To be honest, calling Kang Ho-dong a Ssireum legend is somewhat exaggerated

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It is true that Kang Ho-dong caused a real sensation when he defeated Lee Man-gi in 1989 during his debut years, and then went on to defeat Lee Man-gi consecutively in the Baekdu Jangsa and Cheonhajangsa tournaments right at the start of the following year.
However, Kang Ho-dong suddenly announced his retirement from Ssireum in May 1992.
The period during which Kang Ho-dong actually competed in the Ssireum ring was less than three years, and honestly, in any sport, it is rare to see an athlete treated as a legend when they haven't even competed for three years.
Of course, his impact was immense since he won the Baekdu Jangsa 7 times and the Cheonhajangsa 5 times during those three years, but the period when Kang Ho-dong truly dominated the Ssireum ring peaked for just one year in 1990; even by the following year, 1991, it wasn't a season where one could say Kang Ho-dong was the undisputed number one. And then he retired in the first half of 1992.
Although Kang Ho-dong held an advantage over Lee Man-gi with a record of 4 wins and 2 losses, Lee Man-gi had already passed his prime in the 1990s, and Kang Ho-dong even recorded 4 losses in 4 matches against Lee Bong-geol, who was well past his prime.
In fact, there was a player named Hwang Dae-woong who could be called Kang Ho-dong's greatest rival at the time; although Hwang Dae-woong rarely performed at his best due to chronic knee injuries, he did win the Cheonhajangsa title twice in 1991. The head-to-head record between Kang Ho-dong and Hwang Dae-woong was 4 wins and 4 losses, so the two could arguably be considered on the same level.
Furthermore, the three years Kang Ho-dong was in the Ssireum ring were actually a "gap generation" in the history of Ssireum, sandwiched between the previous generation of Lee Man-gi, Lee Jun-hee, and Lee Bong-geol, and the subsequent generation of Baek Seung-il, Shin Bong-min, and Lee Tae-hyun.
Excluding someone like Hwang Dae-woong, it should be viewed as an era where he competed against players like Kim Chil-gyu, Nam Dong-ha, Park Kwang-deok, and Lim Jong-gu.
Seeing how Kim Jeong-pil immediately dominated the sand pit as soon as Kang Ho-dong announced his retirement, followed by the meteoric rise of the 17-year-old boy-wrestler Baek Seung-il who took the youngest Cheonhajangsa title, and then the emergence of Lee Tae-hyun and Shin Bong-min the following year, I feel that in Kang Ho-dong's case, his career was too short and he was too vulnerable in terms of true showdowns against real legends to be called a legend.