MARIGOLD SHOW PREVIEW: First Dream 2026 (03/01/2026)

When & Where?

• When?: Saturday 3rd January 2026
• Where?: Ota-Ward City Gymnasium, Tokyo
• Time?: 2:30pm JST 🇯🇵/12:30am EST🇺🇸/9:30pm PT🇺🇸/5:30am GMT🇬🇧

The Press Conference

What is the Full Card?

• Marigold World Championship Match: Miku Aono (c) vs. Mai Sakurai
• Marigold United National Championship Match: Victoria Yuzuki (c) vs. Shoko Koshino
• GHC Women’s Championship Match: Takumi Iroha (c) vs. Mayu Iwatani
• Marigold Twinstar Championships Match: Darkness Revolution (Misa Matsui & CHIAKI) (c) vs. Darkness Revolution (Nagisa Nozaki & Rea Seto)
• Utami Hayashishita vs. Chika Goto
• Megaton vs. Popular K
• Kouki Amarei, Natsumi Showzuki & Hummingbird vs. Momoka Hanazono, Nao Ishikawa & Nagisa Tachibana
• Seri Yamaoka, Shinno & CoCo vs. Kizuna Tanaka, Yuuka Yamazaki & Komomo Minami

What do I Need to Know?

• 3rd Marigold World Champion Miku Aono has been champion for 69 days – in her first reign. This will be the first title defence of her reign.
• This show marks the first time that the Marigold World Championship has main-evented a PPV since First Dream 2025, where Utami Hayashishita dethroned Sareee.
• The pair met a calendar year ago in the semi-main event of First Dream 2025, where Mai Sakurai ended Miku Aono’s 174 day reign with the United National Championship. Sakurai would then eclipse her reign in terms of days (277) and in terms of title defences (6 to Miku’s 3).
• The current singles record between the pair is 1-1-2, with their first match taking place in AWG back in February 2020. Their most recent encounter was on the final night of the 2025 Dream Star Grand Prix, with it going to a time-limit draw, allowing Miku Aono to progress to the tournament final at Mai Sakurai’s expense.
• Miku Aono’s 2025 singles record is 13-2-3, while her overall Marigold singles record is 25-3-11
• Of Miku Aono’s three matches inside Ota City Gymnasium, she has only won one (a pre-show tag team match on a 2024 AJPW card) and lost her only singles match – to Mai Sakurai at last year’s First Dream show.
• Mai Sakurai’s 2025 singles record is 16-3-3, while her overall Marigold singles record is 24-7-4
• Inside Ota Ward City Gymnasium, Mai Sakurai’s record is excellent, winning 7 of her 9 matches in the venue, while winning all three of her singles matches – including dethroning Miku Aono for the United National Championship last year.
• This will be Mai Sakurai’s first challenge for the Marigold World Championship, with her having to have time off recently due to a bout of diverticulitis; this is her first match back.
• 3rd Marigold United National Champion Victoria Yuzuki has been champion for 69 days – in her first reign. This will be the third title defence of her reign.
• Victoria Yuzuki’s 2025 singles record is 13-5-4, while her overall Marigold singles record is 22-14-7.
• Shoko Koshino’s 2025 singles record is 4-1-1, while her overall Marigold singles record is 4-2-1.
• This will be the first time Yuzuki and Koshino have met in singles action, and will only be the fourth time they have shared a ring together.
• 2nd GHC Women’s Champion Takumi Iroha has been champion for 215 days – in her first reign. This will be the fifth title defence of her reign.
• Mayu Iwatani’s 2025 singles record stands at 13-3-3 (12-2-3 in Marigold), with all but two of those matches coming in Marigold. Only Seri Yamaoka and IYO SKY have beaten Mayu since she joined Marigold in May.
• Mayu’s record in Ota-Ward City Gymnasium is 5-6 while she is 3-1 in singles matches at the venue – her last being a victory over Hazuki during the 2023 5Star Grand Prix.
• Takumi Iroha is yet to be beaten in singles action in 2025, currently sporting a record of 12-0-1 this year, with the one draw taking place against Utami Hayashishita in a Marigold ring in July. She has only lost one singles match since the start of 2024, with this loss happening in San Francisco against Zara Zakher for West Coast Pro. Iroha hasn’t lost a singles match in Japan since October 2023, when she challenged AKINO unsuccessfully for the OZ Academy Openweight Championship.
• Takumi’s record in Ota-Ward City Gymnasium is 2-1-1, though she drew her only singles match at the venue – a match against Syuri during the 2021 5Star Grand Prix.
• The current singles record between the pair is 2-1-1 in Iroha’s favour, though Mayu Iwatani did win their last singles match back in November of 2020 whilst in Stardom.
• Mayu Iwatani is vying to become the first ever person to hold both the IWGP Women’s Championship and the GHC Women’s Championship, with this being her first attempt at the belt.
• This will be the second successive PPV that Chika Goto has faced a former-Marigold World Champion – having faced Sareee at Grand Destiny in October – when she faces Utami Hayashishita at First Dream. She is looking to prove herself after not being able to persuade current Marigold World Champion Miku Aono to change their singles match to a title match as, in the words of the champion, she had not earned it.
• Utami Hayashishita’s 2025 singles record is 13-3-2, while her overall Marigold singles record is 22-6-3.
• Chika Goto’s 2025 singles record is 10-11-2, while her overall Marigold singles record is 15-19-4.
• The pair have only met once before in singles competition, with Utami coming out victorious during the 2024 Dream Star Grand Prix in less than 10 minutes.
• 6th Marigold Twinstar Champions Dark Wolf Army (CHIAKI (2) & Misa Matsui (1)) have been champions for 69 days – in their first reign. This will be the third title defence of their reign.
• CHIAKI and Misa nominated their Darkness Revolution stablemates as their new challengers following their second successful title defence against Minami Yuki and Chika Goto on the 12th December.
• CHIAKI is currently the only member of the roster to hold a Marigold belt more than once, and held the Twinstar Championships alongside challenger Nagisa Nozaki in late 2024 before losing them to Bozilla and a debuting Tank The Iron Lady at First Dream 2025.
• This will be Rea Seto’s first time challenging for the Twin Star Championships.
• CHIAKI’s 2025 tag team record is 27-12-4, while her overall Marigold tag team record is 41-20-4.
• Misa Matsui’s 2025 tag team record is 28-5-4, while her overall Marigold tag team record is 34-20-5.
• Nagisa Nozaki’s 2025 tag team record is 15-8-5, while her overall Marigold tag team record is 32-11-7.
• Rea Seto’s 2025 tag team record is 14-12-1, while her overall Marigold tag team record is 18-24-1.
• Megaton has lost 20 singles matches in a row, dating back to a victory over Ryoko Sakimura on the 30th May. It has been 57 Marigold matches – not including the Marigold Rumble on New Year’s Eve – since her last victory.
• Marigold announced that Minami Yuki has sustained a knee injury and will therefore be unable to compete on the December 27th Korakuen Hall show or First Dream.
• Minami Yuki has been replaced on this show by freelancer Momoka Hanazono, who will make her third appearance for the company – the last being at First Dream 2025 in the Marigold Rumble.
• Natsumi Showzuki will return from injury on this show having suffered a dislocated right shoulder joint and partial avulsion fracture of the labrum in the middle of June, causing her to be out of in-ring action since the 17th June.
• Kouki Amarei will return from injury on this show having suffered a fracture to her left clavicle at the end of September when wrestling as a part of the Zushi Pro-Wrestling Festival.
• After impressing in her four matches so far for the company – including a very impressive High-Speed Championship match against Mayu Iwatani – 15-year-old CoCo makes her PPV debut.
• It has been a full year since 2025 Rookie of the Year Seri Yamaoka’s pro-wrestling debut, with her wrestling MIRAI to a time-limit draw at First Dream 2025.
• This will be Marigold’s second ever show at the Ota-Ward City Gymnasium, with First Dream 2025 – their first – bringing in an attendance of 1,830. This number outdrew all TJPW events, both NJPW G1 Climax events at the venue and the Stardom Cinderella Tournament finals, but was slightly below the 2025 average at the venue of 2,082.61 from the 18 shows there.

How Do I Watch the Show?

The show will air as a WRESTLEUNIVERSE PPV complete with English Commentary. You can purchase the PPV from the link here.

Rob’s Predictions

• Miku Aono, Victoria Yuzuki, Mayu Iwatani, CHIAKI & Misa Matsui, Time-Limit Draw, Popular K, Team Hummingbird, Team Seri

Matt’s Predictions

• Miku Aono, Victoria Yuzuki, Mayu Iwatani, CHIAKI & Misa Matsui, Chika Goto, Popular K, Team Hummingbird, Team Seri