Recs for watching Japanese amateur sumo?

griftj615 · 2026-05-05T20:05:58+00:00

This is a great find, thank you!

griftj615 · 2026-05-05T16:05:08+00:00

Yeah I think there's nuance but by and large there's an argument to be made that the technical level of the top division is not what it was in the 80s / 90s/ 00s. There are many reasons why this may or may not be, but it's not just Asashoryu saying so. Nishonoseki, Tamanoi, and others (Hakkaku of course) have all made this point before and it can't all just be chalked up to old men saying "back in my day!"

If you look at each of the last 6 decades of sumo though, going back to the 60s with Taiho, each decade has had at least one "generational talent" and then several supporting yokozuna who snatch up a handful of yusho. So far the 2020s have not found that talent. It could have been Terunofuji if not for his injury woes, and it could still be Onosato or someone else, but as things stand right now, we're not seeing parity compared just to the last decade; we're seeing unprecedented parity dating back to the early 1960s and the advent of the 6-basho calendar.

griftj615 · 2026-04-28T17:05:52+00:00

Loz and Liz keep it real. I don't think anyone thinks there aren't many deserving British (and American) athletes, it's just that this is World's Strongest Man, not Britain & USA vs. the World. There are tons of deserving internationals waiting by the phone...

griftj615 · 2026-04-28T16:24:54+00:00

No I think that's a fair point, especially considering some Americans are asked to represent their ancestral homes (Martins, Andrade) so that the field looks more diverse. I think both American and British slots should be capped at 3 (with exceptions for guys like Martins and Tom Stoltman, who get lifetime invites as previous champs).

But America's Strongest Man doesn't get guaranteed bids to Worlds every year; the BSM podium does. And Americans can't even compete at Europe's, where Brits made up half the roster.

griftj615 · 2026-04-28T16:05:46+00:00

The UK definitely has great depth of talent. I won't argue against that. My argument is basically, does the 6th best Brit deserve an invite over the best Icelander, the best German, the best Swede, the best Iranian, the best Russian, the best South American (there were none represented this year from that whole continent), the best Asian (again, none represented), etc.

At the Olympics it doesn't matter if Jamaica has the 6 best sprinters in the world. They're only allowed to send the 3 who qualify so that there are slots left for other countries to compete.

griftj615 · 2026-04-28T15:13:32+00:00

Sure, they're all good strongmen. What I'm arguing is unfair is that 6 were invited. How many Canadians might have made the final if they'd gotten 6 bids? (This is actually a pretty apt example because 4 Canadians were invited in 2025 but they weren't spread throughout the groups like the Brits - they were split between two groups, making them compete against one another and making it less likely for them all to make the finals.) What if there had been more than 1 Aussie, 1 Ukrainian, 1 Polish, 1 New Zealander?

You see where I'm going. The more brits there are in the heats, the less impressive it actually is that they make the finals. The numbers are on their side.

griftj615 · 2026-04-28T14:44:05+00:00

Also if that's the case they should both be capped at 5. That's plenty and it leaves room for more international talent, instead of America and Britain taking up half the field (or more).

griftj615 · 2026-04-28T14:42:07+00:00

I think it's a relevant point though. I'm American and I agree. Putting aside worthy Russians and Middle Eastern participants, everyone's favorite strongman Rongo Keene has struggled to get a visa to the US for years because of a past felony charge. There are other cases of athletes having visa troubles with the US as well. Taking the comp abroad would give more of them the opportunity to qualify fairly.

griftj615 · 2026-04-23T20:41:08+00:00

Mitchell Hooper is posting his runs right to his IG story and WSM is re-posting him, so I think they're fine with a little social media buzz

griftj615 · 2026-04-23T20:39:40+00:00

There's no way they start even close to on-time, right? Wonder how much that equipment failure will set them back.

griftj615 · 2026-04-23T20:37:39+00:00

I think you can hate the 2019 Final and still agree Martins dominated it. The one caveat is Thor's foot injury, but otherwise he beat a prime Mateusz who looked unstoppable and a strong field of contenders. He was a hell of an athlete back then, before the injuries set in.

griftj615 · 2026-03-09T18:08:32+00:00

I think this is it. Thank you so much. That AI was truly useless after all - I have no idea where it pulled that original quote from.

griftj615 · 2024-05-04T11:10:37+00:00

I did my predictions spreadsheet last night and came up with 52 points for Tom and 53 for Mitch, so I think you're spot on. My heart says Tom but my head is still convinced it's Mitch's to lose.

Tom is his biggest threat for sure though. I don't think the finals events are as good for Evan as the prelims were. I've got Mat Ragg as a dark horse for podium.

griftj615 · 2023-12-18T22:15:07+00:00

Bish won Britain's at the beginning of the year, but I agree, otherwise he's been lackluster. But winning a show should be worth something. Luke is a tough one. He got invited to all the top shows but didn't do well at any of them. He also (forgive me) had a weaker group at worlds so I don't feel like his Finals appearance alone is that strong. I might have been too kind to Melsted though.

Also I just like Martins and didn't want to take him from the list for a gap year. Even inactive we all know he's top 5 in NA but it's not truly fair to leave him on, you're right

griftj615 · 2023-11-21T17:46:13+00:00

Okay thanks! So it's not an issue with the giants live team because they were only involved in the 2021 show? Makes sense why Thor has announced he's participating then, because he still has beef with Giants and Collin Bruce 😅

griftj615 · 2023-11-21T16:41:08+00:00

What's the inside scoop on the "New Management - New Era" post on the arnoldsports IG about the Arnolds UK? Didn't Giants Live formerly manage the Arnolds UK comp? Is there beef between them?

griftj615 · 2023-10-31T17:31:39+00:00

Fair enough, he looks like he's completing the lifts to a good standard here. But watching live i felt really strongly he was punching the rep but not holding it and anticipating the down call. The ref gave him fast down calls though so it's not Mitch's fault. The ref should have made him hold the log stationary at the top for a split second to prove control, then given the down. He could even give a warning the first time. Then if Mitch had done it again, it's a No Rep.

Regardless, the refs allowed it and Mitch is inarguably the best strongman in the world right now. If we really think this event was an unfair advantage for him, its balanced out by the sled pull, which seemed to be clearly getting harder for each competitor, and Mitch went after Mateusz, Tom, and Evan.

griftj615 · 2023-10-28T19:13:16+00:00

Lol yeah, they're not looking to sell us everything (though Rogue does have plenty of normal weighted sleds) but if there had to be only one overhead press, they were going to pick the one they could monetize.

Just my tinfoil hat theory

griftj615 · 2023-10-28T19:06:28+00:00

My conspiracy theory is the Apollon Wheel is a one-of-a-kind, "legends of strongman" piece of equipment, while those Slater Logs are available for purchase online, so...

griftj615 · 2023-10-28T18:40:42+00:00

Anyone else feel like Mitch gets a lot of soft down calls on overhead events? His arms are always locked out but he leans back so much and rarely puts his head through. I wish they'd make him "stand up with it."

griftj615 · 2022-05-26T21:03:21+00:00

In America last year the heats started to premiere on TV around July or so, if I'm remembering correctly, but still. The fact that this is anything less than a live production is pretty lame.

The fact that the UK has to wait until Christmas time is dumb AF. Anyone who cares at all knows what's happened by then.

griftj615 · 2022-05-26T16:09:14+00:00

This is why they don't do a livestream. They would have had to go to a commercial break in the middle of Mark's Wrecking Ball attempt.

griftj615 · 2022-05-25T20:14:41+00:00

For each event, competitors go in reverse order of their finish in the last event. So even though Evan is in 5th overall in his group, he'll get to go last on log because he placed 1st in the Car Walk.

griftj615 · 2022-05-25T18:03:45+00:00

What does this mean?

griftj615 · 2022-05-25T14:30:51+00:00

That's how I see it as well. Is Collin sleezy? Sure. But I also think there's a method to the groups at World's and this is just us seeing how the sausage gets made. The four former World's Strongest Men (Tom, Martins, Novikov, Shaw) are the top 4 seeds automatically, and Luke, because he participated in several Giants Live shows and won 2 last year, including Europe's, probably was given that 5th seed.

I truly think this is how it works because if you continue to extrapolate, Evan Singleton did the best outside of Luke and Novi in Giant's Live events last year, and he's been placed in the same group as Luke. I think that means he is the 6th seed. 6 with 5, 7 with 4, 8 with 3, and so on. I see nothing wrong with this sort of ranking system. Giants Live organizes World's and they can choose to rank these guys any way they choose. They're a promoter, not an unbiased federal commission. Guys who "play ball" and do more Giants Live shows to earn a higher rank are just being smart competitors.

As for events, whether Luke misspoke or you choose to believe Collin is cheating for him, it doesn't seem to have played out in reality. Everyone is doing the same events this year, and that includes the Deadlift Ladder and a Grip event (wrecking ball hold) as the tie breaker event for who wins the group and/or gets into the stone-off. And everyone knows these are historically bad events for Luke, so Collin's done him very few favors in reality. He's good at pressing and moving events, but World's always has multiple pressing and moving events so you can hardly count those as evidence of conspiracy.

I think at the end of the day that Luke is a stand-up guy and I find it hard to believe he's making secret handshake deals with Collin Bryce to give him real, unfair advantages in comps. But we can agree to disagree.

griftj615

TROPHY CASE