RE: Yaocho comment

["Joshua A. Reyer" <jreyer@grn.mmtr.or.jp>]

> I think it affected the winner of the tournament at least once - when
> Wakanohana defeated Takanohana in their playoff meeting back in '95.
> It certainly looked to many people like Taka threw that match.  He was
> at the height of his dominance at the time, yet barely resisted Waka's
> charge before crumpling to the dohyo.  One explanation I heard was that
> Taka had thrown the match on daddy's orders, in order to give Waka a
> yusho.  This match has also been seen as the starting point of the
> soured relations between Taka and his father and brother.

It's been sometime since I've seen the video of the match.  Is it possible
that Waka was psyched up to beat his younger brother and Taka just choked?

I found an interesting statistic in Ozumo magazine.  It seems that twice
Taka put up 14-1 numbers at the end of the basho, but was denied the yusho
in the play-off.  The opponent who beat him those two times?  Ozeki
Takanonami.

 From what I've read regarding the Futa factor, it seems many people feel
that if Takanonami had to meet Taka during the basho, he'd lose more often
than not.  But these guys train together all the time.  I imagine no rikishi
know Taka's weaknesses better than his fellow Futagoyama sekitori.  And vice
versa, of course.  At any rate, yaocho is always a possibility, but I think
the good old "choke" is just as possible.

Josh Reyer