Report Card: 2025 Nagoya Basho - Part 4

The final report card for Grand Sumo's 2025 Nagoya basho, before we switch focus to the September tournament.

The aki basho starts this weekend, but before it does I’m going to wrap up my retrospectives regarding the Nagoya basho. I used to give myself a hard time for having these finished so close to when the next tournament starts. However, now I’m thinking this is more of a feature than a bug. I like re-watching and grading the big names just before the next tournament starts. It helps me imagine and speculate what their attitudes might be heading into a new basho.

This post grades everyone from M2 up to yokozuna. As you know, there’s lots of fascinating guys in that cohort.

Let’s get to it!

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Bonus gif today is the forgotten yokozuna.

"Back to the drawing board… again.”

Abi

Rank: Maegashira 2 West
Record: 9-6, kinboshi
Grade: B

Abi rebounded nicely from a disappointing May tournament, where he went 7-8, and delivered his first kachi-koshi (winning record) of the year. He also earned his second kinboshi over Hōshōryū (the first of which came in that May tournament).

This one came with a little controversy, though.

It was very unusual that a mono-ii (judges’ review) wasn’t called for this bout. It looked too close to call for me and I thought it would be deserving of a torinaoshi (immediate rematch). None of that is Abi’s fault, though. Abi has now beaten Hōshōryū in five straight matches.

Abi also got a win over Wakatakakakge, via the henka.

He got Ōnokatsu with a henka in Nagoya, too (a beautiful one, in fact). Those henka wins complimented his usual push/pull-down moves. He also got some wins in longer bouts, with Takanoshō, Wakamotoharu and Meisei, where he was able to survive in the clinch and then drag them down by the wrist or the belt.

All this shows that Abi has just enough diversity in his game to hang just outside the san’yaku for some time to come.

Ōhō

Rank: Maegashira 2 East
Record: 7-8
Grade: C-

July brought us another losing record for Ōhō. He’s gone 6-9, 7-8, 7-8 since his play-off loss in January. Like Abi, he picked up his second kinboshi in a row. In May he beat Hōshōryū, this time around he beat Ōnosato (who he is now 4-3 against).

He used strong, measured thrusting and nicely planted/skimming feet to force Ōnosato out.

That thrusting looked pretty good in Nagoya and Ōhō has done well to up the intensity and viciousness on his oshi-zumō (pushing/thrusting). He still has a massive hole in his game, though. Whenever someone got their arms around him, in the last tournament, he found it very difficult to resist them squaring up to him and putting him out with gaburi-yori (torso thrusting).

Kotozakura, Kirishima, Ōnokatsu and Takayasu were all able to weather his thrusts, lock onto him and then force him out.

Here’s the Takayasu bout.

See how competitive it is until the 1:06 mark when Takayasu easily steps up and straightens up Ōhō. Until he gets better at blocking this (by leaning into his opponents with force and keeping his hips back) he’s going to keep losing to the yotsu-zumō (belt grabbing) specialists. And there’s a lot of those at this end of the banzuke.

Wakamotoharu

Rank: Maegashira 1 West
Record: 6-9, kinboshi
Grade: D

Wakamotoharu has finally been unseated from maegashira 1 after going 6-9. He’d been in that rank for the past three tournaments. He started the year as sekiwake, but lost that by going 6-9 in January. He’s one of a handful of guys to pick up a kinboshi here. His was the most surprising of them all. He beat Hōshōryū for only the fourth time in twenty meetings between the two. That might be as good a sign as any that Hōshōryū was out of sorts in July.

I think there was an element of luck in this win over the yokozuna, though. I think Wakamotoharu was caught in two minds about whether to henka Hōshōryū. He did step off centre in the tachiai, but still felt some force from Hōshōryū’s opening charge. After that asymmetrical clash, Wakamotoharu found himself in his hidari-yotsu (left arm inside, right arm outside) grip. The vast majority of Wakamotoharu’s wins come from this position and Hōshōryū is usually excellent at denying him that or even baiting him into going for it so he can throw him when he reaches.

After Wakamotoharu got that hold, Hōshōryū was slow to decide on what to do next. I think Wakamotoharu realized what a gift he’d been given and that spurred him to act quickly, catching Hōshōryū off guard for the force out.

That was a great highlight for Wakamotoharu, but he then lost to everyone ranked higher than him. That’s not a good sign for a wrestler who has had designs on being a san’yaku staple. He also lost to a few guys rising through the ranks, namely Aonishiki and Ōnokatsu.

This all has me thinking that Wakamotoharu may have hit his ceiling last year, at sekiwake, and that he’s in trouble moving forwards with younger and more dynamic wrestlers coming for his spot.

Aonishiki

Rank: Maegashira 1 East
Record: 11-4, jun-yushō, ginō-shō
Grade: A-

I think I’ve ran out of plaudits for Aonishiki. The 21 year-old continued to look like the real deal in Nagoya and like a wrestler who is going to stick around at or near the very top of the banzuke for a long time. His strength, balance and creativity banked him his third 11-4 record in a row in July and that has secured him the rank of komusubi for this month.

Aonishiki’s sumō borrows a lot from freestyle wrestling. Aonishiki was a national level freestyle wrestler before switching codes to sumo. You can see that when he locks up with opponents. In the Ōhō section, I wrote that Ōhō struggles when guys step up and go chest-to-chest against him. Most wrestlers block that by leaning in and keeping their hips back. Aonishiki preys on that conventional wisdom. He uses variations of snap downs from freestyle to pull opponents towards the ground. This is great at making their hands or knees touch down. That’s a non event in freestyle, but that’s the whole ball game in sumo.

He showed us some of this technique on Day 1, surprising Kotozakura with the uchimuso (inner thigh propping twist down), a move made possible by Kotozakura leaning forwards (to defend against the force out).

This ability to pull guys down compliments nicely with his strong mae-mitsu (front grip), which he will use to push opponents back if he feels he has the strength advantage.

The only criticism I can give of Aonishiki is that he fell short of winning the yushō in this tournament because he lost two crucial bouts. On Day 14 he was beaten by Kusano and then on the final day he lost to Kotoshōhō. Nerves might have made an appearance in those bouts.

Aonishiki does a great job of being stoic, but he’s only human. And he’s only 21! The more he gets into these situations, the better he’ll get at executing when there’s a cup on the line. And I think we’re going to see him in plenty of these situations moving forwards.

I do wonder, though, whether or not his unique style will become less effective now there is a decent scouting report available on him and now that the top rikishi have all had reps against him.

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Takayasu

Rank: Komusubi 1 West
Record: 10-5
Grade: B+

This was a great under-the-radar tournament for Takayasu. Going 10-5 as a more senior wrestler is pretty impressive given how many great young sumōtori there are currently climbing up the ranks. Takayasu, who might be past the point of becoming an ōzeki again or ever lifting a cup, is currently serving an important role as a san’yaku gate-keeper.

He showed great technique in beating guys like Aonishiki, Ōnokatsu, Ōhō, Atamifuji and Kusano in Nagoya. But he wasn’t just beating up on youngsters. He also managed wins over Kotozakura and Wakatakakage.

In many of the bouts against young wrestlers Takayasu seemed to take his gate-keeper role seriously, tapping into some extra ferocity. See him do that with Kusano below:

Throughout the entire tournament Takayasu’s pushing/thrusting and belt grappling were on point. He might be the best wrestler out there when it comes to being equally skilled in those two departments. In beating Aonishiki he showed how hard it is to beat someone who can fight both styles so well (check out Takayasu’s defense against Aonishiki’s snap down, too).

Ōshōma

Rank: Komusubi 1 East
Record: 3-12
Grade: E

I don’t take any great pleasure in being right about this, but I had a pretty strong feeling that Ōshōma would struggle at komusubi if he continued with the style that brought him here. I don’t think it’s possible for an inashi (side-step) artist to do well at the highest level unless they are a force going forwards (like an Abi).