BITE-SIZE SHOW REPORT: Marigold New Year Golden Garden 2025 – Night 4 (Sunday, 19th January 2025)

Pre-Show Notes

• 2nd Marigold United National Champion Mai Sakurai has been champion for 16 days – in her first reign. This will be the first title defence of her reign.
• This will be Nagisa Nozaki’s second challenge for the United National Championship after falling short against Miku Aono on the 24th October 2024.
• Nozaki does have some success against Sakurai, having been part of a team with CHIAKI that ended Mai and MIRAI’s reign with the Twinstar Championships back in December. 
• Though having faced each other 15 times in multi-woman matches, this will be their first-ever singles meeting. In fact you would have to go back to August to find the last time Mai Sakurai was on the winning team against Nozaki, with the latter winning the last 5. 
• 3rd Marigold Twinstar Champions Bozilla (1) & Tank (1)) have been champion for 16 days – in their first reign. This will be the first title defence of their reign.
• 2nd Marigold Superfly Champion Victoria Yuzuki has been champion for 16 days – in her first reign. This will be the first title defence of her reign.
• Yuki Mashiro, who left Ice Ribbon to become a freelancer in November and was until recently their ICExInfinity Champion, challenged Yuzuki after winning the New Year Rumble on January 3rd.
• The Marigold World Championship will not be on the line at this Korakuen Hall event, with Utami Hayashishita having successfully defeated Tank in Osaka on January 13th. She will instead be in special singles action against Megaton – formerly Bulldozer Todoroki from AWG. 
• This will be the 42-year old Megaton’s first singles match since May of 2024. More interestingly still, is that Megaton is yet to win a singles match in her career, with a current record of 0-5, with all five of those matches coming in AWG. 
• Freelancer Riara returns on this show after missing the last three dates due to a bout of influenza.
• As announced at the press conference, Kouki Amarei has sustained an ACL tear in her right knee and will be out of action for the foreseeable future, though she has given the May Anniversary show as a potential return date. 
• Kizuna Tanaka and Komomo Minami will be missing from the show due to injury. However, Kizuna Tanaka will be joining the Japanese commentary team.
• Nagisa Tachibana will also be missing shows though until the end of February as she recovers from a rib injury.
• After injuring her knee in her match in Osaka on the 11th January, Hummingbird will also miss this show.

• Attendance Notes: The announced attendance for the show inside of Korakuen Hall was 785. This is the 11th time Marigold have run the venue, and is a 10.9% increase on their previous house (708 on Boxing Day 2024.) It is also the highest non-PPV attendance since 24th October 2024 – the Korakuen Hall show main-evented by the Marigold World Championship between Sareee and Bozilla which drew 866.

Quick Results

• Singles Match: CHIAKI def. Ryoko Sakimura w/ Argentine Backbreaker (9:06) (**3/4)
• Singles Match: Chika Goto def. Minami Yuki w/ Chokeslam (7:25) (***1/4)
• Tag Team Match: Nao Ishikawa & Rea Seto def. Naho Yamada & Riara w/ Reverse Tiger Driver (7:05) (***1/4)
• Tag Team Match: MIRAI & Misa Matsui def. Natsumi Showzuki & Miku Aono w/ MMD (12:46) (****)
• Singles Match: Utami Hayashishita def. Megaton (5:30)
• Marigold Superfly Championship Match: Victoria Yuzuki (c) def. Yuki Mashiro w/ Cross-Arm Suplex (8:00) (***3/4)
• Marigold United National Championship Match: Mai Sakurai (c) def. Nagisa Nozaki w/ Glorious Driver (16:02)
• Marigold Twinstar Championships Match: Nanae Takahashi & Seri Yamaoka def. Bozilla & Tank (c) w/ German Suplex (19:32)

Show Notes

• During the tag match, Riara unfortunately suffered a nasty cut to the nose when her champagne bottle she brings to the ring rebounded off the canvas and hit her in the face.
• Utami Hayashishita successfully defeated Megaton in just over 5 minutes, taunting her after the final bell by saying in jest that she fought well and that she deserved a shot at the Marigold World Championship, before emphatically reneging on the offer to the amusement of all inside Korakuen Hall.
• After Victoria Yuzuki defeated Yuki Mashiro to retain her Superfly Championship, Misa Matsui came out to make her own challenge. She then delivered an Misa Kawaii Driver to the champion, making sure she landed on the belt, before vacating the ring.
• Following Mai Sakurai’s defeat of Nagisa Nozaki to retain the United National Championship, CHIAKI stole the 10 million yen prize money and told Mai that to see the money again, she must give her a title shot.
• Seri Yamaoka and Nanae Takahashi defeated Tank and Bozilla to become the 4th Twinstar Champions, with Seri picking up the victory with a German Suplex. The victory makes Seri Yamaoka the youngest champion in Marigold’s short history.
• Post-match, Bozilla attacked Tank for losing the match, seemingly dissolving the alliance between the two. Bozilla would then take to Twitter to distance herself from both Tank and Megaton.

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

• Saturday 25th January – New Year’s Golden Garden 2025 – Night 5, Radiant Hall, Kanagawa (VIDEO ON DEMAND)
• Sunday 26th January – New Year’s Golden Garden 2025 – Night 6, Shin-Kiba 1st RING (LIVE)
• Friday 7th February – New Year’s Golden Garden 2025 – Night 7, Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo (VIDEO ON DEMAND)
• Tuesday 11th February – New Year’s Golden Garden 2025 – Night 8, Chunichi Hall, Nagoya (VIDEO ON DEMAND)
• Friday 14th February – New Year’s Golden Garden 2025 – Night 9, Sendai PIT, Miyagi (VIDEO ON DEMAND)