DREAM STAR FIGHTING MARIGOLD
MARIGOLD SUMMER DESTINY 2026
AUGUST 9, 2026
EBARA WAVE ARENA OTA (fka Ota Ward Gymnasium)
TOKYO, JAPAN
Watch: Wrestle Universe
The last time I reviewed Marigold the sky was very much falling for a Shine Forever show that drew poorly and left us with more questions than answers about the company’s short-term future. Just 3 months later, Mayu Iwatani and Victoria Yuzuki are back, Masato Yoshino of all people was hired to agent matches, and Sareee is back working her usual magic to create highly anticipated matches. On paper, Summer Destiny is a promising show that ideally will let the native roster shine in the World and Twin Star title matches.
KOMOMO MINAMI DEF. HUMMINGBIRD
Energetic opener that focused on Komomo Minami and getting her new stuff over. To my knowledge, she’s the first person in Marigold to get a new entrance theme which usually coincides with something of a push in Ogawa precedent; she’s also debuted a new German suplex finisher that she used to beat Bird recently. I liked the stretch of the match where Bird fought out of the German a few times like her life depended on it, she and Minami have made it look like a strong new finisher pretty quickly. **3/4
SYOKO KOSHINO & ALEAH JAMES DEF. NAO ISHIKAWA & THE LADY AI
If growing pains was a match it would resemble this one, vaguely. It wasn’t bad but a match focused on Lady AI and Syoko down the stretch was always going to struggle. I get wanting Syoko to win but I would’ve preferred more of James and Ishikawa. **1/2
KABUKIMONO U (REVEALED TO BE UNAGI SAYAKA) DEF. MEGATON
I tend to be more into the Megaton comedy special than most but even I felt some diminishing returns here. Unagi is a pretty good person to put across from Megaton and they had some funny moments that the crowd got into but nothing like some of Megaton’s earlier PPV work. ***1/2
3D TRIOS CHAMPIONSHIP
DARKNESS REVOLUTION (REA SETO, MISA MATSUI & CHIAKI) DEF. LA VIE EN ROSE (MAI SAKURAI, ERINA YAMANAKA & NATSUMI SHOWZUKI) (C) – NEW CHAMPIONS
Huge upset win as Rea Seto submits former UN champion Mai Sakurai to get the win for her team. I had expected the Revolution to win this one, but my money would have been on anyone other than Seto getting the win given her relative lack of momentum. It was a big moment for one of the company’s most consistent performers that can hopefully be the start of a real elevation to join the Yuzuki’s of the world higher up the card.
The match was quite good, having a lot of heat to play off as Yamanaka and Showzuki in particular were out for blood when they were in there with Seto and Matsui respectively. ***3/4
TWIN STAR CHAMPIONSHIP
TWINTOWER (CHIKA GOTO & KOUKI AMAREI) (C) DEF. KYOEGO (SHINNO & YUUKA YAMAZAKI)
A big spot for Shinno and Yuuka who are both, to my knowledge, not 18 or barely 18 and only about a year into their careers. This is the kind of thing the majority of the fanbase was desperate to see at Shine Forever, Marigold praises its young core so much, now follow through and let them actually do the damn thing.
Do the damn thing they did, this was another very good match, it was like a rotating singles match with wrestlers changing consistently to stay fresh and avoid overdoing a pairing. It wasn’t super heavy on the tag team moves stuff but they were sprinkled in to break things up every now and then. The pacing was good from start to finish and kept this one on the fun side.
Goto pinning Shinno is an interesting end result, Shinno has been mostly protected and presented pretty strongly so far so having her in the firing line as opposed to Yamazaki wasn’t expected. Goto was the one who took the pin at Korakuen to give this some intrigue so having her power through and be the one to emerge with her hand raised keeps her from fading into being a clear number 2 to Kouki in the pecking order. ***3/4
SPARK RUSH (SAREEE & TAKUMI IROHA) DEF. MAYU IWATANI & VICTORIA YUZUKI
The invader angle has produced some excellent pro wrestling in its short run, whether it was the Korakuen main event, the extended angle that set this tag up, or this tag itself. Marigold has been at its best when the wrestlers are forced back to the wall to defend the company, as shown last year with the Marvelous feud.
Spark Rush came in here to further the idea that Sareee and her crew have the kind of fighting spirit and talent that Rossy Ogawa refuses to bring out of his talent, from the start this never looked like it was getting away from Iroha and Sareee, it was more about whether they could get a piece of Iwatani in the process.
For her part, Yuzuki showed a real attitude to make sure she didn’t get overlooked, throwing herself into the line of fire from the very beginning of the match but ultimately proved to be the weak link as Sareee beat her to get the win. I don’t hate Yuzuki and Iroha losing, they’re both coming off injuries and they can play up the ring rust angle if they want to run this back. It should also give Chi-Chi more ammo to use against Yuzuki for their inevitable singles match.
I may end up being one of the lower people on this match, I enjoyed the work but it lacked that really interesting hook to stand out in the way the Korakuen tag between Aono/Komomo and Chi-Chi/Sareee did where the invaders were working as nasty heels who were beating down on Komomo Minami. This match lacked that to a degree outside of the Yuzuki proves herself to be a hindrance arc, but it wasn’t done as well. ****1/4
MARIGOLD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
MIKU AONO (C) DEF. NAGISA NOZAKI
Tough ask to follow the return of two core roster members in Iwatani and Yuzuki but Aono/Nozaki got the job done. This was kind of in line with most main events you see from Japanese companies nowadays with the slower start and the build up to the conclusion but it was a well done example of that archetype.
While these matches can often have bad pacing or a lack of ideas I thought this one flowed pretty well, consistently escalating until it got super snug and Aono was destroying Nozaki with her strikes. A pretty strong head kick into a lariat got the win for Aono who fought off Nozaki’s ruthless approach and the bulldog choke she’s spent the past few weeks getting over in her latest display of valiant babyface wrestling.
A credit to both women, they basically came into this one after a crowd-pleading match featuring three of Joshi’s most recognisable veterans and with the audience knowing Nozaki’s chances of winning were slim but they delivered an engaging main event nonetheless. ****
FINAL THOUGHTS
After a trying few months, Marigold Summer Destiny was a necessary statement that everything is back on track. Rea Seto’s big surprise win, KyoEgo’s Twin Star challenge, and the strong final two matches are all positive signs to get some wind back in the sails. The Sareee invasion angle is a hot, layered feud that could drag up a number of roster members and set up months’ worth of big matches. With some of the Young Marigold crew finally getting chances to show their thing there is a lot to be excited about up and down the card coming out of this one.
Listen to Voices of Wrestling’s Joshi podcast: Jumping Bomb Audio!
Powered by RedCircle
