It has been wild reading the polarized reaction to Takakeisho's henka win on Day 15. Here are my thoughts:
Takakeisho hadn't trained since May until a week before the basho, rehabbing his knees. Kadoban, many thought he would lose his Ozeki rank. His lack of fitness showed on Day 1 when he lost a torinaoshi, exhausted. He proceeded to stage an improbable and excellent basho from there including a dominant win over Atamifuji Day 13. 1/
Takakeisho lost a playoff to Abi last Nov. He followed that Yusho Doten with a full Yusho in Jan, but despite satisfying the "2 Yusho Equivalent" criteria was denied the rope as the Doten was thought to require a more decisive full Yusho.
Based on that experience, I can understand him taking Hakuho's "Winning sumo is Yokozuna sumo" mantra to heart in the final. If he saw Atamifuji not paying attention at the tachiai he was going to slap him down. No chances to be taken. 2/
All this to say that while i'd of loved to see him pull off a stylish win like his throw of Kotoshoho last Jan...I get it. The YDC was not moved by Keisho introducing arm bars and flair. He got hurt (again) and saw how ephemeral these opps are.
So he learned his lesson. I'd hazard to guess noted during his Day 13 throttling of Atamifuji that the youngster was looking down at the tachiai, and that it offered him an opportunity to settle things fast. I don't blame him. /end
@ryunited in his winning speech, he talked about when he was younger and loving the opportunity to play these top competitors and learning and that was very much a message to say "I figured you out. If you learn from those mistakes, you can be great."
I know the henka isn't smiled upon by the community. It isnt flashy and fun to watch, but we've seen people respond to henka and succeed against it. Atamifuji was so focused on one style of play.
@ryunited Atamifuji was a 21 year old wrestler in his second ever top division appearance. Asanoyama took his match with him seriously and beat him head to head. So, frankly, did Takakeisho a couple of days ago. I don't see why he couldn't have done that again.
Abi partially won by henka in that November tournament and I still see (and make) a lot of comments about how bad his sumo is.
It just seems like a cheap trick. Not something for a skilled Rikishi to choose. Not the top Ozeki, for sure.
@depereo I get that. I tend to like oshi style guys like Keisho and Gonoyama, and the fact they can get henka'd bull rushing feels cheap to me as you say. I hate Abi and Chiyoshoma!
But given what Keisho has lived through and how stringent the YDC was last winter, my sense is he felt you can't look away from chances to end matches in a playoff. I can't blame him (IMHO). Actually the YDC chair defended him today on that basis.
Now I hope he can make it count for something in Nov. Gambatte.
Ryu
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