Sue

I've made a lot of "Next Ozeki Shodai" jokes in the years when he struggled. Might that actually be true now?

Zero positive COVID-19 tests.

Four sekiwakes on the November basho banzuke.

Hattorizakura Jonokuchi zensho yusho.

I did. Sorry, wrong three-letter shikona.

Well, we just had Ura Abi, so....

I'm going to cheat, and say that I'd rather have a seven-way playoff, won by the J14w rikishi.

If Abi is forced to retire, as is being reported, does the additional open Juryo slot go to Kitaharima (Ms3w 5-2) over Sakigake (Ms3e 4-3)? And who goes up from Juryo to Makuuchi?

We barely missed another "never happened" occurrence -- if Mitoryu had won the Juryo yusho, it would have been the first time that the top two divisions had winners from the bottom rank of the division at the same time. (Terunofuji was east, not west, but still on M17 nonetheless.)

Hattorizakura: the Baby Shark song.

This is the kind of basho that we would have if there weren't a jungyo circuit -- everyone well-rested and healthy enough to bring their very best. All of the "feast or famine" rikishi have been bringing their A game -- Next Ozeki Shodai, an awakened Mitakeumi, first KK in a year for Tochi and Geek, and even Ichinojo down in Juryo is flirting with a double-digit win total. (And we had a brief appearance from Kais-A before he reverted to form.) And now we have two Ozeki runs, a possible tsuna run, and a possible tomoesen on senshuraku. Attention NSK: you'll bring more fans in with sumo like this than you ever will from barnstorming around Japan and wearing everyone out.

I would expect someone in the joi to suffer in the first week, and someone in sanyaku to suffer in the second week. But why does Mitakeumi have such trouble on nakabi?

Who was that man doing densha-michi sumo, and what has he done with the real Enho?

I keep thinking of Takayasu and Tochinoshin as kadoban, but they're not -- they're just low ranked and in need of a KK. Takayasu in particular really needs to get it going.

Much as I'd like to have seen a torinaoshi, one angle made it super clear that his foot really did turn over first.