MrGrumpyGills

I know that doesn't really do anything but would he have it done if there wasn't a problem with his back?

Onosato has had cupping marks on his shoulders/back for two or three days now, I hope this doesn't hint at an injury :/

Every now and again Nishikigi has a basho in which he turns into a giant ragdoll. According to sumodb he only went kyujo once, so maybe he's one of those rikishi who heal on the dohyo

They have two new recruits: https://youtu.be/ryYAx_jQCjc?feature=shared

OTOH, Hōshōryū lost to M2 Atamifuji (finished with 5-10), M4 Shōdai (6-9) and M5 Hiradoumi (7-8), which isn't a good look either. Yes, the playoff was awesome and decisive, but I'd still say he should need another yusho. I think they'll promote him this time, though.

I'm still angry about that (and will be even more so when/if they promote Hōshōryū right away), and for the record I would've been angry on behalf of any other rikishi as well, not just for Takakeishō. The results were there, it just wasn't an official run after the jun-yusho (each time) for whatever reason. But I don't want to get on everyones' nerves so I'll be quiet now Sorry for the rant, please ignore me

I was contemplating if I should mention that but decided against it Yes, I agree, it's irritating to watch. Is it supposed to distract the opponent? Is it nerves? Superstition? Shishi also makes these silly grabbing motions with his hands Just put them down and let's go already.

He probably took a page out of his new(ish) stablemate Mita's playbook - that guy is lightning fast. It seemed to me (from the heya's videos on YT) that Nabatame was a bit jealous of Mita when the latter joined, so I'd guess he didn't want to be outdone/left behind by the newbie.

I'm not sure about that... Abi has beaten Ichiyamamoto twice so far - at some point Ichi needs to catch up so the balance can be restored properly.

Nabatame finally has his first Juryo kachikoshi Aside from that, interesting leaderboard in Makuuchi! Tomorrow, Kinbozan is being fed to the Nephew (or is it vice versa? ).

Lots of nice throws today Ura, doing non-acrobatic sumo for a change, walking away like a boss after casually throwing Kotazakura gave me a good chuckle. Love the guy! I also wanted to mention that I enjoy Hiradoumi's fierceness/scrappiness, he reminds me of Yoshikaze whom I miss quite a bit (among several other retired veterans). As for the next yokozuna - I'm actually hoping for a regular, straightforward 2 yusho back-to-back run. IMHO it doesn't matter that much that there isn't a yokozuna right now and the powers that be shouldn't be rushing to promote Hōshōryū, who still might not be ready or consistent enough yet. His run is pretty much over anyway after today's loss, right?

They were going unnecessarily hard on him in my opinion. I still wonder why.

Oh wow, didn't think it would happen that soon. Yes, the writing was on the wall, but still...

As they say - misery loves company

Thank you so much for the info!

Who knows :) By the way, does he have a kabu? I'm not really up to date with these.

It was the same with Kisenosato, all smiles and glowing cheeks. Different as night and day. Great to see :)

For him and Aoiyama both, the writing had been on the wall for some time. May they be sucessful as oyakata :)

I can imagine, though they probably were drowned out by the others

Thanks so much and have a written like back (forum's glitching on me again) :) 100 % agreeing with you.

Absolutely. Let's hope he can avoid the curse and even more importantly any major injuries (this is not a jinx ). I'm also super happy for Nishonoseki for being able to raise such a sucessful rikishi so quickly.

Had they promoted him, he likely would've have lasted longer but OTOH maybe his neck injury would've been career-ending anyway, similar to Kisenosato's injury. He was burning the candle at both ends. So this could be a blessing in disguise. Let's see what Ōnosato can do. I like his energy and fierceness.

Oh no, this thread is perfectly fine! Sorry if I was unclear on that. I was thinking of some older threads that had some nasty comments, also on Youtube. As for Reddit and Twitter, they are notoriously vicious with almost everything and full of misinformation, so I'm not using these for sumo info/discussion (and barely anything else).

I’m happy and I’m sad. Happy that Takakeishō pulled the plug when he had to and (very) sad to see my favorite rikishi retire. I liked him right away when he entered makuuchi (at that time I wasn’t following Juryo and lower yet) and he quickly became my favorite. While I also had liked others (Takarafuji and Tochinoshin for example), he’s the first and so far only rikishi of whom I really was a fan since starting to follow sumo in 2013. He was different and always some sort of an underdog, often mocked by sumo fans for his body type and even hated later in his career – all of that only made me root for him harder. Yes, I’ve been called a "contrarian" before :P By the way, I never saw any smugness or arrogance in him. It’s just the way his face looks. Similar to guys like Tochiōzan. At his peak IMO he performed like a yokozuna and at least to me was a joy to watch and cheer on. Technically, they could’ve given the rope to him twice (2020.09/2020.11 and 2022.11/2023.01), but I guess the "equivalent" part of the yusho + equivalent wasn’t strong or decisive enough each time. I would’ve loved to see him promoted. Regarding that one henka that turned many people away from Takakeishō, I remember Terunofuji’s infamous henka vs. Kotoshōgiku. So many HATED Terunofuji’s guts back then, but he’s been forgiven and is well liked by most sumo fans now. So I’m wondering why the dislike against Takakeishō almost seemed political at some point or what it would’ve taken for him to achieve redemption. At any rate, I hope he can be successful in his second career as oyakata and be able to heal and get healthy :) Otsukaresama, Takakeishō!

I'm really wishing the best for him and will probably hope against hope that he'll make it, but I don't think it'll happen. This is going to be a very sad basho for me.