I love Ikioi and I like seeing him win his first gold star. However, my reaction is like when Twitch was killed by Cypher in the Matrix:

After a weird tachiai, almost completely without any contact, both wrestlers briefly grappled and backed up to size each other up. Ikioi had this look of, “What the hell am I going to do now?” Hakuho went in to attack, and stumbled.

He needed help from Ikioi to get up so I’m hoping he’s not injured. If he’s injured, they’ll never let me buy tickets to another basho. Everyone’s dropping like flies. I’ll be in Nagoya for Sunday so it’s great to have an exciting, dramatic tournament. But it’ll be disappointing if Hakuho’s not there and not in top form. I leave for Japan in a couple of days, so after tomorrow there likely won’t be any posts from me for a bit.