Some big news involving both the G-1 and Takayama’s health was announced yesterday…
Yoshihiro Takayama’s official website today announced the cancellation of all his remaining G1 matches, due to a serious health risk. Takayama’s condition was so bad that some people feared he had a stroke, but it wasn’t quite that bad. He has been diagnosed with “cerebral thrombosis” (Definition: “Formation or development of a blood clot within a blood vessel. A clot in an artery supplying the brain gradually cuts off the blood supply to to that particular area of the brain and causes a stroke. The clot usually develops because of damage to the wall of the blood vessel.”). He should make a full recovery, but for him to wrestle any time soon would be extremely risky, and possibly endanger his life. He has taken a lot of accumulated damage lately, a poorly executed Northern Light bomb from Takuma Sano, the Hercules Cutter from Nakanishi, and a collection of stiff shots from Kensuke the other day. As for his return, he will take part in all entertainment-related activities over the next month or so, and will be at the Sumo Hall triple header in promotional form. He is targetting autumn for a return. All of Takayama’s remaining G1 matches will be forfeited, so I’ll add those to the tally day by day. This hurts the G1, though not in a critical way. The show that may be effected most for walk-up is 8/14 Sumo Hall, for which the big selling point was Tenzan vs. Takayama (the biggest match underneath is Nakamura vs. Chono).