Marigold World Champion Miku Aono States She Chose Utami Hayashishita As Her Next Challenger To Awaken Her

By: Lewis Carlan

On Mar. 29th at the Marigold HONO PRO-WRESTLING ~ YAMATO SHINSHU WOMEN’S FESTIVAL, Marigold World Champion Miku Aono teamed with Kouki Amarei to face and defeat the tandem of Utami Hayashishita & Gigaton. Following the bout, Aono addressed the crowd and proceeded to nominate Hayashishita as her next challenger.

It was back on Oct. 26 2025 when Aono defeated Hayashishita to win the Marigold World Title. Now Hayashishita will get a chance to regain the title on April 25th at Korakuen Hall.

Aono spoke with Tokyo Sports and other reporters to reveal why she decided to pick Hayashishita as her next challenger. Aono indicated that she is looking to revive Hayashishita who she feels has been lacking something lately.

From Miku Aono:

“When we fought for the belt, no matter how many times I hit her, she just wouldn’t go down. I’ve felt that Utami has been lacking something lately, so I wondered if this was really okay. I want to bring back the Utami I faced back then, which is why I nominated her as my next challenger.”

Photo Credit: Marigold

Miku Aono stated that it was Hayashishita’s loss to GHC Women’s Champion Mayu Iwatani back in January when she began to see a decline in Hayashishita’s in-ring performance.

From Miku Aono:

“In the GHC match, she had an incredible bout with Mayu Iwatani. It might just be my imagination, but around that time, I felt she was somehow different from the Utami I knew before. I thought, ‘Hasn’t her explosive power waned a bit lately?’ “I want to see the Utami who’s brimming with confidence, and I want to fight her. I want to challenge her throughout the match: ‘Where’s the Utami Hayashishita who declared herself the ace gone?’, ‘Aren’t you slacking off, Ace?’ Of course, I’m an ace too, but I want to help build up Marigold even more together, so I’m going to awaken the original Utami Hayashishita,”

As Aono will be looking to “revive” Hayashishita on April 25th in Korakuen Hall, the Marigold World Champion needs to be very cautious as she could awaken a sleeping giant who could very well regain the title she lost on Oct. 26th 2025.

A word of advice to Miku Aono, proceed with caution.

(English quote translations via Deepl.com)