Sue

Why would the rank that one wins the yusho from matter? Mayyyyyyybe you could argue that a makujiri yusho started with some rather soft opposition, but the torikumi makers will match a contender with all the other contenders, so you're going to face most of the top ranks anyway, and from sekiwake, you're running into exactly the same folks that a Y or O would.

Washington Post story suggests the possibility of cancellation. Has any such thing surfaced in the Japanese media (or social media) at all?

Curmudgeonly ex-great becomes long-standing announcer, and national institution, in his sport, and wears loud clothing on the air. Is Kitanofuji problematic enough to be the Don Cherry of sumo?

Hey, Shodai could still be the next Ozeki promotion if he doesn't un-kadoban himself next time....

How many cases exist of any rikishi "hitting for the cycle" in three tournaments: yusho, doten, jun-yusho?

"How am I ever going to finish drinking all of this tea?"

...which is, itself, an exception, so there's an exception.

It is good to ganbarize and title threads properly, posting day by day.

Q Ozeki? Well, it's true that people on the Internet have been indulging in a conspiracy theory about how they're terrible....

Wow, there are rikishi smaller than Shonanzakura!

Cue the Dragnet theme.

Asanoyama and Yutakayama were rivals in university, came up together, and broke into makuuchi in the same basho. I keep rooting for Yutakayama to pull up his socks and get to the joi and stay there, so the two can resume their rivalry.

If they skip five meetings in a row, will they be recommended to retire?

Hakuho is more of an "attitude era" type than a classic heel. They've even let his "evil foreigner" angle from earlier in his career fade. I used to think that Terunofuji was a heel, but the "fall and redemption" storyline that the bookers have run him through in the NSK kayfabe has definitely included a face turn.

Lucky Arawashi. I haven't been able to have a haircut in over a year.

The NHL could build arenas sized for the larger international rink size, which results in a better game of hockey, but they don't. (Or put the international rink in existing arenas.) Money speaks louder than minor improvements in play.

It wouldn't make the NSK happy, because that would eliminate a good number of the most expensive paid seats.

I'm pretty sure that the dohyo is, in fact, flat.

Just so long as the Yokozuna iwashi doesn't taste like a Yokozuna mawashi....

Hatsu basho, hatsu yusho?

We won't actually know for a couple of weeks whether nothing actually happened; if the basho turned out to be a superspreader event, it wouldn't necessarily be evident yet.

Juryo has been hit hard by COVID-19 absences, and there's a critical shortage of valid opponents down there; I think Daishomaru has already faced most or all of them. Daishomaru might be up just to have an opponent. I'd still encourage Tokushoryu to win that match, though -- 3-12 means nine places, which would mean M17 for him (plus or minus banzuke luck), and it's not safe to count on M17 existing next basho.

Why get Japanese citizenship if not to stay in the Kyokai?

I'm guessing that it's the usual joi hangover, and that he'll do better the next time he's up in the joi.

A typical Ozeki schedule puts the hard matches at the end of the basho. A tsuna-contending Ozeki absolutely should be taking care of business against the joi for the first half of the basho, and should be involved in the yusho arasoi most of the time until the really hard matches get going. Expecting TK to beat up M1 through M5 again, and be in the yusho conversation, for yet another basho, is a reasonable ask.