Egyptian Sumo Star Comes Out Of Retirement To Help Bring Sumo To The Masses With ‘World Championship Sumo’

Ed Diller/ International Sumo League

‘World Championship Sumo’ has recruited some of the top names in the sport in hopes of bringing sumo to the masses.

On February 18th, ‘World Championship Sumo” will be making it’s U.S. debut at the Prudential Center in an event that will air live on Triller TV.

The February 18th event will be preceeded by two “Club Sumo” events on January 25 and February 8th that will air live for free on Triller TV.

Among the Sumo wrestlers to be featured on the card is Abdelrahman Shalan, better known as Ōsunaarashi Kintarō, “the great sandstorm”, the first African professional sumo wrestler to go to Japan and move up the ranks.

We spoke with the 31-year-old Ōsunaarashi, who had been retired for many years, and says he decided to come out of retirement to help World Championship Sumo help bring sumo to mainstream audiences.

“I retired from the professional fighting until I found a chance with WCS, World Championship Sumo. They have a new vision of bringing sumo to the new world. So people here in the US, that don’t know about sumo, the way WCS are representing sumo for the people, it’s really smart and I find it’s a good chance for me to write one more chapter of my professional career.”

The Egyptian Sumo wrestler believes American fans will be in awe of what they see when they tune in to World Championship Sumo.

“It will be beyond their expectation. There will be a lot of exciting things, because you’d never think big people or fat people could move like this.It will be a big adventure for the fighters and the audience as well, and I’m pretty sure the people here will love it…The people and whole management of the WCS, the way they’re working on representing sumo to the people here in the US, they’re aiming to get to all kinds of generations involved, old people, young guys, young people. They’re targeting everybody.”

“You will never believe what you’re going to see. It’s going to be magic. This is a new sport. Forget about whatever you saw on TV. Forget about whatever you know about sumo.”

The first WCS event, “Club Sumo,” will air live for free on Triller TV on January 25th.