18 year old Nagisa Nozaki is scheduled to return to the ring on NEO's Sept. 20 Korakuen Hall show. She's been out of action since June and NEO president Tetsuyo Koda described the situation on the NEO blog today. Of course it brings up the bigger issue of whether this particular teenager should be a wrestler in the first place and it also emphasizes how desperate joshi promoters can be. Nozaki made her debut three years ago at age 15. And her age is a major reason she would be a draw. There's a market in Japan for attractive teenage girls. I'm told she's a very nice girl and very enthusiastic. She'll do promotions and she tries hard despite her limitations. But when I first saw her, my first thought is she's way too tiny to be a wrestler. The big problem with Nozaki is she's had a steady stream of injuries. She had knee surgery last year and things haven't improved since her return. On the blog, Koda says that Nozaki suffered a separated shoulder and a fractured eye socket in June. They decided against shoulder surgery. She was supposed to return on the recent Osaka show but dislocated her shoulder again during practice. Obviously I'm not a doctor but my observation is that when a separated shoulder pops out repeatedly, surgery is inevitable. They're not going that route. Koda says they're going to tape her up and put her in a tag team match and she'll be OK. He also said that she would be out for a year if she had surgery. It seems she would need surgery only if she wanted to continue wrestling. The shoulder injury won't affect her daily life. She'd probably quit rather than have surgery. Who could blame her? Maybe NEO should be more concerned about the long term health of an 18 year old girl than selling a few tickets. I don't see anything good coming from Nagisa Nozaki's return.
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