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Day 12 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
For the first time in quite awhile, the news cycle was quiet in between days. In fact, the Asanoyama loss on Day 11 was still the most popular topic even after the Makuuchi bouts. With Tamawashi in sole possession of first place and nothing but hira-maku rikishi nipping at his heels, there just isn't a lot of talk on the yusho race. At the start of the Day 12 broadcast, Mainoumi stated the obvious in that Tamawashi was far and away the favorite to hoist he cup, so we'll just see what the Tamawashi camp decides to do the final four days.

There was a decent crowd on hand today assisted by a few hundred school kids sitting in the rafters, but there are still noticeable gaps in the lower bowl.

It'd be tedious to cover every bout from the day, so let's go in chronological order up the leaderboard, which contained the following 6 rikishi:

10-1: Tamawashi
9-2: Hokutofuji, Nishikifuji
8-3: Wakatakakage, Tobizaru, Takayasu

Ironically, M3 Tamawashi was up first against M6 Wakamotoharu, so let's start there. Tamawashi easily won the tachi-ai pushing his left hand into Wakamotoharu's face causing him to stare at the rafters and let go of his early left frontal belt attempt, and before WMH could even recover, Tamawashi put both hands at the back of Wakamotoharu's neck and just walked back and outta the dohyo with his opponent in tow. They scored it yori-kiri as WMH had his left arm inside, but there's a reason we only got one slow motion replay. Goeido who was in the mukou-joumen chair stated he difference was Wakamotoharu's grabbing Tamawashi's sagari early. Uh, okay. Tamawashi drops this one of his own volition and falls to 10-2 in the process while Wakamotoharu moves to 7-5 with thet freebie.

M10 Nishikifuji and M1 Tobizaru followed, and Nishikifuji's feet were aligned at the tachi-ai awkwardly allowing Tobizaru to take control with a persistent oshi attack, and Nishikifuji's only answer was a quick pull and then an evasive maneuver to his right around the edge of the ring, but he did nothing to lessen Tobizaru's momentum, and so Tobizaru stayed square and caught NFJ with some nice shove to the torso sending him across with little argument. Good thing Tamawashi lost because Nishikifuji was knocked from the two-loss perch here as he falls to 9-3, the same record as Tobizaru.

M4 Takayasu drew Sekiwake Wakatakakage and came with a right kachi-age from the tachi-ai and left paw to Wakatakakage's throat, but he was way up high leaving his insides exposed. WTK was too far away (or clueless) to take advantage, however, and so Takayasu dictated the pace here using on oshi attack before reversing gears and felling Wakatakakage with a pull down. Wakatakakage's weakness his his tachi-ai, and that was on display here as he could never recover from Takayasu's initial burst. Wakatakakage falls from the leaderboard at 8-4 while Takayasu is alive and well at 9-3 thanks to Tamawashi's loss.

Before we move to our final bout that involved a leader, it's worth noting that after the previous bout, NHK actually broke away for another news segment covering the Bank of Japan's intervention to try and halt the slide of the weakening yen. They always do a short news break during the intermission around 5 PM, but it's extremely rare to break into the live feed any time after 5:30 pm. The yen has been in a freefall for months now, so this wasn't exactly breaking news. Still, NHK made the decision to break away from the sumos to cover it. Just sayin'

The final leader on the day was M8 Hokutofuji who was paired against Takakeisho, and Hokutofuji was ready to break his two-bout losing streak. He came with that left arm outstretched as he is wont to do, but Takakeisho was nowhere to be found having henka'd his opponent by jumping out left and pulling him down by the right shoulder.

There was no way that Goeido or Mainoumi could defend the move afterwards. Mainoumi said it best in offering, "It's fair to say that Takakeisho's strategy was better today, but the Ozeki rank has a tradition attached to it, and rikishi should expect a fair fight against them."

The optics just weren't good here, and that was reflected in the funny papers after the bout. The bottom line is that Takakeisho knew that the bout would be straight up and he knew he couldn't win such a bout, and so he went for the henka. Hokutofuji falls to 9-3 after the grease job while Takakeisho moves to 8-4.

I was glad to see at the end of the day that they did NOT lower the leaderboard down to four losses, and so this is how things shape up heading into Day 13:

10-2: Tamawashi
9-3: Tobizaru, Takayasu, Hokutofuji, Nishikifuji

That's still quite the lean leaderboard, and my guess for the decision by the Tamawashi camp to lose today was just to keep a leaderboard intact heading into the weekend. With all of the guys on the board facing each other, they're piling up the losses, and if Tamawashi would have won today, he'd be two ahead with three days to go and nobody to stop him except hisself.

He's still the heavy favorite to yusho simply because it's very difficult to track a guy down from behind and overtake him with just three days left, especially when you can't beat him on your own.

As for the matchups tomorrow, Tamawashi draws Nishikifuji, and it goes without saying that Tamawashi has a 100% chance of winning if he wants to. I don't see him dropping that bout to a no-name like Nishikifuji, but we'll see.

Tobizaru and Hokutofuji square off, and I give Hokutofuji the advantage there.

Finally, Takayasu draws Kiribayama, and just like the Tamawashi matchup, it's all up to Kiribayama to determine the outcome. If I had to guess, I see Kiribayama losing to Takayasu on purpose in order to keep the yusho race close.

And that's about all I have to say about that.

Day 11 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Back in 1994 when I first began working in Japan, they had a show called Sumo Digest that would air from 10:30 PM - 11:00 PM each night of a hon-basho. An oyakata would be invited to the studio and then a news announcer and the oyakata would review the day's bouts. It was a vital asset to working sumo fans because if you worked normal hours in Japan, there was no way you could get home in time to watch the NHK live broadcast which ended at 6 PM. The thing about Sumo Digest is it was NOT an NHK program, so you had commercial breaks, etc. as part of the broadcast.

Some time around the turn of the century, they canceled the show, and I was in utter shock. The internet then was still in it's infancy, and while you could get the results of the day's matches, we were at least a decade away from being able to watch the bouts on YouTube or where ever. I couldn't imagine a world without Sumo Digest, and I had all these emotions running through my head, so much so that I failed to grasp one simple fact: the reason TV shows get canceled is because nobody watches them.

Now, the Sumo Association will never fold for the simple reason that it's largely funded by so called broadcast rights through NHK, which is a state run broadcasting company. NHK is funded by taxing the public, and they will always broadcast the national sport and pay the Sumo Association a ton of money to do so, so the Sumo Association will never go away, but the outside money is dwindling. I think a perfect example of that is the poor state of the Ozeki. When you have a fake Ozeki, it costs money to sustain him at the rank, and that's why these Ozeki cannot carry a basho. Well, they've never been able to carry a basho with their sumo, but they aren't doing it with their records anymore because the money's not there to buy the wins.

Here's another example of money dwindling:



That was taken about 5:30 PM during the broadcast today when presumably everyone is in their seats. Little by little, the gaps in the seating are getting bigger, and unlike a lot of foreign fans who live in this bubble as I did when I thought Sumo Digest was a given, the Japanese public is losing interest in the sport.

Perhaps a leaderboard that goes down to three losses that is only occupied by hira-maku rikishi is a reason:

9-1: Hokutofuji, Tamawashi
8-2: Takayasu, Nishikifuji
7-3: Wakatakakage, Tobizaru, Chiyoshoma, Ohho

Before we get to the leaderboard, however, the most prominent news by far prior to the Day 11 bouts was the upset of Asanoyama in the Makushita division. Anytime a rikishi is ranked in the top 15 of the Makushita division and they take the yusho at 7-0, they are guaranteed to be promoted to Juryo for the next basho. Everyone thought it was a shoe-in that MS15 Asanoyama was going to pick up his sixth win today against MS28 Yuma, but Yuma kept moving left fishing for counter tsuki to the side, and after a full rotation in the ring and Yuma on the brink, Asanoyama went for the kill only to have Yuma dart laterally one last time and fell Asanoyama by tsuki-otoshi. Oops.

Looks like Asanoyama's re-promotion to Juryo just got pushed back a basho.

Moving to the Makuuchi division, let's start with the first bout on the day that featured M16 Hiradoumi vs. M13 Ohho since the latter was technically on the leaderboard coming in. I've been waiting the entire basho for this bout. Well, not this particular matchup, but a bout that involved Hiradoumi that wasn't fixed where he could use legit sumo skills to score a nice win.

The rookie got the early left frontal grip from the tachi-ai and threatened the right inside as well, and the slower Ohho knew he was in a pinch, and so instead of trying to use brute force to move Hiradoumi back in linear fashion, he went for a pull that didn't do much other than to allow Hiradoumi to get full on moro-zashi. From there, Ohho was had as the rookie shored up his position before powerfully forcing Ohho back and across. Finally. I guarantee you that Hiradoumi will treasure this win more than any other because it was earned. I loved the start to this day as Hiradoumi moved to 5-6 while Ohho was thankfully knocked off the leaderboard at 7-4.

Let's skip ahead a few bouts to the M10 Nishikifuji - M14 Chiyoshoma matchup as both of these dudes also find themselves on the leaderboard. The two clashed well in the hidari-yotsu position with neither coming away with an outer grip, but instead of wrangling his way into one, Chiyoshoma just exposed his left side to an easy right outer grip for Nishikifuji, and once obtained, NFJ went for the quick force-out charge, and Chiyoshoma cooperated by just moving straight back and across. Nishikifuji's sumo basics were there for the most part, but look at his right foot elevated there at right.  That's his supposed strong side, and there his hoof is off the ground, but he got away with it because Chiyoshoma allowed it. The result is Nishikifuji's staying one off the pace at 9-2 while Chiyoshoma is knocked off the board at 7-4.

Speaking of the leaderboard, they never showed updates of it after the Ohho bout or after this bout. Usually NHK will flash the big board that takes up the whole screen at the start of the day, and then as leaders' bouts end, they'll show a smaller graphic in the lower right corner of the screen with the dude's name in yeller if he won. They didn't do that for these first few bouts nor did they pimp the big leaderboard graphic at the start, and it's a good example of how they can't lean on this leaderboard for leverage. There are no Ozeki and no sanyaku rikishi, and it's really a sore spot surrounding this basho.

The next bout that featured yusho implications was M9 Myogiryu taking on M4 Takayasu. Both rikishi handcuffed each other at the tachi-ai disallowing either to get to the inside, and so they stood in the center of the ring in a stalemate pushing into each other's shoulders. From this point, you knew both dudes were fishing for a pull, but it's really hard to spring the pull trap when there's no movement in the ring, and so they jockeyed like this for about 30 seconds before Myogiryu backed up a half step testing the pull waters, but when Takayasu didn't even react, Myogiryu lurched to the inside getting the right so deep he was at the back of Takayasu's belt. The nage-no-uchi-ai was on at this point with Takayasu struggling to find a left kote-nage to counter Myogiryu's inside belt grip, but he just couldn't get any leverage as Myogiryu sent Takayasu down hard across the straw.

This was an extremely boring bout for 30 seconds and then great for the final two, and this was a good example of two guys equally paired treating us to a fine bout of sumo. The end result in this one was Takayasu's getting knocked down a rung to 8-3 while Myogiryu worked his way to 6-5. Good stuff here, and I can't remember the last time I enjoyed Takayasu in a basho even though he did lose this one.

The very next bout was the marquee matchup of the day, and it's not ideal when you have eight more bouts proceeding it, but oh well. M3 Tamawashi stepped into the ring to face M8 Hokutofuji, and the latter actually managed to get a left frontal belt grip ever so briefly. Tamawashi was already pushing against him making Hokutofuji stretch for the grip, and it only took a full second for Tamawashi to separate Hokutofuji's paw from his belt, and once that separation was made, Tamawashi was an army with banners just destroying Hokutofuji back and across the straw in mere seconds.

Tamawashi definitely sent a message here in moving to 10-1, and for the first time this basho, he takes over sole lead of the yusho race. As for Hokutofuji, he falls to 9-2 in defeat, and there hasn't been anything magical to his sumo all basho, so this was no surprise. I do think this sets up some bouts where Tamawashi will be paired against the Ozeki, and he'll let one or two of them beat him. I think the Association would take a 12-3 yusho line if it meant two Ozeki beating Tamawashi. I suppose we have to get there first though. Anything can and usually does happen when yaocho's involved.

We have two more "leaders" barely hanging on with three losses, so let's go there next. Following the Tamawashi win, M1 Tobizaru stepped into the ring to face M3 Ura. Before we get to the bout, I've been enjoying Tobizaru's basho as well. The dude hasn't earned all seven of his wins coming in, but he's put up a good fight each day and has stopped clowning around for the time being.

As for the bout itself, it was a carbon copy of the Myogiryu - Takayasu matchup mentioned earlier form the bland tachi-ai all the way down to the fake pull by Tobizaru to set up the right inside at the back of the belt, and this one ended in shitate-nage as well. I mean, it really was identical, so I'm not going to comment further as Tobizaru moved to 8-3 with the nice win while Ura drops to 6-5.

Our final leader was Sekiwake Wakatakakage who was paired against fellow Sekiwake Hoshoryu, and this one was anticlimactic as Hoshoryu went C3P0 at the tachi-ai keeping one arm out wide and one up around Wakatakakage's head, and as WTK pressed forward, Hoshoryu just stayed directly in the line of fire as he backed out of the dohyo in tandem with Wakatakakage's light oshi attack. This was a boring bout that saw Wakatakakage (8-3) notch his eighth win in a row...I guess...while Hoshoryu is pretending to struggle at 5-6 for the sake of the Japanese rikishi.

With the leaders out of the way, the new standings are as follows:

10-1: Tamawashi
9-2: Hokutofuji, Nishikifuji
8-3: Wakatakakage, Tobizaru, Takayasu

In other bouts of interest on the day, Shodai's tachi-ai was decent against M6 Wakamotoharu as the bout looked to go to migi-yotsu, but Shodai couldn't attack, and so WMH worked his way into hidari-yotsu and drove Shodai back to the edge easy as you please, and then things suddenly slowed down as Wakamotoharu waited for Shodai to move right and lightly fire a tsuki into Wakamotoharu's left side, and the youngster just put his knee down along the edge.

The "action" at the edge reminded me of a prostate exam where the doc goes, "Okay, nice and easy...there we go...okay, knee's down? We're done!" Shodai received a hearty applause afterwards from the sympathetic fans as the faux-zeki manages his way to 2-9, and I'm positive the bulk of that kensho brick Shodai carried down the hana-michi is going over to the Arashio-beya as Wakamotoharu rests at 6-5.

M5 Sadanoumi got his right hand inside at the tachi-ai against Mitakeumi, and as Mitakeumi is wont to do, he charged forward without having established any positioning, and so the SadaMight went with the flow and just backed up as if Mitakeumi was doing well, and then at the edge, Sadanoumi moved left quick as a cat and fired a lethal tsuki into Mitakeumi's right send sending him across and down tsuki-otoshi style. Mitakeumi was so easily baited into this one as his make-koshi becomes official at 3-8 while Sadanoumi moves to 7-4.

Mitakeumi's loss means he'll be demoted from the Ozeki rank (thank the gods!) for the Kyushu basho, and his survival of four total basho at the rank puts him in a tie for sixth place as to the fastest fall (Mienoumi was demoted in three basho, and Takakeisho, Musoyama, Takanonami, and Tochinoshin were all gone in two).

M4 Nishikigi's tachi-ai against Takakeisho was to keep his head down and arms down and then lean forward as if they were playing the trust game where Takakeisho was supposed to catch his fall. As for the faux-zeki, he struck and then saw Nishikigi's cadaver posture and simply backed up going for a pull and Nishikigi's momentum sent him crashing out beyond the straw. The entire mess took about two seconds as Takakeisho is gifted 7-4 while Nishikigi receives a payday of his own in dropping to 5-6.

In case you're wondering, the worst dive of the day came from M7 Aoiyama who actually struck M12 Okinoumi well from the tachi-ai and had him upright, but then straight out of nowhere Aoiyama just tumbled over as if he had just fainted. This one was tsuki-hiza all the way but they imagined Okinoumi (5-6) scored a pull in there somewhere to cause that fall. This was like Aoiyama's being felled by a sniper. He's standing there fighting and then all of a sudden...TIMBER!! Aoiyama falls to 3-8.

Finally, I really enjoyed the M12 Ryuden - M8 Tochinoshin matchup. Ryuden stood Shin upright at the tachi-ai with a right choke hold as he searched for the left frontal grip, and with Tochinoshin playing minimal defense, Ryuden was able to come away with the right inside and left frontal belt grip. Mind you, Tochinoshin did nothing to force his right arm to the inside, and he focused entirely on a useless left kote grip although he never went for the throw, and the result was Ryuden's marching Tochinoshin back and across in less than five seconds. Tochinoshin (4-7) was undoubtedly mukiryoku here, but I really enjoyed watching the textbook sumo exhibited by Ryuden. Not only is he a real Don Juan, but Ryuden's likely the best Japanese guy on the banzuke in moving to 7-4.

I think it's pointless to go over the key matchups tomorrow. If Tamawashi wants this one, he'll take it. He's better than even Terunofuji, so it's entirely up to his camp in how they proceed.

Day 10 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The major news heading into Day 10 was the announcement that Yokozuna Terunofuji had withdrawn from the tournament citing disgust over having to cover for the hapless Ozeki. Officially on the kyujo papers they had to make something up like he withdrew because of discomfort in both knees, but that completely contradicts the reasons for his recent losses. As I've pointed out in my comments, the reason Terunofuji lost (on purpose or not) against Takayasu and then Ura a few days before was because he refused to grab a hold of his opponents even when they were right in front of him. It's one thing to grab your opponents and then be unable to force them back and across due to bad wheels, but bad knees doesn't prevent you from at least going Greco Roman style and wrapping your opponents up close.

My broadcast today began with a slow motion review of Terunofuji's bout yesterday against Takayasu, and there was no indication that Terunofuji's legs were bothering him, nor did Kitanofuji or Terao (in the mukou-joumen chair) indicate a single point during the bout where the Yokozuna looked hampered...even though they knew coming in that he had withdrawn due to supposedly bad knees. At the end of the clip and the discussion of the Yokozuna's withdrawal, Kitanofuji just said, "There's nothing we can do about it now." He knows the drill.

Simply put, Terunofuji is just bored with this awful basho and tired of having to lower himself in order to appear in the same league as the Ozeki, so he's simply saying, "I'm outta here." And it's his full right to do so.

With that, let's review the leaderboard from the start of Day 10 and put our focus there first:

9-0: Hokutofuji
8-1: Tamawashi
7-2: Takayasu, Nishikifuji, Chiyoshoma

Going in chronological order, M14 Chiyoshoma faced off against M12 Ryuden, and Chiyoshoma stood Ryuden up at the tachi-ai with a few tsuppari, but he wasn't moving forward or looking to get inside, and so he stood there largely defenseless allowing Ryuden to fire a few shoves of his own and then advance into the hidari-yotsu position with a nice right outer grip. From this point, Chiyoshoma just let Ryuden do his thang, which consisted of a few dashi-nage attempts, and on about the third wrench, Chiyoshoma just put both palms to the dirt in submission.

Chiyoshoma threw this one for sure. He didn't take advantage after winning the tachi-ai; he never tried to shore up his inside position when Ryuden got the right outer; and then he picked his spot as to when he'd put those palms down to the dohyo. It was subtle, but the threw it in falling to 7-3. As for Ryuden (6-4), he's a very good rikishi and perhaps the best Japanese rikishi on the board. He did everything right today, and his technique was thorough; his opponent just wasn't trying to win the bout.

Up next was M10 Nishikifuji who clashed with M6 Wakamotoharu into the hidari-yotsu position from the tachi-ai, and with WMH agreeing to stand there, Nishikigi made his move early going for a shallow kote-nage with the right arm that was so poorly executed. Normally a kote-nage is executed when you're in tight to the side of your opponent similar to what would happen in a nage-no-uchi-ai. Here, however, Nishikifuji was actually stumbling backwards and trying to yank Wakamotoharu forward with the kote grip. It was very awkward, but Wakamotoharu was obviously just playing along so he sprawled his way over to the edge and stood there fully exposed as Nishikifuji fired the final shove into his torso.

When they learn the new sumos on proper techniques and show examples of video, It's safe to say that this one won't make the cut for "kote-nage." But whatever. Nishikifuji buys the majority of his wins in the division anyway, so nothing new here as he moves to 8-2 while Wakamotoharu graciously slides to 6-4.

Remember a few months ago how I talked about the oshi-dashi winning technique being overly inflated? (it surpassed yori-kiri as the number one kimari-te) This was a perfect example of a dude who..um..wins..but he didn't use oshi from the start; he didn't use oshi during the bout; he only used a single oshi once his mukiryoku opponent opened himself up at the straw.

Now that that's out of my system, let's move to the next bout involving leaders, which happens to be M4 Takayasu welcoming M8 Hokutofuji. Hokutofuji won the tachi-ai and had his hands placed in the good moro-hazu position, which allowed him to push Takayasu back near the straw, but Hokutofuji didn't follow through to the end. The problem was that Takayasu hadn't countered or moved laterally, and so Hokutofuji was still in control. At one point, he was positioned just a bit to Takayasu's right side and could have fired a left tsuki or an inashi or whatever, but he refrained from such a move, and as the two squared back up, Hokutofuji anticipated a tsuki from Takayasu and just took a knee. The timing at the end is off by a split second in that Hokutofuji's fall has already begun before Takayasu connects on a sideways shove. I think that head to head, these guys are about 50-50 in terms of being able to beat each other, but Hokutofuji took the knee here in order to step down a notch closer to the Ozeki. The end result is Hokutofuji's falling to 9-1 while Takayasu picks up kachi-koshi at 8-2.

And that brings us to M3 Tamawashi who was paired against Mitakeumi. The Mawashi fired a flurry of harmless tsuppari and then quickly went into pull mode from the tachi-ai, and Mitakeumi moved forward, but he wasn't quick enough to react to the pull attempt, and so Tamawashi methodically backed up and to his right going for a basic scoop throw at the edge that felled Mitakeumi over and down without argument.

This was served up to Mitakeumi on a platter, but he was too oblivious to respond. I mean, if you're coming into a bout against Tamawashi or anybody for that matter, and you're an Ozeki and your opponent backs up and pulls methodically from the tachi-ai, a true Ozeki would jump all over that and score a true oshi-dashi win.  Mitakeumi's confidence along with his ability is shot, however, and today that was fully on display. Thanks to Hokutofuji's loss, Tamawashi is now tied for the lead at 9-1 while Mitakeumi is on the brink at 3-7.

At this point of the broadcast, NHK flashed a mini leaderboard meaning it was at the lower right of the screen, and I'm glad they didn't inflate it down to the three-loss rikishi. Here's what it looked like:

9-1: Tamawashi, Hokutofuji
8-2: Takayasu, Nishikifuji

That's not the best leaderboard in the world, but there is mild name recognition, and there's not a three-loss row with guys that no one's familiar with. We'll get to the end of the broadcast and see if they stick with this leaderboard, but it was refreshing to see it whittled down.

There's a very good chance the yusho line is coming down to 12-3, but I think at this point...the best case scenario is to have Tamawashi take the yusho. I know he isn't Japanese, but he's taken a championship before, and they call him the Iron Man due to his longevity. At this point, Sumo is looking to generate headlines that are half trivia and half excitement, and they have some selling points with Tamawashi. I suppose they could also give it to Takayasu and hype him as another Ozeki candidate, but why do you need four guys who aren't legit instead of three? I think they have the most to sell from a PR perspective if Tamawashi takes the V.

As long as we're up in the Ozeki ranks, let's continue on with the next bout, Komusubi Ichinojo vs. Shodai. Ichinojo grabbed a frontal belt grip at the tachi-ai, and as Shodai looked to counter that by getting a right arm inside, Ichinojo went for an early belt throw with that left, and it threw Shodai off balance setting up the right arm inside for the Mongolith, and now in moro-zashi, Ichinojo took a second or two to retool his grips before scoring the uncontested force-out win. Shodai actually put up a decent fight here, but there was no way he was going to make a dent in Ichinojo's armor if the Komusubi was trying to win. And he was, so the end result is Shodai's falling to 1-9 while Ichinojo moves to a respectable 4-6 considering all the bouts he's thrown.

I saw headlines everywhere yesterday proclaiming, "Shodai is the first Ozeki to make-koshi in 9 days!" The dude has no pride, and that's partly because he's not a real Ozeki. A legit Ozeki would have an attitude and become pissed if he set an embarrassing record like that, but Shodai is just taking his lumps one by one. I think it's time for him to withdraw and save a bitta face.

Sekiwake Hoshoryu has been taking it for team Sumo day after day this basho, and at some point you figured that he was going to get his. He got that today against Takakeisho using a hari-zashi tachi-ai where he slapped with the left and got the right arm to the inside, but he rushed his force-out charge giving Takakeisho a chance. Takakeisho panicked a bit as he went for a left kote-nage, which was very similar to Nishikifuji's kote-nage attempt in that Takakeisho wasn't properly positioned, and so Hoshoryu (5-5) literally strong-armed the faux-zeki over and down while niftily tripping him up with the left hand at the back of Takakeisho's right thigh (fresh!). They ruled it abise-taoshi, but they coulda gone with yori-taoshi or watashi-komi. Regardless of that, the loss sends Takakeisho down to 6-4, and there is no way they can restore him to the leaderboard.

I think over the final five days the best course of action is to pair the leaders against the Ozeki and have the Ozeki win sorta as a way to say, "See, the Ozeki aren't on the leaderboard, but the yusho still goes through them." Trust me when I say the Sumo Association's only MO at this point is to generate the most excitable headlines as possible. I know that's a tall order, but they've got to find something to milk outta this.

Sekiwake Wakatakakage and M3 Ura came into the day at 6-3, and so the winner would likely find his way onto the leaderboard from the three loss tier. The tachi-ai was fiddy-fiddy with no shenanigans and Ura kept his left arm up high pushing into WTK with his forearm and the elbow extended, but he couldn't do any damage, and so Wakatakakage finally got his right arm secure to the inside, and Ura couldn't answer at the edge as Wakatakakage easily felled him with a scoop throw with the right arm. I hadn't realized this until the NHK Announcer said it, but Wakatakakage has now won seven in a row to move to 7-3 while Ura falls to 6-4.

Komusubi Kiribayama was busy at the tachi-ai firing tsuppari at M1 Tobizaru with his arms but not adding leverage from the legs. That allowed Tobizaru to stand his ground before the two hooked up in migi-yotsu. Kiribayama faked a maki-kae attempt with the left before the action flowed to the other side of the dohyo where Kiribayama finally grabbed a left outer over the top, but as he did so, he purposefully pulled his right arm from the inside to the outside gifting moro-zashi, and as Tobizaru went for the force out charge, Kiribayama did nothing to counter. At one point the NHK Announcer said, "Nage-no-uchi-ai" assuming that Kiribayama would counter with a left belt throw, but he didn't as he just gave Tobizaru the politically correct win. The result is Tobizaru's moving to 7-3 and pretending to be a contender while Kiribayama knows his place at 6-4.

Finally, M3 Ohho drew M13 Ichiyamamoto today, and IYM won the tachi-ai knocking Ohho back a step, but instead of continuing that charge, Ichiyamamoto stopped, kept his arms out wide, went for a pull against the air in front of his body, and then opened his arms again all the while just back pedaling. Ohho followed through on his first actual push just about the time that IYM had crossed the straw of his own volition. Ohho is gifted one here in moving to 7-3 and he didn't have to do any of the work to get the win. Ichiyamamoto will take the cash in falling to 5-5.

With the dust settled at the end of the day, here is the official leaderboard:

9-1: Hokutofuji, Tamawashi
8-2: Takaysu, Nishikifuji
7-3: Wakatakakage, Tobizaru, Chiyoshoma, Ohho

I think we have a long five days ahead of us, and one problem is there are no marquee matchups remaining. None of the Ozeki are on the board, so their head to head bouts are useless, and then there are no rikishi ranked in the sanyaku or above even on the leaderboard.

It's quite the mess we have going for us, but it's the price you pay with a false banzuke.

Day 9 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
I actually had the bandwidth to do a Day 8 report, but it would have essentially been a copy and paste of previous reports, so let's just focus on Day 9 today. I did notice on Day 8 that they didn't flash a leaderboard until the last possible moment before the broadcast ended, and that's because you've got two guys at the top in Hokutofuji and Tamawashi that nobody really cares about. They did go two losses deep just so they could get Takakeisho's name on the leaderboard, but that was just a token gesture. Putting someone on the leaderboard with a 6-2 record after eight days is weak, but I can already tell by the sports shows over the weekend that they are going to have a tough time getting anyone excited about this basho heading into week 2. What is there to sell to the fans?

As we started the day, here's how the leaderboard shaped up:

8-0: Hokutofuji
7-1: Tamawashi
6-2: Takakeisho, Takayasu, Wakamotoharu, Nishikifuji, Ohho, Chiyoshoma

et's just go in chronological order today touching on most of the bouts.

M12 Ryuden reached for and got a frontal belt grip against M16 Mitoryu, and that enabled Ryuden to pull his gal in snug with the right arm to the inside. With the rookie on defense from the get-go, Ryuden worked his way into moro-zashi and then two frontal grips. Mitoryu fought a good fight, but he was simply had at the tachi-ai when he let a veteran rikishi get the frontal grip like that. The antidote is better tsuppari at the tachi-ai as Ryuden (5-4) one ups Mitoryu who fell to 4-5.

M12 Okinoumi failed to apply any pressure to the smaller M15 Terutsuyoshi yet was still able to move him back to the straw Then we saw the wonderful tactic of just twisting around 180 degrees to give your opponent the easy okuri-dashi, and Terutsuyoshi (5-4) completed the fixed bout with a simple push. Okinoumi still has room to peddle at 4-5.

M10 Takanosho caught M16 Hiradoumi with an early shove to the head, but he rookie shook it off well forcing the bout to migi-yotsu, but he just didn't have the strength to overpower Takanosho, and so it was TNS that used his size advantage to body the rookie over and across. This was a well fought bought with chikara-zumo on display, but the veteran was simply better in moving to 5-4 while Hiradoumi finds himself under water against 4-5.

I suppose both M10 Nishikifuji and M13 Ohho were yusho contenders coming into their bout, so let's go there next. Ohho used his bulk advantage to crush NF back from the tachi-ai with a nice push, but he quickly morphed into SlowHo unable to finish his foe off before Nishikifuji moved left forcing Ohho to give chase. And chase he did until the two hooked up in the hidari-yotsu position where Ohho gave up the right outer grip to his smaller opponent. The two dug in for about 10 seconds before Ohho went for a hurried left scoop throw, and that was the momentum shift Nishikifuji needed to score the force-out win. Very good win here after losing the tachi-ai for Nishikigi who moves to 7-2. As for Ohho, he simply has to figure out how to use his size advantage. I'm afraid he's too slow for his own good as he falls to 6-3. Good bout of sumo though.

Let's skip ahead to M14 Chiyoshoma who also entered the day at just two-losses. He faced M7 Onosho and connected on a sweet hari-te to the side of Onosho's face before grabbing the left inside and right outer grip, and I think Onosho was dazed from that hari-te because in a flash, Chiyoshoma twisted him down to one knee uwate-hineri style. This one was swift and decisive as Chiyoshoma coolly moves to 7-2 while Onosho took his licks today at 3-6. Dude took a bit to get back up on his feet and find his corner.

Let's fast forward again to M8 Hokutofuji's bout against M6 Wakamotoharu. If we review Hokutofuji's basho to this point, you'd have to give him a grade of B I'd say. Nothing has been spectacular, and he's picked up a handful of freebies along the way starting with this Day 1 bout against Myogiryu where Hokutofuji completely lost the tachi-ai and needed Myogiryu to go mukiryoku for him in order to win. Aoiyama let up for him on Day 3, and the Day 4 contest against Tochinoshin was suspect as well. Endoh was mukiryoku yesterday, and so Hokutofuji's basho has been a mixture of decent wins and free wins.

Today against Wakamotoharu, Hokutofuji lost the tachi-ai as Wakamotoharu forced him back quickly a full step with his right arm positioned to the inside, but instead of latching on and forcing the bout to yotsu-zumo, Wakamotoharu graciously backed up across the entire length of the dohyo for no other reason than to let Hokutofuji win. At the edge, Hokutofuji didn't exactly have any momentum because he didn't instigate the movement to that side of the dohyo, and Wakamotoharu had plenty of room to move left and go for a counter tsuki or scoop through, but he stopped any counter move short and let Hokutofuji push him down hard. A lotta bark here from Hokutofuji but very little bite as he buys this one in moving to 9-0. As for Wakamotoharu, he'll take the cash at 6-3.

M3 Tamawashi has remained one off the pace the last few days, and he drew M2 Meisei today, and Meisei fired a nice thrust from the tachi-ai that didn't move Tamawashi back, but it signaled he wouldn't go down easily. Tamawashi quickly recovered with tsuppari of his own, however, that put pressure on Meisei and caused him to dance to his left in hopes of fishing for a pull, but Tamawashi churned his legs hard pushing Meisei over and down into a heap at the corner of the dohyo. Before Meisei touched down, the big toe of Tamawashi's left foot kicked up a bunch of sand on the wrong side of the straw, but they determined without a mono-ii that Meisei (3-6) was too far gone at that point. Tamawashi was purposefully sloppy at the end signaling a willingness to leave himself vulnerable, but he did score the win today in moving to 8-1.

M1 Tobizaru and M2 Kotonowaka treated us to about as a good of a bout as these two can produce. Tobizaru established the right arm inside early while Kotonowaka countered with migi-hazu, but that hazu move allowed Tobizaru to slip into moro-zashi, and so the chikara-zumo bout was on. Kotonowaka seemed to want to press the action first, but Tobizaru had him higher than he wanted to be, so as the action drifted to the edge, the two engaged in a nage-no-uchi-ai with Tobizaru's left inside belt grip against Kotonowaka's right outer grip, and Tobizaru's superior position allowed him to fell Kotonowaka over and down across the edge. What a great bout of sumo this was as Tobizaru moves to 6-3 with Kotonowaka falling to 5-4.

In a rare move for Komusubi Ichinojo this basho, he actually decided to latch onto his foe, and said foe today was M1 Midorifuji. The Mongolith was content to latch on from the outside as Midorifuji tried to figure out what to do with moro-zashi, and as he is wont to do, Ichinojo leaned into Midorifuji tiring him out before grabbing two outside belt grips and smothering him across in Ichinojo fashion. Only took 2 minutes and 46 seconds for those of you scoring at home. Ichinojo moves to 3-6 with the win while Midorifuji falls to 4-5.

After the previous two bouts, it was a shame what would come next. Sekiwake Hoshoryu was half-assed letting M5 Sadanoumi get what he wanna at the tachi-ai, and the Sadamight came away with the right inside and left outer grip. Hoshoryu continued to play the part of a wet rag allowing Sadanoumi to throw him over and down uwate-nage style. Another nage-no-uchi-ai was warranted here, but because Hoshoryu wasn't applying any pressure with an inside throw, he was flipped over in exaggerated fashion while Sadanoumi also hit the dirt...something that should never happen when a dude wins by uwate-nage. Sadanoumi will take the win I suppose in moving to 5-4 while Hoshoryu has intentionally dropped four straight to the likes of Ura, Midorifuji, Tobizaru, and Sadanoumi today in falling to 4-5. As if.

Sekiwake Wakatakakage actually struck well at the tachi-ai, but I'm sure it was due to the fact that he knew the bout was compromised. M4 Nishikigi did nothing start to finish as he allowed WTK to get moro-zashi and then just force Nishikigi (4-5) straight back and across for the 6-3 record.

Hooboy, M3 Ura's tachi-ai was about as ugly as you can get as the dude skipped a bit to his right, and his footwork left him vulnerable, but Shodai had no clue, and so Ura recovered trying to burrow to the inside, and as Shodai looked to fight that off with his fee against the tawara, Ura felled him with a hiki-otoshi move easy as you please. Shodai is at rock bottom in falling to 1-8, and he may as well go kyujo here. No need to waste any money by buying more wins to make things look respectable. Come up with a fake injury and try and put some cash together for Kyushu. Dude's gonna need a lot. As for Ura, he picks up the easy win moving to 6-3.  Before we move on, that pic of Shodai kneeling before Ura in the middle of the dohyo is humiliating; and that may be an understatement. "Kneel before Zod!!"

Takakeisho came out hot from the tachi-ai against Komusubi Kiribayama, but his thrust attempts weren't making an impact, and so Kiribayama went with the flow a bit before grabbing a left frontal grip and then a right, and he easily turned the tables lifting Takakeisho upright and beginning a force-out charge across the way. As Takakeisho looked to escape backwards, he tripped over his own feet and wanded on his widdow bum. The NHK Announcer was well aware of the impact of this loss because the first words out of his mouth were that the remaining two-loss rikishi were all in the hira-maku. These guys know the score for sure, and this was a devastating loss for Takakeisho because that leaderboard just got a lot worse in the eyes of the Association. Takakeisho falls to 6-3, the same mark as Kiribayama.

Mitakeumi had good intentions at the tachi-ai to move forward against Sekiwake Daieisho, but he just couldn't make an impact, and so the Sekiwake got his tsuppari attack going and had Mitakeumi bullied over and back across the straw tsuki-dashi style leaving both dudes at 3-6.

On one hand, you love seeing these hapless Ozeki go down in succession in three legit bouts, but on the other hand, it means Yokozuna Terunofuji feels the pressure to lose as well. And he promptly did against M4 Takayasu. The tachi-ai from the M4 was awful as he skirted right, but Terunofuji refused to grab onto him or get to the inside, and so the two danced and circled each other in the center of the ring for about eight seconds making sure to properly social distance themselves. At one point, Takayasu was so frustrated he went for a stupid pull that didn't even connect, but there he was backed up against the edge as vulnerable as one could be, but the Yokozuna didn't knock him across that last step.

I mean, it was obvious three seconds in that Terunofuji was mukiryoku, but the failed pull attempt from Takayasu was the first major turning point of the bout where the Yokozuna did not take advantage. As the two looked to hook back up, Terunofuji next grabbed the front of Takayasu's belt with the right hand, and he did what anyone would do from that position...promptly let it go for no reason and back yourself up to the edge. Takayasu was too gassed to take advantage, so back to the center of the ring they went where Terunofuji faked a ke-kaeshi, and finally the Yokozuna left himself vulnerable enough to where Takayasu easily pushed him across. Yeah, right.

When I was watching NHK News 9 Sports segment on Monday night, which of the last four bouts is the one that they showed? Of course it was the Terunofuji bout. They protected the Ozeki as much as they could on the program even though it was really Terunofuji running all the interference by losing on purpose in order to help the Ozeki save face. I don't think anyone is buying this anymore, and the direction sumo is heading is just pitiful to watch. Fuji falls to 5-4 with the loss while Takayasu will take the gift at 7-2 after giving one up voluntarily to Takakeisho yesterday.

As the dust settled from this terrible ending, the leaderboard was as follows:

9-0: Hokutofuji
8-1: Tamawashi
7-2: Takayasu, Nishikifuji, Chiyoshoma

I'll just let that leaderboard fester there until tomorrow.

Day 7 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
I was watching the NHK Saturday News Watch program, an hour and twenty minute program that airs on Saturday nights wrapping up all of the weekend news to that point. They spent about 15 minutes on sports with eight minutes or so going to Shohei Otani and the possibility of his beating out Aaron Judge for the American League MVP award. The next 6 minutes or so went to Japanese pro baseball. And then sumo got the final 90 seconds or so. With two guys coming into the day at 6-0, they only had time to show those two bouts. Regardless of the bouts, the issue was the that two dudes coming in at 6-0 were Tamawashi and Hokutofuji...two names that have little star power.

When you watch an 80-minute news program, you can really get the gist of what's hot and not culturally, and they were definitely not saving the best for last. The optics were not good, and that's what happens when the big names in the sport (legit or not) are out of the yusho race at the end of Day 6.

We'll do an abbreviated report today, so let's start with the two 6-0 rikishi. Up first was M8 Hokutofuji taking on M10 Takanosho, and Hokutofuji struck well with a paw to the chest before shading left, and as he's done all basho, Hokutofuji stayed low keeping Takanosho away from he inside. Hokutofuji took control early using a right choke hold to stand Takanosho upright, and that allowed HTF to position himself to the left of his opponent and threaten a tsuki or an outer grip. Takanosho couldn't break down Hokutofuji's attack and ultimately went for a pull, and as he did Hokutofuji forced him back and across for the nice oshi-dashi win. Hokutofuji moves to 7-0 in victory, but he's still not getting a ton of press coverage, and why would he? He's a no-name guy getting up there in age, and he's not he handsomest devil in the division either. His sumo has also been solid but not spectacular, and when you fight from he M8 rank, there are not going to be a ton of marquee matchups for his dude until like Day 12.

M3 Tamawashi has greater name recognition than Hokutofuji due to his one yusho and iron man status, but he's not a dude that's going to invite new fans to the sport. Today, The Mawashi drew Sekiwake Wakatakakage, and Tamawashi easily won the tachi-ai pushing into WTK's body and knocking him back near the straw, but instead of using alternating shoves or thrusts, Tamawashi suddenly got his right arm inside as if he wanted to take the bout to yotsu-zumo. Instead of doing anything with the left like grab an outer grip, Tamawashi just moved his body left diving across the straw as Wakatakakage tried to catch up with a counter tsuki-otoshi, but this was Tamawashi controlling things start to finish including that dive at the edge.  You look at that pic at left, and there was no contact coming from Wakatakakage to cause such a wild fall that practically turned Tamawashi upside down, but WTK will take it as he moves to 4-3 without doing anything to earn the win. Tamawashi's loss drops him to 6-1 and leaves Hokutofuji alone at the top.

Three rikishi began the day at five wins in Ohho, Wakamotoharu, and Takayasu, so let's go there next.

M13 Ohho faced M11 Kotoshoho, and the latter caught Ohho with two solid hands to the neck from the tachi-ai standing Ohho upright and a bit off balance, and Kotoshoho had Ohho pushed back and across in under two seconds. What a joke Ohho is in falling to 5-2 while that one had to have felt good for Kotoshoho who moves to 4-3.

M6 Wakamotoharu had his hands full against M8 Tochinoshin, and the latter came with a light kachi-age at the tachi-ai with the right arm and then a much heavier kachi-age with the left. Shin kept WMH upright with that left forearm and then suddenly released it causing Wakamotoharu to stumble forward and down before the bout really began. It's possible the Private (3-4) was calling in a favor here because Wakamotoharu gave little effort in falling to 5-2.

M4 Takayasu is probably the most recognizable name among the leaders, and he drew M6 Endoh. Takayasu also came with a brief kachi-age from the tachi-ai before getting both hands to the neck of Endoh, and Takayasu drove his legs well forcing Endoh back and across with little argument. Endoh probably could have tried harder to execute a counter tsuki-otoshi with the right arm...a move that was open to him, but whatever. Takayasu skates to 6-1 while Endoh falls to 3-4.

Moving up to he sanyaku ranks, M2 Kotonowaka stood toe to toe with Sekiwake Daieisho as the two traded tsuppari around the dohyo. Daieisho never did get Kotonowaka upright, and he couldn't move him around, so as Daieisho looked to tire, Kotonowaka was able to pull him down for the nice win and 4-3 mark. Daieisho is reeling a bit at 1-6.

Sekiwake Hoshoryu did his best C3P0 impression at the tachi-ai against M1 Midorifuji, but Fuji still couldn't get moro-zashi, and so the two moved back to the center of the ring in hidari-yotsu where Hoshoryu was in the perfect position to execute a kata-sukashi. He purposefully whiffed on the move and then let go of a nice headlock and then whiffed again on purpose with another kata-sukashi, so the red flags where everywhere that he was trying to throw the bout. Problem was that Midorifuji had zero openings and was tiring fast, and so Hoshoryu turned his body 90 degrees, wrapped his arm around Midorifuji's melon from the back, and then literally pulled Midorifuji into his body as he ran outta the dohyo. Hoshoryu (4-3) did it all here in throwing this bout, and Midorifuji still doesn't know what hit him in this laugher at 3-4.

Komusubi Kiribayama forced his bout against Mitakeumi to hidari-yotsu out of the gate and then grabbed the firm right outer grip, and with Mitakeumi able to do nothing, Kiribayama shored up that grip before forcing Mitakeumi back and across in textbook fashion. Kiribayama moves to 5-2 with the easy win while Mitakeumi is under water again at 3-4.

M4 Nishikigi struck Shodai hard at the tachi-ai and bodied him back quickly without having anything firmly set to the inside. That allowed Shodai to resist a bit, but Nishikigi adjusted by getting the right arm inside as he let the action flow back to the center of the ring before getting the left inside as well, and Shodai couldn't defend the moro-zashi position, so it was a quick and easy win for Nishikigi who moved to 4-3. As for Shodai, that's his sixth loss in a row at 1-6, and the dude just can't scrape together the cash anymore.

There was no way they were going to let M3 Ura beat Takakeisho today, and so Ura stood straight up at the tachi-ai waiting for Takakeisho do to anything, but Takakeisho's tsuppari attack was weak, and the faux-zeki seemed hesitant. Ura had openings to the inside, and he also could have moved laterally and used a tsuki technique to the side of Takakeisho, but he instead stayed upright and square with Takakeisho at all times until Takakeisho was finally able to push him across. A valiant effort this wasn't as Takakeisho moves to a sloppy 5-2 while Ura falls to 4-3.

In the final bout of the day, Yokozuna Terunofuji demanded the right inside position after the tachi-ai and used it to lift Komusubi Ichinojo upright with his left arm in the air, and the Yokozuna just bodied his fellow countryman back and across the straw with no resistance. Solid win here for Terunofuji who moved to 4-3 while Ichinojo (2-5) didn't really seem to try.

NHK purposefully didn't post a leaderboard because it wouldn't have contained any of the Ozeki, so I won't bother posting one either. We all know Hokutofuji is not going to win out, and they really need one of the Ozeki to occupy a slot on the leaderboard so expect the yusho line to fall to two losses in the next few days, and then we'll see if they can salvage anything from this tournament.

There was a decent crowd on hand today, but there were still noticeable gaps even in the lower bowl, and it's easy to see that sumo has no momentum right now.

Day 6 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
It's been 20 years since we started Sumotalk, and it's been interesting over that time to examine my feelings about yaocho over the years. I first noticed bout fixing when guys entering senshuraku with a 7-7 record seemed to have an easier time of things in order to pick up kachi-koshi. I brushed it off thinking that it didn't really affect the larger picture so whatever. I next noticed it when struggling Ozeki needed help to get to eight wins. I mean, it was obvious that their fellow Ozeki and sometimes the Yokozuna would let up for them in the end to get them over the finish line.

That too didn't really affect the larger picture of things. It's portrayed in the media that Ozeki and even Yokozuna from time to time might have bad basho, but whatever. Helping an Ozeki get to eight wins doesn't change the excitement of the yusho race.

Then in 2000 when my favorite rikishi at the time, Musoyama, took the yusho, I distinctly remember this sick feeling in my stomach because I knew he didn't deserve it. I knew that guys were throwing bouts for him at the end in order to reward him with the yusho. Ironically, it was just after that Hatsu 2000 basho when Itai came out with his detailed description of how bout fixing works in sumo, and I would highly recommend re-reading it because he's describing what we see in sumo today.

Over time, I learned to accept that bout fixing was just part of the sport, but there was still greatness. You had Asashoryu's rise in the Aughties and then Hakuho emerged in the middle of that decade along with some other great rikishi, and it was during that decade when we truly saw what sumo could become. It did come at a huge cost, which was that Japanese rikishi were no longer able to yusho, but we saw some spectacular sumo in the ring.

Last decade, it became painfully obvious that the Japanese fans would not show up to the sumos unless they had Japanese heroes who were winning, and we've already documented that whole process starting with the forced promotion of Kotoshogiku and Kisenosato to Ozeki, the Endoh phenomenon, and then the forced promotion of Kisenosato to Yokozuna and the current crop of hapless Ozeki. My intent here is not to rehash bout fixing in sumo over the last two decades; rather, it's to express the fact that I simply miss the greatness.

Day 6 was a stark reminder that sumo is compromising greatness for mediocrity all in an effort to try and justify the ranks of Japanese rikishi.

With that, let's get to the day's action starting with M15 Terutsuyoshi who henka'd left in order to grab the outer grip of M15 Tsurugisho. The smaller T-Yoshi never wants to go chest to chest against a big dude like Tsurugisho (in a real bout...and this one was real), and so he focused on a the dashi-nage trying to spin his opponent around and down. TS stood in well for a bit, but he was had at the tachi-ai, and Terutsuyoshi was ultimately able to spin him over to the edge and force him across. Terutsuyoshi moves to 2-4 with the cheap win while Tsurugisho falls to 1-5.

J3 Tohakuryu came with a light moro-te-zuki from the tachi-ai against M14 Chiyoshoma, and the Mongolian showed no interest in brushing it away or getting in low and to the inside. With Chiyoshoma obviously not committed to win the bout, the Juryo rikishi moved right going for a really sloppy pull. In fact, he needed to make contact about three times to pull, but this bout was decided before it even began, and so Chiyoshoma put both palms to the dirt and then quickly stood back up it was that easy. Any time you see a guy lose by hataki-komi and only touch his palms down, you know the bout was fake as was the case here with both dudes ending the day at 4-2.

M13 Ichiyamamoto was proactive with his tsuppari at the tachi-ai against M16 Hiradoumi, and it forced the rookie to fight with tsuppari instead of in close and at the belt. As a result, IYM was able to throw Hiradoumi off enough to where he slipped to the side and hoisted the rookie over and down with a left belt throw that had some oomph behind it. Bouts like this are good for Hiradoumi. Ichiyamamoto was not sharp today, and so he if the rookie is smart, he'll learn from this and beat IYM next time. For now, he falls to 3-3 while Ichiyamamoto moves to 4-2.

Our other rookie, M16 Mitoryu, drew M13 Ohho, and Ohho was listless from the tachi-ai as Mitoryu struck well not only forcing the bout to migi-yotsu but grabbing the left outer grip in the process. As the rookie pulled his gal in snug, Ohho looked as if he wanted to maki-kae with the left, but the clinch was too tight, and so Mitoryu used that momentum shift to place his left leg to the inside of Ohho's right and go for an outer belt throw. It wasn't the grandest throw I've ever seen, but Mitoryu had his foe off balance enough to where he toppled him to the dirt rather easily. Ohho suffers his first loss in his first straight up bout of the tournament in falling to 5-1 while Mitoryu evens the ship at 3-3. Before we move on, I'm glad to see the rookies involved in straight up contests the last few days.

M12 Ryuden sorta reached for a left frontal belt grip at the tachi-ai against M14 Yutakayama, but he didn't need it as YY's charge was so weak that Ryuden easily obtained moro-zashi. Once he had that, Ryuden used his size and strength to easily force Yutakayama over and across in a largely uncontested bout. Ryuden moves to just 2-5 while Yutakayama is one worse at 1-5.

M11 Chiyotairyu stood straight up at the tachi-ai firing the obligatory light tsuppari against M11 Kotoshoho, but he wasn't trying to win, and so Kotoshoho was able to turn the tables against a willing Chiyotairyu and swipe him to the other side of the dohyo and then sort of send him across. Chiyotairyu did at least half of the work in the end by running himself out of the ring, and it was even more insulting that they ruled this tsuki-dashi. It was really yaocho as Kotoshoho moves to a cheap 3-3 while Chiyotairyu is peddling as if retirement is close on the horizon at 1-5.

Speaking of dudes peddling prior to retirement, M12 Okinoumi extended his arms at the tachi-ai against M9 Kotoeko as if to go for moro-te-zuki, but before making contact, Okinoumi just opened his arms wide giving Eko moro-zashi. Kotoeko seemed uncomfortable at first in moro-zashi, but Okinoumi was upright and limp and just played along as Kotoeko scored the easy and uncontested force-out in moving to 2-4. As for Okinoumi, he sells this one in falling to 3-3.

M8 Tochinoshin kept his arms low and tight against M10 Takanosho for no other reason than to throw the bout, and as Takanosho moved forward, Shin voluntarily stood upright and faked some of the worst pull attempts you've seen as Takanosho backed him across the straw in short order. Fans did not get their money's worth here as Takanosho moves to 4-2 while Tochinoshin is still eyeing Kaisei's oyakata jacket at 2-4.

M8 Hokutofuji's sumo today was lunch pail as he kept his head down against M10 Nishikifuji and used a decent tsuppari attack that forced NF to evade laterally fishing for a pull. Hokutofuji moved too well, however, and he had Nishikifuji (4-2) chased out of the ring scoring the blue collar oshi-dashi win. Hokutofuji moves to 6-0 and has received little to no ink this basho as his sumo hasn't been great. He's just been winning.

M7 Aoiyama's tachi-ai was half-assed as he offered two hands forward against M9 Myogiryu before just backing up as if to pull, but he didn't knock Myogiryu down until Aoiyama had backed himself all the way out of the dohyo voluntarily. Aoiyama is 1-5 in defeat while Myogiryu buys one here in moving to 4-2.

M7 Onosho welcomed M6 Wakamotoharu with arms wide open literally allowing WMH to get the left arm inside and right outer grip, and Onosho offered no resistance as Wakamotoharu easily forced Onosho back and across the straw without argument. This one was bought and paid for here as Wakamotoharu moves to 5-1 with Onosho falling to 2-4.

M5 Takarafuji was as defenseless against M6 Endoh as Onosho was in the previous bout.  Takarafuji stood straight up at the tachi-ai and bypassed an easy tsuki-otoshi opening a few seconds in with the left hand opting to fake a few pulls and just shade back as Endoh moved forward and scored the gift yori-kiri. Takarafuji falls to 0-6 while Endoh moves to a sheepish 3-3.

M4 Nishikigi was all push today and M5 Sadanoumi was all pull, so this was a perfectly linear bout that saw Nishikigi plow forward and actually hit the deck first, but Sadanoumi was in the air so far beyond that the straw that they ruled in favor of Nishikigi and upheld it with a mono-ii. Both dudes end the day 3-3 and they made the right call.

While M4 Takayasu buys tons of wins, this light banzuke at the upper Maegashira region is really working in his favor. He came with a mediocre kachi-age against M1 Midorifuji, but the M1 couldn't come close to making him pay even when Takayasu went for an ill-advised pull. As soon as Takayasu realized his opponent wasn't a threat, he moved forward catching Midorifuji with a series of nice shoves that sent him across the straw emphatically. Good stuff from Takayasu today as he moves to a mostly legit 5-1. As for Midorifuji, I keep shouting at the TV for him to go for the kata-sukashi, but he rarely does any more. He's 2-4 because of it.

Sekiwake Hoshoryu wasn't interested in latching onto M1 Tobizaru at the belt or to the inside even though TZ did nothing to halt the Sekiwake's charge, and after a few wasted shoves into oblivion, Hoshoryu began faking a series of pulls, and five seconds into the bout, Hoshoryu was doing all the work. After Hoshoryu voluntarily backed up near the edge, Tobizaru went for a weak pull and Hoshoryu just hit the dirt. Tobizaru is gifted one here moving to 3-3 while Hoshoryu threw his bout in falling to 4-2.

Speaking of Mongolians throwing bouts, Komusubi Ichinojo easily survived a Sekiwake Wakatakakage henka and squared back up nicely in a migi-yotsu bout where Ichinojo wrapped his left arm around WTK's right limb, but the Mongolith refused to get his right arm to he inside. After some fake jockeying for position, Wakatakakage was able to "force" Ichinojo back and across with a very weak forearm push with the right. Soft, compromised sumo here as Wakatakakage is gifted 3-3 while Ichinojo falls to 2-4.

Komusubi Kiribayama played to Sekiwake Daieisho's strength by agreeing to a tsuppari affair, and Kiribayama still kicked the Sekiwake's ass right and proper. This one was uncontested as Kiribayama scored the legit tsuki-dashi win in about three seconds moving to 4-2 in the process. Daieisho is reeling a bit at 1-5.

Shodai was SlowDai at the tachi-ai enabling M2 Meisei to strike quickly and evade a bit, but Shodai squared up nicely as the two bounced off of each other a few times in the ring. Meisei hadn't established anything from the tachi-ai, and so Shodai was able to use his size to pin Meisei near the edge, but he didn't have a hold of his foe, and the slippery Meisei was able to turn the tables and get inside of Shodai and push him back and across by the tits. Shodai was not terrible in this one, but he wasn't good either. Dude's got no offensive skill whatsoever, and he's a joke of an Ozeki in falling to 1-5. As for Meisei, he'll take the ugly win in moving to 3-3.

M3 Tamawashi and Takakeisho bounced off of each other at the tachi-ai, and as Takakeisho looked to move a bit to his right, he just hit the dirt before Tamawashi could really connect on a pull. I think Takakeisho owed one to the Mongolian here because this bout was over in less than two seconds of little action from either side. Regardless of what went on, Tamawashi improves to 6-0 while Takakeisho falls to 4-2.

Mitakeumi cut M2 Kotonowaka off nicely from getting inside at the tachi-ai, and as Kotonowaka looked to pull as part of Plan B, Mitakeumi pressed forward nicely, but he didn't force Kotonowaka back nor did he have a good inside position against Baby Waka, and so the youngster was able to pull Mitakeumi down just before Kotonowaka touched beyond the straw. This was ugly sumo all around, but Kotonowaka was the legit winner as he moves to 3-3. As for Mitakeumi, he falls to the same 3-3 mark, and I'm glad that he smelled blood against a vulnerable Kotonowaka and at least tried to win moving forward.

After watching all three Ozeki lose before him, you could just sense that Yokozuna Terunofuji was going to lower the bar of his own sumo to send the message that, "Hey, even Yokozuna and Ozeki struggle from time to time." Against M3 Ura, the Yokozuna was flat footed from the tachi-ai, which is fine against Ura because you want to guard against any shenanigans, but Ura didn't move laterally and looked as if he wanted to sneak inside. Terunofuji fired a few defensive shoves to keep Ura at bay, but he never tried to grab him even though Ura was dangerously close as seen in the pic at left. I mean, Terunofuji could have lunged forward and grabbed something here, but his MO today was not to win, and so after about five seconds, he just kept his waki open allowing Ura to get moro-zashi, and instead of wrapping around Ura's arms from the outside, Terunofuji just stayed limp going with the flow in allowing himself to be forced back and across without argument.

There was decent applause from the crowd afterwards, but there wasn't the usual roar that you hear when the underdog truly upsets a star rikishi. I think everyone knew the fix was in here, but people are satisfied with it because it brings Terunofuji down to he level of the Ozeki. What's more galling at the end of this one is that Ura is 4-2 compared to Terunofuji's 3-3 record. As if.

Thanks to Terunofuji's dropping this one, the media was able to use he term "joi-jin" losing one by one instead of using the phrase "all of the Ozeki lose one by one." It's obvious what's going on here.

It's just a sad day of sumo to see such horrible bouts the final 20 minutes of the day. The greatness is gone because these guys are constantly being pressured to live down to the mediocrity and outright haplessness of the Japanese "elite" rikishi. It's no surprise that attendance was still weak today even though it was a Friday.

We'll see how many fannies show up over the weekend. Monday is Sumo Fan Appreciation Day...uh, I mean Old Folks Day, so it's a three-day weekend coming up. One wrench in the mix could be a typhoon that's forecast to hit the islands over the weekend, so we'll have to see. Regardless of that, who do the fans want to pay money to come and see?

Right, nobody.

Day 5 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
The big headlines coming out of Day 4 was the tsutae-zori winning technique executed by M3 Ura against a listless Takarafuji. It was the first time we've seen that kimari-te in 20 years, and there's a reason why you never see it. It's an improbable move in the Makuuchi division because these guys are too big and too good. Of course, Takarafuji was just standing there, which enabled Ura to proceed with the move, but it's sad that in lieu of headlines such as, "Yokozuna, Ozeki lead the way in Aki," we have all the focus on a gimmick kimari-te from a fixed bout. I don't think this excites anyone besides the die hards, and I know it didn't impress me.

With that, let's get to the Day 5 bouts starting with the two rookies facing off in M16 Mitoryu vs. M16 Hiradoumi. I was disappointed to see Chiyoshoma henka Hiradoumi yesterday because I want to see how this dude deals with adversity. Being henka'd by a superior like Chiyoshoma showed us nothing, so I was curious to see how these two would fare today in an expected straight up bout to lead things off.

Mitoryu whiffed on a hari-te with the left leaving him vulnerable, but Hiradoumi couldn't capitalize and get to the inside. Gone where these quick force-outs, and you could just see the contrast in Hiradoumi's sumo today where he knew the bout wasn't fixed. Mitoryu wasn't exactly kicking ass and taking names either, and so the two sorta got into this clinch without going into full yotsu-zumo. That fact that Mitoryu has been involved in more straight up bouts this basho helped him because he finally took charge and slapped Hiradoumi forward and down with some oomph.

Once again, Hiradoumi was clueless in this one because the bout wasn't fixed. I knew this was gonna happen where those magical yotsu skills exhibited the first three days against better rikishi suddenly disappeared. We'll see if Hiradoumi (3-2) can pick up a few legit wins this tournament. I think he can, but today was perhaps his best shot. Mitoryu just got his first egit win in moving to 2-3.

I'm not gonna cover all the bouts today but M14 Yutakayama (1-4) let up for Juryo rikishi, Atamifuji.

M15 Terutsuyoshi looked to duck inside against M13 Ohho, but he didn't try and grab anything or work a slick move. Instead, he stood upright and backed up a step just waiting for Ohho to charge forward, and Ohho did dispatching a mukiryoku T-Yoshi (1-4) in mere seconds. That Ohho 5-0 start has been fake which has been why nobody mentioned his name coming into the day. You need substance to your sumo, and Ohho ain't got it unless his opponent let's up for him.

M13 Ichiyamamoto sported a good 3-1 record coming, and so you would have thought he could have given M11 Kotoshoho a better contest. IYM had nothing from the tachi-ai except a lame pull, and Kotoshoho (2-3) easily pushed him back and across and down to a 3-2 record.

Oh brother! While I'll never say never, I think it's safe to say that we're not going to see a more obvious fall on the day than what we got from M11 Chiyotairyu against M10 Nishikifuji. Chiyotairyu henka'd a bit at the tachi-ai completely befuddling Nishikifuji, and Tairyu got his foe turned around 180 degrees at the edge, but instead of executing the okuri-dashi so easy that I could have done it, Chiyotairyu just dove out beyond the straw making sure his left hand touched down first in giving his opponent the hataki-komi win that sure as hell didn't contain a slapdown. This one was so brazen it drew an audible laugh from me as Nishikifuji buys his way to 4-1 while Chiyotairyu literally falls to the opposite mark of 1-4.

In a straight up affair, M8 Hokutofuji moved to a cool 5-0 by rebuffing M9 Kotoeko at the tachi-ai and working his oshi magic dispatching Eko (1-4) in a matter of seconds. This bout wasn't great, but it was real.

Previously undefeated M6 Wakamotoharu found himself in a tussle against M4 Takayasu today where both dudes used tsuppari from the tachi-ai as Takayasu shaded left. WMH certainly wasn't bruising his opponent, and Takayasu used his veteran experience to force the bout to hidari-yotsu, and the force out charge was so easy he didn't even need a right outer grip. Wakamotoharu's fluff start is put into more perspective here as he falls to 4-1 while Takayasu improves to the same mark with a nice win.

If you're like me, you've been going into kata-sukashi withdrawals during the M1 Midorifuji bouts, but rest easy, they managed to fix this one today against M4 Nishikigi. Nishikigi easily won the tachi-ai driving Midorifuji back, but he refused to get his right arm to the inside, which was the natural flow of this bout. It was clear that Nishikigi refused to get the inside or get his opponent into the clinch, so around they danced a bit before Nishikigi stood there and let Midorifuji score on the kata-sukashi. Yes!! Both rikishi end the day at 2-3.

In a similar bout except for the fact that it lasted minutes instead of seconds, Komusubi Ichinojo and Komusubi Kiribayama squared off in migi-yotsu, and a few seconds in Ichinojo went for a mammoth right scoop throw, but he stopped the throw mid-bout and let Kiribayama back into it, and so you knew then that Ichinojo wasn't trying to win. He still had the upper hand as Kiribayama wasn't lethally inside, and so there the two stood for a few minutes with Ichinojo never trying to re-establish the right inside position, and in the end, he let Kiribayama (3-2) force him back and across. Ichinojo falls to 2-3 in defeat, and how many people remember that he took the yusho last basho? I'm sure not many.

Sekiwake Wakatakakage and M1 Tobizaru engaged in yet another migi-yotsu bout where WTK grabbed the early left outer grip, and these two dug in quiet well showing us a great bout of sumo. Wakatakakage has the size and strength advantage, but Tobizaru dug in and didn't make it easy. The bout went for over 20 seconds, but in the end WTK was able to muscle Tobizaru back and across. Both dudes are only 2-3, but I think it's worth pointing out that this is what real sumo looks like.

In a curious bout between the two Sekiwake, Daieisho opted not to come with his tsuppari attack shading to his left instead. Hoshoryu seemed as if he knew what was coming, and he bulldozed Daieisho back and across with nary an argument. My guess is that Hoshoryu was owed one by Daieisho because this was uncharacteristic. Hoshoryu's a quiet 4-1 now while Daieisho falls to the reverse 1-4.

Takakeisho and M2 Meisei exhibited a pretty good tachi-ai where both dudes struck well and then bounced off of each other. From that point, the two would go in and shove simultaneously and then back up and then do it all again in the center of the ring. At one point, Meisei shaded left and could have executed a left kote-nage or even a tsuki-otoshi, but he refrained, and so you knew what was coming next. After letting Takakeisho square back up, the two fired off a few more shoves before Takakeisho went for his signature left swipe, and Meisei was waiting for it dutifully hitting the deck and giving Takakeisho the cheap win. Takakeisho is also a quiet 4-1, and I say quiet because he's being allowed to win. There's no substance to his sumo that makes anyone stop and stare. Even today, a true Ozeki shoulda blown right through an M2, but it took a swipe and a fake fall to get it down. No forward moving sumo here as Meisei falls to 1-4.

The yaocho gods giveth and the yaocho gods taketh away, and so after M3 Ura got his run yesterday with that tsutae-zori move, he just stood there today and let Mitakeumi push him back methodically to the edge where Ura arched his back allowing Mitakeumi to knock him down across the straw. We never see sumo like this from Mitakeumi, so you know the bout was fixed in his favor leaving both guys at 3-2 on the day.

Shodai, Shodai, Shodai. What are your mother and I going to do with you?? Today against M2 Kotonowaka the two struck rather well with Shodai getting moro-zashi about wrist deep. A legit dude and seize moro-zashi from that position, but Shodai ain't legit, and so Kotonowaka just bodied him back and across without even needing a belt grip and a wrap-around grip at the arms. Shodai is weak and pathetic in falling to 1-4 while Kotonowaka (2-3) will prety on these weak Ozeki whenever they let him.

In the day's final bout, M3 Tamawashi connected with Yokozuna Terunofuji's throat at the tachi-ai pushing him back and step and making the Yokozuna look up, and Tamawashi focused on that neck with alternating shoves and then a dual choke hold that allowed Tamawashi to get to the inside and force Terunofuji over and out the other side of the ring. That's how you do it. use fierce tsuppari to set your dude up, and then dispatch him with ease. Tamawashi once again shows why he's the best dude on the banzuke in moving to 5-0 while Terunofuji falls to 3-2.

It's way too early to talk yusho, but unless Tamawashi wins this thing going away, I think we're already at a 13-2 yusho line and probably worse. We'll see how it all plays out starting again tomorrow.

Day 3 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
My Day 3 broadcast began with the introduction of Kinbohzan, a new Juryo rikishi who hails from Kazakhstan, and a dude who has been making serious waves in the mid tier of the banzuke since his debut at the last Kyushu basho. Kinbohzan took the Sandanme yusho in his debut, and then he took the Makushita yusho in March of this year. The media has been following this guy all year and for good reason. He entered sumo from the prestigious Nichidai University and he's got the potential to become a dude like Baruto. How far and how fast he is allowed to rise remains to be seen, but here is yet another foreign rikishi who the elders in the Sumo Association see and think to themselves, "If only we had one of these."

Aside from Kinbohzan, there is very little news to report on in between days. There are no significant kyujo to report on, and the basho is struggling to find compelling headlines out of the gate, especially due to the losses by all of the rikishi occupying elite ranks.

I suppose we may as well start from square one, so we'll begin the day with M15 Tsurugisho welcoming Chiyonokuni up from the J2 rank. Tsurugisho sold his first two bouts to both rookies, so I suspected he was going to try and get his today, and he did just that easily fighting of Kuni's passive tsuppari from the tachi-ai before forcing his way into migi-yotsu with a left outer grip and Chiyonokuni had no answer. Tsurugisho gets on the board with the nice yori-kiri at 1-2.

Up next was M16 Hiradoumi paired against one of the more prominent merchants in the sport, M14 Yutakayama, and YY sold again here coming with a ridiculously light kachi-age with the right arm while backing up with the left arm out wide. Hiradoumi knew it was coming and just pressed forward with a straight up oshi charge that sent the mukiryoku Yutakayama into the third row.

A couple of notes to this bout. First, you have a veteran like Yutakayama coming in against a rookie, and he fails to attempt a single tsuppari? His strongest move? Then at the edge with Hiradoumi up way too high for his own good (pictured at right), Yutakayama thought about a counter tsuki-otoshi with the right at the edge, and it was open for him, but he of course didn't follow through. If you watch the slow motion replay of this bout, Hiradoumi doesn't connect on an actual shove until YY is already across the straw. The veteran coulda grabbed an outer grip, he could have gotten anything to the inside, and he of course could have attempted at least a single thrust. He ignored all of this giving Hiradoumi another lopsided win and cheap 3-0 start. As for Yutakayama, what does he care in falling to 0-3?

Our next rookie, M16 Mitoryu, was paired against M14 Chiyoshoma, and Shoma showed what these veterans can do to the rookies. After a good clash from both parties, Chiyoshoma grabbed a right frontal belt grip while getting the left inside for good measure, and the rookie was had at this point. Chiyoshoma took his time testing the inside belt throw waters, but he ultimately used the left leg at the back of Mitoryu's right to trip the rookie over and down. Chiyoshoma moves to 2-1 with the textbook win while Mitoryu in falling to 1-1 actually benefits from a bout like this more than Hiradoumi's fake bouts.

M13 Ichiyamamoto lazily put both hands at M15 Terutsuyoshi's shoulders as the latter ducked in low, and in this predetermined bout, IYM simply backed up going for a mediocre pull causing Terutsuyoshi to dutifully fall to the dirt.  Ichiyamamoto buys a cheap bout here in moving to 2-1 while TT gladly sells in falling to 1-2.

M12 Ryuden won the tachi-ai easily getting the left arm inside of M13 Ohho's right, and he also pretended to go for the right outer grip which was there for the taking, but instead of making the smart and obvious move and setting up a force-out charge, Ryuden pulled away from the outer grip and just backed his way over to the edge where Ohho finally connected on a light shove causing Ryuden too fall backwards and down in exaggerated fashion. What an improbable bout of puff sumo this was as Ohho also buys his way to a 3-0 start while Ryuden will take the cash and a 1-2 record.

M11 Kotoshoho and M12 Okinoumi hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai...a position that made Okinoumi the heavy favorite, and the veteran showed why executing a nicely-timed right kote-nage that felled Kotoshoho over and down without argument. Okinoumi didn't need to even shower here in moving to 2-1 while Kotoshoho is a measly 0-3.

M11 Chiyotairyu blasted M10 Takanosho back from the tachi-ai, but Tairyu failed to follow up lightening his charge from there, and that allowed Takanosho to easily escape right and go for a light pull down to which Chiyotairyu promptly complied by just flopping to the dirt. Vintage Chiyotairyu here as he sells another in falling to 1-2 while Takanosho moves to a quick and dirty 3-0.

In a useless affair, M9 Myogiryu and M10 Nishikifuji sorta hooked up in hidari-yotsu, but there was no grapplin' or gruntin' from the start. After both dudes stood in a light clinch for a few seconds, Myogiryu executed a rather weak kata-sukashi, but Nishikifuji just complied by putting both palms to the dirt with nothing else touching down. Nessen (heated bout) this wasn't as both guys end the day 2-1.

M9 Kotoeko put two hands forward quickly at the tachi-ai against M8 Tochinoshin as if to say don't hurt me before shading a bit left. That little move meant the tachi-ai wouldn't go chest to chest, but the bout did move to migi-yotsu where after a few turns in the ring, Shin grabbed the left outer grip. They tussled a bit further before Tochinoshin went for a force-out charge pinning Eko in close with his leg, but Shin wasn't set up strongly to the inside, and so Kotoeko almost wriggled free at the edge, but Tochinoshin's length allowed him to force his foe across in the end. You could totally tell both dudes were trying to win here as Tochinoshin moves to 2-1 with Kotoeko falling to 0-3.

M7 Aoiyama ducked his head at the tachi-ai against M8 Hokutofuji giving the latter an opportunity to pull, but Fuji just backed up a step or two instead. With that negative momentum, Aoiyama could have plowed forward and sent Hokutofuji a few rows deep, but he instead faked a dumb pull as he backed himself across the dohyo and out with Hokutofuji trying to keep up. Interesting oshi-dashi win here when Hokutofuji wasn't even shoving, but they had to call it something. Hokutofuji is a terrible 3-0 while Aoyama is really getting jealous of Kaisei's new oyakata jacket at 0-3.

M6 Endoh attempted a henka to his left at the tachi-ai against M7 Onosho, but Onosho read it perfectly as if he knew it was coming. There's no way to prove that of course, but with Onosho onto Endoh's every wily move, he followed his foe's movement around the edge of the ring and pushed him out quickly by the neck leaving both guys 1-2 at the end of the day.

M5 Takarafuji and M6 Wakamotoharu hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai, and it was laughable to watch Takarafuji pretend as if he was going for the right outer belt grip. It was wide open and he was in perfect position to grab it, but he never did, and so I knew the outcome of the bout at that point. Even though it was obvious Takarafuji wasn't trying to win, he had WMH upright enough and far away from his own right outer grip that the kid had no avenue to attack, and so with Wakamotoharu on the brink, Takarafuji finally grabbed the right outer but kept his body light and susceptible to a counter attack, and WMH mustered a mediocre tsuki-otoshi with the right arm, and as the two rikishi crashed to the dirt, Takarafuji made sure to put his right hand down first. They ruled it utchari, but it was more like tsuki-otoshi. Actually, it was definitely yaocho as WMH moves to 3-0 while Takarafuji takes the bagel at 0-3.

M5 Sadanoumi and M4 Takayasu shared a light tachi-ai where neither dude seemed to want to take charge. Umi eventually got his left arm inside, and he had the easy path to the right outer grip and Takayasu is the worst defender of that outside grip there is. Sadanoumi didn't take it, however, and just stayed hunkered low so when the light shoulder slap came from Takayasu, the SadaMight just hit the deck easy as you please. Sometimes I wonder if sumo is really a contact sport after watching a soft contest like this that saw Takayasu "improve" to 2-1 while Sadanoumi fell to 1-2.

M3 Tamawashi caught M4 Nishikigi by the throat from the tachi-ai and pushed the big fella back with ease, but Nishikigi is quite a load and so Tamawashi couldn't get him quite across in the first volley. As Nishikigi looked to duck back into the bout, Tamawashi abandoned the forward thrust attack and backed up going for a pull, and the timing sent Nishikigi down to the dirt and his first loss at 2-1. As for Tamawashi, he breezes his way to 3-0 and can do what he wanna to whomever he wanna.

Sekiwake Hoshoryu moved left at the tachi-ai grabbing the cheap outer grip of Komusubi Ichinojo's belt, and Hoshoryu wisely never let the Mongolith square back up or get his right arm solidly to the inside. Hoshoryu tried an early soto-gake leg trip, but the move didn't have enough mustard behind it, and so the two danced around a bit with the Sekiwake still maintaining that stifling outer grip, and the second try was a charm as Hoshoryu easily toppled Ichinojo back and down picking up the nifty win after a cheap tachi-ai. Hoshoryu moves to 2-1 with the win one-upping his foe who falls to 1-2.

Komusubi Kiribayama executed textbook sumo against Sekiwake Wakatakakage catching his foe with effective tsuppari to stand him upright and back a step, and then Kiribayama lurched into moro-zashi, and Wakatakakage simply didn't have an answer as the Mongolian dispatched WTK in short order. Kiribayama improves to 2-1 with the far too easy win while Wakatakakage is reeling at 0-3.

Sekiwake Daieisho stood straight up from the tachi-ai not even thinking about tsuppari against M3 Ura, and as Ura cautiously moved forward, Daieisho went for some soft shoves making sure not to use his lower body. Ura really was stuck and couldn't do anything and so Daieisho faked a few tsuppari and then thought about a pull or two, but you could see he was not trying to ding Ura in an effort to win the bout. In the end with Ura still doing nothing, Daieisho faked his way through another tsuppari attack and when Ura darted right not even throwing a pull or swipe, Daieisho continued to charge forward walking himself out of the dohyo. What a silly bout of sumo this was, and is that how we like to see guys "win"? It's going to take more to entertain me as Ura fakes his way to 2-1 while Daieisho took one for the team here in falling to 1-2.

When I say taking one for the team, Sumo's got a bit of a problem on their hands as follows:



They need to drum up headlines to try and coax people back to the venue, and Ura is one storyline that they can still promote I guess. I think his act is tired but whatever.

M1 Midorifuji easily neutralized Shodai's tachi-ai with a nice right tsuki to Shodai's side, and as the faux-zeki tried to work his way into the bout, he was standing too high gifting Midorifuji moro-zashi. Shodai was on the ropes at this point...and actually, the guy is on the ropes any time his foe is trying to win, and that was the case today. Shodai managed a weak maki-kae with the left arm, but Midorifuji seized the front of Shodai's belt with his right hand and ushered Shodai over and across without argument. Hooboy. Shodai got his ass handed to him by Midorifuji of all rikishi as the faux-zeki now finds himself at 1-2...the same mark as Midorifuji.

The biggest and worst excuse I saw in the media afterwards to justify the loss was that Shodai doesn't like to fight people for the first time (a situation called "hatsu-gao awase"). Unbelievable that they'd use that excuse for an Ozeki fighting a puny guy like Midorifuji. Another good word in Japanese to use for this situation: nasakenai.

M1 Tobizaru did that tachi-ai where you kick one leg forward and then lean backwards...at the tachi-ai. That's gonna take you places for sure, and not even Takakeisho could screw that gift up as he blasted Tobizaru back and across in less than two seconds. It was good to see Miwa Announcer at least question afterwards, "What was Tobizaru trying to do with that tachi-ai?" Kirishima and Futenoh fumbled around a bit even though the simple, one-word answer was "lose." It's just silly to watch this as Tobizaru takes one for the team in falling to 1-2 while Takakeisho is buoyed up to a 2-1 start.

M2 Meisei got his right arm up and under Mitakeumi's left armpit at the tachi-ai standing the faux-zeki upright, and with nowhere to go Mitakeumi attempted a stupid pull, but Meisei pounced on the move pushing Mitakeumi back and across in a flash. This was another dominant win over an Ozeki from a smaller, scrub rikishi and both dudes end the day here at 2-1. This one hurt the Sumo Association a bit because now all of the supposedly elite rikishi have at least one loss. Here we go again with another yusho line at 13-2 or worse.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Terunofuji's tactics were completely opposite of his shtick yesterday against Tobizaru. Today while facing M2 Kotonowaka, the Yokozuna came out of the gate hot looking to grab onto his foe, and when it was clear that Fuji meant bidness, Kotonowaka tried to retreat a bit and look for a counter move, but Terunofuji was onto him getting the right arm firmly inside and using that to body Kotonowaka upright and push him across for the easy, oshi-dashi win. To think that Terunofuji couldn't have done this--or at least tried this sumo--against Tobizaru yesterday is just silly. Terunofuji chooses to win today in moving to 2-1 while Kotonowaka falls to 1-2.

Three days in and it's hard to really find a compelling storyline. They're trying to hype Hiradoumi a bit, but trust me, the dude is not winning legitimately to this point. I think he's got the tools to do it, but his opponents haven't made him work for anything the first three days.

Day 2 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Day 1 produced a good crowd in the Kokugikan although there were noticeable gaps here and there and empty rows at the top of the second tier, but the weekends and holidays are always rather full, and so I was more interested to see who would show up for Day 2. I'm guessing the venue was about 40% full and 10% of the crowd were students dressed in their school uniforms taking up whole sections in the nosebleeds. Crowd size matters because it measures the momentum of a sport, and sumo can't seem to generate much momentum these days.

The day began with M16 Mitoryu vs. J1 Chiyomaru, and unlike his opponent yesterday, the rookie's foe came to battle today. Before Mitoryu could even get his hands going at the tachi-ai, Chiyomaru pounced putting the rook onto his heels. Mitoryu fought back briefly, but Chiyomaru shifted laterally catching Mitoryu with nice choke holds and as Mitoryu looked to press back forward, Chiyomaru showed him the trap door with a veteran tsuki-otoshi move. No need to panic for Mitoryu (1-1). Once he gets his bearings in the division, I think he'll be just fine, and he should be grateful for as many straight up bouts as he can get.

Up next was our other rookie, M16 Hiradoumi, who was paired against M15 Tsurugisho, and the latter was selling again here coming with a lame slap with the left hand while keeping his body upright and arms completely wide, and the rookie easily burrowed into moro-zashi and forced his willing foe back and across in under three seconds. As I mentioned yesterday, Hiradoumi has good sumo basics, but just wait until he runs into someone who isn't going to sell him the bout. You'll be able to see the contrast easily. For now, though, Hiradoumi is gifted 2-0 while Tsurugisho makes another deposit towards his oyakata stock.

M14 Chiyoshoma pushed into M15 Terutsuyoshi's shoulders at the tachi-ai as the latter remained low, and after testing the pull waters, Chiyoshoma moved right grabbing an outer grip. On the other side, T-Yoshi was looking to get in tight with the right, but Chiyoshoma grabbed a left outer that was effective enough to pinch in TT's right arm, and the yori-kiri came straightway despite Terutsuyoshi's maintaining moro-zashi. This was a quickie as Chiyoshoma did what he wanna leaving both dudes at 1-1.

M13 Ohho continues to buy bouts and today's seller was M14 Yutakayama. YY came with a light kachi-age but was looking to retreat more than move forward, and so Ohho was able to keep pace. Ohho wasn't making an impact, however, that forced Yutakayama in any direction, and so the veteran continued a faux oshi attack while backing up and to the side of his own volition, and with Yutakayama just leaving himself fully exposed, Ohho caught him with some oshi at the edge sending the willing M14 across. Ohho buys his way to 2-0 while Yutakayama hoards the cash at 0-2.

M12 Ichiyamamoto managed to catch M12 Okinoumi with some paws to the neck from the tachi-ai, but IYM wasn't driving with his legs, and so the glances were harmless. As Okinoumi stood his ground, Ichiyamamoto tried to back up and evade, but Okinoumi was onto the move catching the youngster with two hands to the chest that sent Ichiyamamoto back and across with ease. Both dudes end the day at 1-1.

M12 Ryuden latched onto a right frontal grip at the tachi-ai against M11 Chiyotairyu, and Tairyu's initial thrusts weren't strong enough to knock Ryuden away from his grip. Before Chiyotairyu could think of Plan B, Ryuden got the left arm inside and forced Chiyotairyu back and across with little argument wrenching his foe as he went. Good stuff here from Ryuden as both dudes end the day at 1-1.

M10 Nishikifuji and M11 Kotoshoho hooked up in yotsu-zumo from the start where Kotoshoho used his length to grab a solid right outer grip in the hidari-yotsu contest. Nishikifuji was so upright and Kotoshoho was in the perfect position to score a force-out win, but Kotoshoho intentionally let go of his right outer. As he did, Nishikifuji backed up due to the momentum change, and he set himself up for the easy oshi-dashi win for Kotoshoho, but Kotoshoho just pulled his foe back to the center of the ring pretending to go for another right outer. Nishikifuji was still had at this point and could not attack, so it was up to Kotoshoho to make a move and so he backed up a step taking his right arm out of uwate territory and just stood there while Nishikifuji tooled both hands onto Kotoshoho's belt, and once he was comfortable, Nishikifuji went for the kill as Kotoshoho happily backed out in the process. This was a farce with Kotoshoho (0-2) doing all the work as Nishikifuji buys his 2-0 start.

In a sloppy affair, M10 Takanosho hurried his tachi-ai keeping his right arm out wide, but when M9 Kotoeko showed resistance, Takanosho was able to retool that right to the inside, and with Kotoeko way too upright, Takanosho was able to drive him back and out in mere seconds. Bad sumo here from both parties as Takanosho moves to 2-0 while Kotoeko falls to 0-2.

M9 Myogiryu henka'd to his left against M8 Tochinoshin, but the Private wasn't fooled. He wasn't moving forward to try and take advantage either, and so the two reset themselves in the center of the ring as they practiced proper social distancing. With Shin letting up, he gave Myogiryu moro-zashi, and as MGR went for his first charge, Tochinoshin flinched on a right tsuki-otoshi to counter, but he purposefully didn't follow through and went for a light pull instead. Myogiryu was had at this point, but instead of slapping his foe down, Tochinoshin danced to the other side of the dohyo with Myogiryu trying to keep up. He wasn't doing a good job of it, and so Tochinoshin sorta went for a left kote-nage and used that as an excuse to just flop to the dirt. Myogiryu picked up the cheap win here without doing anything as both rikishi end the day at 1-1.

M8 Hokutofuji caught M7 Onosho by the neck at the tachi-ai forcing Onosho to look up as Hokutofuji forced the bout to hidari-yotsu, but Hokutofuji wasn't really using his legs and so Onosho was able to stay alive. As Onosho pressed for round two, Hokutofuji kept him at bay with a right outer grip, but it was high and Onosho's belt was coming loose, and so Hokutofuji dragged Onosho over to the edge where they tussled again, but Onosho was out of gas at this point allowing Hokutofuji to finally force him across. Good match but bad sumo basics here as Hokutofuji moves to 2-0 with Onosho falling to 0-2.

M7 Aoiyama came hard at the tachi-ai standing M6 Wakamotoharu upright and setting him up for the easy oshi-dashi win, but instead of taking it, Aoiyama immediately went into pull mode where he didn't actually pull. Rather, he just backed his way across the dohyo and out with Wakamotoharu in tow. This is one of those bouts where the loser dictated everything as Aoiyama throws his second bout of the basho in falling to 0-2 while Wakamotoharu bought this 2-0 start.

M6 Endoh and M5 Sadanoumi hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai with both guys staying low as they tested the right outer grip waters. Sadanoumi came close, and as Endoh backed his body away from a Sadanoumi right outer grip attempt, the Sadamight used that momentum shift to pounce and force Endoh back and across for good leaving both gentlemen at 1-1.

M4 Nishikigi and M5 Takarafuji charged into the hidari-yotsu position with neither guy grabbing an outer grip, and Takarafuji looked to have the upper hand here as both rikishi jockeyed in the center of the ring, but when Nishikigi went for a slower than slow maki-kae, Takarafuji didn't make him pay, and instead of forcing his way into an outer grip, Takarafuji just backed up as Nishikigi sorta kept pace with a wild scoop throw, but before it was really executed, Takarafuji just stepped back giving Nishikigi the cheap, undeserved win. Just great as Nishikigi moves to 2-0 while Takarafuji sells another at 0-2.

Speaking of slower than slow, M4 Takayasu's tachi-ai was so ineffective, M3 Ura easily ducked under grabbing Takayasu's right stump, and before Takayasu knew what hit him, Ura dragged him over to the edge by the right leg before forcing him back that final half step. Hooboy, being done like that at the hands of Ura is not good as both rikishi end the day at 1-1.

M2 Meisei took advantage of Sekiwake Wakatakakage's weak tachi-ai to land a few tsuppari that had WTK on defense early. With Wakatakakage unable to attack moving forward, he was forced to look for a path to retreat and catch Meisei with a cheap pull or swipe down, but Meisei's oshi attack was too good, and he had WTK sent back and across in about four seconds tsuki-dashi style no less. Great bout for Meisei who moves to 1-1 while Wakatakakage (0-2) has definitely peaked.

It was nice to see both Sekiwake Daieisho and M3 Tamawashi bring their A game from the tachi-ai as the two traded tsuppari across the starting lines, but two seconds in you could see Daieisho's feet start to sputter, and with Tamawashi firmly grounded to the dohyo, he was able to swipe Daieisho to the other side of the ring before sending him across altogether. Tamawashi improves to 2-0 while Daieisho suffers his first defeat at 1-1.

When M2 Kotonowaka and Sekiwake Hoshoryu clash chest to chest at the tachi-ai, you'd think that Kotonowaka would have the clear size advantage, but he couldn't budge the Mongolian, and so the two traded tsuppari before hooking up in migi-yotsu where Hoshoryu had the left outer grip. Hoshoryu's right arm wasn't as strong as he would have liked, and so he threatened a soto-gake leg trip that had Kotonowaka out of sorts, and that enabled Hoshoryu to move in for the kill and body Kotonowaka back and down yori-taoshi style. Kotonowaka was simply outclassed here as both rikishi end the day at 1-1.

M1 Midorifuji went for the left frontal grip at the tachi-ai against Takakeisho, and the grip was open for him, but he refused to take it and then set himself up to be slapped down. Problem was that Takakeisho wasn't blazing off of the starting lines, and Midorifuji anticipated a pull before it actually came, and so he went into dive mode of his own volition sending himself to the dirt while Takakeisho tried to catch up and make it legit. Easy dive call here as Takakeisho needs Midorifuji (0-2) to let up for him in order to pick up win number one. Midorifuji!!

Komusubi Ichinojo refused to use his hands today against Mitakeumi keeping them forward and low, and so he stood there allowing Mitakeumi to try and work his way to the inside. Mitakeumi wasn't exactly kicking ass and taking names, however, and so Ichinojo backed himself up near the edge and purposefully whiffed on what looked to be a left kote-nage, and that was the final momentum shift Mitakeumi needed to push a willing Ichinojo back and across for good. Sterling sumo this wasn't as Mitakeumi is gifted the ridiculously easy win at 2-0 while Ichinojo strategically loses to one of the big names in falling to 1-1.

In a wild affair, Komusubi Kiribayama was quick outta the gate, but he wasn't looking to take advantage against Shodai. Rather, the Mongolian had his head ducked low inviting Shodai to pull, and Shodai sorta did move back to his right, but he barely connected. The move was so unconvincing that Kiribayama ran forward but not quite out, and so at this point you had both dudes socially distanced and out of sorts. As the two looked to reconnect, Kiribayama did a 360 this way and then another that way before finally grabbing a right outer grip, and with Shodai doing nothing the entire way, the Komusubi thankfully just forced Shodai back and across with ease. Kiribayama left himself vulnerable, but when Shodai couldn't come close to capitalizing, Kiribayama took the easy win in moving to 1-1, the same mark as Shodai.

In the day's final affair, Yokozuna Terunofuji stood straight up at the tachi-ai and waited for M1 Tobizaru to charge, and while the M1's "charge" was ineffective, Terunofuji refused to cross his own starting lines or attempt to grab his foe, and so Tobizaru would look to get inside and then retreat, and this repeated itself for about 10 seconds before Terunofuji finally let Tobizaru get moro-zashi whereupon the Yokozuna just walked himself back and across. When Terunofuji is trying to win, he'll happily give up moro-zashi as it allows him to wrap around his opponent's arms from the outside, but Fuji never attempted to latch onto his opponent in any form start to finish here. This was just fluff sumo in order to saddle the Yokozuna with a loss. The crowd response was mediocre because it never looked as if Tobizaru had the Yokozuna on the ropes...because he didn't, but Fuji dictated the outcome here and chose to lose to Tobizaru for who knows what reason. The end result is both dudes standing at 1-1 and Tobizaru's picking up his first career kin-boshi ill-gotten as it may have been.

Two days in and the basho is already getting sloppy, so we'll have to see if Mitakeumi is committed to buying a serious run here in September.

Day 1 Comments (Mike Wesemann reporting)
Here we are again at another hon-basho. I must admit, it will be tough coming off of the two week US Open tennis tournament and then engage a new two week tournament of sumo wrestling ripe with fake matches and a false banzuke to boot. I did not look at any headlines leading into the tournament, so I don't know the storylines that were hyped in the media so I'll focus my Day 1 comments only on the housekeeping items they addressed on the Day 1 NHK broadcast.

The day began with Ota Announcer, Kitanofuji, and Mainoumi discussing the banzuke, and as they showed the top of the Maegashira ranks, seeing Tamawashi at M3 (sharing the rank with Ura) with the likes of Tobizaru and Midorifuji ranked above him at M1 tells you all you need to know about the current state of sumo wrestling. I mean, really? Tobizaru and Midorifuji come in at M1 while Tamawashi sits at M3??

After a review of the banzuke, next up was a recap of the first sumo exhibition tournament held for the first time in 2 years and 8 months. Tachikawa City located at the west end of the Tokyo metropolitan area was the venue, and there looked to be just under a thousand fans there to watch the sekitori keiko sessions and gag sumo bouts by the lower ranked rikishi. The only thing missing were cream pies being thrown in the ring although there was plenty of salt throwing shenanigans going in an effort to generate a few laughs.

At that point the Makuuchi bouts began and we got our first look at the two rookies this basho, M16 Hiradoumi and M16 Mitoryu. Hiradoumi was up first taking on J1 Shimanoumi, and Hiradoumi looked good in terms of sumo basics. He used some nice tsuppari from the tachi-ai to set up a yotsu bout, but it was clear that Shimanoumi was just going with the flow. A few seconds in Shimanoumi took his right arm from the inside out giving Hiradoumi moro-zashi, and once obtained, the rookie forced Shimanoumi to the side and out with no resistance from the former Makuuchi rikishi. The sumo basics from the rookie looked great here, but there was no denying that the bout was fixed in favor of Hiradoumi as Shimanoumi's moves during the bout were made only to strengthen the rookie's position.

Still, I look back and look at the terrible sumo basics displayed by previous rookies such as Ohho and even Kotonowaka, and it was refreshing to see someone stay grounded to the dohyo and use good form. The jury is still out on Hiradoumi, but the basics looked good.

Up next was Mitoryu taking on M15 Tsurugisho, and once again we had an exhibition-type bout here where they let the other rookie get a win as well. Both rikishi hooked up in migi-yotsu with Tsurugisho just turning his hips and giving Mitoryu the left outer grip, and the force out was easy peasy Japanesey as Tsurugisho made no effort to counter Mitoryu's force out charge.

These were really two identical bouts here where both rookies used good sumo basics against opponents who were willing and mukiryoku from the start. Before we move on, I think Mitoryu has just supplanted Hokutofuji as the ugliest rikishi in the division. Just sayin'.

After more yaocho interrupted by a few real bouts, they announced that Hakuho would assume the Miyagino name and take over that stable from his stablemaster, the former Chikubayama. You all know my history with Chikubayama, and I'm sad to see him forced into retirement, but his landing Hakuho and raising him to be the greatest Yokozuna of all time couldn't have happened to a better person.

Near the midpoint of the day, they announced the retirement of Kaisei and his assuming the oyakata name of Tomozuna. Kaisei will be affiliated with the Oshima-beya being run by Kyokutenho as the former Kaio and Tomozuna-beya great has formed his own stable, the Asakayama-beya. Before we move in, it's worth mentioning that Kyokutenho and Kaisei were able to finance the purchase of their oyakata stock by selling bouts all throughout their careers, and can you blame these guys? Japan is a sweet place to live, and their jobs as "coaches" in sumo are as easy as it gets. We did get the obligatory shot of our newest oyakata working security duty dressed in that drab oyakata jacket straight from the closet of Kim Jong-un.

Let's finish the day by covering the Ozeki and Yokozuna. First up was Mitakeumi facing M1 Midorifuji, and the two hooked up in hidari-yotsu from the tachi-ai. Mitakeumi was in reactionary mode from the start, which doesn't say much for the Ozeki, but Midorifuji began going for a kata-sukashi where he backed up swiping with the left, but he didn't bother to bring his right arm over and pull at the back of the shoulder, and so he was completely vulnerable to a Mitakeumi oshi charge from there. Mitakeumi looked good the last second of this bout, but he was not active from the tachi-ai, and it took that fake kata-sukashi from Midorifuji to set up the strong push-out in the end.

Next up, M1 Tobizaru put two hands forward and down at the tachi-ai against Shodai and then just backed up to the edge of the dohyo. Shodai hadn't done anything to force that movement, and so Tobizaru moved to his right around the edge of the ring continuing to stand there until Shodai could finally catch up and score the push out win. Sorta. There was very little contact from either party the entire bout, and Tobizaru never was pushed across. He just leaned back at the edge as if he lost his balance, but this was just a puff piece of sumo that gifted Shodai a 1-0 start...his first such start in four basho.

Takakeisho musta felt jilted after watching those two bouts and then seeing Komusubi Ichinojo stare him down across the starting lines with no indication that the bout would be compromised. Takakeisho did run forward from the tachi-ai, but he just bounced off of the brick wall that was the Komusubi, and as Takakeisho back pedaled looking to get the hell outta there, Ichinojo moved forward well and had Takakeisho pushed back and across in less than three seconds.

Mainoumi's explanation for the difference in power here was that if Takakeisho had gone any harder, he may have reinjured his neck or suffered a stinger somewhere else in his body. Hmm. That's interesting. And yet...Takakeisho is still ranked higher than Ichinojo. You watch the difference in the two rikishi here, and it's almost as insulting as Tamawashi's being ranked below Tobizaru and Midorifuji. Almost.

In the day's final bout, Yokozuna Terunofuji and Komusubi Kiribayama treated us to a nice bout of sumo that began in hidari-yotsu but turned into moro-zashi for the Komusubi and a strong kime grip from the Yokozuna. After going this way and that, Terunofuji finally got the deep left arm inside against Kiribayama drawing a Freudian Slip "Ahh!" from Kitanofuji because he could see at that point Kiribayama was had. And he was as Terunofuji scored the dominant force-out win from there, but you could hear that Kitanofuji was audibly rooting for the Yokozuna to lose. So much for unbiased media coverage of the sport. Regardless of that, it was a nice way to end the day that contained way too many fixed bouts for my liking.

I should be good to comment nearly every day during the fortnight, so we'll just see what this tournament brings.