Mai Sakurai Divulges That She Had Considered Quitting Marigold But Giulia’s Support Convinced Her To Stay

By: Lewis Carlan

On Jan. 3rd at Marigold First Dream 2026, Mai Sakurai will get a shot at the Marigold World Title as she challenges the current champion Miku Aono in a high stakes encounter.

Sakurai held the Marigold United National Title for 296 days and coincidentally defeated Miku Aono for that championship back on Jan 3rd 2025 at Marigold First Dream 2025 and is hoping history repeats itself one year later.

Image Credit: Marigold

While Sakurai has enjoyed an incredible amount of success within Marigold, Sakurai has revealed that she very nearly quit the promotion. After her match at Marigold’s inaugural event in May 2024, which saw her team with Zayda Steele and go to a time limit draw against Myla Grace & Nagisa Nozaki, she was criticized for her performance after being slandered in the past prior to competing for Marigold.

This caused her to be inundated with negative feelings and she wanted to leave Marigold. It was Giulia who convince Sakurai not to give up and offered her full support. Sakurai explained as she recently spoke with Sports Graphic Number Web.

From Mai Sakurai:

“After being heavily slandered and experiencing a huge backlash in the past, at the beginning of Marigold’s launch, my feelings were strong: ‘I don’t want to be hated or criticized anymore.’ And yet, I couldn’t have a good match at the important launch show, and got criticized again. I went into a really negative spiral, saying things like, ‘I want to quit, someone like me can’t contribute to the promotion. It’s better if I’m not here. There’s no place for me.’ Giulia-san was there then too, saying, ‘Why are you saying such negative things!’ We had exchanges like that, and she supported my heart. Thinking about it now, I was super troublesome, wasn’t I? If Giulia-san hadn’t been there at that time, I think I would have quit Marigold. I don’t know myself what exactly changed how, but I think the trigger was from Giulia-san’s last singles match (August 19, 2024, at Korakuen Hall). My mental strength, my way of thinking… It feels like I became a different person from that day.”

Photo Credit: STARDOM

Sakurai indicated that after her first few months wrestling in STARDOM which began in Aug. 2021, that she would get numerous negative comments from fans on social media. It was Giulia who offered support and became protective of Sakurai regarding the fan slander.

From Mai Sakurai:

“For about four months after joining STARDOM, I had no days off, sleeping only 2-3 hours a day. Looking back now, with no time to think slowly, I was just barely managing to get through the matches. On top of that, my wrestling fundamentals were completely lacking, so on social media I’d get around 300 comments like, ‘End up in a wheelchair,’ ‘Disappear,’ ‘I hate you.’ It was around December, four months after I started in August 2021, that I finally got more time to focus solely on wrestling. By that time, my mentality had toughened to the point where I was almost used to the criticism. But I’m human, so no matter how strong you are, there are times you feel down, right? The one who always supported me during those times was Giulia-san. Back when I had just joined STARDOM, it was also Giulia-san who made statements in her Weekly Pro Wrestling column that were protective of me regarding the slander. She was my emotional support, a very reassuring presence.”

Mai Sakurai stated in backstage interview recently that her dream is to win the Marigold World Championship and she gets her opportunity in less than a month. If Sakurai wins, it will be her third Marigold championship as she has also held the Twin Star championship in addition to the United National Title, not bad for someone who once considered quitting.

(H/T goes to meraWRESTLING for all English quote translations)