QUEBRADA
NEWS ARCHIVE

Neo Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestling/NEO

9/1:

9/1 Tokyo Differ Ariake 470
Lioness Asuka captured the NEO double title from Misae Genki, forcing her to submit to a henkei udegatame at 20:41. Obviously Lioness helps the card a lot and adds credibility to the not particularly meaningful titles. However, they need to draw more than this to warrant taking out the building, much less paying Lioness' fee.
Tamura beat Shimoda via ref stop at 10:30.

8/7:

Genki will defend the double titles against Lioness on 9/1 at Differ Ariake.

7/13:

7/13 Tokyo Kitazawa Town Hall 280
Mid Summer Tag Tournament 1st Round Matches:
Lioness & Kyoko defeated Genki & Yu-Yu when Lioness used her towerhacker bomb on Genki at 29:07.
Shimoda & ASARI beat Tamura & Nishi when Shimoda pinned Nishi in her Tiger suplex hold at 14:14.

4/6:

4/6 Tokyo Kitazawa Town Hall 180
Kyoko made her first successful defense of the NWA Women's Pacific & NEO Nintei Single Senshuken when she pinned Takako in her Niagara driver at 18:22. Kyoko's current theme song was composed by her husband KAORU.
Shimoda & ASARI beat Tamura & Genki when ASARI pinned Genki at 20:53.

4/5:

Kyoko Inoue was kind of forced to reveal that she was married to a musician named KAORU because the magazine FRIDAY had an article about it with a picture of them walking down the street together. I guess it's good that FMW never upholds a stip because Kyoko would have been a bigomist.

3/25:

3/25 Tokyo Kitazawa Town Hall 260
Kyoko won the NWA Pacific & NEO Nintei Single Senshuken when she pinned Shimoda in her Niagara driver at 20:31.
Takako pinned Tamura at 16:04 to earn the right to challenge for the double title next. This match will take place on 4/6 at the same venue.
In the final of the Kitazawa Tag Tournament, Tanny & Miyazaki beat Motokawa & Sae when Miyaguchi pinned Sae at 17:49.

3/13:

The 2nd ReMIX show, called GOLDEN GATE 2001, will take place on 5/3 at Tokyo Kokuritsu Yoyogi Kyogijo 2. This time there will be 6 or 7 single matches rather than a tournament. The gimmick is that the fans are going to get to vote on the opponents of 3 or 4 of the stars such as Megumi Yabushita. Yabushita says she wants to fight a foreigner that outweighs her by 80kg. Atsuko Sakuraba isn't going to try to fight on this show, but she'll be doing "explanation" (I think this means she'll be involved in a demonstration of holds).

3/9:

Shimoda will defend the double titles against Kyoko on 3/25. The semifinal is Tamura vs. Takako to decide the next challenger.

3/7:

3/7 Tokyo Itabashi-ku ? Hall 250
Shimoda successfully defended the double title, forcing Genki to submit to a doushime sleeper hold at 21:15.
Yuka Shiina is finally back (she injured her neck toward the end of '98, I believe). ASARI made her submit to an udehishigigyakujujigatame at 7:08.
Tanny & Yuki Miyazaki successfully defended the Itabashi Tag Senshuken, defeating Junko Yagi & Yuka Nakamura when Miyazaki made Nakamura submit to a kaiten ashikubigatame (some kind of a flip like rotation into an ankle hold) at 16:57.

2/28:

2/28 Tokyo Kitazawa Town Hall 150
Genki & Tanny & Miyazaki beat Tamura & Kyoko & Nakamura when Genki pinned Tamura at 53:04

From Scott Leighton:
From all accounts, (well maybe 8 or 9) this was an awesome match. Some people I know who watch a LOT of wrestling were saying it's MOTYC. .

2/11:

2/11 Tokyo Itabashi-ku ? Hall 240
Mima Shimoda captured the NWA Women's Pacific & NEO Single Senshuken when she pinned Yoshiko Tamura at 22:48.
Misae Genki & Junko Yagi beat Kyoko Inoue & Kaori Yoneyama when Genki pinned Yoneyama at 12:01. Kyoko then continued on her own, but was pinned by Genki at 8:07.

1/31:

Yoshiko Tamura will defend the NWA Women's Pacific & NEO Nintei Single Senshuken against Mima Shimoda on 2/11.

1/26:

1/26 Tokyo Itabashi-ku ? Hall 180
Yoshiko Tamura & Azumi Hyuga beat Mima Shimoda & Yuka Nakamura when Azumi pinned Nakamura at 25:31.
Misae Genki & Junko Yagi defeated Kyoko Inoue & Tsubasa Kuragaki when Genki pinned Tsubasa at 21:30.

1/8:

1/8 Tokyo Kitazawa Town Hall
Mima Shimoda won the NEO STAGE 2001 Tournament. She defeated Misae Genki at 16:57 in the semifinal then pinned Kyoko Inoue in a whopping 1:33. Kyoko defeated Tanny Mouse in 5:33 to get to the final. There was probably a first round, but these were the only results that were given.

12/17:

SMACK GIRL 12/17 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 820
NEO continued with the ReMIX theme, running a shoot show headlined by Junko Yagi. Yagi forced 21-year-old German Tamura Rudo to submit to an udehishigigyakujujigatame in just 20 seconds.
Yoko Takahashi KO'd Ranji at 1:27 of round 1.
Misae Genki beat Mika Hiragae via decision.
The plan is to start running these SMACK shows at CLUB ATOM in Tokyo next year. NEO representative Shino said something to the effect of neither pro nor amateur real fighting experience being required because they want to get as many women who are willing to the style involved as possible.

12/5: Yabushita Defeats Russian Monster

Joshi Sogo Kakutogi ReMix WORLD CUP 2000 12/5 Tokyo Nippon Budokan 6,500
1st Round:
Becky Levi beat Miwako Ishihara via decision 2-1.
Junko Yagi beat Flor Holman via ref stop at 3:58 of round 2.
Erin Tohil upset Irina Rodina via decision 2-1. They had stupid rules where there was a standup every 20 seconds, so that really limited what a fighter like Elina could do. She was able to take Tohil down at will, but that wasn't it for the striker because of the rules. Tohil did catch Elina with a kick to the face on one occassion when she was shooting in, which was ruled a knockdown because Elina went down to 1 knee. That probably cost Elina the match.
Svetlana Gundarenko made Kyoko Inoue submit to a kesagatame at 3:11 of R1.
In a match of late additions, Merlos Koenen (sp) from Holland made former pro wrestler Mika Hiragai submit to a hadakajime in just 33 seconds.
Megumi Yagushita made Bambi Batonchiero submit to an udehishigigyakujujigatame at 2:07 of round 1.

2nd Round
Becky Levi won a 3-0 decision over Junko Yagi.
Svetlana Gundarenko made Erin Tohil submit to a kesagatame at 2:48 of R1.

Semifinals
Merlos Coenen made Becky Levi submit to an dobitski udehishigigyakujujigatame (jumping takedown into a cross armbreaker) in just 25 seconds. The most exciting finish in all of shooting.
Despite weighing around 1/3 of what her opponent does, Megumi Yabushita scored the most important victory of her career defeating Svetlana Gundarenko via decision 3-0. Gundarenko took Yabushita down so many times, but Gundarenko has no speed or stamina so it's kind of amazing that under these rules she actually got two submissions and lasted 3 fights. Yabushita was smart in that she did as much as she could both in standup and on the mat to tire Gundarenko. She probably still loses the decision if not for judges that didn't emphasize takedowns and exceeding everyone's expectations. If they had a wrestling match, Kyoko would beat Yabushita fairly easily, which is why shooting seems the only hope for stardom and respect for so many small Japanese wrestlers.

In a special match, Russian Tatiana Kovochinova, a two time European judo champion and Sydney Olympic silver medalist at 48kg, beat idol Atsuko Sakuraba via TKO when Sakuraba's corner threw the towel in at 2:29 of round 1 because she was trapped in an udehishigigyakujujigatame. Sakuraba was stuck in the hold for around 10 seconds, refusing to tap, so it's no surprise that she was seen wearing a sling later that night.

Final:
Coenen beat Yabushita via decision 3-0. Yabushita got several takedowns here, but Coenen had the advantage in striking and submissions on the mat. Even though Yabushita lost the final, she was the star of the show to the audience because of her fighting spirit and the win over Gundarenko is the thing about the show that's going to stick with people. The rules and perhaps judges were in her favor, but it's so cool that she beat Gundarenko legit when Hotta couldn't do it and Kandori had to pay for the win after losing the first time legitimately to make it look like she could. This is a big break for Jd' if they can figure out how to capitilize on it. Yabushita needs to work really hard on shooting because the Gundarenko win will open a lot of doors for her, and ultimately she's going to be the one that determines if she becomes a female Kazushi Sakuraba or a female Alexander Otsuka.

12/3:

The bracketing for the Joshi Sogo Kakutogi ReMix WORLD CUP 2000 PPV is as follows:
Megumi Yagushita vs. Bambi Batonchiero with the winner getting a 2nd round bye then facing women who comes out of the four below in the semi

Kyoko Inoue vs. Svetlana Gundarenko
Erin Tohil vs. Irina Rodina

Elina Pizarenko vs. Kenen (no clue) with the winner getting a 2nd round bye then facing the women who comes out of the four below in the semi

Junko Yagi vs. Flor Holman
Becky Levi vs. Miwako Ishihara

Arona Sokovich is out. Kyoko is in by far the toughest bracket. Either they plan on working her matches or they know she has zero chance of winning so they are trying to get some late ticket sales by announcing a marketable match, while at the same time making sure she loses to someone acceptable. Yabushita is the luckiest because she probably has one of the easier first round opponents and would be in a no-lose situation whether she fight Elina or Gundarenko because they have such a size advantage. The fans would be totally behind Yabushita, and she could make herself into something of a name if she could at least hang in there for a while.

12/1:

11 of the 12 women in the Joshi Sogo Kakutogi ReMix WORLD CUP 2000 PPV on 12/5 are:
Kyoko Inoue - only shoot fight was an embarrasing loss to a tranvestite kickboxer. She's the shows Nobuhiko Takada.
Junko Yagi - Quit LLPW after a year, but was one of Japan's best in judo before that. She's the only native in the tournament that has any chance to make some noise.
Megumi Yabushita - Judo is excellent, but probably wouldn't weigh 130 in a suit of armor. She picked up pro-wrestling quickly and has become very good, but has only had about 3 shoots and still looked green in her last. After going to a 60:00 draw in 1999, she beat Momoe Nakanishi via decision after 30:00 minutes, but that doesn't mean much because Momoe is her size and doesn't have much of a legit fighting background.
Becky Levi - Dan Severn protege that has competed in various shoot events around the world. Will have a size advantage over most, but may not be able to deal with favorites Elina & Gundarenko, who also try to use their size for takedowns and control. Potential finalist.
Erin Tohil - A Rickson Gracie pupil from America that has won the California judo championship 3 years in a row. Also does some boxing.
Elina Pizarenko - Born in Russia, but came to America and is the tai-kwon-do champion in our military. Don Frye student. Supposedly a candidate for the 2004 Olympics.
Flor Holman - A former Gerard Gordeau student from Holland that is a black belt in karate. She lost to Junko Yagi on the 2nd L-1. Not a threat unless she's developed a ground game since then.
Arona Sokovich - A combat sambo practicioner from Russia. Also knows judo. Her write up on the SKYPerfecTV! promo for the show is 2 sentences long, yet they have time to talk about her being proud of mythology?
Bambi Batonchiero - Kickboxer from America that fights often for ISKA. Former UFCF Intercontinental champion. Formerly a Maurice Smith student.
Irina Rodina - Represented Russia in judo in the Sydney Olympics. Always beats the Japanese women because she's too big and powerful for them. Will take people down and keep them there until they tap out or time expires. Younger and more skilled than Gundarenko. Heavy favorite, IMO.
Svetlana Gundarenko - Represented Russia in judo in the Barcelona Olympics. Similar to Elina, but much heavier and slower. No mobility, but her opponents never have the strength or skill to get her off them once she falls on top. Probably won't come in with the conditioning required to win the tournament, but might be helped by a bye somewhere since tournaments with 12 don't work out. Still, anyone with a guard should be able to blow her up, but so far she hasn't run into an opponent in Japan that had one. Potential finalist.
The show is 4 days away, yet they still haven't announced the final competitor or any bracketing.

11/19:

Yoshiko Tamura will defend the NWA Women's Pacific & NEO Nintei Single Senshuken against Kyoko Inoue on 11/21 at Tokyo Kitazawa Town Hall. I'll be really surprised if Tamura wins this match, especially since Kyoko supposedly isn't wrestling men next year.

11/10:

11/10 Tokyo Itabashi-ku ? Hall
Yoshiko Tamura pinned Emi Motokawa at 17:04.
W Inoue beat Misae Genki & Kiyoko Ichiki when Kyoko pinned Genki at 18:55.

10/20:

10/20 Tokyo Kitazawa Town Hall 150
Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue beat Yoshiko Tamura & Misae Genki when Kyoko niagara drivered Tamura at 21:18.
Carlos Amano made Yuki Miyazaki submit to her udehishigigyakujujigatame at 16:41.
In a man vs. woman mixed match, Yuka Nakamura pinned Tsubo Genjin at 7:38.

10/13:

10/13 Tokyo Itabashi-ku ? Hall 180 sellout
In probably the longest match of both women's careers, Yoshiko Tamura successfully defended the NWA Pacific Title & NEO Nintei Single Senshuken when she made Misae Genki submit to a ground cobra at 40:06.
W Inoue beat Azumi Hyuga & Yuki Miyazaki when Takako pinned Miyazaki at 14:54.
Hiroyo Muto made Yuka Nakamura submit to her Argentine backbreaker at 10:57.

9/22:

9/22 Tokyo Itabashi-ku ? Hall 180 sellout
In a match for Yoshiko Tamura's NWA Pacific Title & the new NEO Nintei Single Senshuken, Tamura got her first singles win over Takako Inoue, pinning her at 17:06 following an elbow smash.
In a match to decide the next challenge for the above titles, Misae Genki finally took out Kyoko Inoue when she scored a pinfall at 15:00. WIth the above two results, you have to wonder if NEO is finally going to try to make something of some of their other wrestlers. Probably Tamura & Genki will be jobbing to Kyoko & Takako on the next show...

8/19:

8/19 Tokyo Itabashi
Takako Inoue & Yoshiko Tamura beat Kyoko Inoue & Misae Genki when Takako pinned Kyoko at 21:46.
The Bloody pinned Saya Endo in her Bloody ecstacy at 7:46.
Yuki Miyazaki lost to a person who has a grudge with her via DQ at 1:44.

6/16:

6/16 Tokyo Itabashi ? Hall
W Inoue beat Misae Genki & Yuka Nakamura when Kyoko pinned Nakamura at 15:04.
Ran Yu-Yu pinned Saya Endo at 17:26.
Azumi Hyuga pinned Yuki Miyazaki at 15:04.

3/21: Kyoko Shoots For 10,000,000 Yen

Kyoko chokes out a baseball player

The women's shoot show that was talked about on the 3/16 NEO show will be called Joshi Sogo Kakutogi (Women's General Fight Skill) ReMix WORLD CUP 2000. They are taking out Tokyo Nippon Budokan on 12/5, so they are trying to make this a huge event. I don't see why they've taken out such a huge building when the last women's shoot show drew around 5,000 legit, and that was with the best female draw, Shinobu Kandori, trying to beat Russian monster Svetlana Gundarenko to avenge one of her only her losses. They will be holding an 8-woman one night tournament, similar to the original L-1 on 7/18/95. The participants that have already been announced are Kyoko Inoue, Junko Yagi, and Erin Torsel (sp?) a 22-year-old from the California Gracie Academy. Others that have been asked to participate are amateur wrestling stars Kyoko Hamaguchi (daughter of Animal) and Miyu Yamamoto, as well as Becky Levi. Kyoko is in the Nobuhiko Takada role of the big name that has no chance of winning, but will generate publicity and draw some fans. The difference is that Takada had been winning matches people believed were real for years, while Kyoko lost to a eunuch kickboxer once and that's about it. They had Kyoko demonstrate a choke on outfielder Takeshi Shinjo at the press conference. Shinjo said that he would do commentary on the show for television and/or video.

3/16:

3/16 Tokyo Kitazawa Town Hall 312 sellout
The group formerly known as Neo Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestling restarted with a three match show headlined by Yoshiko Tamura & Saya Endo going to a 20:00 draw with Misae Genki & Tanny Mouse.
Kyoko Inoue beat Yuki Miyazaki with a lariat at 3:03.
Chihiro Nakano beat Yuka Nakamura in 10:58 with a Shawn capture (a jumping takedown into a kneebar).
NEO will eventually have an official full debut show. They also announced that they'd like to run a shoot style show in December, which former LLPW wrestler Junko Yagi, who was a star in judo before getting into wrestling, would be fighting on.

1/6: Neo Finishes Like They Started

Kyoko is sad because she ran her promotion  6 feet under from Nikkan Sports

1/6 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1,000
Consistency can be good, but consistently showing that you only have one wrestler that's worth anything is the primary reason this promotion failed. On 1/6, before a pitiful announced crowd of 1,000 Neo Ladies closed up shop with a show that can only be described as summing up exactly why this promotion failed. Kyoko Inoue, the promotions lone star, decided to wrestle in every match on the show. Of course, she won almost every one. She started off with a series of singles matches, one against every healthy wrestler left in the promotion. First she took out Yoshiko Tamura with her niagara driver at 10:14. Tamura was the only wrestler Kyoko was unable to beat in the 6 month long Neo Japan Cup '99. Their match in the Neo Cup was a 30:00 draw, so Kyoko had to rape Tamura of whatever she gained from that match by beating her in just 10 minutes. Of course, the length is justified by Kyoko having 5 more matches to work, but it's the idea that the fans all want to see Kyoko win every match and we should book with no thought beyond them "going home happy" that killed this promotion. Kyoko's dominance continued with a 6:30 win over Tanny Mouse. Yuka Nakamura, the only wrestler that Neo debuted in their 2 year existence, was next to be obliterated. She lasted just 1:45 before falling prey to a fisherman suplex hold, a move that I can't even remember seeing Kyoko use before. Saya Endo was able to last a whopping 5:32 before submitting to a henkei katagatame (modified shoulder hold), another move that Kyoko never even uses. Finally, Misaei Genki retained the last shred of credibility the Neo undercarders have by pinning a tired Kyoko at 9:20 with her Gdriver. In order for Kyoko to render this win meaningless and rob that last shred of credibility, Kyoko teamed with Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita, who were smart enough to leave this promotion earlier in the year, to defeat Misaei Genki and the other four that Kyoko already beat in singles when Kyoko got retribution on Genki with her niagara driver at 14:47. It's a good thing Neo doesn't have another show because they already found a way to give away the only result that anyone watching this show might be interested in seeing, whether Kyoko could rebound and beat Genki once again. Actually, it's possible that Neo isn't done. It seems like Kyoko is trying to do some kind of financial and front office reorganization that would allow a similar crew to restart with a show on 3/16 at Tokyo Kitazawa Town Hall. I'd love to write a nice swan song for this promotion, but in between the few excellent matches, all it's given us is a heaping motherload of frustration.

12/25: Beating Women Is Fuyuki's Latest Form Of "Entertainment"

Fuyuki puts Kyoko in Fuyuki special from Nikkan Sports

Neo Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestling

12/25 Tokyo Komozawa Okunai (indoor) Gyugijyo (ball park) 1,600
Kodo Fuyuki won the first ever Danjo Kanaami Death Match (man vs. woman cage death match), KO'ing Kyoko Inoue at 13:10. A powerbomb, two lariats, and punches from on top are what led to the 10 count KO. Both wrestlers juiced during the match. Since this was Texas Death Match rules, Fuyuki was able to put Kyoko over by allowing her to pin him twice, but obviously he got up before the 10 count on both occassions. Fuyuki did a little publicity stunt with an ECW T-shirt after the match, covering Kyoko's bloody face with it before leaving the ring. Supposedly Fuyuki would like to break down the gender barrier and promote more man vs. women's matches as part of the "new entertainment" he's introducing next year (which includes ECW Japan). Fuyuki wrestling women actualy isn't really anything new, as he's participated in matches against Lioness Asuka, Shark Tsuchiya, and Eagle Sawai, and even did a job to Shark. However, an increase in the frequency of mixed matches occuring seems likely.

12/22: Neo's 2nd Anniversary Will Not Be A Celebration

Neo Ladies is closing up shop after their 2nd Anniversary show on 1/6/00. The group had been surviving on a subsistence level for quite some time. They would run one or two shows a month, and those usually didn't even get 1,000 paid. The group didn't have that much talent to begin with, but the main problem was that Kyoko was unwilling to bring any of the other wrestlers up to her level. The booking was very consistent in making the younger wrestlers into nothing more than fodder for Kyoko, so things got stale really quickly, particularly when Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita were no longer appearing on Neo's shows. This left the league in a situation where no one had even a slim chance of beating Kyoko in singles, so there was no reason for the fans to attend their shows. The league will be remembered for a few excellent Kyoko matches, particularly a women's match of the year against Lioness Asuka on 5/6/98 and her 10th Anniversary match against Aja Kong on 10/20/98, and also the travesty of jobbing Mita, Chaparrita ASARI, and Kyoko out to Nicole Bass even though Bass really wasn't even a wrestler and they had no agreement for it to come back and put any of their wrestlers over. Mainly what will stand out is how terrible booking that served no purpose other than to feed Kyoko's ego will drive you into oblivion.

Even most fans of women's wrestling agree that there were too many leagues simply because none of them had the depth to present more than a few good matches. While we don't want any leagues to go under, the positive is that this could help bolster the rosters of some of the other leagues and less competition should very marginally increase the other promotions attendances (Neo was barely ever competion at this point because they hardly ran any shows). The question now is what will become of Neo's wrestlers. At this point we don't really know, but you could see something like this:

Kyoko Inoue-She should go the free agent route because she's a big name that is capable of beating anyone. She's not a great draw, but a league could expect to draw 1,500 or more if they gave her a title shot. FMW already announced that she would work some matches for them next year. This just seems like a waste because unless she's going to be fighting guys (she has a match with Fuyuki on 12/25), which she probably will be since that's the kind of thing Fuyuki likes, they don't have any credible opponents for her. Kyoko vs. Milky Kaori isn't going to cut it because Milky isn't close to Kyoko's level and Kyoko isn't going to be willing to try to bring Kaori up that much, especially when there's no stepping stones in FMW for Kaori to climb. Kyoko vs. Lioness and Toyota are her best matches, but I'm not sure how much life they have left because they've been done so much over the years. I'm sure they could do them one more time, but Kyoko vs. JWP has a lot more life left because the JWP vs. Neo feud didn't go far. Well, it has a lot of life left if Kyoko would be willing to lose to one of JWP's younger wrestlers like Azumi or Yu-Yu. Otherwise, there aren't many options. Since Takako Inoue is also a free agent, the Inoues could be brought into other leagues to challenge for the tag titles. I would not be surprised to see Kyoko & Takako vs. Watanabe & Maekawa for the WWWA tag.
Michael Smith's comments: I don't Kyoko vs. JWP would work. Kyoko already pummeled Kuzumi and has fought Kansai several times, so who's left for her? Devil is one possibility, but they've fought before and now it would just be a waste. I doubt Kyoko would put over a Miyaguchi or Amano when there's no benefit for her doing so and a return job from anyone in JWP isn't going to add anything to her resume. AJW seems like a better fit for Kyoko and Takako because Jd' doesn't have anyone for Kyoko to fued with besides Lioness, and I can't see Kyoko and Chigusa being able to work together.

Misae Genki-She has the most potential of anyone in Neo because of her size. I think she'd be better off joining a league because she doesn't have a big enough name to warrant being brought in for big matches at this point. She has the potential to be a world champion, but if she has to rely on the other leagues to bring her in, she'll wind up stuck in the midcard trading wins with wrestlers that are on the rise. If she joined JWP or Jd', she would be a big asset because she's big enough to be a credible opponent for Lioness Asuka or Dynamite Kansai. I think ARSION should go after her because her size would make her a good opponent for Omukai and Aja (she'd need more credibility to challenge Aja, but she's worth a lot more than ASARI and ARSION has given her a really big push). I have the feeling she'll tag along with Kyoko, which would get her work, but would probably mean she'll just get stuck in Kyoko's shadow and get pinned in a lot of tag matches.
Michael: I could see the scenario in ARSION working, but JWP seems like a place to stay away from for consistent work. They don't show faith in any of the four girls they should, and I doubt Misae would mean anything there. Kansai already pinned her twice this year and she's (seemingly) not willing to properly put over the younger women JWP is supposedly pushing, so I doubt she would put over a newcomer without much credibility.

Yoshiko Tamura-She should have gone to JWP back in 1997. At this point, the league isn't nearly as appealing but they are desperate. They still see her as Azumi's peer, so she could wind up being a "top star" there. Jd' just had her beat The Bloody for the AWF title, so she'll have no problem finding work there. I think she'd getting the best push in JWP, but they are a dying promotion so she'd probably do better going between Jd' and JWP. I'd like to see ARSION go after her because she can work and knows some submissions. She never really developed her own style, but she is good enough that she could be turned into something with Yoshida or Jaguar training.
Michael: Look what happened to Kuzumi though. Her title run meant nothing (I mean as far as push goes, can't blame her for the attendence when everyone has that problem) and now she doesn't even have the belt. The girl who took it from her wasn't even built up and seemingly the only reason Kuzumi had the title was that they didn't want to give it back to Kansai when Hikari retired.

Saya Endo-She fits well into Jd' because they emphasize the face/heel structure, but are always short of decent heels. I'd like to see her become Bloody's regular tag partner because Fang Suzuki is god awful. She drags that team down and makes Bloody have to work too hard to save the match. Another option would be to use her on Lioness' side, as she also has no good partners.
Michael: I think Saya is better served as an understudy then as a leader type, so she'd be better with Lioness than Bloody. If Jd' did bring in a Tamura or Misae then I'd put them with Bloody and turn her face.

Tanny Mouse-I know this sounds cruel, but hopefully all the promotions will realize she's useless and not book her. She's a Kyoko favorite, so she can probably tag along with Kyoko in an Ed Leslie type of role. Also, Sasuke needs people to lose to Chaparrita ASARI if he's going to keep booking her (and he may as well since he doesn't have enough wrestlers of his own and the women would be even easier to book now that they aren't in Neo), so Tanny can still be one of the people that fills that role.
Michael: Considering Shark always has work, I doubt we've seen the last of Tanny. Maybe she'd fit in somewhere like Big Japan or the IWA Japan since she's near the level of a Chihiro Nakano.

Yuka Nakamura-She hasn't shown anything as a wrestler, but is young and cute. She needs to join a promotion because she means nothing as a free agent. Jd' has a bunch of small girls, so she could fill out their cards. JWP & AJW are both desperate for workers, so that's another possibility. Also, she could keep putting ASARI over on Michinoku shows. I mean, Sasuke still runs the the Beef Wellington and Jinsei squashs every night, so ASARI might have 3 or 4 more years of lopsided wins in Michinoku before Sasuke wakes up and realizes these matches are just useless.
Michael: So far she hasn't been given the chance to show anything. That's not to say that a great worker is waiting to break out, but she's young enough to be molded into at least a fair worker who can get by on looks.

12/2:

12/2 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1,402:
Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita won the 6 team Neo Millenium Tag Tournament. The tournament was set up so the top two teams, Shimoda & Mita and Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue, had byes in the first round. Shimoda & Mita got to the finals by defeating Yoshiko Tamura & Misae Genki when Shimoda pinned Tamura at 20:24 following her death lake drive. Since it was Neo, the tournament played out exactly as you'd expect (not even one upset), meaning Kyoko & Takako made it to the final by beating Tanny Mouse & Chihiro Nakano when Kyoko pinned Tanny with a move called dangerous Jackie (I think) in 10:27. Shimoda & Mita won the tournament when Mita pinned Kyoko with her Death Valley bomb at 15:54. After being absent from Neo shows in recent months, this win reestablishes Shimoda & Mita, who were the #2 & #3 stars in the promotion when it formed in early 1998, as forces to be reckoned with in Neo. I think it was a good move for Kyoko to do the job because she certainly got the best of LCO in singles,and her losses to them in tag were usually do to having a "weak link" partner like Genki. The problem is that Genki is the person they need to push hard, but now that Takako is Kyoko's regular partner, Genki has been relegated to Tamura's #2, which is just ridiculous because she has so much more upward potential than Tamura because of her size. The results of the first round matches were Tanny & Nakano beating Saya Endo & Bloody Phoenix II (the original Bloody Phoenix was Naomi Kato, who now wrestles as The Bloody) when Tanny beat Bloody in 17:10 with mount Tanny and Tamura & Genki beating Acute Sae of JWP and Yuka Nakamura when Genki pinned Nakamura at 11:42 following a nodowa otoshi.

Kodo Fuyuki, who is "banished from FMW" due to losing to Masato Tanaka on 11/23, showed up at the 12/2 show and challenged Kyoko to the first ever Danjo Kanaami Death Match (man vs. woman cage death match). This will take place at the 12/25 Neo show in Komozawa. The rules are that you can win by KO or escape.

Chaparrita ASARI declared free agency at the 12/2 show. She will still work in Neo, but also wrestle in ARSION, AJW, and perhaps overseas. She was basically acting as a free agent since July anyway (although I assume she had to get clearance to wrestle in ARSION from the Neo front office), so this just makes it official.

Contact info
All inquiries and orders should be e-mailed to M.L.Liger@juno.com.