Kuroyama

I would guess it has a lot to do with who does up their mage on the day of the measurement.

I'd suggest "fake" is the wrong word. @Randomitsuki 's "worked" is better. What you're seeing in a pro wrestling ring is really happening. What it is not (with the occasional rare exception; look up "shoot" in this context) is an actual competition. And these days, there's little pretense about it.

Just watch to the end. You won't regret it

From the article: I think we can now say, with a reasonable degree of certainty, that disease is not caused by evil spirits.

Or maybe more injuries, without a nice, soft cushion of senior citizens to break their fall.

Would or should? Under the rules, if he has a fever and wanted to go kyujo he'd have to fake nothing. The fever alone would force his withdrawal, and it would not go undetected under the regimen they'll be using. He's more likely to take an antipyretic if he's doing well, the fever is truly mild, and wants to avoid kyujo at all costs.

It wouldn't. But they could hold a perfunctory basho at the Kokugikan with no audience and without the extra expense of an out-of-town venue, travel, and lodging.

Given his size, he's still pretty mountainous. So Yama-moto-Yamamotoyama.

Enho has been improving every basho. I would agree with the MK predictions if I expected him to stand still, but I don't. 9-6 in March.

I'm sure most will recognize the ex-sekitori, but just in case, that's Yamamotoyama in his post-NSK career.

A chanko restaurant in New York?

Just use caution when flinging it after a yokozuna defeat. Which is understandable, because the zabuton they supply are basically the thickness of cardboard.

Smol birb still smol.

Well, that's another thing. I don't remember much discussion about the OBSC being outright yaocho. Wasn't it always presumed to be more like a kind of tacit understanding among participants?

I was also noticing there seemed to be much less back-scratching going on. I don't know if it's that they don't care to do it so much that the current ozeki seem much more vulnerable to injury. Kaio or Kotooshu or Chiyotaikai might have been able to avoid kadoban or demotion with a favor or two, but for the most part the new guard's losing records come with a pretty serious collapse, and a favor or two from a fellow ozeki won't save them anymore. Looking over the past year or two, the only time it might have helped was Tochinoshin's 7-8 score in Osaka last year, when one win would have saved him his rank, and both Takayasu and Goeido could have well afforded to give it to him. In all other cases it would have been either futile, or other ozeki couldn't spare the loss.