Are You Ready For A Sumo Smackdown?

By Jeninne Lee-St. John

The gods must be smiling. Japan's national sport, which began as an ancient form of religious worship, is muscling its way around the modern world. Today the grand champion of Japan hails from Mongolia, and as U.S. team coach Yoshisada Yonezuka puts it, "Big guys smash into each other" in sumo rings from Poland to Brazil. Elite-level sumo came to the U.S. for the first time in 20 years with a tournament this month in Las Vegas. Now there's the Sumo Ultimate Masters Organization (S.U.M.O.), a new U.S.-based league with global aspirations and the backing of the International Sumo Federation, one of the sport's governing bodies. In New York City last weekend, wrestlers from nine nations, including Georgia and Norway, brawled in the World S.U.M.O. Challenge--Battle of the Giants, kicking off the first North American tour of international sumo and a bid to get the sport into the Summer Olympics.

League organizers hope a mix of ancient rituals, like the prefight greeting in which opponents squat facing each other, and innovations (theme songs! acrobatics!) will generate a massive fan base. The fights, which last less than a minute each, are real. But in other ways, S.U.M.O. is following in the large and lucrative footsteps of that other pro-wrestling circuit, World Wrestling Entertainment: it groups chest-thumping characters into four rival clans to heighten the drama of matches and plans a nationally broadcast TV series.

Of course, there will be action figures. A popular one might be Hawaiian-born Kaleo, a former champ in Japan's pro league who, at his peak, weighed 345 lbs. He came out of retirement to compete, bulking up with an old sumo trick: eat chanko nabe, a rich stew, then promptly go to sleep. But size ultimately matters less than technique--there are 70 moves a wrestler can use to get his opponent out of the ring. "I'm a pusher, a thruster," says Kaleo, who fights for Japan. "I come out like a boo rush." An all-American sumo to watch is Yale graduate and math teacher Kena Heffernan. "He's a very exciting wrestler but not that big," says Yonezuka. "Only 260 lbs."