Ninja Warrior

I finally had a chance to watch all of the new episodes that aired on Sunday. I didn't watch all of the American Ninja Challenge, but after watching the new guy David and how he ran out of time in Stage 1 with all the time he wasted with his posturing after beating obstacles I no longer have interest in it.

It was great to see some new blood, especially with two new guys getting past the new Cliffhanger. I would have liked to have an all-star or two in the mix as well but it didn't suffer too much from lack of face recognition in Stage 2 and beyond.

I do think that new Pipe Jump in Stage 1 was crap. I felt that way before it knocked out both Levi and Nagano, but after both of them failed on it I started really thinking about how random it seems. For some people the pipe stays pretty even on each side, and the jump is manageable. For other people one side seems to speed forward so that both ends of the pipe hit the ending at different times, robbing you of all momentum. There's a reason that they have people just bail off of the pipe after the Salmon Ladder, and even then most competitors don't take their eyes off of the pipe because they're just waiting for it to fall and brain them.

Only 1 guy made it past 3. The other guy (the 23 year old) disqualified himself on the Spider Flip because his foot hit the scaffolding. I also find it interesting the sense of honor these competitors have. Nobody called him out for his foot touching something, but he knew he'd done it and disqualified himself. 2 guys did make it past the new Cliffhanger though, which I never thought we'd see.

Finished last night watching the episodes that recorded over the weekend. That was one of the best competitions I've seen. The announcers trying really hard to play it off as the new blood vs. the all stars wore on me, but they really did have a nice mix of old and new all the way to the end.

Nagano getting 2 shots at the first stage was kind of crazy. I mean, he was right and the slider bar did get hung up but I wasn't even aware that a re-do was a possibility.

Third stage is still brutal as all hell. I wish they hadn't done the "fast forward" on some of the competitors. If guys make it all the way to the third stage, I want to see them try the third stage.

Having 2 guys make it to stage 4, and one of them being Nagano (I love that guy) was great. Unfortunately, it was obvious as soon as Kanno hit the top of the ladder portion that he was out of it. You can't burn half of your time just getting to the rope. Nagano missing the button by a second was crazy, he absolutely flew up that rope because I thought he had no shot about halfway up the rope.

Yeah, kind of weird that one weekend we get 23 and the next weekend we get 24. Seeing 5 people make it to stage 4 means that stage 3 is going to be a MOTHERFUCKER next competition. My guess is they'll add something like that giant Cliffhanger gap that stymied everybody for 3-4 competitions before people figured it out. Urushihara had come so close previously I wasn't all that surprised to see him make it. I was surprised to see a couple of them (Kongu and one other) visibly give up and stop trying to climb on stage 4. Kongu had an issue with the safety line, but at that point don't you just climb and forget about the other shit?

The last couple I think they've only had 1 woman, and she was one of the ladies who beat the last "Women of Ninja Warrior" competitions. I think a woman could pass stage 1, but there's no way they'd get through 2 at this point. Stages 2 and 3 are just such specific muscles any more and the women they allow through are the thin ones with good speed and balance (who just couldn't handle something like the Salmon Ladder).

Not to pat myself on the back too much, but DAMN. Stage 3 will take a little bit to solve. The fact that we don't even know what the last 3 obstacles really look like says something about the new Ultimate Cliffhanger. Even that first obstacle the Roulette Wheel looked fucking evil. It must have more texture on it than it appeared to have because it looked nearly impossible to pass yet everybody did. I was also shocked to see everybody passing the one that looked like hanging doors. When Kongu got to that I honestly had no idea how they would even attack it. I think it helped contribute to the fatigue that made the new Cliffhanger such a killer, but I wouldn't be surprised if those doors are gone next time since they didn't take anybody out.

I was bummed to see 2 of my favorites (Nagano and Levi) both go out so early again. That ring at the end of Stage 1 almost seemed built to weed out some of the shorter competitors, and it seemed like a lot of guys just barely one handed it. I wasn't all that shocked to see Nagano go out there. Watching Levi go out on what was obviously a mental error on the slider really sucked though.

And we didn't even get to see anybody attempt that. The first drop down looks similar to the old drop down, but people will have to use so much arm strength just to get there that it will be the end of a lot of competitors. Then they get to the one you're referring to which looks to be literally the width of one hand (which means you'll have to catch yourself with one hand, and then transfer your weight from one hand to another and THEN somehow swing yourself to the next drop down...). I was a little disappointed to not see Lee Yen Chi get to the upper portion. Being a rock climber I figured he'd be the best suited for that portion.

Newest competition aired this weekend and was one of the worst they've ever aired.  A bunch of missing All-Stars, and none of them even making it past Stage 1.  Heck, the New Stars got decimated as well.  G4 editing did nobody any favors as it became obvious early in to the final episode with their pacing that there wouldn't be time for a Stage 4 so it just became a matter of figuring out where in Stage 3 people would lose out (and the Ultimate Cliffhanger was a pretty easy bet).  The whole thing just felt off somehow, watching so many strong competitors get felled by Stage 1 really saps the whole thing of any energy.