It's a pity that Sumo Association forced Asashoryu to retire. After all, he was only 29. He had many more trophies to win ahead.
This is really just a ploy by the Sumo Association to prevent foreign Asashoryu from shattering all the records in the modern era of Sumo. They suspended him for nonsense once before. Then he made the mistake of returning and winning again. To be honest, haters from long time ago were trying to stop Asashoryu to break the overall record at any cost. When he grabbed his 25th trophy and ranked overall 3rd, they couldn't take it anymore and took the action.
Sumo will be permanently stuck behind soccer and baseball in Japan as long as it continues to operate like a boring version of professional wrestling instead of a sport with a tremendous history and cultural value. Japanese baseball drove off the track years ago in similar fashion allowing soccer to become the top sport and motivated players to decamp for MLB in the USA.
On the other hand, though Asashoryu is loved and revered in his homeland he should have been more respectful of traditions and history of Sumo....after all he is a guest there (think about how the natives would react if a Chinese starts making records in Naadam and defiles the traditions in public?!).
I will miss his explosiveness and wonder if he could have been the #1 if given a chance.
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It's a pity that Sumo Association forced Asashoryu to retire. After all, he was only 29. He had many more trophies to win ahead.
This is really just a ploy by the Sumo Association to prevent foreign Asashoryu from shattering all the records in the modern era of Sumo. They suspended him for nonsense once before. Then he made the mistake of returning and winning again. To be honest, haters from long time ago were trying to stop Asashoryu to break the overall record at any cost. When he grabbed his 25th trophy and ranked overall 3rd, they couldn't take it anymore and took the action.
Sumo will be permanently stuck behind soccer and baseball in Japan as long as it continues to operate like a boring version of professional wrestling instead of a sport with a tremendous history and cultural value. Japanese baseball drove off the track years ago in similar fashion allowing soccer to become the top sport and motivated players to decamp for MLB in the USA.
On the other hand, though Asashoryu is loved and revered in his homeland he should have been more respectful of traditions and history of Sumo....after all he is a guest there (think about how the natives would react if a Chinese starts making records in Naadam and defiles the traditions in public?!).
I will miss his explosiveness and wonder if he could have been the #1 if given a chance.
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