Banzuke Breakdown & Spotlight Poll!
The March tournament rankings have been released! Also, who shall we give extra attention to next month?
The banzuke for the 2024 haru basho has been released. Here is the makuuchi portion:
Here are a few things that jump out at me:
Ura gets a very soft demotion, down to M1 from komusubi.
Wakamotoharu, Abi and Nishikigi all rejoin the san’yaku
Takayasu falls far to M8 after his injury hit January tournament.
Hokutofuji and Shodai at M9 and M10 could do some damage in March.
Endo is fighting for his makuuchi life now.
Big promotion for Oho, beating his previous best mark of M6.
Takarafuji is sent down to juryo (where he’ll meet Wakatakakage and Hakuoho).
With the rankings now released, it seems a good time to ask you all who you’d like to receive the Sumo Stomp! spotlight in March. The recipient will be getting a special write-up, like I did with Ura most recently:
Here’s the poll with five names that I think are especially interesting (Substack won’t let me put more than that into a poll):
I’ve picked a different wrestler from each portion of the banzuke; each of which I think have the potential for compelling storylines in March. Kotonowaka and Asanoyama will be striving to win the cup. Tobizaru will be trying to bring as much chaos as possible. Hokutofuji might do very well given his low ranking. And Kitanowaka needs to deliver on his potential.
Write in any suggestions not on the list in the comments below!
Next up from me, expect a report card for the san’yaku later this week.
Also, I’ll likely not be running a results post on Bloody Elbow for this basho. I’m going to try and run all my coverage from here (since a wise person once said, ‘you shouldn’t build a home on rented land.’).
My plan is to have a single ‘living’ post here on substack with all the results and I’ll send out daily updates which notify you all when that post has been updated.
Take care all!
Looking forward to the next Basho as well as your commentary on the event.
I am also quite happy to see the spotlight on any of the wrestlers you named in the poll.