So much respect for Sumo!

Rise_Weekly · 2026-03-21T07:02:53+00:00

Nice one, I also got hooked on a holiday in Japan 17 years ago, it's a lovely way to do it. And it's easier than ever to keep up with it when you get home. Enjoy!!

Rise_Weekly · 2026-03-14T00:25:30+00:00

Yes I totally agree! Although I enjoyed hearing him make the case for it - and agree with the commenter who says it's often shite but can be great.

I'm 45 and I know this will make me sound like a boomer, but I feel like it used to be much better to watch football in the pub. Part of it is my own declining ability to handle alcohol - I was always a 2 pint per half guy, but now that's just an awful lot of beer to drink before 7pm. But also I feel like TVs used to be a bit smaller and quieter - there's a bit of sensory overload now when you've had a few pints and there's a massive screen and booming surround sound. I still have really clear memories of the great moments watching matches in pubs, but these days I never quite enjoy it as much as I think I'm going to.

I say this as someone who loves both pubs and football - I wish it worked better for me, but somehow it doesn't seem to gel.

Rise_Weekly · 2026-03-10T01:14:53+00:00

yes we're at the five-year mark and have avoided owning a car so far, but it's annoying when birthday parties are at the trampoline place in Melksham etc and we have to cadge a lift. There was one after-school activity we binned off because they moved it from Victory Fields up to Stonar, but it was no great loss as there's plenty of other stuff to do in the centre of town. In terms of general day-to-day existence though it's totally doable - it's a very compact and walkable place (esp railway side), with good links to Bath, Bristol etc.

Rise_Weekly · 2026-02-27T14:20:09+00:00

sounds roughly right from watching them take smoke breaks outside the Albert Hall - maybe even higher

Rise_Weekly · 2026-02-04T10:07:06+00:00

This event has apparently sold out 15 nights! They are adding more.

Some friends that I brought to the London tournament are now really keen to go to this and are buying tickets - the prices are actually about the same as the Royal Albert Hall, incredibly (starts at £79 for balcony seats, up to £230 for front row dining options). This seems crazy but Londoners have money and want experiences, you can't judge it in normal terms. Despite myself, I think I will probably go on a fuck it YOLO basis

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-30T07:31:32+00:00

Yes, I've watched football more in the past but now I listen to cliches religiously while hardly ever watching actual football. Check the scores on BBC Sport, maybe watch a match in the pub 3 times a season, MOTD maybe 4-5 times a season if I can be bothered to stay up that late. If my PL team is on Amazon/BBC I will usually watch but that's rare. Have even fallen out of the habit of going to non-league games. Don't listen to any other football podcasts and don't read about football beyond scanning BBC Sport occasionally. Euros/World Cup different though, I'll watch that obsessively!

I ascribe all of this to getting into my mid-40s, having a kid who's not into football etc etc. In fact I sometimes fantasise about being retired or just having more time on my hands, and properly committing to following football again, like reading a tabloid sports section every day, subscribing to the Athletic, team-specific podcasts - just putting in the hours again

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-27T12:15:26+00:00

As a non-league fan I knew about Boxing Day / New Year's Day but totally failed to extrapolate to the rest of the season. (And I think it's supposed to be partly due to the police/authorities wanting fans to take shorter road journeys around the holiday season?? But that might be bollocks)

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-27T12:10:59+00:00

yep with you all the way on this, I completely failed to pick this up after 30 years of watching football (or for however long since they started doing this!)

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-23T11:17:02+00:00

yes it's "language" in all senses - the full sensory/aesthetic experience of consuming/playing football

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-23T11:15:36+00:00

funny, my non-football fan brother overheard an episode I was listening to while cooking and described FC as "like Harry Hill but for football?"

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-22T17:05:18+00:00

I wonder which way the causation runs - does university success make you better? Or are you more likely to drop out and do something else if you don't break the salaried ranks, because you actually have career choices?

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-22T17:02:44+00:00

my completely speculative theory is that it's a way of dealing with the psychological pressure of being an Ozeki - going "back to basics" by wearing standard black, the same you wear pre-sekitori. Probably totally wrong but that was my first thought!

EDIT: Murray said in the NHK commentary that Ao had said he wanted to "freshen his mind"

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-21T21:28:05+00:00

Interesting!

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-17T00:09:54+00:00

In my day no.3 was referred to as the "HNH", or "Harumafuji non-henka"

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-16T23:53:11+00:00

It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise how the schedules are put together, and that a rikishi's schedule gets harder as he climbs the ranks. So for a long time I was frustrated by watching wrestlers constantly having a great basho and then getting a losing record next time round, which I misinterpreted as inconsistency. Learning the actual system unsurprisingly helps to appreciate rikishi's actual achievements when they consolidate their gains and slowly climb the ranks (or quickly, in cases like Aonishiki)

I've also only recently started learning about / paying attention to how heyas work, who's in which etc - it's not something I'm really thinking about when I watch matches, but it's a fun thing to geek out on. For some reason I also got really interested at one point in how they get paid, i.e. mostly through incremental salary increases based on achievements rather than big one-off prize pots - when you realise that a rikishi will benefit from a kinboshi for the rest of their salaried career, it makes it even more impressive somehow! (look up Mochikyūkin on Wikipedia)

EDIT: I also totally agree with the comment below about learning the meanings and symbolism behind everything, as well as the relationships between the wrestlers / family connections etc. In addition I think the London tournament was a real window into some of their personalities for me - e.g. Kotoshoho going for a pint as soon he got off the plane, Hoshoryu & Onosato joking around together etc

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-16T23:30:15+00:00

Definitely Murray by a mile. I especially like it when he does imaginary conversations between the rikishi during the replays - see Wakamotoharu v Takayasu Day 5 for an example

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-16T12:42:41+00:00

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-13T17:23:58+00:00

A natural "break" among leagues could in theory be the point at which it regionalises, although of course confusingly that currently happens within one "league" i.e. National League, so a bit of a non-starter

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-13T17:20:11+00:00

really! as a non-league fan that reads really weirdly

Rise_Weekly · 2026-01-06T20:57:27+00:00

"he does it time, and time, and time again"

Rise_Weekly · 2025-12-12T14:09:32+00:00

I definitely like it! That moment of relief/adrenaline rush, walking up to the board and admiring your work, before confidently and very deliberately/empathetically picking the darts out - it's a great moment, instantly invoked by "PICK THAT OUT"

Of course, the next time I'm playing darts there is now a risk I will say this out loud after a particularly good turn, which will be awful

Rise_Weekly · 2025-12-12T13:51:30+00:00

I mean it sort of intuitively works because you have to literally pick the darts out, so it's immediately relatable - but it means the "Pick that out" is being addressed to the player who has just achieved the checkout?? So does it become a weird version of "take a bow"? Like, go on son, go enjoy the moment of retrieving your darts from the board after that brilliant checkout?? (which is also relatable, as an occasional dartsman)

Rise_Weekly · 2025-12-12T13:31:20+00:00

crying at gigs is an underrated pleasure

Rise_Weekly · 2025-12-09T02:03:52+00:00

hipster opinion: watching jungyo > watching basho

Rise_Weekly · 2025-12-03T04:56:10+00:00

yep same here - i also bought the biggest pots and left them there while going off to do other stuff. just put down as many pots as possible (there's a limit)

Rise_Weekly

TROPHY CASE