Mai Sakurai Issues A Heartfelt Statement Regarding MIRAI’s Decision To Leave Marigold

By: Lewis Carlan

The entire fan base of Marigold was caught by surprise on Sept. 20th at MARIGOLD BATTLE HEART 2025 when one of the Marigold’s top stars MIRAI announced that she would be leaving the promotion on Oct. 13th.

MIRAI indicated that she felt she was relying on Rossy Ogawa throughout her career and wanted to test her own strength without the support of Ogawa.

One person who will be very sad to see MIRAI leave is her long time friend and tag team partner Mai Sakurai. MIRAI and Sakurai have been teaming since 2022 when they were competing for STARDOM as part of the Donna del Mondo faction.

The two of them left STARDOM and followed Rossy Ogawa to become integral parts of his then new promotion Marigold in mid 2024. MIRAI and Sakurai A.K.A. MIRAISaku were the inaugural Marigold Twin Star Champions back in July 2024 and held the titles for 136 days.  In December 2024, MIRAISaku won the Twin Star Cup Tournament. They went on to being named the Best Tag Team for Marigold at the end of 2024.

MIRAI and Mai Sakurai had a classic singles match against each other at the Marigold Dream Star Grand Prix 2025 tournament which earned them the award for the best Star League Match.

Photo Credit: Marigold

With the history MIRAI and Mai Sakurai have had with each other over the last few years, it came to no one’s surprise when Sakurai issued a heartfelt statement regarding the departure of her friend MIRAI.

From Mai Sakurai:

I never thought this day would come. Do you remember the day we first met? You were dressed like Arale from Dr. Slump, weren’t you? Before I knew it, you were already approaching me during training, and before I knew it, we had become good friends. When we were rookies, we spent so much time together—doing chores, training, traveling, even on our days off. Thank you for teaching me about professional wrestling. After coming to Marigold, we both had to face various challenges and responsibilities, and we weren’t in a position where we could just think about ourselves anymore. I think we both went through a lot of struggles. I was so happy that with MIRAI, we won the inaugural Twin Star Tag Team Championship, the tournament, the Best Tag Team Award, and most importantly, the Best Match Award—the one I wanted the most. I was able to achieve all of these things because I met you. Thank you so much. And finally, of course, the only one who can stand by your side is me. We’re going to make October 13th an unforgettable day!

In MIRAI’s final match for Marigold on Oct. 13th, it’s only fitting that she will be teaming with Mai Sakuari as they face the duo of Nagisa Nozaki & CHIAKI. It will be an emotional night as it could be the final match for a very long time in which we see the team of MIRAISaku competing in the ring together.

Quite frankly, I don’t think MIRAI or Mai Sakurai would want it any other way on Oct. 13th.