Vegas gambles on Sumo

Asashoryu, sumo wrestling's reigning champ, is a hotheaded athlete who dominates so completely and disregards traditions so brazenly that he's the fastest-rising star in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Few Americans know much about sumo, but promoters figure they'll be drawn to the plotline of a volatile star the public loves to hate when Asashoryu and 40 others of the sport's biggest wrestlers descend on Las Vegas this October for the first professional sumo tournament held on U.S. soil in 20 years.

The Japan Sumo Association, which seldom sends its athletes abroad, accepted the invite from Las Vegas on the occasion of the city's centennial year.

October's three-day event is part of an effort to globalize the appeal of the 1,500-year-old sport, whose best wrestlers now come from outside Japan anyway.

Those kinds of antics are controversial in Japan; promoters are betting that he'll feel right at home in Vegas.