Pantoja’s Marigold Summer Destiny 2024 Review

Marigold Summer Destiny

July 13^th, 2024 | Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 3,058

NOTE: For anyone following all of my reviews, my WrestleMania Series is still ongoing. It’s something I’m doing in my free time though so reviews from 2024 (like this one) take precedence. Also, I’m up to the Manias that are like, 7 hours long so it takes a while.

It’s Marigold’s biggest show ever, with champions to determine and a guest appearance by IYO SKY. Plus, they drew a pretty strong crowd for a new promotion. For anyone wondering, I’m skipping the pre-show match.

Chika Goto and Kouki Amarei vs. Kizuna Tanaka and Victoria Yuzuki

Chika and Kouki have formed a decent team on these shows. I saw this same match a bit ago but with Mai Sakurai instead of Kizuna. Commentary called Chika and Kouki the “Twin Towers.” Kizuna is a legacy with her dad being Minoru Tanaka and her mother being Yumi Fukawa, who wrestled for Rossy in the past. The rookie duo had to use speed and tandem offense to make up for their size disadvantage. I’ve watched her for most of her young career yet I’m always surprised by how good Yuzuki is. She picked this up much quicker than a lot of rookies. Some of the boots thrown by Kouki looked pretty bad, even completely whiffing on a couple. You could tell through a handful of spots that these weren’t the cleanest of workers but they brought the energy level you want. Kizuna laid into Kouki with a spin kick just as time expired at the 10:00 mark. Classic Rossy. That was a solid enough opener even with the lackluster result. [**¾]

Now we got a fancy little intro complete with a live song and a bunch of the wrestlers dancing around the ring before they started just doing spots. That was weird.

Then, we got the announcement of the Dream Star Grand Prix, which (if it isn’t obvious) is Marigold’s round-robin tournament similar to the 5STAR Grand Prix. Interesting to try it this early into a company’s run but alright. It starts on August 31^st and ends on September 28^th. They also announced a show at the Ota Ward Gymnasium for 1/3/25.

Former wrestler Michiko Omukai came out to announce that her daughter Shinno Omukai will be joining the Marigold roster.

CHIAKI and Nagisa Nozaki vs. Myla Grace and Zayda Steel

I didn’t come into this with high expectations. While CHIAKI and Nagisa have been solid heels, Myla and Zayda have typically been part of Marigold’s lesser matches. They work well as a team but they can get sloppy which was the case here. It was almost as if the lights got too bright for Zayda at points. She is just 20 years old though, so she has plenty of time to develop and get better. For the most part, this was a standard tag with the heels isolating one babyface before a mild tag came to turn the tide. It’s a simple yet effective formula. A ref bump led to Nagisa using a chair as a weapon like she was a member of the House of Torture. CHIAKI got the win with a swinging cradle slam of sorts in 8:40. A ho-hum match. Post-match, Zayda and Myla got into a fight. [**]

Marigold Super Flyweight Championship Tournament Finals: Misa Matsui vs. Natsumi Showzuki

So this title is meant to be something like STARDOM’s High Speed Championship. These two have a long history outside of Marigold, having met 12 times. Misa is the budding star while Natsumi is the veteran. They opened at a quick pace but soon moved into submission work to slow things down which I wasn’t expecting. Since they knew each other so well, both competitors were able to avoid big moves or counter them when needed. A cross body to the outside can often look weak but Misa’s here looked surprisingly impactful. Natsumi responded with a long run ahead of a double knee strike that looked absolutely brutal. Misa ended up bleeding from the mouth, making everything she did look a little cooler. That also helped the crowd get even more behind her. I liked the desperation she showed in delivering double stomps after every kickout from Natsumi during a sea of quick pin attempts. Just when it seemed like Misa was on the verge of pulling it off, a pinning combination won the title for Natsumi at the 14:51 mark. A great match and a tremendous way to start this title lineage. A few spots didn’t come off as cleanly as you’d like but they hit each other hard and kept up an exciting pace throughout. [****]

Mai Sakurai, Nanae Takahashi and Nao Ishikawa vs. NORI, Shinobu Kandori and Takako Inoue

I’m not too familiar with everyone here but it’s Nanae and two people she took under her wings against some serious veterans and young NORI. Looking up Shinobu Kandori, I did not expect to see it say that she was also a politician. This was mostly a relatively simple match with the older vets doing a lot of brawling out of the ring while the younger talents handled the bulk of the action. I think the idea of Mai and Nao doing their best to impress Nanae was a fine little story, while NORI kind of stole the show whenever she was in there. I’d be inclined to see more of her. I have to admit though, I couldn’t really get engaged with this. Maybe it was the unfamiliarity with a lot of the women. In the end, NORI laid out Nao with a series of kicks capped by a spinning one in 15:33. Not bad but again, I just couldn’t really get into it. A bit too long too. [**½]

Marigold United National Title Tournament First Round: Miku Aono vs. MIRAI

Oh, I am SEATED for this one. They’ve gone to three-time limit draws (I apparently only saw two at ***¾ and ****) so this is happening once more to see who makes the finals (with a 30-minute limit) and the winner gets Bozilla immediately after. Miku and MIRAI are both kind of ultimate babyfaces too. MIRAI is about a decade younger but has been wrestling for longer than Miku. Like their previous bouts, the idea here was that they were evenly matched. They matched each other at nearly every turn and neither woman gained a significant upper hand for any period of time. Miku targeted the arm to negate MIRAI’s lariat. MIRAI responded by going after the leg to take away her kicks. Sometimes, all I ask is that a match makes sense and this one did. MIRAI made the first big mistake when she got trapped and slammed from the top onto the apron. They progressed into throwing forearms which they were again evenly matched at. Miku started hitting her own lariats but MIRAI laid her out with one only to just get a near fall. When she tried her second pin after one, I was totally expecting that to be the finish yet again, Miku got up. MIRAI blocked the Styles Clash but took a Buzzsaw Kick before Miku succeeded on the Styles Clash to win in 24:14. While there were a few bits where this dragged, it was very good overall and truly felt like a clash between two top stars. [***¾]

Marigold United National Title Tournament Finals: Bozilla vs. Miku Aono

This is smart booking because now Miku gets to go against a monster like you want from your sympathetic babyface. Bozilla opened this by throwing Miku around and destroying her with a missile dropkick. Miku was basically lifeless and it looked like Bozilla could wrap this up in a couple of minutes. Of course, Miku wasn’t going out like that so she rallied with some desperate rights and lefts to try and chop down Bozilla. She then opted for a kneebar to keep her grounded but once they were both upright again, Bozilla could just brush off her strikes. Bozilla hit a big powerbomb but Miku was too close to the ropes and grabbed it to break a pin. Miku tried for the Styles Clash but obviously couldn’t get Bozilla up. However, she turned Bozilla’s counter into a sunset flip to win the title in 10:13. Just what it needed to be. Short and allowed Miku to overcome the overconfident monster. I think Miku came out of this looking like a star. [***¼]

IYO SKY vs. Utami Hayashishita

The reason many of us bought the PPV. This is Utami’s dream match and it’s dubbed “Queen of Queens” since IYO started Queen’s Quest and Utami was their leader before she left STARDOM. Both wore their masks during their entrances to represent that. IYO looked motivated from the start and, after a feeling out process, was the first to gain control with a tope suicida. Everything that she did had snap and was impactful. Utami had to weather that early storm before getting her footing and returning the favor with some big blows herself. 10 minutes in and Utami was showing the effects of this hard-hitting match all over her face. IYO busted out an avalanche-delayed poison rana that looked like it could’ve killed someone and is the kind of spot that’ll be stuck in my head for a long time. Utami’s German Suplex was gorgeous and was a nod to IYO using that move when she was in STARDOM, while Bret’s Rope variation made for a great near fall. Things got even better down the stretch with stellar near falls and things like IYO delivering a sick knee strike and a goddamn Tombstone. IYO added a moonsault to get the three count in 23:01. An outstanding match that lived up to the hype. Utami is a spectacular pro wrestler and IYO is one of the best to ever do it. She looked genuinely happy to be back in Japan and her performance reflected that. [****¾]

Marigold World Championship: Giulia vs. Sareee

There’s a lot of hype to this, especially when you consider how hard Giulia and Sareee went at each other in tags. It’s good to have Giulia back in action. There was an aggressive nature to this from the start, with stiff shots, neckbreakers outside, and brawling in the crowd complete with chairs being thrown around. It gave me vibes of the incredible Giulia/Syuri match from two years ago. Even when the pace was slowed in the ring, Giulia would slap Sareee to make sure there was never a moment that didn’t feel intense. Like the other top matches today, this got better as it went on. Sareee manages to get such high impact on her dropkick that it turns a basic wrestling move into something that looks like it could end a match. It’s gotta be up there for one of the best dropkicks in the business. Giulia was already with a stiff strike or a knee to the face to cut off her momentum though. A table got brought into play outside with Giulia delivering a piledriver through it. I’ve never needed those spots in Giulia matches but they happen a lot. They traded some absolutely brutal forearms late before Sareee survived the Glorious Driver. Sareee dropped her on her head with a suplex and applied an armbar complete with removing Giulia’s protective wristband, which I thought was going to be the finish. Alas, Giulia made it to the ropes and they kept fighting. I do think they went a bit overboard with the late close calls and near falls in an attempt to make this into a true epic. Still, Sareee using another armbar while pulling back on the fingers made for a great submission ending after 25:48. Sareee is a great choice for champion and I do think this missed some drama since I never suspected Giulia would win but still, this was fantastic. [****¼]

8.5

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

What a show. Outside of the early tag match and the six woman tag in the middle, I enjoyed the hell out of this. It felt like a satisfying end to the promotion’s first chapter, featured great matches, and set things up for the immediate future. IYO/Utami is a legitimate MOTYC too.