Report Card: 2025 Natsu Basho - Part 3

Continuing to grade the top division rikishi who were involved in the May. tournament.

Hi everyone. I have more grades for you today as I march up the banzuke grading rikishi for their performances at our last basho.

This time around I’m focusing on Shōdai, Meisei, Midorifuji, Aonishiki, Kinbōzan, Ōnokatsu, Churanoumi and Hakuōhō. And there were some great performances among that lot!

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One more thing before we get to the grades… our bonus gif. This time it’s the cheering section for Kyushu’s own Shōdai.

LET’S GO-DAI!!!

Shōdai

Rank: Maegashira 10 West
Record: 6-9
Grade: D

Shōdai notched his fourth make-koshi (losing record) in a row in May, going 6-9 for the third time. This is the first time he’s gone four tournaments without a kachi-koshi (winning record). The first of those losing records came as a komusubi in November. The fact he’s struggled despite going down in rank all the way to M10 is pretty concerning. And I think it’s fair to say that, at 33, Shōdai peaked a while ago. He’s going to fall to something like M13 in the next tournament. And I can’t say for sure whether or not he’s capable of breaking his make-koshi streak down there.

Shōdai is a yotsu-zumō (belt grappling) wrestler who historically prefers the migi-yotsu (right arm inside, left arm outside grip). A lot of his problems lately, and certainly in this tournament, is his inability to lock that grip on in the tachiai. Shōdai does that typical yotsu opening of presenting his chest and swimming his arms under into position.

In his prime Shōdai was able cause a lot of impact with his chest and give himself an easy opportunity to get his grip set. However, he doesn’t have that same amount of oomph now. This means he is often bounced back off the tachiai and when that happens his hands are nowhere near his opponents’ belts. In those moments, Shōdai’s opponents have a lot of success thrusting him back or getting their own grips on him. See below how the young Hakuōhō gave Shōdai no chance off the tachiai, hitting him back and rushing him out with a left inside grip and hazuoshi (armpit push) against Shōdai’s right arm (the one Shōdai wants to get inside).

This happened a few times against younger more athletic wrestlers (Meisei, Churanoumi, Aonishiki, Ōshōma), with Shōdai failing to impose himself on the tachiai and then being too slow and sluggish to pull off anything else.

The only wrestlers he looked better than were the slow pusher/thrusters Shishi, Tochitaikai and Takanoshō. He was able to step back and force each of them down. He still has the strength to push someone down who is leaning into open space, but that does not translate to strength in the tachiai.

Meisei

Rank: Maegashira 10 East
Record: 9-6
Grade: C-

This was a good tournament for Meisei where his only losses came to other wrestlers who ended with kachi-koshi. This is his second 9-6 record in a row. Meisei has been stuck at M10 and M11 all year. This record should help him advance past that a little and get him back towards the joi (M1-4). At just 29 he may have another san’yaku run in him.

Meisei is a great all-round rikishi. He’s mostly a yotsu guy and he mostly likes hidari-yotsu (left arm inside, right arm outside) with a mae mitsu (shallow, front of belt grip) with his right arm. When he uses that shallow grip it really pinches the inside arm of his opponent and prevents them from getting a commanding hold of the mawashi. He’s decent with his off-hand grip, too, the migi-yotsu, and used that to get wins over Tobizaru and Kinbōzan in May.

He’s also very comfortable pushing and thrusting and attacking off the back-foot. He can use his thrusts to soften opponents up before clinching. He can also use thrusts after breaking the clinch, to finish opponents off at the straw.

Meisei’s biggest attribute is something you can’t teach, though. It’s his truculence. He’s one of the founding members of my All Violence Team. And he got there because he fights with incredible energy and determination and he does not back down from anyone. When someone fights with that kind of spirit and aggression they are a tough out for anyone (remember when Meisei took a kinboshi off Terunofuji two years ago?).

Meisei’s never say die attitude was on full display in his bout with Kinbōzan.

I wish there was official footage of that one. It was one of my favourite bouts from the tournament. In that bout Meisei didn’t bother going for a clinch off the tachiai and wisely accepted that the longer Kinbōzan would be able to land thrusts and prevent such an advance.

Instead Meisei opened with defensive swipes and shoulder rolls, making sure that none of Kinbōzan’s thrusts and pushes landed with full force. However, the backwards and sideways movement those moves required still meant that Meisei was pushed back to the straw. But, because Kinbōzan couldn’t land any clean strikes on him, Meisei was able to surf the straw out of danger. As he did that he combined his shoulder roll with an attempt to lock Kinbōzan’s arm (a go-to move of his that we’ll look at more closely later).

With Kinbōzan’s arm trapped, Meisei tried a tottari (arm bar throw), but missed. Missing a tottari puts you in a really bad position, with your toes against the straw, facing the seats, and a loose opponent charging towards your back and/or shoulder. That’s what Meisei had to deal with in this match, but he didn’t give up. He turned and smartly moved himself to the centre of the ring, planting his feet there. Then he tapped into his yotsu game, getting the mae-mitsu and migi-yotsu on a tired Kinbōzan and then executing the force out for the win. He did most of this with a bloody nose, too.

A lot of the elements I mentioned above were present in his bout with Hakuōhō, too.

In this bout Meisei got a great hit off the tachiai (compare that to what Shōdai managed against Hakuōhō above). Meisei used the moroto-tsuki (double arm thrust) to put Hakuōhō’s arms in the air. He then did that same shoulder-roll/arm-trap combo. This gave him an armlock and an eventual kotenage (armlock throw).

Here is the start of his shoulder roll (Meisei is on the right).

Hakuōhō turned to try and get away.

But Meisei moved with him and completed the throw.

This move required a lot of balance from Meisei (with him finishing on one foot), but also a ton of commitment. Look at the screen grab above. He could have bailed out of this move and stepped his other foot down out of bounds, gifting a win to Hakuōhō. But instead, he kept his leg raised and his body leaning forwards to complete the throw, even though it meant a certain head first fall to the floor (with just one free arm to brace with). That’s guts.

See below how he got Roga with the shoulder roll/arm trap combo, too. Though this bout didn’t end in the same dramatic fashion as the one above.

Meisei may never get the headlines, or win a yushō, but he’s a very entertaining rikishi to watch for his technique and that fantastic fighting spirit.

Midorifuji

Rank: Maegashira 9 West
Record: 6-9
Grade: D

It was a basho of two halves for Midorifuji. He lost his first nine bouts and then won his last six. At times during that first half, it seemed like the pressure to avoid make-koshi was getting to him and his sumō looked very anxious and rushed. Once his losing record was secured, though, he seemed to relax a little and the wins started coming for him. His late success in the tournament did come against the bottom of the barrel, though.

Midorifuji started his tournament by being slung around by Meisei and Shōdai. After those opponents, Midorifuji struck out against six pusher/thrusters (Churanoumi, Kinbōzan, Shishi, Takanoshō, Ōshōma, Tobizaru). I’m being a little liberal with my pusher/thruster definitions here — Ōshōma is more of a pusher/side-stepper.

Either way, these opponents showed how hard it is for Midorifuji when he can’t lock onto his opponents and set up his katasukashi (under shoulder pull down) or use the threat of that move for a force out. On Day 9, when he met Tobizaru, he switched from the red mawashi to his more familiar dark green. That didn’t change his luck immediately, though.

Midorifuji tried to go moro-zashi (double inside grip) on Tobizaru. I don’t think he accounted for how vicious Tobizaru would be in close quarters, though. The Flying Ape mauled at Midorifuji’s face (like he was Prince Oberyn) en route to a throw.

The next day Midorifuji resorted to a henka against Chiyoshōma to finally get a win on the board. Despite his size, Midorifuji rarely attempts henka. In the last week he was matched up with other guys on terrible records and he was able to get the best of them. He also got to fight some of his favorite prey, slow yotsu guys (Ryūden and Nishikigi).

He’ll drop a few ranks due to this tournament. I think he might continue to struggle, though, especially if the match-makers line up lots of pusher/thrusters as opponents.

Aonishiki

Rank: Maegashira 9 East
Record: 11-4, kanto-sho
Grade: A

Aonishiki is the real deal.

I’ve seen enough to be both very excited by his potential and quite confident that he will realize it and become a major factor in grand sumo for the foreseeable future. I think he’ll be sekiwake before the end of the year. I need to see more match-ups between him and the top guys before I can tell whether I think he’s a future ozeki. He’s still only 21 (and doesn’t turn 22 until next March). To be talking about him in these terms, right now, shows just how special he is as a wrestler.

From a technical standpoint Aonishiki is a yotsu-zumō practitioner who likes to go left arm inside. I wouldn’t say he is a hidari-yotsu player, because he doesn’t often lock up that complete grip, with his right arm on the outside. He likes to keep the right arm free. He does this to leave his options open. That is a hint towards what makes Aonishiki so special.

Aonishiki is incredibly creative. He has a massive arsenal of tools he likes to go to in a match and he fights like someone who has been doing this for a decade and knows every trick in the book. In reality, he’s just a kid who is trying stuff in the moment. But he has such a good feel for the sport, and such a calm mind within the chaos it brings, that he is able to see the right openings for the right moves to try. And, thus far, they are working for him at a absurdly high success rate.

His creative sumō is helped out by the fact he seems totally unflappable on the dohyo. He doesn’t get flustered and he’s not intimidated. He is also immensely strong (especially in his forearms) and possesses incredible balance. Those mental and physical attributes help him get out of jams. He’s cool enough to not panic and is athletic enough to bounce back into good positions and immediately launch a new attack.

All this leads to breathtaking sumō from the young man from Ukraine.

His May collection of bouts are filled with fantastic examples of his creative yet effective sumō (as opposed to Ura’s creative and largely ineffective sumō).

I don’t have video to share, but look at these stills from the Meisei match. Meisei caught Aonishiki with his shoulder roll/arm trap move, which I talked about in the Meisei section. That had Aonishiki stumbling towards the straw, but Aonishiki was able to reset his feet and spin the correct way to catch the back of Meisei’s belt and put him down.

He showed off that kind of balance and improvisation against Shōdai, too. See the sequence below which shows Shōdai sending Aonishiki towards the dirt, only for Aonishiki to balance on one leg and get himself back to the centre of the ring (he then pounced on Shōdai’s back and forced him down).

Aonishiki’s lack of deference towards established wrestlers was on full display against Tobizaru. Watch below as he hits Tobizaru with hard strikes to disrupt anything Tobizaru might be planning.

Aonishiki, who likes to make his hand a claw when he thrusts, then went with the nodowa and almost had Tobizaru out over the line. We often see nodowa players like Tamawashi and Takanoshō get in these positions. However, they just keep pushing and either get the win or end up face planting after their opponent escapes to the side. Aonishiki wasn’t going to get slapped down, though. When he felt Tobizaru resisting (thanks to the power of his pear-shaped body) he sneaked his hand around Tobizaru’s back and caught his mawashi. He then seamlessly transitioned to a rear push out. This also showed Aonishiki’s confidence. Instead of settling for having an opponent on the ropes, he was willing to exchange that position for one where he would have to push him out over half the length of the ring.

Aonishiki’s only struggles in this tournament were during the second week of the basho where he lost three straight to Wakatakakage, Kotozakura and Daieishō. Wakatakakage played great defense on Aonishiki, hand fighting him and preventing him from getting his favoured left arm inside. When Aonishiki settled for a right arm on the inside, Wakatakakage triggered his katasukashi. Against Kotozakura, Aonishiki did well with armpit thrusts. Kotozakura defended smartly, going for a moro-zashi. Aonishiki, rightfully wary of that move, immediately went for an uwatenage (over arm throw). However, Kotozakura doesn’t get thrown very much at all. Kotozakura defended it and then crushed him with his own kotenage. And against Daieishō, Aonishiki tried to go blow for blow with thrusting, but he wasn’t strong enough to keep up.

These losses are a product of Aonishiki’s lack of experience. He fought into all those guys’ wheelhouses (maybe his confidence got the best of him there). As he sees them more and more he’ll hopefully develop better strategies for getting past them. If he can do that then the sky really is the limit.

Kinbōzan

Rank: Maegashira 8 West
Record: 10-5
Grade: B+

Kinbōzan had a great tournament in May, bouncing back from his disappointing March. He’s a powerful pusher thruster who is particularly good at the moroto-tsuki. I think Kinbōzan has now figured out who he is and what his sumō is. He’s a stronger and shorter Abi who, instead of attacking the throat with one hand at a time, attacks the chest with both hands at once.

In May, more often than not, Kinbōzan was also great off the tachiai, drawing first blood on opponents with the moroto-tsuki. He’s so forceful with that attack that, if he lands it clean off the start, he often has his opponents’ heels on the straw immediately. That’s what happened with Aonishiki (below).

Unlike many pusher/thrusters, Kinbōzan was also able to piece together a couple of wins through belt grappling. He reversed and forced out Shōdai with a yorikiri and also outlasted Chiyoshōma in a long grappling battle.

Kinbōzan’s Achilles Heel is that his long (and very large) arms are big targets for being pulled forwards. When that happens, speedier wrestlers can work their ways around him. That’s what Rōga did, below.

If I was coaching him I’d have him doing those wide receiver drills where he runs on the spot and then has to quickly turn 180 degrees to catch a ball. That might help him get better at squaring back up to opponents so he can hammer them in the chest again.

Ōnokatsu

Rank: Maegashira 8 East
Record: 10-5
Grade: B+

Ōnokatsu continued to show great improvement in what is just his tenth ever senior basho. Ōnokatsu might be a forgotten man in this current crop of youngsters, but he doesn’t deserve to be. His smothering and slightly boring yotsu-zumō style might be the culprit for that. However, in May his sumō was more nuanced and exciting. …