Benevolance

Point one: there is no way that banzuke luck will prevail and keep Akiseyama out of Makuuchi, is there? A kachikoshi at Juryo 1 pretty much guarantees that he'll trickle over into the top division like his boobs in a kesho mawashi? Point two: with how many people are going "Terunofuji could win" and outlining elaborate scenarios, I'm placing my bet that it's a short fight and Takakeisho wins easily by a slippiotoshi. Bang! He can tuck that trophy in his mawashi to impress the ladies, and the YDC swoons so hard he gets promoted to yokozuna.

Too true! I bet if you ask people to name the most admirable rikishi of this era, nine out of ten name Goeidou!

The yusho was decided on the final day. And he beat Hakuho en route to stay within 1 loss. And, to be fair, nobody who wasn't named Hakuho was ever really in the mix to win during those years. In the year that Kotoshogiku was promoted, Hakuho lost a total of 9 matches out of 90, and two of those losses were to the Geek. Practically god-like*. *For some lesser definitions of godly. Results may vary. Consult your physician if warts develop.

Naya vs Takagenji was my favorite match of the day.

I hope Gagamaru's retirement doesn't negatively impact his chances at a yokozuna promotion.

I've got no gripes with Terunofuji. His wrestling isn't as dynamic as it was before, but I can still remember when it was great and he gets a pass. We'll call it the Aminishiki factor.

I know that Takakeisho and Mitakeumi and Shodai and Asanoyama are going to be our current crop of ozeki/yokozuna for the foreseeable future but, man, I really can't wait until the next guys get here.

The YDC has two buttons: 1) he should retire and 2) he should retire but we're not recommending it yet.

I'm still pretty salty about Harumafuji. I have a feeling if he'd dragged his feet juuuuust a bit on retiring, he'd have come out the right side of the controversy. And while I absolutely love Hakuho's skill and precision, Harumafuji's speed and audacity were beautiful to behold. Anyway, not that it needs to be said, but I'm cool with the yokozuna sitting out, and I don't begrudge them a long window of retirement. None of the current crop really wows me as yokozuna material (yet) and I think having the old guard in to play occasional spoiler is great. But not having them there so often is a plus: under Hakuho's dominance, it was pretty much impossible to move up. The current set up lets the kids wrestle and put together ozeki streaks, win some occasional yusho, but perhaps keeps them from getting the rope until they're more seasoned and consistent.

So...if Kakuryu marries your uncle, he can get residence applying as a dependent of the dependent of your uncle's wife.

Crap. I overplayed my hand in the Polls forum.

Say it ain't so!

And one month wiser...and having successfully lulled his opponents into a false sense of security, he will storm up the ranks to yokozu...wait, where is the outrageous expectations thread...?

There is no option for 0-8...but I'm writing in my result.

Yikes. If there is any justice in this world, someone will start a Go Fund Me for Hakuho ASAP.

That was actually good poise by Shodai with a lot on the line. Congrats to him. But still, Tobizaru? Gotta like this guy.

You can still see that monster ichinojo now! Just, you know, only in highlight vids on you tube.

If Mitakeumi changes his shikona I will forget that he is the mediocre Mitakeumi and then accidentally cheer for him and suffer disappointment all over again.

I hadn't even registered the absence of Gagamaru.

On any given tournament someone is going to be sandbagging it, and it's not always the old guys. The banzuke committee takes care of it in due time.

I was absolutely convinced that after Takakeisho got his 8 wins, he'd go Kaio on us. I had also completely written off Asanoyama after day 3. I guess I'm just having trouble a) seeing Asanoyama and Takakeisho as serious contenders, and b) transitioning away from the Hakuho-era of "rikishi needs to be near perfect to get the yusho".

All the good comments are already taken.

This seemed like a good opportunity to use a spreadsheet, soooooo... In the current banzuke I found no wrestlers with 4 or more matching syllables. Midorifuji and Tosamidori both have three matches, and allowing the japanese swap of ra/la, Hiradoumi makes the cut, as well. Oh, I guess Moriurara should count as three, but my search function isn't identifying multiple instances of the same sound within the text box as distinct counts. I wonder if I can tweak that...?

We're given a gem like this to work with and we go with a Fortnite tangent? Sheesh.

John actually time travels to the future, grabs a selection of those articles, then travels back to the current time and cleans the articles up before publishing so that the robots have something to auto-plagiarize in the first place. Classic time-loop, really.