Pantoja’s Marigold First Dream Review 1.3.25

Marigold First Dream

January 3^rd, 2025 | Ota City Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan

It’s already time for the first major review of 2025. It’s a busy weekend with this, a STARDOM show, Wrestle Kingdom, and Wrestle Dynasty.

New Year’s Dream Rumble

I am still very new to a lot of the people in this company so I wasn’t sure who a lot of the people in this match were. I did recognize Rea Seto, Hummingbird, and Misa Matsui. They were the standouts from that standpoint. This was designed like a standard Royal Rumble in that two wrestlers started and a new one arrived every 60 seconds. Respect to Riara, who I don’t know but she came out with a bottle of champagne and used it as a weapon. That said, her use of it looked awkward and she kind of just handed it to the referee only to get mad when he got it. Yuki Mashiro came out and is Ice Ribbon’s Infinity Champion. I love cross promotion stuff like that. Hummingbird got a decent run and she looked better than in her rough first few matches. Nightshade came in and commentary hyped her up. She came in and dominated with her size, giving me some Bozilla vibes. In the end, it came down to Minami Yuuki and Yuki Mashiro, with Yuki knocking her to the floor for the win at the 20:25 mark. That was like a New Japan RAMBO. Just a bunch of stuff happening with a few entertaining spots in there and it moved along nicely. [**]

MIRAI vs. Seri Yamaoka

At first this seemed like a weird spot for MIRAI, who is a top star. However, this is the debut of Seri Yamaoka and is apparently something of a big deal so this works. She’s hyped as a “Super Rookie” and she’s had interactions before with the likes of Giulia. MIRAI’s theme is a banger. Seri’s amateur background was evident as she grappled with MIRAI in the early stages and looked smooth doing so. MIRAI was forced to desperately grab for the ropes several times, showing this wasn’t going to be some easy win over a rookie. The mat work progressed into strikes, with Seri giving it as much as she was getting, which is difficult sine MIRAI hits pretty hard. The crowd got more into this as it went on. MIRAI hit a short lariat and went for a big one off the ropes only for Seri to duck and hit a German right as the 15:00 time limit expired. Incredible effort for someone in their debut. Seri got on the microphone and asked for sudden death, which was granted. The overtime period was great, with Seri putting MIRAI in several submissions and really giving her a run for her money. MIRAI got going and Seri looked exhausted, only to kick out at one and then hit another sweet German Suplex. Alas, another lariat, Miramare, and yet another lariat finally ended this after 22:14. One of the best debuts you will ever see. Just an unreal performance by Seri and MIRAI showed again why she’s so good. [***¾]

Super Flyweight Championship: Natsumi Showzuki [c] vs. Victoria Yuzuki

Wild to think that Yuzuki has only been wrestling about 13 months now. She sported a mask during her entrance to honor her idol, Mayu Iwatani. These two went to a time limit draw in the Dream Star GP (***) though I missed their first title match. There was some animosity early with Yuzuki looking for a hard slap on the pre-match handshake and Natsumi pulling away from it, leaving her hanging. They also fought to the floor and Natsumi was the aggressor but Yuzuki turned the tide, threw her into chairs, and hit a tornillo off the middle rope. Back inside, things were pretty level with Natsumi held serve with an armbar and the rare bottom rope suplex. As this passed 10 minutes, Natsumi was starting to zero in on a win but Yuzuki got her knees up on a diving knee drop. You don’t see that every day. She rallied and hit a quarter of moonsaults, going up from standing all the way to the top rope, to win in 13:14. She did slip a bit on the finish, taking away from it a bit but this was a good title match and a big win for Yuzuki, a very impressive rookie. [***¼]

Post-match, Rumble winner Yuki Mashiro came out and issued a challenge to Yuzuki.

Twin Star Championship: CHIAKI and Nagisa Nozaki [c] vs. Bozilla and TANK

I missed a bit from this company because I didn’t see CHIAKI and Nagisa win the titles after MIRAI and Mai had them. I’ve also never seen TANK but Bozilla has been a fun foreign powerhouse. TANK is RIPPED. That made for an interesting match because the big dominant challengers aren’t facing a babyface team but a classic heel duo. They brawled almost immediately, including to the outside and through the crowd. It was interesting to see the champions have to find creative ways to get offense in against Bozilla, who handled most of the action for her team. TANK came in and hit a chokeslam before Bozilla beat CHIAKI with a powerbomb in 7:10. That was kind of just there but did what it had to by getting the titles onto a new team. It’ll be interesting to see where this team goes as champions. [**]

Meiko Satomura and YUNA vs. Nanae Takahashi and Nao Ishikawa

Again, I’m not all the way up on the stories behind this. Commentary said this was Marigold vs. Sendai Girls and I do believe that Meiko is apparently going to retire soon. You could tell this was going to get a decent amount of time given the slow start as everyone had exchanges with each other building to Nanae and Meiko facing off. They last met in a draw in 2019. Their back and forth was hotly contested and then we got YUNA trying to go right at Nanae. It was like a little Passion Injection match. That was all fine but this was all about seeing Nanae and Meiko collide. Things came back around to them in the waning minutes as we got a Satomura Special and a good looking Death Valley Bomb for close calls. Of course, neither of  those ladies were about to eat a fall so YUNA got the tag and fell to a Brainbuster from Nanae in 16:46. Good stuff here. If I knew more about their history and such I likely would’ve been more into this but what I got, I enjoyed. [***]

GHC Women’s Championship: Kouki Amarei [c] vs. Chika Goto

This title, associated with NOAH, just debuted this past October and Kouki is the inaugural champion after winning a battle royal. From what I’ve seen so far, she has a bright future and has star written all over her. Goto impressed in the Dream Star GP and brings a lot of energy to her matches. Their Dream Star match was good (***). This was about on par with that. They kept things mostly simple with Kouki mostly in control but Goto getting in stuff like a big (more like a medium) swing. Kouki was able to stop her momentum with one of her big boots. She’s still young but she already throws some of the best boots in wrestling. However, the match took a turn when Kouki seemed to tweak her knee. She was badly favoring it the rest of the match and struggled to do a lot of stuff. She gutted it out though and still managed to use a twisting splash off the top to retain in 8:24. That was going well until the injury which is a shame. Hopefully, Kouki is alright. [**½]

Marigold United National Championship: Miku Aono [c] vs. Mai Sakurai

Thanks to some stellar outings against MIRAI that led to her becoming the first United National Champion, Miku Aono has been a breakout star of Marigold. Meanwhile, veteran Mai Sakurai has really stepped up for Marigold since its inception. I saw them meet in the Dream Star GP which was very good (***¾) and went to a draw. They opened with a basic feeling out process before fighting up the aisle, kicking things into a more intense level. While out there, Mai took some damage to the knee and Miku took advantage. She was aggressive throughout, doing things like slapping Mai. She worked the leg and went to it whenever Mai gained any momentum. Mai got going when things spilled outside again though her selling of the leg work left a lot to be desired. It was a case of not worrying about selling when you have to get your offense in. Miku responded by busting out an avalanche Styles Clash which got a pop. From there, this became great with Mai’s sweet looking elbow drop to a struggle over submissions to a huge Tiger Driver and more. It all built to Mai making Miku tap to the STF in 25:13. For the first half or so, this was good but from that Styles Clash on, it was spectacular. The first great match of 2025 and a deserving win given how good Mai was in 2024. [****]

Marigold World Championship: Sareee [c] vs. Utami Hayashishita

The big one. Sareee was in the conversation for the best wrestler of 2024, regardless of gender, while Utami always felt like the woman Marigold was meant to build around. It felt like a big deal and was the perfect main event for a big show like this. Utami looked to start hot but a diving double stomp put Sareee in the driver’s seat and she proceeded to wear down the challenger. Utami rallied and that’s where things really picked up. Her superplex was answered by headbutts and an avalanche Fisherman Buster from the champion. Then, it was time to trade Germans with both getting up after each, ready to deliver the next big blow. It was turning into the heavyweight clash between two of the best that you wanted and expected from these two. The strikes they were laying into each other sounded brutal and both threw some that floored the other. Down the stretch, there were big counters to their best moves, while never overdoing it with things like a bunch of finisher kickouts. Utami taking a headbutt and immediately applying a sleeper despite feeling the damage was dope. Utami couldn’t get it done with the Shocking Baszler or Torture Rack Bomb, yet finally pulled it off with a spinning crucifix bomb in 22:23. Another great match to cap things off. I think this was a bit better from start to finish (though the final stretch of the previous match was better). This was just two of the best going out there and doing what they do best. [****¼]

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

A really good show from Marigold. I think some of matches didn’t quite click enough to make it great but there were some awesome matches in there and, most importantly, they did a strong job of setting up 2025 for this new company. Yuzuki, Mai, and Utami feel like great choices for their three titles going forward.