Once-fearsome ozeki rank no longer sport's 'great barrier'

I don't disagree with Mr.Gunning most of the way here, but I also don't agree that the bar has actually been lowered.

I think we're at an odd crossroads with the yokozuna (top ranked wrestlers) aging out and the present ozeki (2nd from top) being unimpressive. As stated in the article there has to be two ozeki and I think the Japan Sumo Association may be desperate to have multiple ozeki options in case both of the yokozuna are out and one of the two ozeki, before Shodai's promotion, also find themselves injured/out. I'll admit I don't know if there's a rule to bring up a sekiwake (3rd from top) to make an honorary one tournament ozeki-sekiwake rank in the very real possibility of there being no yokozuna and less than two ozeki available. I think it's a matter of they have to have two ozeki and this is the pool they have to choose from; if the candidate pool was better or there wasn't a rule that required two ozeki there'd be no talk of the bar being lowered.

While Asanoyama's basho (tournament) record as ozeki is better than Takakeisho's when comparing the first two bashos (full bashos in Takakeisho's case), neither are proving themselves worthy of the rank in my opinion. There is zero reason why Takakeisho shouldn't have a multi-basho streak of jun-yusho (2nd place) or either ozeki flat out win the tournament any time both yokozuna are missing in action. A promotion to ozeki shouldn't be as stringent as the step from ozeki to yokozuna (two wins in a row), but I think should at least require one yusho (tournament win) or two jun-yusho at sekiwake before being promoted. Takakeisho and Asanoyama were promoted to ozeki with a mere two bouts as sekiwake, neither with a yusho and Takakeisho had a single jun-yusho. While Shodai did have a yusho and so met the requirement I outlined above he only spent three bashos at sekiwake and his yusho that prompted the ozeki promotion was the only one he's had in all of his time spent in makuuchi (top sumo division) and looking at his record shows that his recent high numbers of wins almost perfectly coincide with missing yokozuna. Prior to that he's midpack at best.

When you look at the yokozuna records and if they were anything but yokozuna (yokozuna cannot be demoted, they must retire), they'd both be in juryo (2nd to top division) or damn close to it right now. Hakuho drops out or doesn't show up pretty much every other tournament and Kakuryu being worse as of late with multiple out/dropped bashos before back for a full tournament, then out for multiple again.

So back to my original point, I don't think the bar has actually been lowered, I just think we're in desperate need of some new blood and because of rules they're doing the best they can with the options available.

Note: This may be a little heavy for anyone new to sumo, so if you have questions about how any of this works or need an ELI5 let me know. I tried to put translations in there for those unfamiliar.