So I’ve gotten into a new esoteric sport lately. Sumo Wrestling. (I am a retired Reference Librarian, not a Wrestler). I have an interest in Greco-Roman Wrestling (video of Aleksandr Karelin) and Free Style Wrestling (video of Abdulradhid Sadulaev), but nothing like my interest in Professional Wrestling. I learned about Pro Wrestling from my brother via our maternal grandfather, who was a big Pro Wrestling fan in the 1950s. Some of my best growing up memories were attending Wrestling shows at the International Amphitheater in Chicago with my brother in the 1960s.
The Amphitheater (1) (2) (3),
(4--video)--Haystacks Calhoun v Buddy Rogers--1961--an NWA Championship match
(5--video)--Vern Gagne v Dick Afflis (Dick the Bruiser--undated--also an NWA Championship match).
(6)--video Vern Gagne v Lou Thesz--undated (two of the great "scientific" wrestlers of the 50s-70s. I saw a rematch between the two about 10-15 years after this one)
(7)--video) George Wagner (Gorgeous Gorge) v Hans Schnabel
Source for all Wrestler biographies except Hans Schabel above is Online World of Wrestling. Source for Schnabel: Wrestlingdata.com
100 Amphitheater matches from the Chicago Film archives--ca 1950s and early 1960s.
a little too close to the stockyards, packed to the rafters, about 8,000 or so, was a sight to behold. The house lights went off, and the ring lights werre the only illumination. What a show!
I first discovered Sumo via an article in 538.com about 4 years ago. It had little effect on me then, but then I re-discovered it about a month ago (March 2020).
I found out that Sumo is:
A. Real
B. Has a history as a professional sport since around 1640
C. Has documented its results, along with the size of the wrestlers, since before 1750
D. That documentation is available in an English language database (on the Internet there is an expert for anything you can imagine)
E. There is ample, though not archival video to study (that does not violate copyright).
How could I not fall in love with it?
In the throes of this new obsession, I researched and found out that one of the 6 major annual Sumo tournaments started on March 8, 2020. They are tournaments in which 42 wrestlers each fight a match a day for 15 consecutive days--21 matches a day, 315 total bouts, (bouts that almost all last less than 1 minute), and the best record wins a gigantic Emperor’s Cup along with various other hardware. And the "belt" that the Champion wears by far beats anything I have ever seen around the waist of a Pro Wrestling champion. These tournaments are always very well attended, the arenas seating about 7,000, with many sellouts. Also the immensity of ritual that goes into it fascinated me.
So I decided that the best way to learn this sport was to watch, intensively, and find all reference material I could. And this blog is the result.
I did it in the spirit of a creating a jumping off place for English speaking Wrestling fans (amateur and professional) who know little or nothing about Sumo. The reference section at the top is for that. I will keep building it as I find more.
I started out by playing the game of trying to pick the winners of matches. (I did that for the last 2/3 of the March 2020 Basho, which can be found here (below the July 2020 Basho). Also, since NHK, the Japanese TV network that televises these Tournaments does not keep anything like a reasonable on demand archive of these events (looks like about a 2 week archive)
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(see EITB, the Basque TV network and its on demand coverage of Basque Pelota Sports, or Pilota Ttiki Blog, which keeps an Archive of BP main nue [handball matches]--which are linked to from my Basque Pelota Updates Blog for hundreds of examples of archived matches going back as far as 2000)
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I decided to describe the matches as best I could, taking down relevant data. Of course I am new to this, and I like to write, so I could be
A. Wrong
B. Windy
about these matches. Any help from those with more experience than I would be gratefully accepted.
jbsolock1@gmail.com
I hope you enjoy this blog and find it entertaining, and perhaps educational.
Enjoy my other blogs
Jack Solock's Blog (a little bit of everything)--Including a Culture and Sports Blog Post
Gridiron Football--The Championship Years--NFL, AFL, AAFC--A narrative illustrated history of American Professional Football from 1933-1967.
Basque Pelota Updates (a current awareness reference library service (from the JBS Public Library), which covers 14 professional and amateur, men's and women's, Hegoalde (South Basque--Spain) and Iparralde (North Basque--France) pelota (ball) sports.
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