Pantoja’s Marigold Mayu Iwatani 15th Anniversary Review 1.24.26

Marigold New Years Golden Garden – Mayu Iwatani 15^th Anniversary

January 24^th, 2026 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 1,195

I keep waiting for Marigold’s PPV from 1/3 to become available on the streaming service but no luck there. Oh well. Let’s celebrate the GOAT today instead.

Hummingbird vs. Shoko Koshino vs. Yuuka Yamazaki

These random multi-woman matches on STARDOM are inoffensive and relatively fine but in Marigold, they just don’t seem to click. This was another that missed the mark, with lackluster attempts at comedy, strikes that looked incredibly weak, and sloppy moves. There’s not much else to say here, though the crowd seemed to like Shoko. They got what they wanted though as she slammed Hummingbird from the top and then pinned Yuuka following a splash off the top in 8:23. A nothing match that went too long. [*]

Chika Goto and Nao Ishikawa vs. Nagisa Nozaki and Rea Seto

I’ve noted this before but Rea Seto has improved significantly over the past year or so. She looked solid out there again as it’s clear that being around a veteran like Nagisa has helped her so much. Her work looks smoother and she’s doing well with the little things that heels must do. They isolated Nao, which set up the hot tag to Chika. The crowd loves her so that worked well. Chika and Rea had some solid back and forth in terms of strikes. Eventually, Chika had to tag back out and Nao got trapped in a rear naked choke by Nagisa. I thought that would be the finish but Nao made it to the ropes. I bit on a Nao rollup near fall, which I wasn’t expecting. In the end though, Nagisa used a full nelson slam to beat her in 11:11. That was a pretty darn good tag match. [***]

Komomo Minami vs. Victoria Yuzuki

Where has the time gone? Yuzuki went from one of the most impressive rookies ever to already seemingly being the veteran who works the new crop of rookies, in seemingly no time. Komomo attacked before the bell to the surprise of many and delivered a cross body off the top to the outside in the opening minute. Yuzuki responded with a top con hilo where she nearly landed on her head. Commentary discussed how close these two are outside of the ring and that played into the match. Their chemistry was easy and their knowledge of each other was evident. They might’ve been somewhat banged up after the hot start as they slowed the pace for the next section of the bout. When it picked back up, we got the two trading blows and just laying into each other. When Komomo laid out Yuzuki with a forearm, the crowd popped as they got behind the underdog. When Yuzuki hit a dropkick, it had something extra behind it and was vicious. I thought Yuzuki had it late with a Rings of Saturn only for Komomo to turn it into her own submission in a great spot. Some of the late near falls by Komomo were outstanding and as she hit a swinging back suplex, time expired at 15:00. That was unexpectedly awesome. I love this story in wrestling and have never seen it done with someone as young as Yuzuki in the veteran spot. They overdelivered here. Komomo is a strong prospect and Yuzuki showed she can lead a great match. [***¾]

Marigold 3D Trios Title Tournament First Round: Erina Yamanaka, Mai Sakurai & Natsumi Showzuki vs. Kouki Amarei, Megaton & Miku Aono

For those unaware, Marigold is introducing trios titles this year and this is the start (I believe) of the tournament. There are notable names involved here, from Mai Sakurai to rising star Kouki Amarei to World Champion Miku Aono. I like Mai, Erina, and Natsumi as a trio of vets. What we got here was a quality trios tag, though nothing stood out as being great. Megaton did her usual schtick and like Fukigen Death in STARDOM, it can feel out of place in certain matches. There was a good exchange of kicks between Miku and Natsumi, with the latter not backing down against the champion. The action was pretty consistently solid throughout. I laughed at Miku and Megaton’s tandem move failing and their slow tumble to the mat. Megaton was clearly here to eat a pin though, falling after taking an elbow from Mai and a double knee drop from Natsumi in 16:38. That was a good, solid trios match with some really fun moments. [***¼]

Marigold Twin Star Championship: CHIAKI and Misa Matsui [c] vs. Seri Yamaoka and Shinno

The champions defend against Marigold’s top two rookies. I like that Seri and Shinno look like a team, with matching gear and everything. It’ll be interesting to see if they remain a consistent team. CHIAKI and Misa surprised me by going in for handshakes at the start and actually completing them rather than going for a cheap shot. From there though, it was pretty standard tag team wrestling, with the champs doing basic heel work and cutting the ring in half. Shinno was isolated to set up the hot tag to Seri. She works in that role because he offense looks pretty damn good for someone so young. She did her thing for a bit and tagged Shinno back in, who had her run cut off when Misa tripped her. CHIAKI avoided a Shinno dive outside before using chairs to wear her down. Seri had to make the save but they fought her off and CHIAKI beat Shinno with a leg drop from the top in 13:35. Another good, not great match. I think this went a bit long for what they were going for and the champs just aren’t very interesting to me. [***]

GHC Women’s Championship: Mayu Iwatani [c] vs. Utami Hayashishita

The greatest of all time celebrating her 15^th anniversary by defending her new title against Marigold’s ace. There’s a lot of history here and they’ve faced off for both the World of STARDOM and IWGP Women’s Titles, as well as in the 5STAR Grand Prix Finals. Tears were shed by Utami in the press conference build for this, so there’s also a lot of emotion on top of the title being on the line. They also wrestled to a draw in last year’s Dream Star GP. Before the bell, there was a special ceremony for Mayu featuring some old foes like Yoko Bito and Nanae Takahashi. Mayu started with a bang, coming out with a dropkick and hitting a second only for Utami to interrupt her dive with a dropkick of her own. I liked the pace of this one. We get so many main events that are long and drawn out but I dug that this was a condensed version. They know each other well so opting for a different style to throw your opponent off makes sense. They kept up the pace with big moves and hard hitting offense from start to finish. The final few minutes were electric, with suplexes, vicious strikes, and loud kicks. Neither woman was giving an inch. I loved the little tidbit of how Utami struggled to block Mayu’s finisher. You believed she was fighting it off in a realistic manner. Using that to set up her finisher, which she used to beat Mayu in a tag a few weeks ago, was great. Mayu kicked out after one of many awkward counts by the referee. From there, they battled a bit more and Mayu retained with the Two Step Dragon Suplex after 14:45. Different from their GP match, yet about on par in terms of quality. Two of the best throwing bombs at each other. [****¼]

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

This was about what I’ve come to expect from Marigold at this point. A couple of standout matches, some undercard stuff that misses wildly, and some good stuff in the middle. The main event and the emotional Mayu bits gave it an extra boost too.