Sue

D'oh! That's what I get for only watching the sekitori.

Hanakaze could get himself into a tie for 9th place by turning in an 0-15 performance next basho....

Not only that, but the skills that make one a great sports champion and the skills that make one an effective administrator of a sports organization are different. Hakuho brings in a wealth of technical knowledge that would make him an effective shinpan, and his past experience in mentoring his kohais would make him an effective shisho, but for everything else involved in being part of the NSK, he's effectively starting over at the equivalent of Maezumo. Maezumo knowledge plus a Takanohana-sized ego is not a great combination; if Hakuho has the insight to realize this, he might come to a better end.

Behind him, propping him up?

I'd chalk that up to him being assigned last place in every "banzuke luck" decision, and I'd expect the same for Asanoyama. S1e -> M11e sounds appropriate, until you have half a dozen folks all landing around M11e from their records. Victimizing Asanoyama a bit more in that case, instead of underpromoting or overdemoting someone who'll actually be competing in the next several basho, is the right move.

It's a shame that his back has been so fragile. When it isn't hurting, he's an absolute monster, and one can only speculate on what he might have been had it been healthy for his whole career.

Welp, that's about as official as official gets.

There's an opportunity for whoever lands at M18 to break the record for the lowest ranked makujiri yusho. No, seriously. Stranger (or equally strange) things have happened, and happened recently.

Endo vs. Okinoumi: 10 wins each going into the match, and their head-to-head series tied at 10-10. That has to be a fairly rare occurrence.

Right, which makes him a non-participant, not a participant who participated badly.

No. He didn't stick around long enough to be genuinely awful. Shonanzakura still takes the title.

If there's normally a shin-Yokozuna hangover in their first basho, Terunofuji is already outperforming that. He's currently on pace to finish Y-J-Y over his last three bashos. If he collapses over his last three matches, then there's a conversation to be had, but it's waaaaaaaay too early to be pressing the panic button on him.

Properly, of course.

And yet, here it is in this very post....

Alas, there goes our hope for a Myogiryu yusho.