Tochitaikai down in Juryo has earned the first sekitori kyujo of this tournament. He seems to have torn his MCL, which is… really rough. Good luck with that recovery, buddy.

MATCH OF THE DAY: This one kind of pissed me off: Shishi vs Fujinokawa, who were both at 2 wins heading into this match. I never like the “let’s get rid of some of the threatening Maegashira!” fights, but today’s was particularly annoying. Fujinokawa very nearly won by hatakikomi, but Shishi regained his balance and slapped the hell out of Fujinokawa. Shishi forced him out, knocked him back into the second row, and didn’t turn around to offer him a hand. I don’t dislike Shishi, but he very rarely helps up his opponents, and that is not really a disposition I like to see from a young wrestler…

KIMARITE OF THE DAY: Hatsuyama actually woke up on the right side of the bed today and had a really good bout against Midorifuji. He also lost, but he actually put up a fight. I must say, for a 4-6 rikishi, Midorifuji has had some brilliant bouts. They went back and forth with Hatsuyama dancing around and leaning on the much shorter Midorifuji. Eventually, Midori snuggle-danced Hatsuyama to the edge and won with an arm-barring force out, a kimedashi victory. Well played.

PINK MAWASHI DAY TEN: Ura and Daieisho made it a fun one today, with both rikishi flying through the air but staying on the dohyo at the end of the bout, which we don’t see very often. Ura ended up sitting on the edge of the dohyo for about 3 seconds with a sort of startled expression, but I don’t think he’s injured, so that was weird. He popped back up and went to bow, but a mono-ii was called to confirm that Ura touched down first. Neither he nor Daieisho seemed to notice the mono-ii for a moment, which was entertaining. The result was a gunbai-dori; the judge’s verdict stood. Womp womp.

OVERALL SUMMARY: Murray Johnson, the wonderful commentator on NHK, took the time to count every single one of Takayasu’s 25 tsuppari attacks at Yoshinofuji today. Such a brutal bout. And Takanosho, to his credit, put up a really, really strong fight against Aonishiki. He did lose, but beautifully done, Onigiri-Kun, really beautifully done. Well, he’s 1-9. Along with the two happiest rikishi in the division (Ura and Ichiyamamoto) and the saddest (Hatsuyama).

Our moronic Yokozuna performed the dohyo-iri today, and then lost to Atamifuji. It was a good (two) bouts, thanks to the torinaoshi rematch, but if he had been in good form, I think he would have blown Atamifuji out of the water. So… yeah, pull out, buddy.

Longer post soon! Thanks for reading, everybody.