I thought so. I must have missed it on the schedule, but I sure thought NBC was the channel. I did watch a few of the older Japanese Ninja Warriors over the weekend on Esquire. Those early obstacles were sure primitive compared to later tournaments, then fast forward to 26 (I think) last night, had the dang Spider Climb on the first section.
Well, very sad to see Geoff go out, especially on the first obstacle. I was hoping he might be back-to-back Total Victory. He had a great attitude about it though.
I felt bad for Brent too. What a crappy way to go out. You could see he honestly thought he was over the bad.
I think we’ll get 1-2 people to stage 3. Top candidates to make it through in my view:
Brian Arnold.
Daniel Gil.
Jake Murray.
Grant McCartney.
Joe Moravsky.
And of course I will never doubt the awesomeness of:
Jessie Graff! Go Jessie!
I don’t know about Grant. What has he ever actually done?
I think Josh Levin has to be in the conversation, but it really kind of depends on what sort of obstacles make up stage 2.
How many of the remaining ninjas have ever beaten stage 2? Drew Dreschel certainly has, along with Brian and Joe. Anyone else?
Will have stats 'n stuff a bit later; for now, just random musings.
With all these big names going down hard, I’m convinced that the winds of change are not only going to sweep through this event pretty soon, we could see the fallout as early as the next TNW or UvTW. A mere seventeen made it through this year, the fewest ever, and I didn’t see anything about the course that was way super-harder than last year. It doesn’t matter how good Brent Steffensen or Kevin Bull or Jamie Rahn were in the past, because age spares no one. It’s become clear, too, that NBC wants to see new blood, and at some point you just have to look Brian Wilczewski or Noah Kaufman in the eye and tell him that he’s outlived his usefulness. And of course, there’s the whole work-your-damn-butt-off-and-don’t-make-a-penny, good-lord-what-am-I-doing-with-my-life factor. The show’s been around long enough that the early stars have had to come to terms with the fruitlessness of their efforts, and I’m certain many of them are now more than happy to take their Salmon Ladder bars and go home.
On a related note, has anyone been kicked in the teeth more than Geoff Britten? First he becomes the first man to conquer the tower…and hitting all six buttons in the process, something no one has come close to doing before…and taking home diddly-squat because that one other buy was a bit faster. (Note how we heard the “hitting all six buttons” line like a hundred times last year and not once this year?) Then it’s on to USA vs. The World 2, where he suffers a fever and can’t compete at all. He recovers in time to compete in Team Ninja Warrior, where his team gets creamed in both matches with a cumulative record of 1-5. Bringing us back to ANW…and a splashdown in the first obstacle of Stage 1. I get the strong feeling from his parting comments that he is done with this crap. Not only would it not surprise me if he was gone for good, with all the misery he’s had to endure, I’m actually looking forward to it. Run, Geoff, run! Run like the wind and never look back!
With Meagan Martin’s tumble on Giant Log Grip, Jessie Graff cements her status as top female. Honestly, if I had to give a reason why, my guess would be that Graff simply handles pressure better. Other than last year where Martin made it to Warped Wall, all of her exits have been inexplicable. How does a rock climber just lose the handle? Well, at least she did better than Kacy Catanzaro, whose Cityfinals triumph is looking more and more like a fluke. Catanzaro is pretty much a non-factor now; at this point I’d put her behind even Michelle Warnky…who is also pretty much a non-factor. If it isn’t clear, I think NBC giving so many wildcards to the women was a blunder. If they want diversity, have a Kunoichi-style contest. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the female contingent here is not deep or powerful, and giving free passes to Rose Wetzel and Alyssa Beird and Natalie Duran and Brittany Reid etc. is largely a waste of time.
Noah Kaufman already retired. He and Isaac Caldiero are no longer part of the Wolfpack, and neither competed this year. This says to me they’re both done.
He’s a friggin’ ER doctor, anyway. That’s plenty enough to keep a guy busy.
This is Grant’s second year on ANW. Last year he did well getting to Stage 2 (Failed on Double Salmon Ladder). I think no matter what being a rookie is tough. The setting has got to be a little intense. So this year, with the rookie experience behind him, I think he might make it to Stage 3. He made Stage 1 look easy this year and it took out all but 17.
Isacc Caldiero is definitely retired from ANW. He said so in a podcast or something. Of course, retirees sometimes make comebacks so who knows.
The part I didn’t like was at least two competitors completed the damn course, but all we saw was an edited version of them basically hitting the buzzer. But plenty of time to show a competitor in her wedding dress and all that back story - only to go out on the 2nd obstacle IIRC. Plenty of time for the relationship drama between the other woman who went out on the 2nd obstacle and her ex. But not enough time to show the complete runs of competitors who, you know, completed the friggen course.
Super psyched for the finale tonight!
Until then, here is an article about our favorite show from a most unlikely source… The New Yorker!
Mmm…eh. I liked that it acknowledged Sasuke; hardly any of the articles do. Besides that, nothing special. All right, some hard stats:
90 qualifiers and 10 wildcards. This year all 10 of them went to women. Already explained why I’m against this, and I also think that 10 was way too few, especially since there were only five prelims this year.
17 total finishers, the lowest percentage ever. Eliminations by obstacle: Snake Run 6, Propeller Bar 13, Giant Log Grip 11, Jumping Spider 8, Sonic Curve 3, Warped Wall 2, Broken Bridge 1, Flying Squirrel 8, and 27 not shown. That last one is why I can’t say what made this course so formidable. Of the four new obstacles, the only potential “ninja killer” was Flying Squirrel, and it didn’t seem especially deadly.
37 runs shown, 2 shown in part, 30 3WA’d, and, again, 27 not shown at all, for a total of 96. I’m…missing something here, but whichever. The pace was noticeably better than in prelims, so stories aren’t to blame (for a change 
). I think that at some point NBC is just going to have to man up and add two more hours of coverage. When three finishers are getting cut off at the knees, you have a problem.
Oh, it was blink-and-you-missed-it, but Yuri Force did compete in Stage 1 (and didn’t look hurt). Which means that it was Todd Bourgeois, Tyler Martin, or Shawn Richardson who had to pull out. And…I have no idea which. Dangit, why couldn’t NBC have just told us? What’s to gain by leaving this a big mystery?
And there you have it. Now that I have applied all my compiling and organizing skills into organizing the results of the prelims, I’d like to pause to review my work and ask one vital question…why the hell did I do this again? 
Seriously, the whole production has become so chopped up, blended, pureed, crushed, mashed, pulped, and squeezed that it’s impossible to make any reasonable deductions or even ordinary statistical analyses. Forget it…curiosity mostly satisfied; won’t do it again. (If anyone knows where those other four names went, by all means tell me!)
Saw the previews for Stages 2 and 3. Brrrr. NBC really does not want anyone to win this year. That Double Wedge alone is going to cause nightmares.
I don’t understand why they did “while we were away” runs in the final episode with only 17 competitors! In a two hour show! Including Flip Rodriguez, wtf?
Well, a satisfying finale. That curved body prop looked BRUTAL, but it was good to see Drew just cruise through it.
Still, this had to be the hardest stage 2 and 3 ever by a large margin. So many amazing ninjas couldn’t even beat stage 2. Particular heartbreak for poor Flip 
Still, a deserving best-performance-of-the-year for Drew Dreschel, but he clearly needs to pound the rock climbing obstacles in the off season. And Daniel Gil continues to impress. Jessie Graff looked solid on stage 2, and got as far as, or further than, many of the top men.
So… anyone know if there will be USA vs the world again this year? Some quick googling yielded nothing.
Well, I managed to call Daniel Gil making it through. Dead wrong on my other picks. I actually kind of forgot about Drew. I won’t make that mistake again! He was very impressive. He can definitely beat the course. But he definitely needs to hit the inverted rock climbing wall. Poor Drew.
Jessie was amazing. She got hung up on the swing or I think she might have made it further. She probably still would not have finished. But wow what a season for Jessie. She needs to continue to improve her grip strength. I’d love to see her go all the way and I believe, given the right training, she can.
Daniel Gil, go man go. Very impressive! He’s got the skills as well. He went down on the Ultimate Ultimate Cliffhanger by only the smallest of mistakes.
And yes, poor Flip. That’s a crappy way to go out.
I get very into this show. Every time somebody went out I would literally “Awww, no!” or “Oh no!”. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, what I love about this show is I can cheer for everybody! Gooooo Ninjas!
ANW has been renewed for a season 9! Yay!
Again, one of my main gripes with this show. I watched the Esquire airing last night, but delayed by almost an hour (half of the episode playing while I watched NOVA on DVR). And zapping through commercials and backstories, I caught up to real time with just a few minutes left. They have plenty of time show all the runs, just x-ing out the “Coming up later, the run we’ve been waiting for!” segments before each commercial break would have opened up enough time to show a couple of runs.
Well, it’s been a strange, revealing, at time exhilarating, at times shocking ride, with enough questions that it took me a while to mentally unpack it all (which you may have guessed from the fact that it took me almost a damn week to respond 
).
Reactions? Final impressions? What I think I should be thinking? Honestly, I don’t have any big takeaway from this. If this was a serious sport, I could come up with something fairly profound. If this was a goofy game show that embraced its silliness and had no pretensions (like Wipeout or Double Dare), I’d gladly offer a humorous take, or at least try to crack some jokes you haven’t heard ten million times already. But as long as NBC takes this weird, quasi-pro wrestling middle approach, I can’t tell you anything you don’t already know.
And that, I believe, is the real problem here, not just that NBC can’t get comprehensive until Stage freaking Three (I feel for you, Eyebrows of Doom), not that their gooey-mushy approach takes way too much time from the competition, but that they’re deliberately showing us only what they want us to see. Just to give an example, think about the difference between someone who only knew about game 6 of the 2003 NLCS from highlight reels and news articles, and someone who actually watched the game (and probably game 7 as well). For the former, the narrative is clear: Steve Bartman interfered with a sure-thing fly out in the eighth inning, thus activating the Curse of the Billy Goat and sparking an 8-run tear by the Marlins, making him singlehandedly responsible for costing the Cubs the NLCS, crucify him. (We’ll leave out the part about the Cubs being absolutely guaranteed to win the World Series if they’d made it because I don’t want to be here all week.) The latter, however, will bring up a laundry list of extenuating circumstances (lots of fans went after that ball, it was past the wall and hardly a sure thing, there was only one out at the time, these things freaking happen when you put the freaking fans right freaking next to the freaking field, Moises Alou had about three or four cows and made it look a lot worse than it actually was, and of course, Alex Gonzales got a creampuff double play grounder which would’ve stopped the bleeding at one run and suddenly turned into Lucy Van Pelt) and tell you that Bartman was the least guilty party that night. (There was also a game 7, of course, but let’s ignore that or I’m going to be at this for two weeks.) We can’t travel to six cities, there’s no radio broadcast, no foreign media coverage, no play-by-play. We are all in the former group. We are beholden to a network who has all the controls, all the tools, all the switches…all the power. As a result, I can’t tell you why this person slipped up, or that person had a burst of confidence, or even why Kacy Catanzaro can’t seem to pull it together anymore. Heck, I’m afraid to. I was already wrong about Yuri Force, dammit (and that looked to be as sure a thing as anything!).
So the heck with it; I’m just going to post what I think will happen in the future.
I think that six cities will become the standard, and it could increase in the future. Remember, by the time Stage 1 rolls around, nearly all the maudlin stories are either gone or tapped out (they were extremely lucky to have Jesse Labreck this year), there are no more inspirational gutsy warriors, and, oh yeah, the focus is on who’s good enough to win. If all the good stuff is in the prelims, NBC is going to want more of them. With the event getting more and more popular, to the point where walk-ons are willing to wait for weeks to get on, there’s never been a better time to expand.
I think that we are going to see the beginnings of a backlash from athletes who have given their lives to this sport and have never taken home a cent…even though it won’t amount to much. The direction seems to be that winning should be rare and exceptional (the ham-handed bungling of the double completion was probably the final straw), and it’s going to take a toll on those who actually need the money. There will be calls for a prize structure (which will go nowhere) and harsh words from established well-paid professional jocks (ditto).
I think that Geoff Britten is done. We’ve already seen some of the first wave bow out (Isaac Caldiero, Brian Wilczewski, Noah Kaufman), all with no fanfare whatsoever, and after all the horrendous hits he’s taken, I don’t see any reason for him to go another step. Heck, I’d be surprised if he ever talks about it again. Other possibilities include Joe Moravsky, Ryan Stratis, Mike Bernardo, and Chris Wilczewski. Jamie Rahn’s taken a bit of a beating lately, but he’s energetic and eccentric enough that he should last at least a couple more years. David “Flip” Rodriguez is probably 50/50 at this point.
I think that what would help this show a lot is 1. a female competitor who can challenge Jessie Graff 2. which will not happen anytime soon 3. and possibly ever. Graff is the perfect storm. A powerful athlete with a steady job which gives her enough free time to train for and compete on ANW, with no crippling psychological/emotional/personal issues and no time- and energy-draining commitments (like, say, children) and doesn’t give a tinker’s damn about getting married. I ask this for what seems like the Sagumeillionth time: who else is there? Meagan Martin doesn’t have the explosiveness to complete Stage 1 and if anything seems to be regressing, Michelle Warnky just isn’t that great, Tiana Webberley looks promising but hasn’t arrived yet, the less said about Kacy Catanzaro the better, and beyond them is a vast pool of sub-mediocrity. Unless Simone Biles decides to make the jump, Graff’s crown will be very secure for a long, long time.
I think that Drew Dreschel is, regrettably, going to be one of “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” guys. He had the good sense to get a paying job in ninja-ing instruction or whatever it’s called, and he’s popular and proven his worth, so he can keep doing this for as long as he likes. But if he still hasn’t figured out Hang Climb after three attempts, the fourth time is not going to be the charm. He always seems to be missing just a little bit, and, especially now, that’s enough to deny from Total Victory.
And finally…I think we need more! Team Ninja Warrior and the All-Star night were great additions…I certainly seem happier talking about them than the regular event!..and the time is ripe to expand. Let’s have an American Kunoichi! A juniors event! Heck, why not get some payback and have a Wipeout-style event where they can keep going after falling into the water! So much potential here; NBC would be fools not to exploit it.
(Sigh)…peace out.
I think Jesse Labreck is in the same category as Jessie Graff.
Love this pic of Jessie Graff:
Brian
I think they need to back off on the difficulty just a tad, or keep the courses the same for a longer period. If only 2 of your top competitors can make it past stage 2 of a 4 stage competition, then stage 3 wipes those guys out, and it’s a year until they get to try again, well…
If so, she will have plenty of chances to prove it, but she’s certainly not there yet. What’s been impressive about Jessie Graff recently has been her consistency. She’s been by a good margin the strongest female competitor for two straight years now. Meagan and Kacy have had moments, but have also had embarrassing early exits, which Jessie just hasn’t had.
Might as well post this: Team Ninja Warrior: College Madness
Should be a romp. All the competitors are young and healthy, so we don’t have to worry about any Sam Sann disappointments, and competitive spirit should very high even if this isn’t one of the big college sports. Then again…there are the fans. And almost certainly…CHANTS. Pretty good chance I’m going to be watching most of this on mute.