 The logo of Dream Star Fighting Marigold | |
| Acronym | Marigold |
| Trading name | Dream Star Fighting Marigold |
| Native name | ドリーム・スター・ファイティング・マリーゴールド |
| Romanized name | Dorīmu Sutā Faitingu Marīgōrudo |
| Industry | Professional wrestling Sports entertainment |
| Corporate number | 7010601064766 |
| Founded | April 14, 2024 |
| Founder(s) | Rossy Ogawa |
| Style | Joshi puroresu |
| Headquarters | 3F Cross Edge, 6-10-18 Oshima, Koto-ku, Tokyo 136–0072 |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Rossy Ogawa (President and Representative Director) Hachiro Suzuki (Director) |
| Website | Official Japanese Website |
Dream Star Fighting Marigold (stylized as Dream Star★Fighting Marigold), legal name Marigold Co., Ltd. (株式会社マリーゴールド Kabushiki-gaisha Marīgōrudo), referred to simply as Marigold (マリーゴールド Marīgōrudo) in shorthand, is a Japanese joshi puroresu or women's professional wrestling promotion founded in April 2024. Marigold was founded by former All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) co-producer and World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom) promoter Rossy Ogawa after Ogawa was fired from Stardom.
Much like JDStar and Stardom, Marigold also places heavy emphasis on the physical attractiveness of its workers, and publishes several modeling photobooks and calendars of its workers per year.
History[]
Background[]
On October 17, 2019, World Wonder Ring Stardom was purchased by Bushiroad's subsidiary Kix Road, who renamed itself to Bushiroad Fight Co, Ltd. as part of the acquisition, making it a sister promotion of New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), while also being announced that the promotion would use its main name Stardom instead of the World Wonder Ring Stardom and Rossy Ogawa would remain as the promotion's Chief Executive Officer. Bushiroad's founder Takaaki Kidani had been interested in buying the promotion since February 2019 and began negotiations for the acquisition of the promotion since April, due to WWE's increased popularity of women's wrestling in North America. WWE also attempt to purchase Stardom as part of its plan to expand to the Japanese market in July, but Ogawa ended up refusing WWE's offer and accepted Bushiroad's offer instead with the deal being completed in August, with Bushiroad taking over the operations on December 1. On February 4, 2024, Rossy Ogawa, who served Stardom as executive producer and also did outsourced work related to Stardom, was fired from his position of CEO of Stardom, due to alleged talent poaching. Shortly after, it was reported that ever since Bushiroad bought Stardom, they overruled Ogawa's booking decision, with Taro Okada replacing Ogawa in the booking decision to the dismay of Ogawa and some talent. When Bushiroad acquired Stardom, Ogawa believed that he would have autonomy over Stardom, with that not being the case. He would later give his notice, as he was originally supposed to leave Stardom at their 13th Anniversary show. However, Bushiroad fired him before the agreement, after being under the impression that he poaching talent to create his own promotion.
It was also revealed that most of the talent's contract would expire in March, with many loyal to Ogawa following his lead, with the notable exception of Mayu Iwatani due to a movie regarding her memoir being released and her contract extension with the promotion. Meltzer revealed that Bushiroad was said to have issued legal threats to some talents in the recent weeks as they were aware many were planning on leaving the promotion but would not be doing so until their contract expired. On March 21, Tokyo Sports reported that Giulia, Utami Hayashishita, MIRAI and Mai Sakurai would leave Stardom at the end of March to join Rossy Ogawa, with Stardom later confirming their departure on March 31, upon the end of their contracts. Stardom then announced that alongside Giulia, Hayashishita, MIRAI, Sakurai, Nanae Takahashi, Yuzuki and Nao Ishikawa would be leaving the promotion once their contracts expire on March 31.
Foundation and Chapter One[]
On April 14, Ogawa announced that he would held a press conference the following day streamed on Wrestle Universe regarding his new promotion. The following day, Ogawa held a press conference to announce that his new promotion's name would be Dream Star Fighting Marigold. The promotion's name came from the song "Marigold" by Aimyon, of which Rossy Ogawa is a fan of, and it contained the message that "marigolds were associated with the powerful strength of the sun, and the power, strength, and light that resided within each person".
Upon the announcement of the creation of the promotion, several active members of the World Wonder Ring Stardom and Actwres girl'Z (AWG) rosters defected to Marigold. Amongst them were Stardom roster members Giulia, Utami Hayashishita, MIRAI, Nanae Takahashi, Mai Sakurai, Victoria Yuzuki and Nao Ishikawa as well as AWG roster members Natsumi Sumikawa, Miku Aono, Misa Matsui, CHIAKI, Chika Goto, and Kouki Amarei. Fuka Kakimoto, former wrestler and advisor to AWG, also announced her departure to join Marigold. Fuka was also involved in the founding of Stardom and had a close relationship with Rossy Ogawa. Ogawa also stated their intention to run their first event (titled "Marigold Fields Forever") on May 20, 2024 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, streaming on Wrestle Universe. Ogawa also announced a set of shows that would correspond exactly to the markets in which Stardom operates. The plan was to have 7-8 shows per month, which would make Marigold the second most active joshi league in Japan after Stardom and ahead of Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling (TJPW). It was later reported that there was a working agreement between the promotion and WWE, with WWE flying Giulia and Ogawa to WrestleMania XL to make a deal.
On May 15, the promotion announced the creation of four titles, the World, United National, Twin Star and Super Fly Championships alongside the design of the first two of them which, similar to World Wonder Ring Stardom's World and Wonder championships, were bound to continue the "Showa" era tradition carried on from All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling with a red strap for the main title and a white strap for the secondary one. Aditional to the main singles and tag team championships, the Super Fly Championship was introduced as a cruiserweight-type of title made for wrestlers under 121 lbs (55 kg). At the promotion's inaugural event, on May 20, announced they would produce their first-ever pay-per-view (PPV), Summer Destiny on July 13 at Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan, with the event being streamed on Wrestle Universe. At Marigold's inaugural pay-per-view (ppv) event, Marigold crowned three inaugural champions: Miku Aono won the United National Championship and Natsumi Showzuki won the Super Fly Championship, both determiend in a four-woman single-elimination tournament. At the main event of the show, Sareee became the inaugural World Champion by defeating Giulia. The event also saw WWE's Iyo Sky also making an appearance at the event, due to a working agreement between them and WWE, with Sky facing Utami Hayashishita in a winning effort. Marigold also announced their premier singles tournament, the Dream★Star GP, with the inaugural edition taking place between August 31 and September 28 and an event on January 3, 2025, First Dream held at the Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.
Chapter Two[]
On July 30, Giulia announced that her last match in Marigold would be on August 19, leaving the promotion for WWE the following month. Later that night, Giulia was challenged by Mai Sakurai for her send-off match, which she accepted. With Giulia's departure a power vacuum was left inside Marigold with the lack of an Ace that would represent the company, with multiple wrestlers vowing to fill Giulia's shoes to become the Ace of Marigold. As many felt this as the start of a "Second Chapter" of Margiold's history.
Contracts[]
Much like World Wonder Ring Stardom, Marigold signed most of its workers to multi-year exclusive contracts, with the contracts forbiding negotiations with other promotions. Any side contracts or agreements offered to wrestlers under Marigold contracts, need the promotion's approval before being signed. However, most foreign wrestlers and outside workers are often independent wrestlers that often have non-exclusive deals leading them to appear in any promotion as they would like.
| Promotion | Country |
|---|---|
| CyberFight (CF) | Japan |
| Ladies Legend Pro Wrestling-X (LLPW-X) | |
| Seadlinnng |
Roster[]
Wrestlers[]
| Ring name | Notes |
|---|---|
| Bozilla | Freelancer |
| CHIAKI | |
| Chika Goto | |
| Kizuna Tanaka | |
| Kouki Amarei | |
| Komomo Minami | |
| Mai Sakurai | Marigold Twin Star Championship |
| Miku Aono | Marigold United National Champion |
| MIRAI | Marigold Twin Star Championship |
| Misa Matsui | |
| Myla Grace | Freelancer |
| Nagisa Nozaki | Freelancer |
| Nanae Takahashi | |
| Natsumi Showzuki | Marigold Super Fly Champion |
| Nao Ishikawa | |
| Rea Seto | |
| Sareee | Freelancer Marigold World Champion |
| Utami Hayashishita | |
| Victoria Yuzuki | |
| Zayda Steel | Freelancer |
Trainees[]
| Ring name | Notes |
|---|---|
| Nagisa Tachibana | Trainee |
| Ryoko Sakimura | |
| Shinno | |
| Yuuki Minami |
Staff[]
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Rossy Ogawa | President |
| Representative Director | |
| Hachiro Suzuki | Director |
| Fuka | Assistant Producer |
| Takahiro Masumura | Event Manager |
| Sonny Gutierrez | Video Production Manager |
| Hikaru Ohira | Ring Announcer |
| Okky Okita | |
| Katsumi Sasazaki | Referee |
| Kyohei Wada | |
| Yuzuki Aikawa | Commentator |
Broadcasters[]
Worldwide:[]
- Wrestle Universe (streaming service, broadcasting most Marigold shows live, as well as on-demand classic)
Championships[]
Owned[]
| Championship | Current champion(s) | Reign | Date won | Days held | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marigold World Championship | 
|
Sareee | 1 | July 13, 2024 | 147+ |
| Marigold United National Championship | 
|
Miku Aono | 1 | July 13, 2024 | 147+ |
| Marigold Twin Star Championship | 
|
MiraiSaku (MIRAI and Mai Sakurai) |
1 | July 30, 2024 | 130+ |
| Marigold Super Fly Championship | 
|
Natsumi Showzuki | 1 | July 13, 2024 | 147+ |
[]
| Championship | Current champion(s) | Reign | Date won | Days held | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GHC Women's Championship | 
|
Kouki Amarei | 1 | November 11, 2024 | 26+ |
Events[]
2024[]
| Event | Date | Location | Venue | Main event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marigold Fields Forever | May 20, 2024 | Tokyo | Korakuen Hall | Giulia and Utami Hayashishita vs. Sareee and Bozilla |
| Marigold Summer Destiny | July 13, 2024 | Ryogoku Kokugikan | Giulia vs. Sareee for the Marigold World Championship | |
| Giulia Countdown Final | Various, August 19, 2024 |
Various, Tokyo | Various, Korakuen Hall |
Various, Giulia vs. Mai Sakurai |
| Marigold Fantastic Adventure | Various, October 7, 2024 October 24, 2024 |
Various, Tokyo | Various, Korakuen Hall |
Various, MiraiSaku (MIRAI and Mai Sakurai) (c) vs. tWin toWer (Kouki Amarei and Chika Goto) for the Marigold Twin Star Championship Sareee vs. Bozilla for the Marigold World Championship |
| Marigold Wonderful Fight | Various | Various | Various | TBA |
2025[]
| Event | Date | Location | Venue | Main event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marigold First Dream | January 3, 2025 | Tokyo | Ota City General Gymnasium | TBA |
Annual Tournaments[]
| Tournament | Last winner(s) | Last held | Created | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dream✴︎Star GP | Utami Hayashishita | September 28, 2024 | 2024 | Marigold's biggest annual tournament, Round-robin tournament with a head-to-head final match. |