Kaioshoryu

I have a feeling that Kirishima will be a competent and stable ozeki, moreso than the recent crop of incumbents. Mitakeumi and Shodai weren't up to par, and even Takakeisho has bounced back and forth between good results and kadoban. Will be nice with some consistency in the rank.

Let's hope it's just a bunch of nonsense that article. There were some other rumblings of intai on twitter, but it might just be smoke and no fire. We'll see.

According to georgian media, Tochinoshin has retired. https://agenda.ge/en/news/2023/1948

Pretty terrible day of sumo this was.

Works in Norway!

Nothing against Abi, but that was not the end I had hoped the basho would end. Abi won fair and square, but with a side order of extreme heartbreak for Takayasu. That's the nature of professional sports I guess, but sometimes you want that fairytale ending.

Are there unusually few withdrawals during the basho this time? Very good if so.

Not sure about your Shodai prediction, he looks top heavy and unsteady on his feet...

Guy on the right looks intensely bored…

I don’t comment much on here, but I just had to say this: Shodai’s performance is pathetic.

I remember when ST came on the scene, it was really exciting for me to have another english source of information about sumo. And the site was interesting for a long time, it had good contributors who wrote interesting and funny reports. I didn't agree with everything they wrote, but it was refreshing to have another viewpoint on sumo. It even featured Alice Cooper's guitarist (Kane Roberts) as a writer at one point. But as others have said, when the contributors left and it became a oneman show, the site descended into parody. Everything in sumo is a conspiracy became the narrative. Come to think of it, that outlook is almost kind of racist, e.g. the evil japanese NHK who seeks to ruin the chances of the valiant mongolian rikishi. The most annoying thing for me, was when the things that Mike said would never happen, happened. For instance, Hakuho would never be allowed by the NHK to beat the record for most yusho. But Hakuho did do it, and there was never any soulsearching by Mike on how he got it wrong. Further, if the evil NHK runs everything by way of yaocho and other shady business, why are mongolian rikishi still winning almost every yusho? Makes no sense. It really is a shame how it ended up, because ST really was worthwhile when it sprang onto the scene all those years ago. It was a good supplement to this site, kind of what I think tachiai.org has become now. And it was fun. Now it's just sad.

Font day is best day. I watch your videos only, if you post late I wait until it arrives on YouTube. Other channels may have slicker production, but I don’t care. They do not have your dry wit and humour. And I love that you have invented new words like slippiotoshi and oshiwashi. Never change!

Perhaps, but I think the quality this basho is worse than last basho. Still, the drama is good though.

Probably will be a 11-4 with a playoff. Says a lot about the current state of sumo doesn't it? Even though it's quite enjoyable with Makuuchi being totally unpredictable, in terms of the quality of the actual wrestling it doesn't look that good.

Hokuseiho??