There are five bouts of 2-0 wrestlers on this Match Day:
- Kiryuko vs Mukainakano
- Asasorai vs Taniguchi
- Mogamizakura vs Asahimaru
- Shunrai vs Mihonoumi
- Abe vs Kokuryunami
Today, I wanted to give y’all more of a sense of the atmosphere for the Jonokuchi bouts. Rather than crop out everything this time, I start each clip with the yobidashi’s sing-song introduction of the wrestlers and I ended it with the announcer’s declaration of the victor’s name and kimarite. Each bout is about two minutes so all Jonokuchi bouts take about 20 minutes total. Well, that’s unless it’s today’s high-stakes Nobehara-Miyagi bout with 4 matta AND a mono-ii. I’m only being half-facetious there about the “high stakes” since to have any hope of staying in the yusho race both really wanted to win. But this is Jonokuchi, guys. Get ‘er going.
The Bouts
Kiryuko wrapped up Mukainakano’s mawashi pretty quickly after the tachiai and used his low center of gravity to drive through his opponent. Mukainakano tried to pivot at the edge but he needs to work on that inasu. I also appreciate a Homosho-esque rei.
Asasorai is a good grappler for a smaller opponent but geez does he pay for his persistance. Stay with this one to the end. This is one heck of a sukuinage slam. Even my back hurts. He needs to work on timing those trip attempts a bit better and it was great to see him swing the larger Taniguchi around the ring. But as he tired and got winded, Taniguchi seemed to decide he’d had enough scrappiness.
Mogamizakura is a pretty big guy, from the Kagayaki mold. He struggled a bit to finish off Asahimaru but he was in no real danger. Mihonoumi met Shunrai head on with a fierce tachiai but couldn’t follow-up with a concerted attack. Shunrai wrapped him up around the upper body and moved him back and out quickly. Similarly, Abe made fairly quick work of Kokuryunami.
Looking Ahead
The brothers will only face each other if there’s a playoff. I get the sense that both are head-and-shoulders above the skill of Mogamizakura, Tanuguchi, and Abe. It’s possible that they could be the only wrestlers at 4-0 so I would think at that point we’d see them pair back up with some one-loss opponents and possibly face a Jonidan opponent.
Thanks Andy. I enjoyed this full-version presentation. It’s oddly hypnotic, and reminded me of the live broadcasts of the basho with no audience.
I’m sticking with Kiryuko but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if we ended up with a play-off between the Brothers Sakamoto,
Taniguchi is a very well-fed 15-year-old and the slightly older Mogamizakura doesn’t look like he’s missed too many meals either. You do wonder if lads like this have just bludgeoned their way through the junior-high ranks on sheer bulk, but to be fair, both of them seem to have pretty decent technique. We shall see…
The real elimination matches start tomorrow with Shunrai vs Abe.