S11.E18: All Stars Skills Challenge Special

[Quilt Fairy]

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Iconic obstacles get supersized as the best competitors face off in the high-octane skills competition, featuring the Big Dipper, Fearsome Ferris Wheel and Striding Steps; three all-star teams compete in a competition relay race.

 Presumably Drew was part of this, so we'll see how well NBC can edit him out. 

 

Air date: Monday, August 31, 2020

[Lantern7]

Skills Challenge: always a fun way to kill two hours. And I wasn't even looking for holes in the tape where Drew Dreschel had been forcibly erased from the footage. That's gonna be a depressing mini-game this season.

Double Dipper Diving for the win. I get that Grant McCartney can bug, but you have to admire his enthusiasm with his dives. The pineapple-covered Speedo? Yeah, that's debatable. Nice that he wound up sharing the title with Jessie Graff. You gotta love Jessie going upside down to achieve a superhero pose while in flight.

[EllenB]

 Jessie Graff manages to be an amazing athlete and have fun at the same time.  That was a beautiful dive.

[Iguana]

So this was filmed pre-COVID, right?  Funny how quickly the maskless crowds have become a symbol of the Before Times. 

The freestyle dive was a blast. Loved how much fun the ninjas had and how creative and skilled most of the dives were.  While I will give kudos to Island Ninja for 2 of his 3 dives, Jesse Graf is the queen and rules all.  All three of her dives were great. 

[Vermicious Knid]

It was filmed a year ago when they did the final, USA vs the World, and this. That said, superhero pose! That should be the iconic image for ANW.

[saber5055]

That was so much fun. I'm not a Grant fan,, but I do admire his attitude and how much fun he and others were having. I also vote yes on Speedos for everyone. Jessie rocked it, as she always does. It amazes me that competitors that fail on an obstacle during the season can get through the same ones when on a team. Maybe they just get more time to rest beforehand.

Anyway, a great way to spend a Monday night, seeing my ANW heroes.

What happened to Drew?

ETA: Never mind. I'm reading the media thread about Drew. I really had no idea, never saw word one about this until today.

Edited September 1, 2020 by saber5055

[Taeolas]

I think if Grant had nailed the ring on his second dive, there wouldn't have been a tie. But Jessie certainly rocked the dives in her own way, and I've got no problem with the tie in the end. 

As for Ninjas nailing an obstacle after failing it earlier; sometimes it's the pressure. Sometimes its fatigue. And sometimes it's just not knowing how the obstacle works that leads to the failure. So if they can come at it from a different angle (like the team challenges), especially if they experienced and failed it, they can nail it the second time. Most of the Ninjas practice on a wide range of obstacles, and sometimes it's just a little detail they mess up that causes them to fail. (In fact its those little details that the obstacle designers thrive in). 

All in all, a great warm up for the new season, and I'm eager to see what we get next week now. 

[Chaos Theory]

The ninjas that have been doing this awhile and aren’t just a flash in  the pan that get lucky one year and then flame out have good muscle memory.  What I mean is that the ones that do fall especially on a really tough obstacle would likely get past it if they were given a second go at it.  
 

The skills events are really fun.   You can tell all the ninjas were having a great time.   
 

I honestly didn’t know anything about Drew Dreschel until I came here.   Honestly he was never one of my favorites anyway so I didn’t even notice he was missing.  But dude!!!!!

i really love when the camera rolls over to the parents or family of some of the ninjas.   I love Jessie Graff’s mom and Adam Rahl’s mom.

Edited September 2, 2020 by Chaos Theory

[realdancemom]

They did a great job editing.  I couldn't tell if Drew competed in any events.

The Big Dipper dive contest was so fun and the Ninjas are really creative.  Jessie just has beautiful form down to her toes.  I love that she struck a super hero pose at the end.  I can see why they pick the people that they did either because they were gymnasts or a stunt person.  I'm thinking Grant was chosen because he probably does some cliff diving in Hawaii for fun.  He was able to hold his breath for a long time in the under water obstacle.

I was cheering for everybody except Flexington for the striding steps so of course he wins.  He makes Grant seem mild.  I never really minded guys like Grant or Jake Murray.  They seem to be having fun.  But Flexington is just too much.  I think it's because he's doing a persona that is not really him so it seems so fake.

[Omeletsmom]

 

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 But Flexington is just too much.  I think it's because he's doing a persona that is not really him so it seems so fake.

I think I don't mind Flexington because he IS so fake.  The character is clearly meant to be ridiculously over the top.  He's having a ball with the tackiness and so am I.

[AdorkableWitch]

3 hours ago, Omeletsmom said:

 

I think I don't mind Flexington because he IS so fake.  The character is clearly meant to be ridiculously over the top.  He's having a ball with the tackiness and so am I.

It's old school pro wrestling and I am here for it 

[djlynch]

On 9/2/2020 at 12:41 PM, realdancemom said:

I was cheering for everybody except Flexington for the striding steps so of course he wins.  He makes Grant seem mild.  I never really minded guys like Grant or Jake Murray.  They seem to be having fun.  But Flexington is just too much.  I think it's because he's doing a persona that is not really him so it seems so fake.

I think that’s it for me. Folks like Grant, Jake Murray, and Neil Craver are, at most, exaggerating the goofy Or unusual aspects of their personalities. Even when they made a bigger deal of Jamie Rahn being “Captain G4” or “Captain NBC,” he was a regular guy in a costume and not a full character.

Edited September 8, 2020 by djlynch

[Rosenrot]

17 hours ago, AdorkableWitch said:

It's old school pro wrestling and I am here for it 

High five! I was a massive pro wrestling fan for ten years. Not so much anymore, but the sport still has a place in my heart. Maybe that's why I've come to like Flexington - he raises some warm memories. 

It felt good to have some Ninja back. Drew who? It's a real shame though that they had to edit out so much stuff because of one idiot. Loved the Double Dipper Diving. 

  

Edited September 8, 2020 by Rosenrot