Tofu here, since Sloan didn't exist at the time.

Here's an action sequence in comic format of my typical ring-entry rituals back when I used to fight sumo.

Tossing salt into the ring is believed to purify the ring. Salt has long been used in Shinto rituals as a purifying substance.

Belly slapping is intended to scare away evil spirits, although looking back I don't remember it every so much as even intimidating any Yako Kitsune that might have been watching the event, so I wonder how effective it actually was... This would often be done many times during the pre-match rituals.

Bowing to your opponent is a show of respect.

Shiko, or sumo stomping, is also believed to scare away evil spirits. When practiced during training it doubles a good workout for the legs and lower body. This is also often done multiple times throughout the pre-match rituals.

Normally after Shiko, the sumotori will exit the dohyo ring to receive chikara mizu and chikara gami, or "power water" and "power paper" from a lower ranked sumotori from their respective stables, however I never actually trained at a stable and was basically a "lone wolf" of sorts, and my opponent in this match was literally a lone wolf. Usually at major events, a past opponent I've previously defeated would take this role for me instead.

Next comes chiri-chozu, a series of hand movements that serve two purposes. The first is the initial clap, which is supposed to attract the attention of the local kami. The second is the showing of hands, which is done to show the opponent that you're unarmed.

Finally, the two combatants face off at the tachi, which are the pair of center lines, to perform the tachi. In an official match there can be multiple face-offs, and any one of them is valid for tachi-ai, where both fighters touch both of their fists to the tachi to begin the bout in earnest. At that point they charge together, or in some cases one might juke the other's charge in a move called inashi, or if the fighter is particularly devious and intends to follow it up with a downward slap while their opponent is unbalanced, henka. Henka, while a legitimate technique, is generally seen as a sort of "sucker punch" type of technique and as such is frowned upon.

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Here we see Tofu showing off the start-of-match rituals of sumo.

Decided to make this as a sort of comic test, since I'm planning on doing a comic for Leva.

Full-size - warning: REALLY big image, 3600x6840