How do you convince these people that are so famous for what they do in Japan to come stateside and share their talents? Well, it's

amazing.

A lot of people don't know that sumo has participated in 85 countries around the globe.

I didn't know that.

Okay.

And we have 45 amateur clubs right here in the U.S.

So this is a sport that has been embraced all over the world.

Is that what goes on sumo? Like, what weights are we talking about when it comes to these championship wrestlers?

Mm-hmm.

Uh, we- Dominus and, and others, uh, they've been doing this for a while.

They are- they train, and they are so passionate about their sport.

They're all competitive, but they, they come at it from a standpoint of really res- what sumo is all about, which is respect and honor and sportsmanship.

They have tremendous respect for all of their competitors, uh, whenever they compete.

And he and, and all of our 16 competitors in Austin are, are great people.

What would success look like? I mean, is there another sort of sports s- success story that, that you would model after or, or hope to achieve?

achieve?Well, I, I think that, you know, if you look in terms of, of, of my background and, and so forth, I've had a wonderful and honor to have spent time, uh, at WWE, and you look at UFC and their growth over the years.

Hmm

... them telling me about the amazing time that they're having.

So to me, there's nothing like live entertainment, and I've d- I've had great fortune.

I've done movies.

I've done television shows, done a lot of things.

But there's a, an, there's a rush.

I can only imagine for you, Chris, like, there's a rush of being in a room with tens of thousands of people cheering at the same time, booing at the same time, but sh- having that shared memory, and that was, for me, one of the largest takeaways.

Mm-hmm.

So what kind of inspired you? What was the inspiration behind, like, bringing this to the US?

Right.

So, uh, i- through my travels, whether it was WWF, now WWE, or, or Feld Entertainment, where, uh, you know, I was involved in Ringling Brothers, and Disney on Ice, and, and, and all the way through the Cartoon Network.

Uh, you know, these are all global businesses.

So I've had the opportunity to travel to Japan and do business in Japan over the years.

So I, I saw sumo in Japan years ago, uh, and that always just kinda stuck with me and said, "Wow, that was, that was a great evening [laughs] of sumo.

That was a great event." Um, I didn't return to sumo until about two years ago.

How about for, like, streaming or broadcast, what are the short-term goal- goals and what are the long-term goals about how we can actually visually see it if we're not there in person?