ProWresBlog: Sumo Nagoya Basho 2013 Day 1

Sumo Nagoya Basho 2013 Day 1

Welcome everyone to my review of the Sumo Nagoya Basho 2013. If you like sumo and/or are new to it, welcome. If you don't like sumo, bare with me :D

As usual, I'll try to cover all Ozeki and Yokozuna along with Osunaarashi, Takanoyama, Jokoryu, Tochinowaka, Kyokutaisei and I'll probably do some Shohozan matches. New people I will probably try to follow are Endo, who has risen up to Juryo at an incredibly fast pace and Musashikuni, who will have a few matches starting on day 3. Musashikuni is Musashimaru's nephew. Musashimaru was a yokozuna when I first saw sumo in the late 90's.

Baruto is out with an injury and hopefully will be getting surgery, so he won't be wrestling.

If certain wrestlers get hot or cold, I'll either review more of them or review less of them. If I'm lazy or busy I may do less wrestlers as well.

Also as usual, I'm picking Hakuho to win. He's on a 30 match win streak and would be hard to pick against. Harumafuji really needs to win this tournament though.

All matches can be seen at - https://www.youtube.com/user/araibira/videos
I don't know if Jason is doing them, but he reviews sumo in English and is strongly recommended for sumo newbies - https://www.youtube.com/user/JasonsinJapan/videos

I also recommend using this site for sumo and wrestler information - http://sumodb.sumogames.de/Default.aspx

Here are the abbreviations I'll be using:
Y = Yokozuna
Starting at Ozeki, you will see for example Kotoshogiku listed as O2e. O = Ozeki. The number next to it (2) is his rank amongst the other Ozeki, where the higher the rank the better they are. There is then a letter next to the number which for Kotoshogiku is "e". E stands for East and is higher ranked than W, which stands for West.
O = Ozeki
S = Sekiwake
K = Komusubi
M = Maegashira
- Anyone below this line is in the second division of Sumo, like an ROH or a Triple A of baseball -
J = Juryo
- Anyone below this line is in the third division of Sumo -
Ms = Makushita

Today's matches are:

J14e Yoshiazuma (0-0) vs J13w Endo (0-0)

Endo got into a little trouble early but he kept doing great walkarounds and got Yoshi's back to get him out. Good sumo from Endo. PS - Notice that Endo is probably the only wrestler in Juryo who does not have a top knot. He has excelled quicker than his hair has grown!

J12e Tochihiryu (0-0) vs J11w Takanoyama (0-0)

Tak was off to a hot start but Tochi drove forward with some sheer power thrusts and Tak went back and out.

J10e Oniarashi (0-0) vs J9w Osunaarashi (0-0)

Osuna won but kind of got lucky. Oni flung him around and had him on the edge twice but Osuna overpowered him and pushed him out. Good performance by Oni.

J4e Kagamio (0-0) vs J3w Tochinowaka (0-0)

Tochino lost and was in trouble from the start. Kaga got under him and pushed up on the belt for the easy win.

M14e Masunoyama (0-0) vs M13w Jokoryu (0-0)

Jok won due to his good defense. He was put on the edge twice but swung it around. Masuno looked strong here and was pushing Jokoryu around but they got near the edge and Masuno didn't have enough balance.

M2w Gagamaru (0-0) vs O2w Kotooshu (0-0)

Koto got an easy one here as he backed up Gaga and Gaga fell without any problems. A sorry loss.

O2e Kakuryu (0-0) vs M2e Tochiozan (0-0)

Tochi got a big upset win here. Kaku was slipping all over and Kaku tried to throw Tochi from the side. Tochi pushed forward and Kaku went out. Good result for Tochi and if he can pull off about 2-3 more of these on Ozeki or Yokozuna he could be a contender.

M1w Takayasu (0-0) vs O1w Kotoshogiku (0-0)

Koto hit a nasty tachi ai and pushed hard to put out Taka. Due to the camera angle, it was hard to tell who went first, but the judges said Taka did.

O1e Kisenosato (0-0) vs M1e Takekaze (0-0)
I'd like to note that there has been rumblings of Kisenosato getting a yokozuna promotion if he wins this tournament. I don't know if it is true or not but it wouldn't shock me since Japan is desperate for a Japanese yokozuna. I'd wait until he wins two in a row myself.

Kisen won but Take got close here. He pulled down on Kisen's arm and Kisen got close to going down. Kisen then regained control and pushed him out.

K1e Shohozan (0-0) vs Y1w Harumafuji (0-0)

Shohozan lost but put up a good fight. He even pushed Haruma back a couple of steps but he started lunging too far and fell. If this is a preview of things to come for Haruma, he's in trouble.