I put out my regular pre-basho predictions.
But these were more difficult than normal. If these turn out to be totally wrong in two weeks, I won’t be shocked.
Tell me yours, especially if you’re backing a surprise Maegashira.
I was considering how Wakanosho may do in this basho after two straight excellent performances in Juryo. It turns out that winning 10 in consecutive second division basho is rarer than I though.
In the process, I also developed mini-bios of Ura and Tamaasuka. Tamaasuka was especially interesting, as a name I knew nothing about before this. He made Ryuden's Makuuchi-Juryo yo-yo-ing look like nothing.
Our usual pre-basho look at all 42 Makuuchi competitors is out now. Full name, Susshin/Heya, height, weight, previous basho rank and record, and a small write up for everybody.
I took a look at what the new rankings mean for a few different rikishi. We have three Ozeki, one Maegashira #17, and two Juryo promotees. (And, I'm sure like much of the crowd here, I wish Ryuden wasn't one of them...)