SHOW PREVIEW: Marigold First Dream 2025 (03/01/2025)

When & Where?

• When?: Friday 3rd January 2025
• Where?: Ota-Ward City Gymnasium, Tokyo
• Time?: 2:30pm JST 🇯🇵/12:30am EST 🇺🇸/9:30pm PT 🇺🇸/5:30am GMT 🇬🇧

The Press Conference

What is the Full Card?

• Marigold World Championship Match: Sareee (c) vs. Utami Hayashishita
• Marigold United National Championship Match: Miku Aono (c) vs. Mai Sakurai
• Marigold Superfly Championship Match: Natsumi Showzuki (c) vs. Victoria Yuzuki
• GHC Women’s Championship Match: Kouki Amarei (c) vs. Chika Goto 
• Marigold Twinstar Championships Match: Dark Wolf Army (CHIAKI & Nagisa Nozaki) (c) vs. Bozilla & Tank the Iron Lady
• Passion Sisters (Nanae Takahashi & Nao Ishikawa) vs. Meiko Satomura & YUNA
• Seri Yamaoka vs. MIRAI
• Marigold New Year Rumble: Misa Matsui, Hummingbird, Rea Seto, Minami Yuki, Naho Yamada, Ryoko Sakimura, Nagisa Tachibana, Hamuko Hoshi, Yuuki Mashiro, Riara, Momoka Hanazono, Nightshade, Flying Penguin + more
  

What do I Need to Know?

• 1st Marigold World Champion Sareee has been champion for 174 days – in her first reign. This will be the third title defence of her reign.
• Utami Hayashishita has earned this title shot by becoming the inaugural winner of the Dream Star Grand Prix, beating Mai Sakurai in the final.
• Sareee has questioned Utami’s big match mentality, and if she has what it takes to wrestle her. This was made even more poignant after Sareee hit three Ururnages and then a Wrist-Clutch variation at Korakuen Hall to emphatically defeat the challenger in a preview 6-woman tag team match.
• 1st Marigold United National Champion Miku Aono has been champion for 174 days – in her first reign. This will be the fourth title defence of her reign.
• In the pair’s only singles match during the Dream Star Grand Prix, Aono and Sakurai went to a time-limit draw leading to Sakurai challenging the champion after Aono’s successful defence against Natsumi Showzuki. Prior to that, Aono had publicly stated that Sakurai and Kouki Amarei were people she was very interested in defending the belt against.
• 1st Marigold Superfly Champion Natsumi Showzuki has been champion for 174 days – in her first reign. This will be the fifth title defence of her reign.
• Natsumi Showzuki has successfully defended the belt more times than any other champion in Marigold.
• Her and Victoria Yuzuki have gone to two consecutive time-limit draws in their previous two singles outings, first in the Dream Star Grand Prix, and then in their first Superfly Championship match in October.
• 2nd Marigold Twinstar Champions Dark Wolf Army (CHIAKI (1) & Nagisa Nozaki (1)) have been champion for 21 days – in their first reign. This will be the second title defence of their reign.
• Dark Wolf Army defeated MiraiSaku for the titles on December 13th in Shinjuku FACE with the help of Bozilla. They accidentally drew the ire of Bozilla though when they hit her with a chair, causing Bozilla to disown the pair and challenge them to a title match – with a mystery opponent – at First Dream 2025.
• Bozilla and Myla Grace had an impromptu Twinstar Title match on Boxing Day in Korakuen Hall, with Nozaki offering it to Grace as a going away present. The champions would retain after Bozilla and Nozaki brawled into the audience allowing CHIAKI to pin Myla.
• Bozilla’s partner has been revealed to be Tank The Iron Lady, a 5’11” and 200lbs Netherlands-based wrestler currently plying her trade in Europe.
• 1st GHC Women’s Champion Kouki Amarei has been champion for 53 days – in her first reign. This will be the first title defence of her reign.
• Kouki Amarei won the belt on November 11th in a battle royal on Noah Magic Autumn Volume 3 to become the inaugural champion.
• Kouki and Chika Goto are a tag team called the tWin toWers though the relationship is currently fractious. Goto went out with an injury in November and said to Amarei to do her own thing until she got back, which Amarei did, immediately teaming with Utami Hayashishita in her stead. Success for Amarei has driven a wedge between her and Chika, even though it was Kouki that offered the title match to Chika.
• The pair have faced off just once in singles action, with Chika Goto getting win in the Dream Star Grand Prix in September 2024.
• This will only be Chika Goto’s second-ever singles title match after losing an AWG Championship match to Natsumi Showzuki in April 2024.
• Two joshi legends who retire in 2025 in Nanae Takahashi and Meiko Satomura clash for one final time in a tag match, with Meiko set to end a 30-year career in April, and Nanae in May.
• High-promising teenage ‘Super Rookie’ Seri Yamaoka makes her debut on this show, wrestling MIRAI.
• Kizuna Tanaka and Komomo Minami will be missing from the show due to injury.

How do I Watch the Show?

The show will air as a WRESTLEUNIVERSE PPV complete with English Commentary. You can purchase the PPV from the link here.

Rob & Matt’s Predictions

Stay up-to-date with all things Marigold through their Japanese (@DSF_Marigold) and English (@Marigold_Joshi) accounts on X. Stay tuned to The Marigold Standard Podcast for all the happenings in the world of Marigold.