The Marigold Standard #81: New Years Golden Garden 2026 Nights 5 & 6 Reviews!

We'll be right back. See you next time. Hello guys and welcome to the Marigold Standard, your weekly audio source of all things dream star fighting Marigold. I'm your host Rob Goodwin and I am joined as ever by, of course, the vivid honey mustard, Mr. Matt Turner. Matt Turner, how are you? I like the delay on the mat. Just a little bit of dramatic pause. I love it. I love it. Rob, I am more excited than usual this week, which is saying something for a lot of reasons. Number one, I'm going to be talking to you about some fantastic wrestling from our friends over at Marigold. And we're going to be talking about another Malenko that has entered the fray in professional wrestling, which I'm really excited about. I get more on that in just a little bit. Really excited for the Super Bowl is this weekend. And I'm mostly excited. there is rumors that there's going to be some Marvel trailers, full trailers, possibly for Doomsday during the Super Bowl. So super excited for that. Obviously, if you listen to the Stardom Cash, you know I'm excited about the Stardom pay-per-view this weekend with Sai Kamatani versus Starlight Kid. Rob, I'm also very excited that just the other day, we all found out that my pro wrestling mentor will be main eventing WrestleMania night two. So super excited for one CM Punk to be main eventing WrestleMania again, but main eventing night two. Rob is all, I got the sweetheart dance coming up this weekend. That's exciting as well. That's the WrestleMania main event right there. Yeah, that's that, that's right there. And it's all as all as super exciting as all is. That may have pale in comparison. What I'm really excited about, Rob, it looks like next year, 2027, the return of Oz fest. So I don't know if you've seen this, I have seen this. Yes. Yes. Sharon Osbourne did an interview where she said that she's been in contacts with live nation who has basically the ticket outfitter and the distributor for Oz fest for years and years and years to bring back Oz fest. And I was like, yeah, maybe just something that she's saying, just the pro wrestler in me. It's like, yeah, it's something that maybe he said, we'll see what happens. And then a day would pass two days would pass. And then kind of like there, where there's smoke, there's fire, all these big publications were picking up on it. And then just yesterday, I was scrolling through the Twitter and I saw that there was the OzFest devil logo where it said OzFest with the devil 2027. I'm like, oh, cool. Somebody made a logo. No, that was the official OzFest page that I'm sure some of the Osbournes have a hand in, you know, putting out the news. I was like, once I saw that on there, I'm like, there's no way the official OzFest page doesn't put that out with it not coming true. So more than likely, Rob, 2027, the return of OzFest, which I can't think of a better way to immortalize the great, the true growth, the true greatest of all time, one Ozzy Osbourne. It's a lot of really cool things going on my neck of the woods, my friend, this week. I mean, the biggest question is, did you see the performance for Ozzy from the Grammys this past week? I did with Post Malone on lyrics slash. Did a very good job Post Malone did, I must admit. Very good job. Yeah, really good. And then Youngblood won Best Rock Performances for Changes. So again, unsurprising, unsurprising, very good. So you look at and again, this is the giant Ozzy Osbourne fan in me. I rarely pay attention to anything with the Grammys, but obviously there was a lot of Ozzy's fingerprints on the Grammys. But like Youngblood wins Best Rock Performance for a song Ozzy wrote 50 years ago. And then there's a tribute song for War Pigs, which was great that Ozzy wrote about 50 years ago. So let's see if Taylor Swift songs are going to be talked about and covered in 50 years from now. Or TLC or Two Live Crew or any of those. Really? You went from Taylor Swift to Two Live Crew? Like, what a window into the mind of Matt Turner there. You don't want to be in this mind, folks. It's like the monkey banging the symbol. That's what's going on here. But obviously, you know, I'm doing good, buddy. How's everything in your neck of the woods? Yeah, I can't complain, which is always a good sign. We did wake up this morning. The boiler had gone out. So it was absolutely Baltic today when I got in. However, Matt Turner, I went full man and I have fixed the boiler. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. When Kirstie got home tonight, the house was, it wasn't toasty warm, but it was warmer than it was. And yes, I'd like to point out that it was the, it was very, very easy. I just had to open some valves. But if anybody else asks, it was the most complex and fiddly thing you've ever seen. Basically, I went to war on this boiler and came out victorious. You should have pulled the old, what Harley Race did to Ricky Steamboat when they were trying to sell an angle where he like he went backstage and rubbed sandpaper all over Ricky Steamboat's face. And then when he came out for a promo, like, oh, my God, look at Ricky Steamboat. And that's what you should have done. You should have like cut yourself or put some soot on your face or something like that, Rob. You know, like, look at everything I did to get you warm, Curse, because you cannot put a price on love. True love, Rob. That's what. Yeah, could have sold it. Could have really sold it. But good for you. Good for you, Mr. Handyman over there, Rob Goodwin. Oh, absolutely. Again, again, one of the most simple things you've ever seen. I followed a three-minute YouTube video. That's the most complex thing that I've done in this house. But nevertheless, it's done, and it is on. I'm just checking the radiator. It is officially on, so we're good to go. I was up here earlier because I managed to not sneak away from work. I'd just finished work and was sat in my in my office and literally was in a huge winter coat wrapped up in my desk because it was that cold when I got in. Do you do your work stuff like you have a work office as well as the podcast office? No, no, no. Okay. Because yeah, we we had like a like a six hour meeting the one day and they're like everybody like just stay home. I'm like, I'll just do it in the podcast room. And I'm literally right here and I have my work. I iPad on and then my buddies are texting me and be like you might want to put up a random window because people can see the mask and these I've had that while I've been on teams and I'm like just trying to block out the pictures of the wrestlers on my wall like that. What's that big picture Rob that you've got there? It's nothing. Don't you worry about it? It's a cartoon of me. It's just my big moon face. Please just don't pay attention to it. Just ignore it. Is that your chin? Let's not talk about this hey and it's funny because as my buddies are texting me on my personal phone like i don't know what you want to do so now the salesman the podcast salesman comes in to play i'm like there's 600 some odd people on this call maybe i drop a link in the chat to our yeah that's what i was thinking i was like you know basically dot carding them when you 600 person dot card i doubted a lot i dot card a lot of people during my hall of fame thing a couple weeks ago a lot of people got dark-hearted buddy yeah those poor people russ never sleeps neither does matt turner he doesn't at all uh neither does rob but that's for a different reason um anyway ladies and gentlemen let's talk about some mario it's gonna be a fairly and i say fairly because it never turns out to be short when me and matt get together um but there's not a great deal to talk about just two shows five matches a piece that's i think it was six matches um from one of the cards we've got a little bit of news coming out in regards to the foreign team that were announced for the 3d trios we now know who they are um we have got news of course of the daughter of dean malenko making her marigold debut which is very exciting we know who may wewitani is going to be defending again defending the GHC Women's Championship against next. And we have got the official brackets for that 3D Trios tournament as well. So let's not beat around the bush, Mr. Turner. Let's get straight into it. And let's talk about this upcoming Monday because that is where Maywe Watani will be defending the GHC Women's Championship for a second time. time so during the monday magic just gone on the 2nd of february um the great sequoia has been sort of going full brett hart and writing ghc in the air um great fan of brett hart is the great sequoia you can see the influences um well yeah quite um anyway mayu utari did come out to confront Sequoia and basically confirmed it was a very funny exchange because Mayu just was nowhere near the ring and every time Great Sequoia moved forward, Mayu would back off wanted none of that missed none of that missed at all, but she will defend that belt against Great Sequoia on the final Monday Magic Rising Sun show this coming Monday, February the 9th, also confirmed for that card for those that are interested Titus Alexander will be defending the GHC Hardcore Championship against Japanese wrestling legend Masato Tanaka a really interesting one actually this because Mayu did point out this is the first time she will be defending the GHC Women's Championship on an actual NOAA show as opposed to a Marigold show but obviously there are rumors we cannot confirm or deny that the great score is Riko Kawahata obviously we could not possibly confirm that, but there are rumors out there. Now, I know that Mayu and Rico would have tremendous chemistry. Again, I am a huge fan of Rico. Under the Great Sukhoi guys, I'm really intrigued to see how this match goes, because the Great Sukhoi is a gimmick, more than anything else. It'll still be a really good match. It'll be completely different to the Utami match, and certainly the Takumi match, Matt. Rob do you think they're missing a trick by not building this match up a little more and what I mean by that is not having a preview tag match are you taking a drink I gotta wait because then you're gonna I'm gonna pop you a preview match with the father figures don't you think that the great Sequoia and the great Muda versus Mayu and Rossi Ogawa would be the way I think they the build has been good the build I think I think they might have missed the big step by having Mayu and Rossi take on the Great Sequoia and Great Muda. All joking aside, yeah, this should be good. Because again, Great Sequoia may or may not be Riko Karahara, but who's fantastic. But we kind of been liking some of this Great Sequoia stuff kind of we would see with Haruka Yamasaki as karma. Like a really great wrestler, but when she does the gimmick, the gimmick does well, but it may hinder some of the wrestling. I don't see that here. Again, we haven't seen too much of the Great Sequoia have those really great matches that we have seen uh rico as part of magenta and part of marvelous have but this match is going to be i guess pun intended i didn't realize we're going to say this i really think this match is going to be marvelous because it's mayu it's a great sequoia i believe this is in shinjuku face where they do all of these monday magics which is a great uh really great atmosphere for a venue but i'm really looking forward to this you know mayu defending one of her two championships that she has right now against somebody that is you know quote unquote may or may not be the daughter of the great muda i still think this will be done really well because they've given this time to breathe they let it build for a little bit so i'm really looking forward to this match uh this monday my friend great way to cure your super bowl hangover is watching my riwatani defend the pro wrestling noah joshi championship yeah and this will be live on Wrestle Universe Monday, the 9th of February. Definitely worth checking out. We do have the full brackets announced for the 3D Trios Championships. For those, again, who don't know, that is short for Dream Diamond Destiny and will be the company's trios titles going forward. We've seen them in the flesh now, Matt. Obviously, we'd seen the graphics. We now have seen them in the flesh. I'll ask you what your thoughts are on these belts in a moment but in terms of the brackets obviously for those watching on YouTube the brackets are slightly more expanded now as we know who one of the semifinals will contain and obviously we're going to get into that foreign team that have been announced in a moment but we do know that Natsumi Shozuki, Maesakurai and Irina Yamanaka were the first through to the semifinals they will take on and again spoilers for those who haven't seen the show from the 30th they will take on the team of Seriyama Shoko Kishino and Yuka Yamazaki on the 15th of February in the 176 box in Osaka now that means that the winner of Utami, Chan Yota and Chikagoto and Darkness Revolution and the winner of Maiwe Uitani, Komomo Manami and Victoria Yuzuki and the foreign team, they will face off on February the 13th. And then obviously in Shinjuku face, and then the winners will face off on the final in Corican Hall on the 23rd of February. Now, Matt, obviously having seen the brackets now, we'll talk about that foreign team in a moment. are your favorites to win still Miku Aonokoki Amore and Megaton still yeah absolutely I think that yeah per this I mean again we know who the team wrestling team Mayu is but what if something happens and then they have to throw in a team and it's Miku Aonokoki Amore and Megaton still clinging onto it I love it yeah I guess since you brought it up I wasn't going to say anything but since you brought it up you got to continue with the gimmick the way that I'm looking at this I think Again, we know who the semifinals is on the left side of the bracket. Again, if you're watching on YouTube, as great as Team Seri is, I just think the Buzzsaw team, that's Irina Yamiaka, Natsumi Shozuki, we're going to be talking a lot about and praising one Natsumi Shozuki. Holy on this show. Holy geez. And Mei Sakura, I think that there are probably the favorites to win that match and go to the finals. Look on the right side of the bracket. I just don't see. I know they're bringing in a Gaijin team to take on Team Mayu, but it's Team Mayu. mayu yuzuki komo monami and a great match we're going to be talking about in the semi-main event on the show from the the 31st so um i think that team mayu wins there it's gonna be interesting because now you have uh we haven't said in a while let's call it king's journey tell me how it's just the ten yoda and chika goto taking on darkness revolution and what's great about darkest revolution is when they're building toward when they have a big match and you're building towards the finish and they win they usually win because of they have tag team chemistry they're the only faction in the year and a half history that is marigold and they're not above bending and breaking the rules so that's a tough one to call i'm gonna say team utami wins that one and then i'm gonna say they go to the final so my finals uh just on my predictions is i'm gonna say utami chikagoto and chan yoda king's journey taking on the ladyship right rob that's the Absolutely, that must be the lady. I swear to God, if Marigold come out with King's Journey in the Ladyship, I am going to lose my mind. I was thinking of this the other day, Rob. I remember a couple months ago, we were trying to, whatever Mayu's faction is going to be, we were trying to call it like moon or stars or whatever, clouds. I'm sorry. No, obviously she was stars and started. It was like moon or clouds or Mars. Nebulous. Yeah, there you go, Milky Way. I love Milky Way. But I think that's the way it's going to be. Since the Ladyship did knock off my odds on favorites to win, you have to go with them and they have the hot hand. So I'm going to say that the Ladyship defeats King's Journey in the finals of this tournament. Yeah, I certainly think they'll be the finalist. I do think they'll be the beaten finalist. I still think that the favorites going into this, and again, we'll find out on the 7th of February when presumably because I've picked them, they will also get eliminated. But Utami, Chanyota, and Chikagoto are my favorites to go through. Question, good sir. The 23rd, is that Corican? The 23rd is Corican, yeah. Here's something else you have to think about is Corican's coming off really great momentum. Marigold's coming off really great momentum from the last Corican with Mayu's 15th anniversary show. Over a thousand people in there. So you know they're going to want their main event to have star power so is it team utami or team mayu that goes the no disrespect to darkness revolution they're great but to main event in a cork and where you want to do a thousand people you're going to either have a team led by utami or team led by mayu in the finals so that's something too you have to take into consideration because at the end of the day rob it still is a business my friend you're still trying to uh sell as many tickets as you possibly can so that's something too to take into consideration and another reason why i don't understand why megaton is not in the finals it's true i mean the draw herself um i will point out that the chances are this corican on the 23rd will also have miko aono defending the red belt against chaki and i would probably think especially if it's going the way we think it's going with some sort of you know stipulation potentially a hair versus hair match um i imagine that's that's got to go on last, which means that this will go on semi-main. I still think Utami, Chikogoto, and Chan Yota is the way to go. It wouldn't surprise me if Mayu potentially has a Superfly Championship defense on this card, potentially. But either way, you've got, you know, especially with the sort of reinforcements that Marigold have got now with the foreign talent that we're going to be talking about in a moment, the roster goes very, very deep. so you've got a lot of matches that you can potentially put on this Corican Hall card I think it's great for Chiaki as well who isn't in this tournament don't forget I think it great that she going to get her moment in the sun and a real chance to prove herself against Miko Auno but yes I am still of the opinion because I think to legitimize these titles you need to put them on at least one main event talent. And I think Utami isn't doing a lot right now, especially having just lost to Mayu. I think it will be great for her to have the belt. We've literally been talking about Chika Goto, and we were talking about it throughout the awards show, about what's next for Chika Goto, So what's that next step? This is the next step. I think that's the perfect next step for Chico Goto. Plus Chanyeo is great as well. We've now seen the belts in person, not just on graphics. What are your thoughts on the designs themselves? Blue and gold. I see what you did there, Rossi. I mean, you know my email address. I'll tell you at the end of the show. I'll joke. I mean, what does a 3D stand for? Diamond, right? so you have the three diamonds in there i like them i think they're they're good looking belts i do like the the yellow strap it does stand out very much like when rossi did design the artist of stardom championships there was three different colors of straps there and it made it stand out so i like this yellow straps you don't see that a lot not be frank again maybe no to be kind of be honest you know me just because i when i go to wrestling i go to a lot of my nostalgia growing up reminds me of the ultimate warrior when you have the yellow bag just going to say that yeah that's that's exact because even the shape of the front plate reminds me of that the intercontinental title another reason why i think megaton should have won because a lot of people do refer to her as the ultimate warrior warrior marigold we're on a roll here i know i enjoy i like them because you do see loud especially in independent wrestling when when there's a new championship or a new company that's starting and here's the belt it's cookie cutter of a lot of you know the NWA, WCW, WWE, WWF, where it just doesn't stand out. It doesn't stand out where these ones obviously do. So I do, I like them. Again, the yellow strap, the diamonds on them, I think they look really, really cool. Yeah, and again, it differentiates them from the other belts as well. So you've got obviously the red, the crimson red belt, the pure white belt. You've got the twin star titles, and now you've got the bright yellow of the 3D, trios tiles you know is an instantly definable characteristic of the four designs it's probably my least favorite but that speaks more to how much i love the united national and the crimson red belt designs i really i'm a huge fan of the designs and i'm a huge fan of the history that rossi has taken sort of influence from in regards to those titles um these are great these are fine i don't mind them at all and again the yellow is a definable characteristic it makes it stand out just doesn't uh it's not quite to the standard of the united national and the crimson red belt in my humble opinion however trio's titles much needed in marigold and i think it's a great idea good call sir moving on then marigold did announce the full card for the 7th and the 8th of february with no fewer than four mystery opponents throughout the two cards. So when they were initially announced on the 2nd of February, so on Monday, this is how the cards looked for the 4th, sorry, for the 8th of February. You ready? Ria Saito versus a mystery opponent. Victoria Izuki and Sarayama Oka versus two mystery opponents. Mikuano Chikagoto and Megaton versus Nogisu no Zaki Misumatsu and a mystery opponent. It was like, what on earth is happening? Anyway, we'll go through these full cards at the end of the show, but it has been confirmed who these mystery opponents are. I will be honest, as soon as I saw who was on the Monday Magic show, I did wonder if it was going to be them, and it is, basically. So Marigold have officially named the foreign team from the 3D tournament. That will be the United States trio of Dreamgirl Ellie, Sophia Savan, Sivan, I think it might be Sivan, and Olivia Rose with all but Sivan making their Japanese debuts. Dreamgirl Ellie, by the way, you may know from seeing her on AEW. She's been on Collision and Ring of Honor lately, and she did a couple of spots on AW Dark as well. Simon toured with JTO in December 2024, lost to Aoi in singles competition and shared the ring with the Inubis sisters as well. I think Aoi gave her an Aoi. Oh, God. Elsewhere, this is really exciting, actually. On the 7th of February, which the show is taking place in the Esfoto Arena in Hachioji in Tokyo. Sari Amoka will be taking on none other than Dean Malenko's daughter, Marie Malenko, which is incredibly exciting. So four foreign talent to join the roster. We have no note of how long they are going to be wrestling in Marigold 4, or indeed how many matches they will be having. Obviously, we know that there are two more foreign talent coming over for the True Victory series. Angel Hayes and Manny Morgan, we know they're coming over. So I wonder if this is going to be a slightly shorter one or if some of them are going to be there for the long call. Either way, Matt, very, very exciting news. And again, we are going to be going through these full cards at the end of the show. Yeah, I've seen and heard of Dream Girl Ellie. I'm really excited for Dean Malenko's daughter. I've never seen her wrestle before, but the Malenko family is one of those very rich in history wrestling families, kind of like the Hearts. the Von Erics, so on and so forth, because Dean's obviously Dean is the most recognizable because of his time in WCW and WWE and is a current backstage producer, putting matches together for AEW and helping the younger talents out. If you remember Dean used to team with his brother, Joe Malenko, when they used to wrestle in all Japan. And then their father, the professor, Boris Malenko, was a journeyman wrestler back, I believe, in the 60s and 70s. So basically you're getting Dean Malenko's daughter. Her uncle was a wrestler. Her grandfather was a wrestler. So the Malenko bloodline, for lack of a better term, is going to be pouring over here into Marigold. We're going to be able to talk about it and basically break down all of the action each and every week right here on the Marigold. standard so really excited to see what she does if she's anything like her like her dad or her brother or her uncle who's going to have a great fundamental base great technical wrestling the fact that she's paired up with i believe ria sato and sarayama yoka on these upcoming shows those are great styles for her because they'll work similar styles so really excited to see what she does here in marigold and she's obviously only going to get better working with this roster the Mayus, the Yuzuki's, the Maisakurai's, the Miko Ano's, the Utami's, and so on and so forth. So a really great opportunity for her and for us fans of her dad, one Dean Malenko. Yeah, so just to whip through that, on the 7th of February, which is this upcoming Saturday, it'll be Dream Girl Ellie, Sofia Savan, and Olivia Rose that will be taking on Mayu Iwatani, Victoria Yuzuki, and Kumomo Minami in the final match of the 3D Championship Tournament Round 1, while Marie Malenko will be taking on Sarayamoka in singles action. When Marigold goes to the 8th of February in the Kasagabe Fusai Cube in Saitama, as you've already mentioned, Marie Malenko will be facing off with Rhea Saito. Dream Girl Ellie will be joining the Darkness Revolution against Miko Auno, Megaton and Chikagoto, And then the team of Sophia Savan, Olivia Rose will be facing Saria Moka and Victoria Yuzuki in tag team action. Again, we'll have a look at those cards when we get to the end of the show. Hanson, the show on the 7th, is this live stream or is this going to be VOD? I imagine these will both be VOD. Okay. Right before we recorded, I just checked the news and we're supposed to get wind chill, negative 15 degrees. So on Saturday, maybe I won't go anywhere. Oh, no, I got to go to the dance at night. Oh, man. Anywho, I was going to say I'll just watch Marigold. Don't make out like you're not extremely excited for this dance, Martin. I am. And Amber told me that our youngest nephew is coming because he's like, he's so helpful. So he's like, well, you're going to have to hang out with him. Like, I will absolutely hang out with my soon-to-be 13-year-old nephew. His birthday is in two weeks. And he said, he's like, oh, can you buy me protein for my birthday? I'm like, this is my guy. I'm like, yeah, absolutely. I'll buy you protein for your birthday, of course. The fact that this soon-to-be 13-year-old is going to open all of his presents on his birthday, and it's just going to be chicken fillet after chicken fillet after chicken fillet from you. Is this the one you keep embarrassing on Madden? Yes, I haven't played Madden with him in a while. Yeah, yeah, he's my buddy. Just unnecessary. He's got to learn. He's got to learn. Just let him win. I try to. I don't even know how to play. I literally don't even play video games. I only play Madden when he comes over. I used to play the God of War series and just, it's great. I just don't have the time for it. Well, no, that is very, very true. Let's talk then, Matt, about these upcoming shows because these two shows were really, really good. We are starting, of course, with the show in Shinjuku face as he tries to find his notes because he's clicked on the wrong thing, as per usual. There we go. the show from the 30th was live streamed live from Shinjuku face in Tokyo the attendance was 315 for this card a 22.22 percent decrease on the last time Marigold ran Shinjuku face which was 405 on the 31st of December Matt for a show we were at though it is worth pointing out that this show did take place on a weekday, which might partially explain the drop in attendance. 315 does mark the joint and second lowest attendance the company have drawn to the venue, with only the 305 they drew in March 2025 being lower. In terms of the matches, of course, the main event was a Marigold Superfly Championship title defense. Mayu Iwitani, who at that point had been champion 251 days, making her sixth title defense against Komomo Minami. Her first challenge for any title in Marigold. It's also her first singles match against Mayu, just for some sort of reference point, I suppose. Her overall singles record before this match, 10-26-3. In terms of the results, we open with a singles match. Rina Yamanaka defeating Megaton with the Ulca Press in 6 minutes and 26 seconds we then went into a 3 way which was what a match to just have second on the card Natsumi Shiozuki vs Victoria Zuki vs. My Sakurai ended in a 15 minute time limit draw and again Matt yes we are going to be talking up Natsumi Shiozuki. 8 woman tag match next, Miko Aono, Utami Haisishta, Koukiyamare and Chikoto defeated the Dawn of Revolution team of Nagisa Nozaki, Ria Sato, Misa Matsui and Chiaki. Gochika debuting a brand new finisher, which she handily calls I'm Gochika, hitting it on Ria Sato in 16 minutes for the win. Our second team into the semifinals of the 3D Trios Championship will be Seri Yamoka, Shoko Kishino and Yuki Yamazaki, as we mentioned earlier. They defeated Hummingbird, Nao Ishikawa and Nagisa Takibana. Sarayama Oka pinning Nagisa Takibana with the dial lock in 11 minutes and 30 seconds. And then in your main event, Marigold Superfly Championship match, Mayu Iwitani made that sixth successful title defense, defeating Komomo Minami with a moonsault in 12 minutes and 30 seconds. It was a moonsault that Mayu, I think, undershot a little bit because Komomo Minami at all sorts of knees. but still a really good match and i can't wait to talk to you about that but before we do matt of course we need to talk about the ultimate warrior of of marigold it is of course megaton um once again losing a singles match continuing uh goldberg like streak i think of um losing singles matches this time against arena yamanaka this very much was like the ultimate warrior versus Rick the Model Martell, Rob. Did you get those vibes when you were watching this match? Because you have the Ultimate Warrior Megaton and the model that is Arena Yama Yaka. They say styles make fights. These two have completely different styles, Rob. Completely different personalities. And they made it work. This was entertaining. It was fun. Arena was doing her shtick. Megaton was reacting to it. And then Megaton was doing her shtick. And Arena was reacting to it. By no means was this, I guess because it's fresh in the mind, malenko versus mysterio from like 96 97 but this was darn entertaining the crowd was into it i mean they love them some megaton arena just just oozes charisma and again the more shows that they can get around in marigold the better for for them i thoroughly enjoyed this three and a quarter stars because like when what sometimes i'd like to do is when some of these shows are vod and with all the wrestling that we watch all the great wrestling going on sometimes i forget what's on certain cards outside of the main event and obviously wrestle universe is great and all you do is hit the down button and the whole card comes there but sometimes i'd like to be surprised and we'll talk about in the next match and i was like yeah i'm just gonna hit the play button and i'm gonna let this go to the you know i'll watch and do the notes i was like oh this is how we're open all right strap on in let's see what happens here like damn i was really entertained with this one this one really really worked out three and a quarter stars a really fun entertaining way to warm up the crowd for ultimately what turned out to be just a truly fantastic show speaking of fantastic um a three-way victoria yuzuki my sakurai and natsumi shozuki um natsumi shozuki when she came back from the injury that kept her out for six months of last year she'd said that she'd almost well she'd considered retirement um after this injury um she's in her 30s and obviously i think sort of it was that quandary of do i have the time when i come back um i think we can all agree that she's made absolutely the right decision in not retiring because she has returned with if possible an even more intense fire burning in her stomach because again between this and the show on the 31st she tears into people in this match and again when you're in a match with Victoria Yuzuki and Victoria Yuzuki is the second most intense in the match you know that you're intense obviously a huge fan of Natsumi Shozuki she was from the very opening show Marigold did she was the person she was one of the people we both gravitated towards really it was her and Miko Aono and here she emphasized what we talked about at Corican about how a match with Miko Aono for the Red Belt would just do gangbusters And again, the bits that we had here are exchanges with Victoria Zuki. Absolutely give us that for the wide belt, 100%. We saw the bits with Maesakurai as well. She's a very exciting talent, isn't that, Sumi Shozuki, and doesn't always necessarily get the flowers she deserves, especially when you've got people like Victoria Zuki, Seri Amoka, and the youth of Marigold coming through. This was great. Usually when we have these three ways for Marigold, like your hummingbird you're now Ishikawa you're Yuki Yamazaki your younger talent that really hasn't been able to get to that main event scene maybe occasional tag match here or there it's like this is second like okay you know let's this is going to be great you're Toriyazuki one of the best wrestlers in this company your current United National Champion Mei Sakurai coming off a great run as United National Champion and now Sumi Shoizuki your first ever Superfly Champion and This was great on so many levels. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Natsumi came back with almost a purpose. It was almost just like, okay, I'm going to come back. I'm going to come back better than ever. New look. I love the blue and the hair. I love the new gear, the blue gear. And again, I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago. I'm going to mention it again. As great of shape she was in before, she's in better shape now. Like not an ounce of fat honor, shredded, intense. We talked about that exchange she had with Nico Anno on last week's show. Like give us that as a red belt match. or you can give us Matsumi Shozuki versus Victoria Zuki, Rob, and they, they, for the United National Championship, and they all work. I think they're going to go Yuzuki and Chikigoto. We'll talk about it on the 30, on the review of the show from the 31st, because they're leaning towards that way. But if they use this match just as a gauge to see where they want to go, it all works. They can also run back Sakurai versus Victoria Zuki, or a special singles match with my Sakurai and Matsumi Shozuki, because it all worked. The double paradise lock, you had some couple, you know, you had a little bit of everything, a little bit of the comedy, in here. You had a lot of the hard hitting, a lot of the intensity. This broke down to a few singles matches with Yuzuki versus Sakurai and Yuzuki versus Natsumi, Shozuki, which they all work. These pairings, any way they want to split them up into singles matches and give it 12, 13, 14 minutes works for me. This was great. Everybody hit their beats. Everybody looked really good. Again, Natsumi, Shozuki. I'm so excited to see what she's going to do this year because she has come back laser laser focused i think she's gonna have a monster year and i hope she does because you can tell where her passion does lie definitely in pro wrestling this was great i was so glad for 15 minutes this is that was the perfect finish for this match four stars for me my friend this was fantastic and the crowd energy really really picked up to another level and never really came down to the final bell after that my young kamamo match yeah and obviously there was that history as well, Victoria Uzuki and Mai Sakurai who of course had an absolutely tremendous match at Grand Destiny in the wake of trying to stay afloat after or just before Io and Mai U took to the stage, so yeah, really really good match, thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed this one, second favourite match of the show and certainly one if you are pressed for time, this and the main event are definitely ones you should gravitate towards moving on then match number 38, Woman tag the team of Mika Wauna Utamiha, she's the Chika Goto and Koki Amore, defeating Dawn's Revolution. And we did see the debut of that new finisher from Chika Goto. I'm GoChika, so again, she'll be nice and easy to remember. Sort of a pump-handle chokeslam, Matt. We've seen her using the GCS for a long time, the Goto chokeslam. We've seen her finish matches with the Power Slam, which you are not a fan of under any circumstances. not as a finisher not as a finisher no um obviously we now have a new finish what are your thoughts on this love it absolutely love it my technical term that i wrote that i didn't know it was called i'm go chica that's gonna sell shirts um by the way here i was on the marigold website last week just to see if i can get a mayu um jersey they still only small and large any who the go Chica pink shirts all sold out So go chica merch um i have it as a side slam into a uranagi but uh that basically in my opinion that the technical term for it but i'm go chica as much as i love the the gcs the go to choke slam and again i like the power slam not as a finisher especially when she has that hammerlock choke slam as her finisher this is her best one this is her best one this is what she needs to continue to establish as she's moving up the card rob you just made mention the three-way we talked about was your second favorite match from this show i love that three-way again four stars this was actually my second favorite match from this show it was a good this hit a this this hit a lot of beats i mean look at that look you have your big heel faction in there and that does have your tag champions and probably your number one contender for the uh the world of marigold championship then the other side i mean you want to talk about an op team chikagoto koki amore tommy and miko ano this hit all sorts of beats if like an eight person lock up to start and i was like okay like that's something different and then you get the heat the baby faces they get a little bit of a shine but you know where eventually this is going to go it's going to go to the floor it goes all over the place it gets ugly in the best way possible early they do a great job building up chiaki in this match and rightfully so because again more than likely she's going to be the next challenger for miko ano so you want to make sure she looks good but i like how you have these double and triple teaming on team miko ano a lot of bending and breaking the rules and then the comeback spot on cheek on uh on chiaki was everybody hits a lariat on the chiaki which i thought was great in the crowd pop for it's like yeah you're gonna bend and break the rules lariat koki amare lariat uh chika goto sliding lariat from utami high it's just the what's left oh the champ she's gonna hit a sliding lariat as well so i like how towards the end like chiaki and in can rightfully so got built up in this match but she really gets her comeuppings in this match i want to see a misa matsui versus utami hayesh this singles match the psycho speed style against the power that is one utami hayesh just the kokiyamure again looking fantastic again we hope she has a really really healthy year here for marigold because she's going to do big things but i just really think the big project for marigold is chikagodo and rightfully so and considering the fact that she debuted a new finisher here on this show that was live streamed non-wrestling universe tells me that there's going to be great things afoot uh riusada was great nagisa nozaki again i know she's supposed to be a dastardly heel but she does so much stuff in the ring that the crowd just gets behind and cheers so whenever they're ready for her i think it's only one or two steps they need for her to make her a big baby face when the time is right uh because again she's somebody that the crowd gets really invested in and it's not going to take much to turn her into a big baby face. This was great. Eventually, Chikagoto does get the win, debuting the new finisher in this match. On to one Ria Saito. Four and a quarter stars for me. I absolutely love this. This got so much accomplished. Getting Chikagoto over, getting Chiaki over, making you more excited for that Anno versus Chikagoto match. Ria Saito was terrific as well. Nagisa Nozaki had some great bits with Kokiyamure. This accomplished a lot. We've been saying this a lot over the last year or so. Some of these matches are really good, but they don't give it time to breathe. It wouldn't be uncommon if this match happened seven, eight months ago and it went like 10 minutes. I'm like, that was really good. Why didn't you give it more time? 16 minutes, plenty of time to tell their story. Again, a lot got accomplished in this match. Four and a quarter stars for me. Semi-main event, as we already mentioned, Sarayama Okuyuki Yamazaki and Shoko Kishino making their way through to the semifinals of the 3D Trios Championship Tournament, a match that I think we predicted quite handily, Matt, to be perfectly honest. However, some really good individual performances. Once again, really impressed from Nagisa Takibana. Hummingbird, again, continues to impress. But for me, it's all about Terri Amoka at the moment. you can't take your eyes off her in the ring at the moment even if her tag team name is Spunky Monster that's neither here nor there my man oh it is my friend never forget that their tag name is Spunky Monster aren't you supposed to yell that in the microphone oh that is true hang on one second Spunky Monster there you go how can I forget obviously the project here is Sarah Yamioka and rightfully so Again, Shoko Kishino coming off a great performance last month at First Dream. And Yuki Yamazaki just gets better each and every outing. This trio, and obviously I know they lost, but now Hummingbird and Nagisa Takabana. I think if they build them up in the next month or two, they're going to be a great V1 for eventually who wins the tournament. Can you imagine if it is the lady ship versus these three on a 176 box show or in Shinjuku face? because now Hummingbird and Nagisa, they wrestle each and every time, especially Naoi Shikawa, like something to prove. And Naoi Shikawa is over with the Marigold fan base and has been for quite some time. And we're just, we're waiting for like that big push or that big championship match because she's fantastic. Considering the fact, the debut show, she wrestled Miko Anno, who is now the world champion here. So I would love to see that run back somewhere. But again, now Hummingbird and Nagisa to really, really work well together. I think they'd be, again, a great V1 or V2 for whoever comes out of this tournament at the end of the month as champions. You're absolutely right. This was just towards the end, Sarri being dominating. And again, Sarri is the future of Joe Shapiro wrestling at just 18, 19 years old. Just really terrific stuff. I was thoroughly enjoyed this one. I had this one at four stars. Again, another really terrific match with Sarri putting over Nagisi Pacabana with the dialogue. A really great closing sequence with a lot of double team moves and single moves. Everybody really got over. But again, the main project is here to keep Sari looking strong. And she looked like the strongest in this match, and rightfully so, buddy. Again, four stars for me. We then move on to the main event. We had the Joshi, the icon of Joshi ProRasu, pardon me, and the real Peach in Komomo Minami. And Komomo Minami took it upon herself to not shake the hand of Mayu. and then paid the price for it for about five minutes of the match. Mayu went full. There's only really one way I can describe it, and this is where she often falls down, where she gets almost arrogantly on top of an opponent. And here she gave Komomo Minami absolutely nothing for those first five minutes. And then Komomo Minami did a comeback. And there was a couple of things I really enjoyed. The comebacks from Komomo Minami were quite a lot of the time using Mayu's moves. And there was so much mirroring in this match. And obviously we know that Mayu has been a huge influence on Komomo since she joined Marigold. But the parallels are there. Fuka has said in interviews that these two are so, so similar. And again, when they are wrestling each other, you can tell. Komomo was never winning this match. Was never winning this match. It was about the performance. It was about the resilience. And actually, Mayu hits the dragon suplex just before she hits the moonsault. As the referee announces that there is only three minutes left of the time limit. And the look on Mayu's face was, I need to finish this now because I'm running out of time. I didn't realize how long Komomo Minami was able to withstand what I've thrown at it. And that, if anything, was more of a putover than anything else. I will just say, whoever seated the really vocal Komomo Minami fans by the goddamn microphone, can we not have that anymore? Because even though Komomo Minami massively over, if you're listening to that show with headphones, good Lord, good Lord. I thought it added to it because everyone was my you. I was like, yeah, you go over Komomo. Don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that Komomo Minami, if anything, was a little bit more over than Mayu in this match. You know, obviously, more support being thrown behind the underdog, obviously. But yes, there was two gentlemen who were sat extremely close to one of the microphones, and as I was running on the treadmill today, just hearing that buzzing through my headphones was slightly annoying. However, what a coming out performance for Komomo Minami. We thought it would be when we talked about this show last week. and it delivered. Fantastic performance. She has a bright, bright future in this company. So many stories in a 12-minute match. Mayu goes to shake the hand like the code of honor and Komomo is like, no. And I'm like, it should be the other way around. Shouldn't Komomo offer her handshake to Mayu and Mayu would be like, no. I'm like, kind of disrespectful. And then Komomo comes running at Mayu. And I'm like, okay, super kick. Oh my, I was like, can you imagine if that was it? Can you imagine if that was the main event? come on when an army comes flying out of the traps mayu with one super kick done dead but then did you i meant to bring this up because obviously she hits the super kick and then hits the the suicide dive and we've talked often about mayu's suicide dive where it's really quite reckless because she comes through the ropes with such speed but she just throws herself through the ropes whereas like for example if we're to compare her to eoskai eoskai will hit like a horizontal spear like it'll be dead straight and she will hit them with her hands every single time we don't know what part of mayu is going to collide with the people on the outside from one suicide dive to the other she hits the dive and i think it's yuzuki that's at ringside with komomo and she hits And the way she hits means that they drop Mayu and how she doesn't land squarely on the top of her head. This is 12 seconds into the match, by the way. How she doesn't crown herself on the top of her head, I've got no idea. I'm glad you brought this up because we've been talking off air for years about the suicide. Like Mayu and Hazuki, they seem so reckless with their suicide dive. And Io seems like she just glides. It's like she jumps and it's like the most beautiful. like kamatani springboard planche is like the most beautiful thing in the world where mayu and hazuki especially mayu in this part and the fact that like my i don't i can almost guarantee you has never done a dive this early in a main event match before because it never required it and then she does it and it was like absolutely insanely reckless and i was like boy we're really out the gates here like all right and again this i mean look at all the ratings i've given two four star matches the four and a quarter stars love the opener with arena and megaton like we are really we are really putting a bow on this show as being just a really fantastic must see show and how we're doing with the main event yeah my kicking komomo in the face komomo's like whoa i didn't expect that i need to take a breath but i was like yeah i'm just gonna come right out and then hits just that insane suicide dive i guess suicide dive pun someone intended rob because yowzers i mean my she shoots like a rock and a lot of these are like that they're the way that she gets her head of steam and stuff it's so fast that you know whoever's out there definitely needs to make sure that they're keeping my you safe on the catch but obviously my you has been doing that move route for the better part of a decade so she clearly knows what she's doing um she knows how to protect herself and protect her opponent back in the ring they go you're absolutely right the first three minutes of this match is just my you pasting kamomo manami and then kamomo gets the first comeback with the Mayu evasion drop kick I was like oh how about this and then Komomo does the hammerlock DDT and the shotgun knees really great stuff back and forth and Mayu's on the back foot Komomo really starts laying a lot of stuff into Mayu using a lot of the Mayu style strikes with the super kick and the buzzsaw kick and the forearms almost setting them up very much like how Mayu does so I was like oh we're almost seeing like a mirror match of Mayu and Mayu light which is a big compliment i can give to the young kamomo monami because she was great here then we get some great german suplex exchanges back and forth and just when it looks like mayu is going to put kamomo away kamomo is able to trip up mayu and gets her in the kamomo clutch and 300 people in this building thought we were going to see a title change and when you can blur the lines rob even if it's only for a split second that is the magic that is pro wrestling that is the magic that is this match that is the magic and the greatness that is Mayu Itani and that is the magic and the artfulness that is Komomo Nami. Komomo Nami is going to I'm not gonna say is going to be a big star she is somebody that is it she's right there right on the cusp and this was her trial by fire in this match and she absolutely passed with flying colors really great stuff there series of buzzsaw kicks from Mayu to Komomo and then she hits the snapdragon and Mayu just can't put Komomo away You're absolutely right, Rob. It's the storytelling of Mayu hitting that snap dragon after she just laid waste to Komomo with those two buzzsaw kicks. And then Komomo kicks out and there's three minutes to go. Mayu's like, I've been in this match for 12 minutes and I've hit in super kicks and buzzsaw kicks and Germans and a dragon suplex. I still can't put her away. And it was right. It was that look on her face that put Komomo over in this match more than any moves. And sometimes that's just the storytelling of pro wrestling. That's the genius. That's Mayu. That's the genius of this match. Everything that Mayu did and everything that Mayu gave to Komomo in this match, it built Komomo up. But it was just that look that it was like, you're kidding me? I've been doing this for 12 minutes. I almost got pinned twice and I still can't put her away. Then she goes and then she hits the big moonsault. I thought it was great. I thought Mayu did a great job protecting and getting Komomo over four and a quarter stars. I thought this was absolutely fantastic. And Mayu just does it again. Even though Mayu is the one that's walking out with her hand raised, her opponent, especially in this case, Komomo Manami actually comes out better than going in again, very much like a Natsumi Shouzuki. I'm so, and Chikigoto. I am so excited to see what Komomo Manami does in Marigold here in 2026, my friend. So that does bring us to the show on the 31st of January, which was 96 of the New Year's Golden Garden Tour. This came, of course, from the Lily Arena Mito in Ibaraki. The attendance for this show, 375. It's only the second time the company have run the venue, with this being a 9.640% decrease on the attendance of 415 Marigold Drew back in March of 2025. Just a couple of injury updates, obviously. Kizuna Tanaka and Minami Yuki both still out with long-term injuries. Kizuna Tanaka, though, recently published to social media that the operations have been successful on her ankle. And I believe it was the Marigold Joshi Twitter page actually posted her beginning to do some light work on it. I don't think she's weight-bearing at all on the ankle yet, but there's certainly some work being done. So, obviously, our best wishes go out to both of them. as they continue to recover from their injuries. Let's go through the results then from this show. We open the singles match. Sarayama Oka defeating Nagisa Takibana with a side suplex in 9 minutes and 41 seconds. Misa Matsui defeated Yuki Yamazaki with a stretch muffler in 12 minutes and 34 seconds. Three-way match. Nao Ishikawa came out on top against Mai Sakurai and Megaton in 7 minutes and 11 seconds. Once again, Megaton coming out on the losing end. Shockable shocks. Semi-main event, six-woman tag team match. The team of Mayu Uutani, Victoria Yuzuki and Komomo Minami got a victory ahead of their exploits in the 3D Trios Championship Tournament. They defeated Hummingbird, Utami Hayashista and Chika Goto. Yuzuki pinning Hummingbird with that cross-arm suplex in 11 minutes and 40 seconds. With all her more elaborate finishing moves she's been bringing out recently, you do forget that she has also got that cross-arm suplex. Six-woman tag team match main evented the show. The super team of Miku Aono, Koki Amare, and Natsumi Shozuki, they defeated the Darkness Revolution team of Nagisa Nozaki, Chiaki, and Riya Sato. Koki Amare gained the pinfall in this one with the amethyst butterfly onto Riya Sato in 17 minutes and 32 seconds. Matt, when we first went through this card last week, Both of us were very excited for these two singles matches because, you know, again, they're not going to be match of the year candidates or anything like that, but they contain exciting talents. You know, Nagisa Takibana, sorry, on the previous show, again, showed exactly why she is so exciting and why she's developed incredibly well in such a short space of time. And here, again, she got to ply that trade against Seri Amoka. Did it live up to your expectations? yeah sure did we started this uh show off with two back-to-back banger singles matches i mean really great way to start the show this was terrific we've seen magisa uh over these since she came back from her injury that she does this different variation of the uh the cross body she was always doing that double jump one um that and then that one time she missed and fell we think that's where she may or may not got injured but since coming back with baby doing the you know the new gear i believe it was a corican show a couple about a month or so ago she does this misdirection spot where she's running off the ropes she goes behind her opponent and then she comes off the opposite end and by the opponent by the time the opponent sees where nagisa is when she turns around nagisa hits a jumping cross body which i like that because i'm always a big fan of whenever i'm and especially when i'm teaching um you know when i when i'm lucky enough to teach seminars and whatnot whenever somebody's coming off the rope or doing a dive if you're looking at them you're like well if you're waiting for the train to come, you're going to get out of the tracks. But I love the misdirection in this. And it's by the, you know, when the, when the person, and I guess I'm doing this for YouTube, when the person looks like, where did she go? By the time they turn around, it's too late. She's already in air and they're getting hit with a cross body. And she does that perfect. And Sarah does a great job feeding for it and selling for it. So I love how Nagisa does that. Nagisa is great, great technical wrestling, great timing, great selling. Her striking is getting better. Not that it was bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm really believing her hard hitting, striking, great stuff from Sari as well. Springboard dropkick, all that really, really great stuff. The fact that this one went almost 10 minutes, I thought was terrific. And I really liked the finish again. They're doing a great job highlighting Sari and all of these matches. And the fact that she hit three big moves back to back to back with the German suplex to the gut wrench suplex, and then to the Aoki clutch putting away Nagisa, which again, it's really cool seeing back-to-back-to-back big moves from Sarri. It also puts Nagisa over because it's like Sarri had to use these three moves all in a row in order to get the win. A really terrific match, three and three-fourth stars. I just love the ever-improving Nagisa Takabana and the fact that Sarri's only been wrestling a little over a year and is this good. It really is scary in the best way possible. Just want to point out, and this comes courtesy of at daily underscore Marigold. Sari Amoka, just talking about the wonderful year she's had in pro wrestling. She was named the Woman Rookie of the Year in the Weekly Pro Wrestling Awards for 2025 She almost also finished second in the women pro wrestling Grand Prix placed second in women best match with her match against Mariah and ranked fourth in the overall favorite wrestlers category. So a huge year for Sarayamoka, and it's very clear why Marigold are so high on Sarayamoka. moving on Mike you already mentioned that this was another banger and again Misa Matsui can't put a foot wrong she's tremendous in ring Yuki Yamazaki we constantly sing the praises of in this or on this podcast and again this is another reason why I thought these two gelled really really well also Misa Matsui absolutely has the best flying knee in the game there's no debate on that you can have other opinions but those opinions are wrong I want to see her finish more matches with the stretch muffler what did you say best flying knee in the game hold on I just got a text Miko Wada just texted me told me to tell you hello again it's subjective you can like what you like I'm not going to obviously Misa Matsui she's fantastic you're absolutely right debuting a new finish the stretch muffler not only was it great but the psychology made sense you start off with great chain wrestling Misa gets the first advantage with that flying knee strike, sends Yuka to the floor where Misa's obviously can have the advantage because she's a heel when the Warriors are Jim Cornette. She's a heel. And then. Really good Jim Cornette impression. Goddamn. They go to the floor. They get back in. Yuka starts getting the advantage back and Misa takes out Yuka's knee. She goes to the figure four. She does drop kicks the knee. Does not one but two muda locks. A lot of muda talk on the Marigold Standard this week. Maybe we get the Great Muda versus Megaton. Maybe that is... Yeah, there you go. I'm putting that on the ether. Anywho, that's who the M should have been back at. Oh, imagine. Oh, what a trick they missed. And even Noru Suzuki was okay. Anyway, back to this match. Yuka has great fire here. The crowd is really behind her. She's really terrific in this match, but just Misa has a game plan, and she keeps going back to it, going back to it, and going back to it. simple psychology and eventually she's able to get yuka in the stretch muffler which again works over the knee that misa was been working for the last half of the match great great intensity from yuka great fire back from yuka great selling great sympathy and the crowd was really behind her but it was just too much of misa's game plan that worked out absolutely love this match with great psychology great limb work which i know you love a great limb work match indeed three and three four stars. They packed a lot of great stuff in this match. Excellent stuff. Again, two young and fantastic wrestlers in this company. Thoroughly enjoyed that one, buddy. Another three-way, including MySakurai. However, it was Naoi Ishikawa getting the win over Megaton Ma. Naoi Ishikawa and MySakurai. I want to see it again. I know they ran it once and it was great. I want to see it again. I'm not done seeing the exchanges between these to and again it just goes to show that every time now ishikawa is partnered with someone in the upper echelon of this company she continues to smash it out of the park yeah you know marigold's always done a great job of giving these wrestlers getting over chances like you know again now we've got over with the whole passion sisters and the matches she had with nanai especially in cork and hall you mentioned they did uh i think it's two or three corkins ago where sakurai and now wrestled kind of like match three and like had one of the best matches on a way yeah was like so like i'm crazy violent and it was like poor megaton was like an afterthought in this match like mike my sakurai now they just go head to head and they go at then all of a sudden megaton comes with the comedy now does some of her comedy sakurai does some of her comedy then eventually we get to the hard hitting stuff that is now and my sakurai again there is something there they had And Marigold has something special there with these two. And by these two, I mean now and one, my Sakurai. Again, I just think now is the time to push now. See what I did there, Rob? I did. I think they need to build her up, give her a couple big wins, and build her towards either a Mikuano Red Belt Challenge or a Victoria Zuki United National Challenge. I don't think she's going to win, but give her the opportunity to get over in that setting because she's proven anytime that you give her an inch, she takes a mile and she's massively over with every single crowd that she wrestles in in Marigold and is having great matches. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I love the stuff with her and Sakurai. Megaton, she throws the comedy stick here. But this was nice seeing Naoi Shikawa get a win on this show. Three and a half stars for me. We move on then. Mayu Iwitani, Victoria Iizuki, Komomo Minami looking again to build some momentum heading into that match with the foreign team for the 3D Trios Championship. Matt, does this dampen or heighten your thoughts that we could be looking at your first 3D Trios champions? I thought Team Mayu here was fantastic, and rightfully so. They have great chemistry. From what we understand, Mayu has doing some of the teaching in the Marigold Dojo and probably even before shows. And two of her best students are Yuzuki and Kamo Manami. Obviously, Yuzuki was close with Mayu when they were over in Stardom about two years ago. These three work well together. Utami, Hummingbird, and Shikigoto, terrific as well. Again, we may mention, I think, last show or the show before, Utami and Shikigoto, possibly maybe sometime in the spring or summer, could be great champions in the tag division as twin star champions because they work terrific. You got the great stuff with Mayu and Utami and the great stuff with Komomo and Hummingbird and a little bit of Yuzuki and Utami as well. But this match, in my opinion, and I don't know if you agree with me, partner, was just to drive. There's a lot of great things, don't get me wrong, but the big driver was the fact that we may be seeing a potential Victoria Yuzuki versus Chikagoto United National Championship match. Their exchange was great. I wish it would have went longer than 11 minutes, like 14, 15 minutes with all this great talent. I think it would have flushed out the story more, but ultimately it was all about let's kind of sprinkle some seeds and let's see if people are interested in Victoria Zuki versus Chikagoto United National Championship. They've been teasing it. Chikagoto keeps saying that she wants that shot at the championship. Again, I think Chikagoto is right on the cuffs of breaking out. I think giving her a big championship match against Victoria Zuki on a Corican Hall or a pay-per-view coming up sometime soon, I think would do wonders for Chikagoto and Marigold as well. I had this match at four stars. I thought it was really, really terrific. And again, not only did you build up the anticipation for Yuzuki versus Chikagoto, but the anticipation of maybe Mayu, Yuzuki, and Komomo may make it to the finals of the 3D Tag Title Tournament. So a lot got accomplished in this match, my friend. Four stars for me. Yeah, it's a match that can main event Karakin easily. Victoria Yuzuki versus Chikagoto. I don't think Chikagoto dethrones Victoria Yuzuki certainly not yet anyway I think it could happen in the future certainly not yet I think we've mentioned this before I'm not all about the the whole you're too you know the whole weight thing or anything like let's just let's just keep it away from that let's just let's just focus on the wrestling but in terms of a wrestling thing in terms of a a chemistry between the two I think this match if not all of the other brief exchanges we've had prove that that's going to be a very, very exciting matchup. Main event time then, Miku Aono, Koki Amare, and Natsumi Shozuki. You talk about OP teams. Again, just look at that trio. Just for the entrance alone, this is an OP trio. My question to you is, we've had obviously two matches where we see Miku Aono makes it up with Chiaki. Chiaki, it looks like is going to be the next Marigold World Championship contender. Has this excited you or has this built your excitement towards that potential matchup? Do you see Chiaki as a legitimate challenger, even if we know she's not winning the belt? I want to see the match because they did a great job building up. And what this show did, especially these last two matches, made me more excited for Yuzuki versus Chikagoto if they go that way and Miko Ano versus Chiaki. if they go that way but clearly they're um they're definitely pointing us in the right direction there they have done a great job building up chiaki to make it look like she's a threat towards miko ano do i think she's gonna win no especially if it's hair versus hair no and i did ask andy header i said there's no way there's she's like no apps no no why shut down the company you're not shaving that luscious head of hair of miko ano that's why would you do that so further affirmations that if it does go to a hair match where us micoano fans we're gonna be okay buddy we're gonna be okay but i think that's a great defense for mico ano and it's an opportunity to see if they can get chiaki to have main event level matches and drop it's a good hey let's see what we can do with here and if chiaki loses which more than likely she will she's still one half of the tag champs so maybe they look at it like okay we put her in that spotlight with our champion mico ano and again Miko Anno won the belt on the biggest show in Marigold history with Io versus Mayu so giant spotlight on Miko Anno now she's taking that spotlight shining on Chiaki Chiaki's going to take that spotlight and shine on the tag division and then maybe you can main event these 176 box shows with the tag team championship match Shinjuku face something like that to be able to get the attendance up so it's something that Miko Anno can pull up not only Chiaki but the tag belts as well so they did a great job setting the steeds here and they have for the last few shows um i thought the miku ano chiaki exchanges were great this match was very violent in the best way possible you get the darkness jump in the beginning and very much like the main event at the last show you blink your eye next thing you know you're in the third row um because you know like mayu with the dive and then all of a sudden koki amari is getting fired into the third row matsumi's in the third row koki amore or miko anu is getting beat up then uh very interesting that is miko anu taking the heat here i was like okay like she's your champion and probably the most explosive wrestler uh in this match so she takes the heat but then like once koki amore comes in like she's the hammer that gets this match back on track here for team miko great tag work here and i may mention this since koki and natsumi been back that koki and natsumi make a really great tag team they do that spot where I believe it was that Ria Saito was um was laying on the mat and Miko Anno excuse me Natsumi Shozuki comes running out of the corner and Kokuyami pops her up and then Natsumi comes all the way down with those double knees we've seen it before and it's super impressive and then we get great teamwork with Miko Anno and Natsumi Shozuki with the kick sandwiches and just the striking uh stuff that they were doing to all three members of Darkness Revolution if you remember like it was like month four or month five in marigold that we saw nico on or natsumi team up quite a bit and i was like they need to make these two a permanent tag team if they don't have singles aspirations for either of these two and obviously they did they did um it's obviously still do but i love the stuff of nico and natsumi as a team and i love it anytime that the hammer is getting put down on the darkness revolution whether it's the teamwork or the stuff from natsumi or the stuff from koki or the stuff from miko anu darkness is like we always have that ace in the hole we're going to bend and break the rules to get the advantage ultimately what does that do the crowd sees it but the referee doesn't do it and the crowd gets upset when they do they go boo and that's what you want ultimately though you get built towards your finish where eventually we have natsumi and miko anu they take out nagisa and uh chiaki that opens up the door for koki amuri getting a big win in the main event hitting that beautiful amorphous butterfly splash for the three count four stars for me my friend this was my favorite match of this show really great stuff and it did exactly what it needed to do it got you more excited for miko ano versus chiaki for that probably coming up soon maybe on that cork and at the end of the month that you alluded to early on the show buddy uh maybe on the 23rd i think it speaks volumes that chiaki was pretty much the only wrestler on the entire marigold roster that wasn't in the 3D trios tournament. And Miko Aonagar eliminated in the first round when the finals were at Corican. It really does speak volumes. You put that, who's on the case? Perry Mason, Rob Goodwin. You put that together pretty quick, buddy. Not just the handsome face, folks, let me tell you. And I'll tell you what, what a tune that is. Let's talk then very, very briefly about these upcoming cards then. In, on, sorry, the 7th of February, as we already mentioned, we now know the names of the foreign team so the card in full for the 7th of February Nagisa Takibana versus Yuka Yamazaki, Seri Amoka versus Marie Malenko, Shoko Kishino versus pardon me, hiccups versus Megaton versus Chiaki, we've also got six woman tag, Mika Aonoko, Koyamare and Hummingbird against MySakurai, Natsumi Shozuki and now Ishikawa. Our 3D championship tournament last round one matches on my wewutani victoria yuzuki komomo minami against sophia savanne dream girl ellie and olivia rose and the other match will be utami hiashista chika goto chanyota against the dawn's revolution representation of negisa nozaki miso matsui and ria seito on the 8th of february the following day then we move to saitama we open with a three-way. Komomo Minami, Nagisa Takibana versus Yuka Yamazaki. Singles match, Naoi Shikawa versus Chiaki. Ria Sato versus Marie Malenko. Tag match, Victoria Yuzuki and Sarayama Oka versus Sevilla Savan and Olivia Rose. Trios match, Mayu Iwutani, Utami Haisishter and Hummingbird taking on Maesakurai, Natsumi Shizuki and Kouki Amore. Keep an eye on that one. And then in your main event, Miku Aono Chikagoto Megaton against Misa Matsui, Nagisa Nozaki and potentially a new addition to Darkness Revolution Dream Girl Ellie. So Matt, a couple of matches to keep your eyes on there my friend. Yeah, a really great weekend around the horn of professional wrestling. These two matches here on the 7th and 8th from Marigold look really really intriguing and again with a lot of new talent as well mixing in with this great roster that is Marigold. So yeah, super excited for when they Usually with their VOD, usually one or two days they're up on WrestleUniversal. Hopefully they're up sometime in the beginning part of the week, my friend. And again, I'm really excited to see what Maria Malenko is going to do, especially in that match with Sarah Yama Yoka. That is going to be a technical masterpiece, in my opinion, my friend. And then finally, Matt, it's time, my friend. It's time to gaze at Julia. gaze at julia we go to the royal rumble where julia and kiana james have really great tag team symmetry and then we get to see news we do see some stuff as they is they by they i mean julia kiana james rhea ripley and eo shirai eo sky they did a great job taking advantage of their time in the royal rumble to build up that upcoming tag team championship match that is uh they didn't officially announce it yet at least not that i know of but julian kiana james did win a three-way last week on SmackDown to become the number one contender. So not unless something changes, and I hope it doesn't, somewhere soon we're going to get Julia and Io in a ring together. Obviously, Rhea Ripley is the biggest women's star on the planet. There's no way you can deny that. Keanu James has really been impressing me. She was kind of just like the mouthpiece and manager for Julia. But every time we see her in the ring, I'm really impressed with her. She wasn't in the Rumble that long, but I thought she was terrific. And I thought that, again, they did a great job using the Royal Rumble to plant those seeds to get you more excited. So, again, Julia looked great in the Rumble. Her stuff with Keanu James, the teamwork, I thought, is really, really good. But eventually, hopefully, as we're recording this Thursday, maybe tomorrow on Friday Night SmackDown, we have a better idea of when we see that upcoming Tag Team Championship match. As we have Julia and Keanu James taking on Io Sky and Rhea Ripley, my friend. So, stay tuned here next week for more Gaze. I'm going to do it with my hands at Julia. Just, ooh. Ooh. Tell them Italian. I'm talking with my hands. Talking with your hands. Ladies and gentlemen, we did promise it would be a short one. Oh, my God. We actually stuck to our word. That is the end of this episode of The Marigold Standard. Of course, we will be back next week to talk about the shows from the 7th and the 8th of February. But in the meantime, thank you for listening. If you haven't already subscribed to the podcast, you can subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Just look for World of Joshi, Marigold Standard. Either way, it will come up. Leave us a comment or a five-star review. Massively helps us out, and it's a completely free way to support the podcast. Patreon.com forward slash World of Joshi for all of these episodes ad free for as little as a dollar a month. you can find us at worldofjoshi.com as well as on social media at WOJ Wrestling talk to me on Twitter at Real Rob Goodwin Mr. Turner for the love of all goodness please sign us off good sir I wasn't going to but you said please you were very polite folks questions comments suggestions anything you need from me Matt Turner on Instagram and Twitter Twitter is the easiest, fast, and best way to get a hold of me. Or you can get a hold of me on my new fancy new business email, matt at worldofjoshi.com. You know where else you can get a hold of me? Old Habits Die Hard, The Stardom Cast, 22 at gmail.com. Folks, that's going to wrap it up for the Marigold Sender this week. We greatly appreciate your support. Can't do it without you. It's like I always say, just not my podcast. It's our podcast. Because when we're all together, everybody's different. Everybody special. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.