Wrestling Out Of The Olympics - The Gods Must Be Crazy Mad

The whole lucrative sham of it all was exposed once again this week when the executive board of the IOC — Informal Motto: "Me Some Too, Yes?" — recommended that wrestling be dropped as an Olympic sport in the 2020 Summer Games, which are supposed to be held in Istanbul, Tokyo, or Madrid, depending on whose checks clear first, I believe. According to the board, wrestling is no longer a "core sport" in the Olympics and it will have to petition for inclusion in 2020 along with, and I am not making this up, sport climbing and wakeboarding. This is terrific. Why don't we just hold the Olympics in an REI outlet store somewhere?

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posted by the man of twists and turns on Mar 19, 2013 - 94 comments

Meet Obasan: Adorable demon-possessed little girl and Japanese professional wrestler for the horror-themed Triple Six promotion. More highlights: (1) (2)
posted by StopMakingSense on May 12, 2007 - 30 comments

We've been one-upped. "I won support from voters with this face, and to take it off would be breaking promises." We can't let this stand. If we don't do anything wackier next election year I'm moving.
posted by wobh on Apr 15, 2003 - 6 comments

Akebono's sumo retirement ceremony American-born sumo Yokozuna Akebono retired from the sport Sepetember 29th in Kokogikan, Japan.

This excellent photo essay talks about a few of the 300+ people scheduled to help cut off the topknot, a little on the history of Sumo, and why he needs 8 men to help him with the belt tying ceremony.

Also a few good photographs of another American-born Yokozuna, Musashimaru, and one Japanese one, Takanohana.
posted by swenson on Jan 5, 2002 - 10 comments

Not many still-practiced sports existed at the dawn of recorded history. Sumo wrestling is one of them. I've been trying to learn more about Sumo lately, and with the Aki-Basho tournament coming up next month, now is the time to follow along on the web as the drama unfolds.
posted by machaus on Aug 25, 2001 - 5 comments