Re: Rikishi of the Year

["RJ Friedman" <rjf@comasia.com>]

On Sun, 06 Dec 1998 10:11:17 +0100, Gunnar Jeschke wrote:

>> the coup de grace. Don't even mention Wakanohana to me. For my money,
>> without the Futa factor and Papa's behind the scenes activities, Waka
>> would never have made it as an Ozeki, much less a Yokozuna.

>Do you really believe that?

Would I have said it if I didn't?


>I thought for a long time that Waka would
>never make yokozuna, but ozeki material he certainly is.

Maybe so. At least we can say that Yokozuna material he's not.


>> the winning and losing of particular matches. It really amazes me
>> that some are so naive as to think that Musashimaru's supposedly
>> inexplicable losses are the result of him somehow `losing focus' (for
>> equally inexplicable reasons) in critical matches.

>Again, do you really believe that??

Again, Would I have said it if I didn't??????


>If yes, why do you follow sumo?

As someone who has followed martial arts in general for the past 20
years, I follow Sumo from the standpoint of it's particular martial
arts technique.


>If
>I'd thing everything was prearranged, I would be bored stiff by it.

So would I - but let's not take a statement to its absurd extreme for
the sake of winning a debate point. Nowhere have I claimed that
*everything* (or even most things) was prearranged.