Short again… yet another prior commitment!
MATCH OF THE DAY: Asakoryu and Tokihayate pranced around the dohyo together for quite some time. They’re both pretty small and low-ranked, so it could have been a survival match-up–but both are doing very well. Tokihayate wasn’t baited by Asakoryu’s attacks and dragged him to the tawara. They grappled for a split second and Tokihayate came out on top, pushing Asakoryu straight out by okuridashi.
KIMARITE OF THE DAY: I guess Midorifuji? Midorifuji! He had a hilariously sized match-up against giant Shishi. To his credit, Shishi was ready and on the defensive; however, the tiny rikishi got under and got the belt. Shishi had a facial expression somewhere between fear, guilt, and resignation as Midorifuji shoved him down by uwatedashinage. It’s a pulling over arm throw, in English.
PINK MAWASHI DAY EIGHT: Yokozuna Day Two! No dice, unfortunately. Because Hosh is one of the only rikishi with even an outside chance at beating Onosato, I accepted the loss; but it really wasn’t much of a bout, which was irritating. Ura was basically paraded around the ring and then tossed unceremoniously to the floor. The match brought to mind a tired human flicking away a mosquito. A very pink mosquito. Hoshoryu takes on a challenging opponent in Yoshinofuji, while Ura fights the treacherous Wakamotoharu.
OVERALL SUMMARY: Tomokaze, somehow, took down Fujinokawa–and Yoshinofuji just couldn’t finish off Wakamotoharu for some reason. This was a terrible day for people that I like–the Nakabi Curse is officially real. Really quickly, we need to focus on the birthday boy though: Tamawashi was SO CLOSE. SO CLOSE. I mentioned yesterday that I thought Ura gave Onosato more trouble than his other opponents (which certainly was not true with Hoshoryu today), but Tamawashi’s effort doubled that. He didn’t win, but Onosato, for the first time, looked truly shaken by an opponent. He’s without a loss, though. Maybe that will change tomorrow–oh no, wait, he’s fighting Oshoma.
Down in Juryo, Fujiryoga got his kachi-koshi today. He looks… hard to beat.
Happy Nakabi and happy maezumo introduction day! (Yes, they were already presented… it’s kind of confusing. They appeared and fought briefly, and now they’ve been shown to the world in their borrowed kesho-mawashi. Today had more fanfare, from what I know.) Anyways, young Ochirsaikhan/Asahifuji was introduced today; he’s already had his debut match but he was presented today. He joined recruits Takeda, Seki, and Tenshoyama. They seemed to be having a great time. Well, they looked kind of uncomfortable. But don’t they all? Ochirsaikhan has a topknot already as a maezumo recruit, which is kind of scary. I also learned the semi-official timestamp that he’s been training with Isegahama for four years… so this kid is going to be pretty good. He’s on the left, obviously.
