NEO held a press conference on Saturday to announce two big matches for their Nov. 3 Korakuen Hall show. They also made a third announcement of a New Year's Eve show that probably won't draw any yen. I guess the new strategy is to try and make themselves seem important so the Japanese media will cover them. It worked because Sportsnavi covered NEO for the first time in years. But I think spending some time on a new updated website makes more sense. NEO doesn't have that.
NEO president Tetsuyo Koda announced that the main event of their Nov. 3 Korakuen Hall show will have Yoshiko Tamura defend her NEO Singles/NWA Pacific Titles against Mariko Yoshida. It looks like this is the first time these two have ever faced each other in a singles match. And the last time they were in the same match was in a tag match in AJW when Tamura was a rookie nine years ago. Koda made noises about NEO's decision that Yoshida is a strong challenger. Do you think? Tamura said she has wanted to face Yoshida for a long time and is looking forward to facing her. The match has the potential to be good if Tamura brings her A game. But that's not a sure thing. I would be surprised if Yoshida won the titles as she's a freelancer and doesn't have the time to devote to NEO.
NEO also announced 15 year old trainee Nagisa Nozaki will make her debut on the Nov. 3 Korakuen Hall in a high profile match. On the Oct. 8 show, Mayumi Ozaki suggested that the rookie should face Dynamite Kansai in her debut. Kyoko Inoue said no but after speaking to Nozaki and finding she is willing decided to turn it into a tag team match. So Kyoko will team with Nozaki against Dynamite Kansai and a partner to be announced. I wonder who that might be. Obviously sticking a teen in there with grizzled vets is not the best idea but a 15 year old girl making her debut is what got them the media coverage. Will she live up to the hype?
Once again this year there will be an Indy Summit featuring a lot of the Japanese indy feds. This will be start on Dec. 13 and conclude on New Year's Eve evening at Korakuen Hall. Tetsuyo Koda announced that NEO would hold what he called a Women's Professional Wrestling Summit on New Year's Eve afternoon at Korakuen Hall. He says they plan to book wrestlers from all the different joshi feds. He says they don't want to overshadow the Indy Summit but joshi should have its own spotlight. He has nothing to worry about. New Year's Eve is a very busy day in Japanese wrestling & MMA. This ain't gonna draw flies.
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