BITE-SIZE SHOW REPORT: Marigold New Year Golden Garden 2025 – Night 11 (Thursday, 20th February 2025)

Pre-Show Notes

• 4th Marigold Twinstar Champions Nanae Takahashi (1) & Seri Yamaoka (1) have been champions for 30 days – in their first reign. This will be the first title defence of their reign.
• This will be both Utami Hayashishita and Victoria Yuzuki’s second challenge for the Twinstar Championships after both falling short with different partners against MiraiSaku; Utami teaming with Kouki Amarei, and Yuzuki with Kizuna Tanaka as Selene Flora.
• 2nd Marigold United National Champion Mai Sakurai has been champion for 46 days – in her first reign. This will be the second title defence of her reign.
• Chanyota – who made her Marigold debut at the show on 7th February in Shinjuku FACE – has only faced Mai Sakurai once in singles competition ahead of her challenge for the Pure White Belt – a loss at New Blood 5 in October 2022. The pair have however teamed together six times in tag team action, winning three of those matches. 
• This will be Chanyota’s first-ever attempt at a singles championship since her debut back in 2021. 
• If Mai Sakurai is to retain the championship, then Chanyota must become her personal trainer, however if Chanyota wins, then Mai must buy 100 copies of Chanyota’s brand new fitness book.
• The Marigold World Championship will not be on the line at this Korakuen Hall event, with Utami Hayashishita in the main event challenging for the Twinstar Championships. However, the number one contendership match for the Crimson Red Belt will see MIRAI – who has never challenged for the belt – pitted against Darkness Revolution’s Bozilla – who challenged Sareee unsuccessfully in October last year. This match will be the first singles match between the pair. 
• This show will also see the first official teaming of the new ‘Darkness Revolution’ faction that includes Misa Matsui, Nagisa Nozaki, CHIAKI, Bozilla and Megaton, with the trio of Matsui, Nozaki and CHIAKI taking on Natsumi Showzuki, Chika Goto and Miku Aono. 
• This will be the 42-year old Megaton’s third singles match since joining Marigold. More interestingly still, is that Megaton is yet to win a singles match in her career, with a current record of 0-7, with five of those matches coming in AWG.
• Kizuna Tanaka will be missing from the next two month’s worth of shows due to the need to rest and heal a persistent back injury she has been working with. She will however be ringside as a second throughout the event.
• Komomo Minami will be missing shows for the foreseeable future after injuring the medial collateral ligament and the meniscus in her knee during a tag team match at the Korakuen Hall show on the 26th December. A timetable for her return has not yet been confirmed. 
• Kouki Amarei will be missing from all shows due to a torn ACL. Her tentative return date is May 2025. It has been announced however that she will be doing some guest commentary during the show on the Japanese broadcast. 
• Nagisa Tachibana has been removed from all cards until the end of February in order to recover from a rib injury. She will however be ringside as a second throughout the event.
• Hummingbird will continue to miss an undisclosed period of time through a knee injury she sustained in Nagoya on the 11th January.
  Naho Yamada will miss an undisclosed period of time through a knee injury she sustained in Shinjuku FACE on the 7th February.

• Attendance Notes: The announced attendance inside Korakuen Hall was 778. This is the 12th time Marigold have run Korakuen Hall, with this house being a marginal decrease of less than 1% from the last time they run the venue (785 on the 19th January – main-evented by Seri Yamaoka and Nanae Takahashi winning the Twinstar Championships from Tank and Bozilla).

Quick Results

• Tag Team Match: Rea Seto & Riara def. Ryoko Sakimura & Minami Yuki w/ Modified Camel Clutch (9:23) (***)
• Singles Match: Gigaton (Nao Ishikawa) def. Megaton w/ Schoolboy (6:56) (**1/2)
• 6-Woman Tag Team Match: Darkness Revolution (Misa Matsui, Nagisa Nozaki & CHIAKI) def. Natsumi Showzuki, Miku Aono & Chika Goto w/ Running Knee (12:43) (***3/4)
• Marigold World Championship #1 Contendership Match: Bozilla def. MIRAI w/ Sit-out Powerbomb (18:27) (****)
• Marigold United National Championship Match: Mai Sakurai (c) def. Chanyota w/ STF (14:40) (****)
• Marigold Twinstar Championships Match: Nanae Takhashi & Seri Yamaoka (c) def. Utami Hayashishita & Victoria Yuzuki w/ Aoki Clutch (24:33) (****1/4)

Show Notes

• Freelancer Erina Yamanaka, prominent in both BBJ (Best Body Japan) and Actwres girl’z, entered the ring and said that she had been invited to join Marigold. Yamanaka is five years into her career and is the longest-reigning BBW Women’s Champion in history (823 days).
• Rather than wrestle as herself, Nao Ishikawa came to the ring dressed as her own version of Megaton called ‘Gigaton’ with brand-new music.
• Misa Matsui is now known by the nickname ‘Psycho Speed’ – in Japanese psycho means the top or the best.
• Referee ‘Tommy’ officiated the six-woman tag team match. Tommy is the most-tenured female referee in the joshi scene having debuted in AJW in 1983 at just 17 years of age.
• It was announced that the winner of the Marigold World Championship number one contendership match between MIRAI and Bozilla would face Utami Hayashishita on March 31st at Korakuen Hall.
• Following her victory to achieve V2 of her United National Championship, Mai Sakurai called on Chanyota to team with her in Marigold. The challenger promised that 2025 would be her year and that she would be coming after the belt again, but agreed to team with Sakurai.
• After pinning Victoria Yuzuki following the main event Twinstar Championships match with the Aoki Clutch (having been training with MMA and pro-wrestler Shinya Aoki and learning the move from him), Seri Yamaoka challenged Yuzuki to a singles match, with the Superfly Champion saying that they should put her belt on the line.

You can check out the Marigold roster win/loss records for 2025 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 22nd February – New Year’s Golden Garden 2025 – Night 12, Osaka 176BOX, Osaka (VIDEO ON DEMAND)
• Thursday 27th February – New Year’s Golden Garden 2025 – Night 13, Tobu Friend Hall, Tokyo (VIDEO ON DEMAND)