SHOW REPORT: Marigold Fantastic Adventure 2024 – Night 9 ~Afternoon Show~ (Saturday, 2nd November 2024)

Notes

• As announced at Korakuen Hall on the 24th October, Chika Goto will be absent from Marigold shows for a month as she recovers from a sternum injury. This means that her current timetable for return is the end of November.
• This show marks the in-ring return of Hummingbird after she was withdrawn from the two shows in Shin-Kiba as an injury precaution.
• Attendance Notes: This is the first time that Marigold have run shows in Sapporo, with this show drawing an attendance of 286. Aside from Stardom’s attendances for their Sapporo World and Wonder shows – which drew over 700 people each – only NOAH have managed to draw more than 400 to the venue this year. This Marigold show outdrew all three of BJW’s shows in the same venue.

Quick Results

• Singles Match: Komomo Minami vs. Naho Yamada Ended in a Time Limit Draw (10:00)
• Three-Way Match: Myla Grace def. Rea Seto & Nao Ishikawa w/ Skytwister Press (11:14)
• Tag Team Match: Hummingbird & Natsumi Showzuki vs. Victoria Yuzuki & Misa Matsui Ended in a Time Limit Draw (15:00)
• Tag Team Match: Bozilla & Nagisa Nozaki def. Sareee & Kizuna Tanaka w/ Drill-A-Hole Piledriver (11:14)
• 6-Woman Tag Team Match: Utami Hayashishita, Kouki Amarei & Miku Aono def. Nanae Takahashi, MIRAI & Mai Sakurai w/ Amethyst Butterfly (14:43)

Undercard

It’s a cagey opening, with both women looking to jostle for the dominant position in a series of chain-wrestling reversals. Following a stalemate here, Yamada snatches the ascendency and begins attacking Komomo’s knee, Dropkicking it before wrapping her up in the ropes and in a Bridging Figure Four Leg Lock. Minami comes back with a whole heap of fire, but struggles to make any of the offence truly stick so that, when we reach that closing stretch, it becomes very obvious that she is merely surviving. She manages to kick out of a whole host of moves from Yamada, and the latter cannot put her away before the bell sounds to signify the time limit draw. Progress has certainly been made in terms of results for Minami here, and her resilience is clearly improving, though the decision to not give Yamada the victory after an impressive showing at Korakuen Hall is an interesting one. (**1/2)

Considering she is still without a pinfall victory in Marigold – but does at least now have her own baseball jersey! – Nao decides to try some early tandem offence with on-again-off-again tag team partner Myla Grace, though this inevitably falls apart almost immediately. Grace is the lynchpin of this match, and her work with Nao and especially Rea Seto is great, though her team with Rea amounts to little more than both locking Ishikawa into a submission hold simultanesouly. Nao is the comedic relief, but also showcases flashes of why so many fans of the product are eager for her to get that crucial first victory. She tries everything to secure the win, including a rather scary looking School Boy on Myla when the latter has Seto up for a Vertical Suplex, but ultimately it’s all for nought. Myla hits her as-of-yet-unnamed Skytwister Press variation onto Rea for the win, leaving Ishikawa frustrated once again. (**3/4)

It’s great to see Hummingbird back, even if we don’t get to hear her fantastically funky music in lieu of Natsumi’s – which is also great! However, we don’t get to see a lot of the tricky offence from Hummingbird that frustrated Showzuki at Korakuen because Yuzuki and Matsui do such a good job of grounding her. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows in their camp mind you, with Yuzuki throwing out Matsui early in the match as she wants to do it all herself, while Misa does the same as we approach the closing stretch because she wants to get her hands on Showzuki before their title match on the evening show. Just like Grace in the previous match, Natsumi is the lynchpin of this match, with all good things coming through her. A great second exchange with Yuzuki bleeds into a ferocious brawl with Matsui to close out the match, with the pair forgoing conventional wrestling entirely to just take in turns mounting each other and raining down forearms on each other. The bell sounds to signify the time-limit, but it takes Hummingbird and Yuzuki coming into the ring in order to break the brawling pair up and restore a modicum of order. It’s a second time-limit draw in three matches yes, but unlike the previous draw, this felt necessary as a build to the Superfly Championship math we have coming up on the evening show. (***1/2)

Main Event Matches

Tag Team Match: Bozilla & Nagisa Nozaki def. Sareee & Kizuna Tanaka – Following on from the respect earned during the Dream Star Grand Prix, Kizuna Tanaka and Sareee team here against the heel team of Nagisa Nozaki and Bozilla – who Sareee has just submitted at Korakuen Hall to retain her Crimson Red Belt. It’s this strategy that Sareee uses in the early goings against Bozilla, and it’s a dynamic we so rarely see in Bozilla matches – like she has found an equal, and it’s incredibly refreshing. When Tanaka tags in however, it’s a very different story. Bozilla and Nozaki absolutely torture the poor Tanaka, flitting between an unrelenting barrage of chops in the corner and brutish kicks on the apron from Nozaki. After Sareee has levelled the playing field a little, her protege opts to take up her tactic and begins targeting Bozilla’s arm, manoeuvring herself into an Arm Bar whilst Sareee launches herself from the top rope Diving Double Footstomp. Eventually, Bozilla breaks free before kicking forcefully out of the Re:Dream at 2. Nozaki and Sareee then tear into each other as the pace intensifies, culminating in a German Suplex and a brutishly high-angled Urunage to wipe her out of the match. Unfortunately, Tanaka can’t capitalise and is soon being tossed around the ring by Bozilla, eventually being hoisted into the Drill-A-Hole Piledriver for the victory. (****)

6-Woman Tag Team Match: Utami Hayashishita, Kouki Amarei & Miku Aono def. Nanae Takahashi, MIRAI & Mai Sakurai – Apparently the Twinstar Champions are not passion-filled enough to enter the arena with Nanae as they get their own separate entrance, immediately putting them across as less of a team than their opposition, who all enter together. Despite a brief opening salvo between Mai and Utami, the main crux of the opening throes of the match is Nanae and the Twinstar Champions completely battering Kouki Amarei, really effectively isolating her from Miku and Utami. The trio then attempt some crowd engagement as they begin chopping Kouki mercilessly, all three of them taking it in turns as they get the crowd chanting with each whip-crack-like blow. Kouki finally fires back with some of her patented Big Boots to Nanae before she can finally get the tag to Utami and Miku. Miku and Nanae reignite their fantastic chemistry show in the Dream Star Grand Prix with a spicy back-and-forth that revolves mainly around kicking each other as hard as possible, Nanae repaying Miku for some blistering kicks to the back with a thunderous kick of her own to the chest. Everytime MIRAI and Utami are in the same ring though, there is a sensational buzz around the venue, and the pair channel this into their own sequence as they begin thumping into each other with Shoulder Tackles and Lariats. With Amarei reintroduced, her, Miku and Utami are able to work together to clear the ring of Nanae and MIRAI. That being said, Mai still puts up a great fight, cracking off a few of her Single-Legged Dropkicks into Utami before she gets caught with the Air Raid Crash. Immediately following this, Amarei ascends to the top rope to hit the Amethyst Butterfly and gain her and Utami a good momentum-building victory ahead of their title challenge in Korakuen Hall on the 14th November (****)

You can check out the Marigold roster win/loss records for 2024 right here; https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11_PWxd5BDxeHIfKqtQ2YtiwhGteRrVUZ3B5L4yrDQE0/edit?gid=517287206#gid=517287206

You can check out a comprehensive run down of the Marigold Championship Histories here; https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18MJ2Cebe36Nvfcpj8uVs1AtMbAV1chn-lG7t-xn44DY/edit?gid=0#gid=0

Upcoming Shows

• Saturday 2nd November – Fantastic Adventure 2024 – Night 9 ~Evening Show~, Sapporo Gateau Kingdom, Hokkaido (VIDEO ON DEMAND)
• Monday 4th November – Fantastic Adventure 2024 – Night 10, Nagoya Congress Center, Aichi (LIVE)
• Thursday 7th November – Fantastic Adventure 2024 – Night 11, Hodogaya Kokaido, Kanagawa (VIDEO ON DEMAND)