NEO held their latest Korakuen Hall show on Nov. 4 called STAND OUT 07. There was some miscommunication regarding the attendance figure. NE GM Koda said that he thought it looked like it might be a sellout. He said it was not actually announced but it got out anyway. They did a count at intermission and there were 974 fans. That's still pretty good and should be credited to this being the one major show on Sunday. Too many shows dilutes the audience. There were two title matches on the show but the big announcement is that Kyoko Inoue gave birth to a son on Nov. 2. Mother & son are fine and Kyoko will have her cancer surgery in the new year. She hopes to return to the ring in the spring of 2008. Congratulations to Kyoko Inoue.
The major criticism I've seen of this show on Japanese blogs is the usual, way too much comedy. There were six matches on the show. Two were guaranteed comedy and a third had potential to be comedy. Some think it's too much. It's a long term criticism of NEO so it's nothing new. The opener had a rare NEO appearance by Sonoko Kato against Aya Yuki. Kato did very well and won with a dragon suplex in 13:26. This was followed by comedy match #1. Michiko Ohmukai & Lingerie Muto defeated Etsuko Mita & Makoto when Muto used a figure 4 leglock on Makoto at 10:34.
Next was the whole Toshie Uematsu Youth Green stuff. Uematsu teamed with Nagisa Nozaki & Aoi Kizuki over Manami Toyota, Cherry & Miki Ishii when Uematsu used a Northern Lights suplex on Ishii at 13:12. Then of course Tanny Mouse & Yuki Miyazaki defeated Chou-un Shiryu & Dick Togo when Miyazaki pinned Shiryu with a cradle at 16:55. I guess there's no more Chinese. India is next. Haruka Matsuo's first defense of her NEO Singles & NWA Pacific Titles against Sakura Emi was next. So what kind of champ is Matsuo going to be and will NEO pull the trigger on a heel turn? They haven't done that yet but Sakura Emi was certainly the crowd favourite. Matsuo won with a crucifix hold at 13:48. I don't know what NEO will do to try to have Matsuo perceived as a champ but they will have to do something.
The main event had Ayako Hamada & Kaoru Ito defending the NEO Tag Team Titles against Yoshiko Tamura & Misae Genki. Tamura & Genki won the titles when Genki used a G-driver on Ito at 22:08. But it's what happened afterwards that made things interesting. There are reports that Hamada threw the title belt at Tamura and accused her of being "unskilled". The result was an impromptu scuffle in the ring. NEO GM Koda is downplaying the incident but I think we can anticipate a feud between the two ending with a match at NEO's 10th Anniversary on Jan. 6 at Korakuen Hall. NEO has already announced that Mima Shimoda will appear on this show.
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