SHOW PREVIEW: Marigold New Year Golden Garden 2024 – Night 11 (20/02/2025)

When & Where?

• When?: Thursday 20th February 2025
• Where?: Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
• Time?: 6pm JST 🇯🇵/4am EST 🇺🇸/1am PT 🇺🇸/9am GMT 🇬🇧

The Press Conference

What is the Full Card?

• Marigold Twinstar Championships Match: Nanae Takahashi & Seri Yamaoka (c) vs. Utami Hayashishita & Victoria Yuzuki
• Marigold United National Championship Match: Mai Sakurai (c) vs. Chanyota
• Marigold World Championship #1 Contendership: Bozilla vs. MIRAI
• Miku Aono, Chika Goto & Natsumi Showzuki vs. CHIAKI, Nagisa Nozaki & Misa Matsui
• Nao Ishikawa vs. Megaton
• Riara & Rea Seto vs. Minami Yuki & Ryoko Sakimura

What do I Need to Know?

• 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.
• 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.
• This will be the 12th time that Marigold have run Korakuen Hall, with the 1535 people drawn to their inaugural show in May 2024 remaining their highest attendance at the venue. Their average attendance at Korakuen Hall is 911, with their previous show there (19th January 2025 main-evented by Nanae Takahashi and Seri Yamaoka’s capture of the Twinstar Championships) drawing a house of 785.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

How do I Watch the Show?

The show will air LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE, complete with English commentary. You can sign-up to the service with a seven-day free trial from this link.

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.