Marigold Summer Gold Shine
August 19th, 2024 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 1,450
I haven’t been following Marigold much since the July 13th show due to time being taken up by the 5STAR Grand Prix and the G1. That said, the G1 is now over and Marigold has their own round-robin tournament on the horizon so it’s a good time to get back in. Plus, this is a special show as it’s Giulia’s final singles match before heading to WWE.
Komomo Minami vs. Yuuki Minami
I will openly admit that I’m still not totally confident with who everyone is in Marigold but I’ll do my best. I saw Komomo have a few solid matches and this is my first look at Yuuki. You could tell pretty early on that these ladies are green as a lot of this didn’t look as smoothly as they want. That said, I think Komomo did well enough leading the way considering she only debuted a few months ago. It had some decent back and forth but nothing more. I was surprised to see Yuuki get the win with a back suplex at the 9:02 mark. I think this went a bit long for their skillsets, though it was inoffensive. [*½]
Misa Matsui vs. Nao Ishikawa vs. Natsumi Showzuki
Natsumi won the Super Flyweight Title in one hell of a match against Misa back on 7/13 and now they add Nao to the mix. This didn’t live up to that quality but Nao brought some comedic aspects to this that made it different in a good way. Plus, they were wise to incorporate some three-way spots that further added to giving this a fresh flair. We did get some Misa/Natsumi one on one exchanges, reminding us of that great match from Summer Destiny. Just enough to make us want more without giving us too much. I chuckled at Nao missing a dive and just hitting the mat with a splat as her opponents looked on. Misa regained some momentum by tossing Natsumi aside and besting Nao with a tight pinning combination in 8:07. That was good fun. [***]
Elimination Match: Bozilla, CHIAKI, Myla Grace & Zayda Steel vs. Kizuna Tanaka, MIRAI, Utami Hayashishita & Victoria Yuzuki
An interesting matchup. I haven’t been following things consistently so I’m not sure how this came about but it’s some top names on one side and a foreign tag team that was missing the mark last time I watched teaming with some notable heels. MIRAI, one half of the Tag Team Champions with Mai Sakurai, started this but didn’t stay legal for very long. This match featured a lot of quick tags and all sorts of combinations as well as some cool spots like Bozilla dumping Yuzuki outside only for MIRAI and Utami to catch her and prevent the elimination. I was actually rather impressed with Myla and Zayda, which is a step up from the previous shows I’ve watched. There were some eliminations throughout but more than any result, the biggest takeaway here was Bozilla. She got great reactions for everything she did and her interactions with Utami stood out. That could be a pretty big match when it happens and it’ll do wonders for Bozilla. She started taking on multiple people at once and racking up the eliminations. MIRAI and Utami had to work together to eliminate her over the top rope before a chair shot (and help from Bozilla) got rid of MIRAI. It came down to CHIAKI and Utami only to end in a time limit draw in 20:00. A disappointing result as you don’t need to do a draw to protect people when you can do over the top eliminations. A good, fun elimination tag overall though. [***]
Arisa Nakajima and Sareee vs. Chika Goto and Nanae Takahashi
The main setup here is that Arisa is nearing retirement and has a history with Nanae as well as her partner Sareee, who is also the Marigold World Champion. What we got was a strong tag match that saw everyone get a chance to shine. I’m not overly familiar with Arisa but she was killing it here, trading bombs and delivering some big moves to Nanae. They were just kicking each other’s ass throughout. Sareee was her usual great self. Still blows my mind that she was so bad in NXT. They never made her comfortable the way they did with other women from Japan and it showed. I also have to praise Chika. This was clearly one of the biggest spots of her career and she stepped up in a major way. Seeing GoChika (as she’s apparently called) trade blows with the top champion as great. The final few minutes ruled and it culminated when Sareee used a vicious Rings of Saturn looking submission to make Chika give up in 15:43. Just a ton of action in one of the better tag matches I’ve seen from this company. [***¾]
Announcements were made for the Dream Star Grand Prix, which runs from 8/31 through 9/28. I believe the blocks are called DREAM and STAR.
For Dream we have Utami Hayashishita, MIRAI, Kouki Amarei, Natsumi Showzuki, Chika Goto, Nagisa Nozaki, Victoria Yuzuki, and NØRI. Star has Sareee, Miku Aono, Bozilla, Nanae Takahashi, Mai Sakurai, Misa Matsui, CHIAKI, and Kizuna Tanaka.
Marigold United National Championship: Miku Aono [c] vs. Kouki Amarei
This is historic as it’s the first title defense in company history apparently. Miku impressed in a big way during her series with MIRAI. Obviously, this wasn’t on the same level but it was a very good title defense. A lot of this was built around Kouki’s stature and how it posed problems for the champion. It started a bit slow but picked up in the middle, only to kind of slow down again. Like, there’s a spot where Kouki countered Miku outside with a powerslam that came off very well but it felt like the peak of that spot and then things kind of died off before ramping up leading into the closing stretch. It gave the vibe that this would’ve been better at a few minutes shorter with some trimming in the middle. Miku’s prolonged submission in didn’t really work for me but her rope-assisted suplex spot is pretty sweet. Kouki got in some good spots late as she teased pulling off the win in a really strong closing stretch. Then Miku busted out a Styles Clash to retain at the 21:00. That was very good though there was a legitimately great match in there had they trimmed a bit down. Still, impressive showing for both ladies here. [***½]
Giulia vs. Mai Sakurai
Giulia’s final singles match in Japan comes against her longtime friend and partner Mai Sakurai. An emotional Giulia was showered with streamers before the bell. You could tell this would last a while with how they started things in the ring but I was happy to see them leave the ring and head through the crowd. That allowed them to pick up the pace quicker than expected and things got pretty vicious despite them bring friends. Giulia slammed Mai’s head into the wall and unceremoniously tossed her onto the arena stairs before setting up a table. The intensity stayed high with them firing off headbutts and Giulia getting into it with the referee, including slapping him. When the fight went back outside by the table, we got the expected Giulia piledriver through it. The crowd reaction to it was huge. Mai brought her best effort for her buddy, busting out a dive off the top and looking better in a singles match than I’ve ever seen. Down the stretch, it became the two of them throwing bombs at each other as the Korakuen crowd ate it up. Giulia finally pulled out the win after 26:46 by delivering three Northern Lights Bombs. Mai was better than ever here, Giulia was her usual great self, and this was a fitting end for her. [****]
