miku with a backbreaker. Natsumi comes in with a crab (that she almost slips applying but recovers well before Utami runs in to break it up, Victoria uses this to get a dropkick and her ropewalk faceplant on Showzuki and it’s hot-tag Utami! She goes 1v2 against the AWG Wrestlers and tosses them both around and gets a double-dropkick, Natsumi’s armbar attempt is countered with a sidewalk slam from Hayashishita but Showzuki gets a DDT out of a spinebuster and tags in Miku who gets a few corner dropkicks and unleashes the kicks. Utami can’t get the argentine rack drop to work though and it’s back to them trading strikes with neither falling down. Miku finally gets Utami down with a running lariat but that just fires the Red Queen up and she throws Aono around. Victoria finally does something and runs interference letting Utami tag out. Yuzuki gets some dropkicks and her judo stuff to get some nearfalls but Natsumi comes in with a running double knee to set up Miku’s lariat but Utami breaks it up and gets a slam on Miku to set up Yuzuki’s offense but Victoria runs right into Miku’s spinning body slam anyway that goof! Team AWG get a nice high-kick enzuigiri combo on Utami, and then a nice double high-kick combo on Yuzuki, then Showzuki does a diving knee drop on Utami while Miku missile dropkicks Victoria. Slick double-teams I will say. Buzzsaw kick on Yuzuki gets 2 but the delayed Butterfly Suplex gets the pin for Miku.

***

Just a really good tag match, formula but two wrestlers with superior team-work beat the team with the better wrestler with the weaker partner. I dig it and I’m actually excited for what Natsumi and Miku can do as singles down the line.

Overall this was pretty solid! The roster is still way too small but I think that Marigold has enough interesting talent that they can make something work for them if the good wrestlers continue to be good and the improving wrestlers continue to improve.