Nobody put their stamp on Marigold’s DREAM STAR GRAND PRIX tournament more than NORI. Not the eventual winner Utami Hayashishita. Not the incomparable Sareee. 

It was NORI, who is far from the biggest star in the tourney field, who made the most resounding impact at the event.

When Marigold announced the lineup for the inaugural edition of its DREAM STAR tournament, NORI’s name didn’t exactly stand out. The round-robin evented boasted talent like former World of STARDOM champ Hayashishita, Wrestler of the Year contender Sareee, the powerhouse phenom Bozilla, and former Actwres girl’Z World Championship titleholder Miku Aono. 

NORI, meanwhile, was walking in with barely any buzz.

That doesn’t mean she wasn’t cool as hell and a great athlete. Many of us just didn’t know it yet.

The hard-kicking wrestler hadn’t been all that active leading up to this stretch. She had wrestled just a handful of matches in 2024 (two for Marigold) and only a single match in LLPW-X in 2023. Before that in 2017, she worked for Ice Ribbon as NORI DATE.

None of this made her a household name. Little of the talk surrounding the tournament had to do with her. 

But with one boot to the chin at a time, that was about to change.

August 31 vs. Kouki Amarei

On the tournament’s opening show, NORI faced former Actwres girl’Z rising star Kouki Amarei. When she stood in the corner before the bell, running her fingers through her purple-tinged hair, her silver skirt swaying, we could not have known what kind of predator was about to emerge.

In fact, it wasn’t until toward the end of this match that NORI’s killer vibes really started to show. This was one of the slower and least electric bouts of her DREAM STAR run.

But when she and Amarei started trading kicks, we saw sparks of the fire that was soon to engulf this tournament. NORI’s strikes were eye-catchingly forceful. She went after Kouki’s legs with no mercy.

Kouki controlled a lot of the action early on. Gradually, though, NORI started to build an assault and make this match her stage. By the time she kicked her opponent in the head and nabbed a three-count, many an eyebrow was surely raised. 

Thankfully, she was just getting started.

August 31 vs. MIRAI

In her next Dream Star match, NORI showed off a big-time presence. She exuded star energy. From the moment she walked to the ring with horns bleating in her entrance music, she made damn sure everyone paid attention to her.  

NORI used kicks to keep her distance from MIRAI, her martial-arts background on display from the onset. This gave the match an aura of realism. NORI moved like a fighter. She glared at her opponent, guarded, ready to strike. 

The action sung. NORI’s punches popped. She hammer MIRAI’s chin with knees. Every move had purpose and precision. At one point, she hit a missile dropkick with overwhelming force, like a train crashing through a barricade.

Throughout the bout, NORI relied on her kicks. She spun. She swung. She cracked her boot against MIRAI’s body.

All of it was art.

The newcomer was able to withstand MIRAI’s assault and survive her famous lariats as the wrestlers fought to a draw. In the tourney, NORI earned only a single point here, but she was the talk of the show with fans buzzing about her online. 

September 8 vs. Chika Gota

NORI followed up her debut with more bad-ass energy. Gota tried for a test of strength, and NORI just kicked away her foe’s had. Clearly, she had no patience for that shit.

The Sendai native was engrossing when she was on the attack. She kicked Gota’s thigh so hard you would have that it had cheated on her.

Everything she did was quick, exact, machine-like. NORI left the former AWG talent screaming as she punt kicked her hamstring and manhandled her. 

This was an absolute showcase of NORI as a Terminator-like force. The dominant path to the win was as noteworthy as the victory itself. 

September 14 vs. Nagisa Nozaki 

Even against a more well-known star like Nozaki (a former WAVE world champ), NORI earned plenty of loud cheers before and during this showdown. The audience had clearly started taking notice of her. 

NORI and Nozaki’s tie-up was a compelling power struggle. A grappling exchange followed. Throughout, NORI looked every bit like she belonged on Nozaki’s level despite the disparity in experience and name recognition. 

The dangerous striker was able to take Nozaki’s best shots, and in spots of trouble, reverted back to kicking hard as hell. She pulled off a beautiful spin kick that deserves to be put in a golden frame. 

Before the time limit expired, NORI showed off fighting spirit aplenty. She was engrossing when she fought through a tough stretch or screamed to charge herself up. 

September 16 vs. Natsumi Showzuki

A lot of her battle with Showzuki felt like an MMA fight, a legit struggle between two powerful sluggers. NORI lead with kicks but also employed some mat work including a sleeper hold as tight as the skin on a drum. 

The action was rugged, entertaining, dynamic. 

Showzuki gave it back to the former Ice Ribbon talent as good as she gave out. The two traded chests kicks. NORI’s were simply more destructive.

At times, she looked like a cyborg sent on a killing mission. In other spots, emotion shaped her face–frustration, focus, resilience all beaming off her. 

NORI earned her third win of the tournament, this time against a former STARDOM tag champ and former AWG champ, a victory that accentuated her impact on the event.

September 23 vs. Utami Hayashishita

Both wrestlers walked in with eight points each. NORI could push her way to the final by besting the accomplished STARDOM-expat. 

It felt like an even matchup from end to end. Marigold was clearly behind NORI, making her a formidable adversary for a woman primed to the company’s ace.

NORI’s rapid offense shined. She relied on aggression, a flurry of kicks, a clear and emphatic fieriness. 

There was a viciousness to her holds and a toughness to her response to Utami’s offense. She made damn sure her character was clear: a relentless fighter.

Even after Hayashishita nailed her with the BT Bomb and got the three-count, it seemed like NORI might rise up one more time and offer one more hammering blow. A monster movie impossible to kill.

September 28 vs. Victoria Yuzuki 

DREAM STAR’s final night saw Utami and Mai Sakurai take center stage in the main event. NORI, on the other hand, appeared much earlier on the card in a faceoff against the young Yuzuki.

Name on the marquee or not, NORI was determined to continue making her mark on this tournament, on this promotion, on the joshi world as a whole. In her corner, awaiting the opening bell, she looked defiant, pissed off, dangerous.

It was a joy watching her wallop Yuzuki for the majority of this bout. She took all of the prodigy’s hard elbows and countered with a wave of kicks. Her boots battered Yuzuki’s thighs. They swept her off her feet. Then to top it off, NORI delivered a wrecking ball of a kick to the side of the head.

NORI’s dominance put Yuzuki in the role of underdog one who eventually stole the win with a flash pin. Both women played their parts exquisitely. 

During Yuzuki’s victory speech, NORI charged at her, hammering down with fists and kicking her in the ribs. The tournament was done, but NORI wasn’t. There is too much fight still in her, too much raging, obstinate energy left inside her.

Good. Anyone who watched her battle her way through the DREAM STAR had to be hungry to see more. Whether NORI sticks around with MARIGOLD or ventures elsewhere, she has to keep kicking in heads on a big stage. It’s clearly her calling.

As we saw in match after match, she boasts something special, something that begs for the heat of the spotlight.