As expected, former Ozeki Asanoyama will return to the salaried ranks in January. He’ll be joined by Ms1w Shonannoumi (5-2), who will make his sekitori debut. Yutakayama’s sudden retirement opened up one more slot, and the lucky beneficiary is former Juryo regular Ms5w Hakuyozan (5-2), who was expected to miss out after losing his Day 15 exchange bout to Kaisho. No one else in the Makushita promotion zone managed a winning record. I expect only one demotion—Tokushoryu—with the other two spots vacated by Yutakayama and Chiyotairyu.
I’m excited to see Asanoyama back. Will he make Ozeki? Will anyone make Ozeki before him?
If he were to duplicate what Terunofuji did, which was obviously exceptional, he’d be Ozeki in March 2024. I’m hoping someone (Waka? Hoshoryu? Takayasu? Kiribayama? Kotonowaka?) puts together a run before then; we certainly need Ozeki. Who knows, maybe Shodai even gets 10 in January.
If no one makes it to Ozeki before him, then sumo’s got even bigger problems than we thought at the top end of the banzuke
I want to point out something. Asanoyama was promoted with 32 wins.. not 33. This on top of winning a Yusho at the time you’d think be enough but really… the big factor was At the time of his promotion, there was only 1 Ozeki. Takakeisho. You had 2 Yokozuna, but they were both obviously on the verge of Retirement and sure enough, both did. Asanoyama hit a perfect storm of being promoted with a good performance, and the fact without him there would of been only 1 Ozeki ( at the time Shodai was not on his run )
Now given Asanoyama failed to do what Abi did Twice and Ryuden did once. I wouldn’t exactly be looking at him to come storming back to Ozeki right now.
I agree his Makushita performances haven’t been screaming “Ozeki.” The counterargument is that it’s tricky to go 7-0 and not slip up in a sport where one wrong move is a loss. Potentially, fighting 15 days, it could translate into records like 12-3 or 13-2 that could move him up quickly. Of course, he’ll be fighting much tougher opponents. January should tell us a lot about his real form.
I agree, but also agree with lksumo’s caveats that it is possible to be a little too harsh. I don’t think he’ll be back at the earliest possible opportunity in March 2024. But also I think it’s tough to put too much stock in 6-1s vs 7-0s at that level, simply because he also had a much much longer layoff than Abi or Ryuden (twice as long), and also was probably impacted mentally – not only by his own scandal but also the one that claimed Asashio, to whom he seemed very devoted – in a different way that surely influenced his training and fitness during the layoff period.
I have to imagine the death of his father during this period also played a substantial role in his training and mindset.