SHOW REPORT: Marigold Fantastic Adventure 2024 – Night 6 (Monday, 20th October 2024)

Notes

• This show marks the return of Bozilla, who missed the shows in KBS Hall, Act City Hamamatsu and Shibuya through ill health.
• Attendance Notes: This show marks the first time that Marigold have run a show in Nagano, and therefore at Nagano ARCS Hall. The announced attendance of 203 people is the company’s joint lowest attendance to date, level with Night 5 of the Dream Star Grand Prix in Shin-Kiba 1st RING (20th September 2024). Reports coming from the venue however have said despite the relatively small crowd size, the reaction to the wrestlers and matches was fantastic. The show also outdrew NOAH’s Sunny Voyage show there in January of this year, with that card drawing 191.

Quick Results

• Singles Match: Natsumi Showzuki def. Komomo Minami w/ Running Double Knees (6:50)
• Singles Match: Bozilla def. CHIAKI w/ Sit-out Powerbomb (7:00)
• Tag Team Match: Kouki Amarei & Nanae Takahashi def. Misa Matsui & Nao Ishikawa w/ Amethyst Butterfly (12:06)
• Three-Way Match: Nagisa Nozaki vs. Miku Aono vs. Utami Hayashishita Ended in a Time-Limit Draw (15:00)
• 6-Woman Tag Team Match: Mai Sakurai, MIRAI & Myla Grace def. Kizuna Tanaka, Victoria Yuzuki & Rea Seto w/ STF (15:48)

Undercard

With her first ever singles win now firmly under her belt, Komomo Minami explodes out of the traps here in order to attempt to get a jump on the Superfly Champion, and does seem to be going someway to doing that by utilising her array of arm submissions. Even when this only appears to anger Showzuki, Minami looks to use that frustration to try and surprise her with persistent roll-up attempts. For all her endeavour however, Showzuki is able to slam into her with the Running Double Knees for the victory, giving her some momentum ahead of Thursday’s Superfly title match against Hummingbird. (***)

Bozilla has been a big – figuratively and physically – miss for Marigold over these past three shows, so it’s great to see her back and fighting-fit again. Her unfortunate opponent for what is effectively her warm-up match ahead of the Marigold World Championship match on Thursday is CHIAKI, who seems to recognise the strife she is in from the very outset judging by the look on her face. That being said, she does manage to carve out a couple of opportunities for herself, mainly by raking the eyes multiple times and then disappearing under the ring, popping up and spraying cold spray into Bozilla’s eyes. Unfortunately for her, all it takes is one power move to reassert dominance for Bozilla, and after getting a close two count with a Spinning Powerslam, she makes absolutely sure with the Powerbomb for the victory. Still clearly smarting from the cold spray to the eyes, Bozilla makes sure to snatch it from the rookies and spray it into CHIAKI’s eyes as revenge before kicking her from the ring. (***1/4)

The rapid deterioration of the Passion Sisters continues between Nao Ishikawa and Nanae Takahashi, with the former not even letting her former-mentor settle in ring before attacking. However, in what rapidly becomes a pattern for the duration of this match, she can’t maintain any sense of momentum, and Nanae especially ensures that she is punished for this, one particularly savage early headbutt echoing around Nagano ARCS. Even Kouki gets in on the action, with the tide only really shifting when Misa Matsui finally gets the tag. This doesn’t last either, even when Nao and Misa are able to momentarily isolate Kouki from Nanae. Despite the beating she takes, Nao does very well with the pockets of offence she is afforded, which includes a lot of reversing and transitioning other moves into pinfall attempts, the highlight being a reversal of the Dominator into an Alabama Slam and Jackknife combination. It’s all for nought though, with Takahashi thundering into her with a Lariat, finishing what has been a significant outgunning of Nao, before Kouki finishes her off with the Amethyst Butterfly. Post-match, there’s a war of words between Nanae and Nao, with the former taking the mic time to put over the passion that Kouki showed during the match – something that I imagine hurts Nao very deeply! (***1/2)

Main Event Matches

Three-Way Match: Nagisa Nozaki vs. Miku Aono vs. Utami Hayashishita Ended in a Time-Limit Draw – Nagisa immediately bails from the ring in an attempt to get Utami and Miku to fight. Miku only has eyes for her next challenger for the United National Championship, but Utami is happy to take on all comers and hits her with a German Suplex to signal the start of the match. It quickly goes to the outside where all three competitors take turns hurling each other into the front row. When the action returns to the ring, and after Utami locks both women in stereo Single-Leg Crabs, she and Miku pick up where they left off – Aono planting Hayashishita with a beautiful Stalling Spinning Powerslam. Not content, she rains down blistering kicks into Nozaki’s back, but the future-challenger absorbs and lands Double-Handed Chops into the chest of both Aono and Utami that sweat is sent flying upon impact. More impressively still, Nozaki is able to hit an STO which causes Miku Aono to inadvertently DDT Utami. Another sequence sees Utami and Miku trade thumping Lariats, with Utami only able to kick out of a Double Underhook Suplex courtesy of well-timed Nozaki interference. Hayashishita does get revenge with a Tower of Doom before then being able to kick out of a Noir Lancer – the same move that put her away on the opening night of the Dream Star Grand Prix! As we embark on the closing stretch, we get a quick set of reversed moves and nearfalls, with the biggest being Utami’s Air Raid Crash on Nagisa Nozaki being reversed into a Destroyer courtesy of a Aono Lariat. However, Aono is the closest to victory, finally managing to navigate Nozaki into the Styles Clash, only to have Utami break up the pinfall just before the count of three, with the bell to signal the end of the time-limit sounded mere seconds later. (****)

6-Woman Tag Team Match: Mai Sakurai, MIRAI & Myla Grace def. Kizuna Tanaka, Victoria Yuzuki & Rea Seto – Something rather nice to take from this match is that it is both Myla Grace and Rea Seto’s first main event in Marigold. Kizuna Tanaka however does not care about this and has eyes only for MIRAI after the latter’s comments regarding the apparent nepotism that has seen Tanaka get where she is at the press conference 5 days ago. The youngster goes hell for leather at MIRAI, but is more or less instantly quelled with two beefy forearms to the face. Speaking of MIRAI, it is interesting to note that she is not wearing her tag team attire tonight while Mai Sakurai is; especially interesting seeing as Yuzuki called out the fact that MiraiSaku aren’t as close as people make them out to be at that same press conference. We then set up the rest of the ‘match-ups’ for this main event through a series of quick tags, Myla Grace working hard to take out Rea Seto, and Victoria Yuzuki doing just enough to leave us waiting with baited breath for later on in the match. Myla and the Twinstar Champions manage to completely isolate Rea from her teammates and embark on a protracted heat segment, only for a little bit of miscommunication between Mai and MIRAI to lead to the former accidentally taking out her partner with a Leg Lariat. With Rea able to get the tag out, both Tanaka and Yuzuki are able to make inroads, with Yuzuki in particular attacking this match as though it is her last ever. Indeed, her blistering exchange with Mai Sakurai is not only yet another reminder of how naturally talented she is, but it is also a reminder of how much progress Mai has made in the last year. Despite the endeavour of the future-challengers however, MIRAI and Mai Sakurai manage to recover from the crossed wires and isolate Seto once again. Myla hits her with the Michinoku Driver, and this is followed by a double team STO from the champions before Sakurai locks in the STF in the middle of the ring. With nowhere to go in the middle of the ring, Seto taps out, giving MiraiSaku all of the momentum heading into the Twinstar Championship match at Korakuen Hall. That being said, there is the small issue of the lack of synergy regarding the gear, and the miscommunication during the match. Couple with that the fact that both women storm out of the backstage interview immediately following the match and it looks like the cracks might be beginning to form. Can Tanaka and Yuzuki take advantage at Korakuen? (****)

You can check out the Marigold roster win/loss records for 2024 right here; https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11_PWxd5BDxeHIfKqtQ2YtiwhGteRrVUZ3B5L4yrDQE0/edit?gid=517287206#gid=517287206

You can check out a comprehensive run down of the Marigold Championship Histories here; https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18MJ2Cebe36Nvfcpj8uVs1AtMbAV1chn-lG7t-xn44DY/edit?gid=0#gid=0

Upcoming Shows

• Thursday 24th October – Fantastic Adventure 2024 – Night 7, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo (LIVE)
• Saturday 27th October – Fantastic Adventure 2024 – Night 8 ~Afternoon Show~, Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo (LIVE)
• Saturday 27th October – Fantastic Adventure 2024 – Night 8 ~Mask Fiesta~, Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo (LIVE)
• Saturday 2nd November – Fantastic Adventure 2024 – Night 9 ~Afternoon Show~, Sapporo Gateau Kingdom, Hokkaido (VIDEO ON DEMAND)
• Saturday 2nd November – Fantastic Adventure 2024 – Night 9 ~Evening Show~, Sapporo Gateau Kingdom, Hokkaido (VIDEO ON DEMAND)
• Monday 4th November – Fantastic Adventure 2024 – Night 10, Nagoya Congress Center, Aichi (LIVE)