For a little bit, the video quality on the stream was pretty bad but it improved in time for Shodai’s appearance. I’ve got the highlights here. He took on Takayasu for about 28min. This video shows ALL of their fifteen bouts. Given some of the tweets I’ve seen, it’s interesting to watch the whole video; there’s not much chatter going on…aside from maybe Kiribayama.

Shodai wins a few bouts but really looked rather overpowered by Takaysu, throughout. Takayasu’s looking at a likely Komusubi rank in September, probably alongside Ichinojo, who also got in on some action after this sanban session ended.

Unfortunately, as you can see in the last bout, Takayasu gets Shodai’s arm locked up in a kotenage attempt. I can’t tell if it was the elbow or Shodai’s bicep that took the brunt of it, but Shodai shouted in pain and the sanban ended. Takayasu looked so sheepish and awkward afterwards. He went back to his side, as if to start again. But when he realizes Shodai’s done, he takes another step back, gives a little bow of his head and walks off. Then Kiribayama and Azumaryu get to it. We hope Shodai’s okay and gets a chance to come back and maybe face a Yokozuna or two.