Eternal return ¡ª the concept that all events are destined to repeat themselves over and over for infinity ¡ª has been a recurrent theme in 21st-century American television.

From the constant refrain that ¡°all of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again¡± on ¡°Battlestar Galactica¡± to the Schopenhauer-esque pessimism as voiced by ¡°True Detective¡± character Rust Cohle in his famous ¡°Time is a flat circle¡± speech, the idea of life being part of an infinite loop is a popular one in modern Hollywood.

Sumo¡¯s flat circle may be physical rather than temporal, but recent turnover in Japan¡¯s national sport has evoked feelings of a similar kind.