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Hakuho's victory lap had me in stitches.

Hakuho and Asanoyama seemed more on the backfoot today, put looked resourceful, which wins you a Yusho from time to time. Mitakeumi's win looked more decisive today, after yesterday's spectacular desperation kubinage. 

To go back to my own thoughts before the basho... I don't think we have the old Takayasu back. Kotoshoho deserves some praise, the kid is fighting well. 

Edit: I kind of reverse-jinxed Takayasu, who fought really well today. 

Edited by ReiseReise
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Apparently, Abi was forced to sit out today after going out partying and drinking with a group of sponsors without consulting with his stablemaster (as in without permission). I really like Abi, but that is just so stupid. The forced kyujo serves not only to punish, but to protect the health of the other rikishi in case of a Covid19 contraction. 

This also means Mitakeumi will move to 7-0, if I remember the schedule right. Terunofuji, Kotoshoho and Myogiryu are at 6-1 as Day 7 is live right now. 

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On 7/20/2020 at 11:22 AM, DangerMark said:

Betting against a healthy Hakuho is a mug's game. 

FTFY.

What's been up with Endo this basho? He's been finding some interesting ways to lose his matches after a kinboshi to start. Then again, Kakuryu dropped out immediately afterwards, so maybe he was just lucky. 

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Would be sad to see him go, but he already was on very thin ice. 

Asanoyama and Hakuho getting Ls in consecutive days means three men at 10-1: Hakuho, Asanoyama and Terunofuji. Takakeisho saved his rank, the very lucky call he got against Mitakeumi today meaning his eighth and much needed win. It also spoiled the latters chances to be part of the Yusho race. 

My personal favourite match of the tournament was the insane power battle between Tochinoshin and Terunofuji today. Also very entertaining: Kaisei vs Tokoshoryu, a clumsy but charming back and forth. 

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Yeah the Tochinoshin/Terunofuji match was big time sumo. Like everyone else I don't know how much time Tochinoshin really has left but it's great to see him not go quietly into that good night. And I really like Terunofuji, he's like a sumo villain that is powered solely by bandages and hate.

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5 hours ago, Death From Above said:
That would be one of the dumbest last chapters to a career ever if true.

Since I've been following Sumo, there's been a few serious fights in nightclubs and several counts of gambling on Baseball; and since this is a pro-wrestling message board I'd be remiss not to mention Koji Kitao, I have no idea what happened there. Still, Abi might well be Grand Champion Dumbass for this one.

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Koji Kitao is probably still the all-timer I suppose. He was very weirdly promoted to Yokozuna without actually winning a tournament in, by sumo's conservative standards, maybe the biggest gamble they ever took. It backfired spectacularly. He finished runner up a few more times, never managed to win one. Then there was an incident where a bunch of the junior wrestlers in the stable refused to serve under him because he was an abusive prick, and if that was brought up in sumo in the 80's I can only imagine how far that had to go. He got into an argument in December of '87 with his stable boss, and apparently it got so heated that on the way out he struck the bosses' wife. His stablemaster then handed in his resignation papers without even consulting Kitao, and the sumo association dismissed him without even a further hearing. I think reading between the lines of that list of facts they were just happy to be rid of him. I have a feeling there was probably a lot of building up heat there that isn't the kind of thing to make it into the very limited English sumo history out there.

Getting fired for hitting the boss' wife is honestly pretty hard to top.

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There is no doubt that Kitao was an All-World Shithead; apparently he got kicked out of New Japan for being racist about Riki Choshu, and later refused to drop a match to John Tenta then grabbed a mic and told everyone that wrestling was fake. In fact, one version of the story that ends with him slapping the stablemaster's wife also has him kicking the chairman of the Chichubu Cement works; who just so happened to be the chairman of the heya's, umm, patrons? Sponsors? I'm not entirely sure. At any rate, I only bring that up because I'm sure Akira Taue had a move named after the company.

And yet, Old Tatsunami, the stablemaster was a bit of a sleaze, too. This article, which is about the only thing with any details on it, says that the guy was skimming bonus money from his wrestlers, which seems like it might have helped nudge Kitao along and maybe start an argument where he slaps the stablemaster's wife and an 88 year old man who happened to be in the room too. Also maybe Kitao didn't want to marry coach's daughter, which is incidentally how that Tatsunami had inherited the stable in the first place. It seems like Kitao got his retirement money, some Y13 Million, kept his mouth shut and that was that.

The Stablemaster in question later retired, passing his stock onto his son-in-law who he'd fallen out with by then (and possibly divorced the wife,) and therefore sued him for market value for the share. A judge set "market value" at Y175 Million, although another judge overturned that. The old Tatsunami wound up kicking the heya out of the building they were training in, so the the new Tatsunami had to find a place for Tatsunami-heya to train.

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Oh man, the Tenta shoot is actually hilarious if you know what is going on though evaluated just as a pro wrestling match it is the all-time shits. It was ultra tense to start with as Kitao is being ultra uncooperative and seems to throw a shoot low kick, then after a couple minutes of posturing Kitao goes for a shoot eye poke and it gets real stupid from there. At one point Tenta is shouting at him and clearly says "this is pro wrestling". Kitao comes off so bad because as soon as Tenta is wise to it, Kitao is basically standing around like "fuck, I don't actually know how to fight and this guy is going to kick my ass" and eventually he just shoot low blows the ref to get himself out of there.  

 

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Terunofuji beats Asanoyama in a toughly fought match and gets one step closer to a miracle Yusho. The Mongolian will face Shodai tomorrow, Asanoyama is up against Terutsuyoshi. Shodai got a fusensho today, thanks to Hakuho dropping out. I think it will be likely for Asanoyama to get Shodai and for Terunofuji to face Mitakeumi on senshuraku. 

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I really liked this tournament I have to admit. Terunofuji looked good against the upper echolon, still too bad Asanoyama fell for Terutsuyoshi's tactics on Day 14...I certainly would have liked to see a playoff. Mitakeumi made the mistake of easily giving up the grip on the Mawashi, as opposed to Shodai, who avoided a belt Battle and used great footwork combined with pushing attacks. Still highly entertaining basho. It will be really interesting too see what happens in... September (hopefully)? 

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On 7/29/2020 at 6:27 PM, Death From Above said:

There *seems* to be some legitimate momentum to this? That would be one of the dumbest last chapters to a career ever if true.

Yeeeeah, apparently Abi handed in his resignation yesterday. The sword of Damocles is hanging above his head, since the acceptance won't be official until tomorrow, but I can't see the kiyokai talking him out of it. Three strikes and you're out... 

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Promotions to juryo, via Tachiai: " Two are making their second-division debuts: Oki, Ms2w, 5-2 (Shikoroyama-beya), and Nishikifuji, Ms3e, 5-2 (Isegahama). Two are returning to the paid ranks: Kitaharima, Ms3w, 5-2 (Yamahibiki), and former top-division mainstay and Makushita champion Chiyonokuni, Ms12w, 7-0"


"Reading the tea leaves, the corresponding demotions from Juryo should be J10 Asabenkei (3-12), J14 Chiyonoumi (6-9), and J13 Takagenji (6-9); the fourth slot is made available by Tochiozan’s retirement."

Okimania about to run wild on juryo. He was a lot of fun to watch last tournament.

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Good for Chiyonokuni. He got really unlucky with an injury, good he got back to salaried level. Nishikifuji is really interesting to me, same heya as Terunofuji. 

In an amazing Plot Twist, t, the kiyokai denied Abi's retirement request in favour of striking him with a three Basho suspension, a 50% pay cut, forcing him to move back into his heya and reminding him that his retirement papers will stay with them and will be accepted the next time he messes shit up. Ouch... 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Saw a report, the gist of which is that Kakuryu's elbow injury in the tournament was basically exacerbating an existing problem which really hampered his training as well as his ability to actually get a proper grip on the mawashi. Also said that it was "strange" to still be doing sumo at his age.

The end is very near, methinks. That isn't really a surprise, but it just adds more fuel to the fire.

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I can see it happening either this or next year, maybe it would have already happened without the pandemic. Stuff is really weird and hard to evaluate at the moment. Kakuryu was never lucky with his health, but he surely seems to be feeling his age aswell these days. 

Edited by ReiseReise
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http://www.sumo.or.jp/EnHonbashoBanzuke/index/index.php/index.php/index.php/

 

The September banzuke has arrived. Three sekiwake. Terunofuji jumps to M1. Tochinoshin back up to M4, which is partially the fallout that all the sanyaku who finished the tournament had winning records meaning a lot of the high ranking M's were losers that had to go down, so 10 wins bump him a long way. The human bulldozer known as Ichinojo sneaks back in at M17 defying most predictions that I saw.

Ura is back up to Makushita 5. He's close to that salaried return. He's also only a rank below Naya at Makushita 4, who at 20 is one of the biggest prospects out there right now. So there's definitely a couple people I want to keep an eye on.

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