Tigerboy1966

And where are those 8 wins from 11 bouts going to come from? He's got 3 ozeki, 2 sekiwake and a komusubi to face as well as Tamawashi tomorrow.

Err... it might not be Kisenosato's decision to make. Technically he can defer retirement, but he may just get the tap on the shoulder.

I think his lack of attention may have had something to do with him being head-butted very hard to the jaw. That kind of thing tends to affect your concentration.

I forgot about the Kasugano & Sakaigawa prohibited matchups. Would this bring Takanoiwa (who looks a bit dodgy injury-wise) or even Kagayaki up into the list of sacrificial victims?

With Kisenosato and Takayasu both being from Taganoura it also means that Asanoyama at M5W will probably have to fight one or both of them.

So for this basho Ichinojo is Mongolia's top-ranked wrestler. That could have interesting consequences. Remember what Ichinojo did to Kisenosato in September?

Well, it's official now. He's out: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20181108_16/

My error: the Fukuoka complex has 3 arenas and I was looking at the capacity of the biggest one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukuoka_Convention_Center

Isn't it the case that Kyushu is historically less likely to sell out than the other venues? It wouldn't surprise me: according to WP it has a capacity of 13,000 compared to 11,000 for the Kokugikan, 7,500 for Nagoya and 8,000 for Osaka.

I can't see a global TV audience sitting through 3 or 4 dohyo-iri. And by the way is it carved in stone somewhere that there will be a dohyo-iri at the opening ceremony?

That's why it's often more helpful to look at the median rather than the mean. The mean can be skewed by extreme values in small samples.

So do we know what's happening to Tatsunami beya?

Oyakata say very bold things about injured wrestlers: "he will be back before the end of the basho", "he will let the injury heal naturally", "tis but a scratch" etc.

Today we saw Takakeisho and Ikioi employ the infamous "Magikarp splash attack", which involves throwing oneself to the floor and flopping around helplessly. Ichinojo looked like he wanted George to tell him about the rabbits.

I think he should be able to emulate Satoyama and get a couple tournaments in Makuuchi without ever establishing himself there. He already does a pretty good version of Satoyama's submarine attack.