Sumo wrestling has been fighting an uphill battle in Japan recently as bad press and scandals have marred the image of the once-proud sport. Recently two Russian sumos got in trouble for both testing positive for marijuana, another Russian sumo, who wrestled under the name Wakanoho received a lifetime ban for being arrested for marijuana possession. Now Wakanoho is trying to exact his revenge on the sport that spurned him by releasing a public statement, against the advice of his attorney, accusing the sport of rigging matches and drug abuse.
“I was forced to accept money and made to fight in unfair matches from the very moment I entered the makuuchi [the top rank of sumo wresting].” Wakanoho proclaimed. As well, he warned that he will later reveal “other evil things that I know.” He also took time to strike out at his former manager saying, “my stable master and others knew about the match-fixing but nobody stepped in because they had also been fighting in rigged matches themselves.”
Wakanoho, whose real name is Soslan Gagloev, insists that when he finally is heard in court he will reveal that many of his former stable-mates were constant pot smokers. It only makes sense, these are giant men who are expected to maintain their girth and what better way than to get blazed and get the munchies. Besides, their whole sport is based on just pushing one another, no reason why pot would take away from that.
The upcoming trial, a libel suit between the magazine The Weekly Gendai on one side and the Japan Sumo Association on the other should become much more interesting with Wakanoho’s testimony for Gendai. Regardless, the national sport of Japan is being rocked by these scandals and the fans are starting to get disgusted. Can you imagine if our national sport had a drug problem? I mean, it’d be disastrous. Oh wait…
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