S09.E05: Cleveland Qualifiers

[Lantern7]

Quote

Competitors tackle Razor's Edge and I-Beam Gap; returning players include the "fantastic four" from last season: Alyssa Beird, Rachel Goldstein, Jesse "Flex" Labreck and Michelle Warnky.

[slf]

Michelle Warnkey always cheers so hard for her friends, she's such a cutie.

Annika has potential if she keeps training and comes back. Can't imagine doing that after having chunks of your muscles cut out.

PJ (?) clung to that log like a frightened bear cub.

I had a bad feeling about all the F4 fuss. So not too surprised when Warnky splashed down. I would've thought she'd make it to the fifth obstacle, tho.

Tonight was the night for horrifying facial hair. Lucio's mustache was bad enough but that awful dyed beard? Ick ick ick.

Allyssa Beird was so impressive! Damn, doing the ring jump thing backwards and jumping the pegs two at a time? She killed the beams. Just fantastic. She and James McGrath seem like a nice couple and he seemed genuinely thrilled for her the whole time.

Najee Richardson! Aw, the other ninjas respect him so much. Forget that guy who does the salmon ladder when it's on fire- Najee can do back flips on the double salmon ladder. Did not doubt he'd be able to complete the course, that guy is so good. Skipped four pegs on the ring jump, damn.

Racecar driving is not a sport. It isn't. Racecar drivers are not athletes. They may do other things that are sports and that would make them athletes but you cannot prove drivers are athletes by virtue of being racecar drivers because they are not.

Jesse Labreck is amazing! I was clapping so hard for her. Such a smooth run. Loved her boyfriend losing his mind over her. So cute.

Edited July 11, 2017 by slf

[Chaos Theory]

Moral of the episode:  Date another ninja.  Hit a buzzer.

i am glad my three favorite women of the night are making it to the city finals.  Alyssa Beird and Fkex Labreck wet fantastic.    

Edited July 11, 2017 by Chaos Theory

[Taeolas]

Years ago, I thought they had a rule that if part of your costume touched water, you would be DQed. I guess they decided to drop that rule. Or modified it so that if a piece of clothing fell off, it wouldn't count; but if it was still on you, it counts. (That would make sense considering obstacles like the rolling log that can throw shoes as we saw tonight). 

 

All in all, this course felt easier than normal; but that may be because of how difficult some of the other courses this year have been. This one was actually probably at the sweet spot for difficulty, with no single obstacle taking out too many, but each one being a legit challenge.  

 

I was a bit worried the Weatherman was getting a wipeout edit, but even with all the changes going on for him, he still ran a solid course. 

 

Great runs, and some great wipeouts too tonight.  Great that 2 women hit the buzzer, and they will probably have a good chance of making it through to the next buzzer too.  (At the very least if the Top 2 women get throuhg to Vegas, they're probably all but shoo-ins to go to Vegas)

[Lantern7]

Looks like Jessie Graff has some pressure on her. Alyssa was good in her performance, but Flex smoked the course. Right now, NBC is fitting her for a tiara. I'm okay with both ladies having ninjas for boyfriends, but Brent Steffersen kinda tainted that for me.

Joe Moravsky was awesome as usual. If you didn't watch Team Ninja Warrior, he led Storm Team to the title. Speaking of TNW, I was disappointed that Jamie Rahn got the WWWA treatment. He performed like a damn hero, especially in the wild card round. And Jon Alexis still lumbers around, though he did qualify for the final.

Old guy was awesome losing his sneaker. I'm amazed he got that far on Razor's Edge.

[Chaos Theory]

I think this weeks course looks like a qualifying week course.   All the other weeks had at least one (maybe even two) that looked like they belonged on the final half of the course.    

[LadyNebula]

I can't believe they WWWA'ed Captain NBC.  That's ANW Sacrilege.

[AZChristian]

11 hours ago, LadyNebula said:

I can't believe they WWWA'ed Captain NBC.  That's ANW Sacrilege.

I have a sudden craving for alphabet soup.  LOL.

[Destiny74]

13 hours ago, LadyNebula said:

I can't believe they WWWA'ed Captain NBC.  That's ANW Sacrilege.

I couldn't believe it either.  I mean, he's Captain NBC, he is a living advertisment.  

[saber5055]

I know weather reporting is important, but I was spazzing out last night when my local channel played all the NBC commercials, then as soon as ANW started back up, they would cut to the local news studio for more radar weather reports. GAH! I did get to see some runs, and thought this course was way better than last week's for a qualifier. Flex rocked it, and her new boyfriend, too cute, and he gets tv fame now by partnering with Flex. And The Beast found a girlfriend! Hot dog! I want to be a ninja with a ninja boyfriend. I also got to see Weatherman's run; he's a favorite of mine. But I missed pretty much everyone else, thank you very much severe thunderstorm watch. And WTHeck, you mean Capt. NBC was WWA'd? Please!

[SophiaD]

That was a great episode.  Still WAY too many backstories, and far too many people who finished the course were WWA'd especially Jamie Rahn.  Also, I thought it was lame that they made such a big deal about the "fantastic four" women, or whatever it was, and one of them was WWA'd, when we got to see a bunch of other random people fail before she did.  Figure it out, show.

That said, I was thrilled for Alyssa and Flex and thought their boyfriends were adorable.  (I also think Akbar's comments about James McGrath's "man card" were stupid, not to mention sexist).

Love Joe Moravsky.  He's a favorite of mine.

[mlp]

I missed most of the show due to tornado warnings all around but I was happy to see that NBC has clips up of both Joe's and Jesse's runs.  Those were the two I most wanted to see.  Wow.  Add me to those who can't believe they WWWA'd Jamie Rahn.

[BullDurham]

23 hours ago, LadyNebula said:

I can't believe they WWWA'ed Captain NBC.  That's ANW Sacrilege.

They did the same thing to Jamie Rahn in his city qualifying last year.  And yet they showed the complete run of Michelle Warnky's father.  So many of the original ANW competitors have left the show, unable or not wanting to compete anymore.  Jamie Rahn is one of the first ANW competitors and NBC should show his complete run and the complete runs of all those who finish the course and make it up the wall.

Edited July 12, 2017 by BullDurham
Correct an error

[healthnut]

All around good episode, not too many sob stories. They even started with someone making it to the fourth obstacle, usually that takes like seven or eight runs and about 45 minutes. I knew when Michelle went early in the episode that wasn't a good sign but at least she'll get another crack at it. I, too, thought this was the easiest of the five courses we've seen so far. My big complaint is why do they always do the stupid POM Wonderful run last. Come on NBC! That takes away any suspense. Does anyone know when this was filmed, they all looked so cold, I would hate to end up in that water in freezing temps. Also, I didn't care for Christine grilling that poor mom about her dead child, ask a couple of questions and move on...it seemed like she was trying to get her to cry. 

[Morgan of Hed]

2 hours ago, healthnut said:

 My big complaint is why do they always do the stupid POM Wonderful run last. Come on NBC! That takes away any suspense. 

They don't always do that, it is often in the middle. A few weeks back, Jessie Graff ran after they gave out the "award", so I was pretty sure she crashed, otherwise they would have given it to her. 

[Guest]

20 hours ago, healthnut said:

. I knew when Michelle went early in the episode that wasn't a good sign but at least she'll get another crack at it. I, too, thought this was the easiest of the five courses we've seen so far.

This did seem like an easier course.  The combination of the "fantastic four" running and that half of them are ANW couples made me think it was intentional.  A bid tot have couples finish the course and get some women finishers instead of most of them advancing because of the top 5 women rule.

[ClareWalks]

Not to be a total perv (I am a straight woman so it is less pervy than it sounds) but Flex Labreck has the PERFECT body. Seriously. She manages to be strong and feminine in a way that seems...achievable, I guess. I should cut pictures of her out of a magazine and put them up at my gym.

[Richness]

What show did I watch? It wasn't ANW. They didn't mention KACY CATANZARO once, and they gave Captain NBC the While We Were Away Treatment. Wonders never cease. (Or if they did, I've become so numb to it that it didn't register.)

 

All it took were two women to hit the buzzer on the same qualifying course. Congratulations to Allyssa Beird and Jesse Labreck! Of course, the side story was still about the guys they were dating, so it wasn't all girl power all the time. Sure, they were ninjas too, but that only makes it slightly more relevant. But if that's what it takes to derail the Kacy bandwagon, I'm all for it. (And just clarify, my beef isn't with the lovely Kacy herself; it's with NBC over hyping her in the past.)

 

I'm also tired of them trying to make NASCAR drivers into a Ninja thing. It just ain't happening, so give it a rest already. Props to the Spinning Log for claiming a shoe. Overall though, I think the ninjas have finally got a handle on the log as it didn't throw as many people this time.

[MelinaBallerina]

I finally got to watch this off my DVR and it cut out at 18 minutes to finish!  On Demand asked if I wanted to watch the rest, so I clicked yes, but dang!  I still missed Moravsky!  He's one of my favorites.  I'm so bummed.  Allyssa Beird was awesome, but I missed Labreck.  

[mlp]

Quote

I still missed Moravsky!  He's one of my favorites.  I'm so bummed.  Allyssa Beird was awesome, but I missed Labreck.  

Joe and Jesse's runs are both on the ANW page at NBC's website.  Scroll down to the Clips.  I've watched them a couple times each.

[jhlipton]

Lebreck and Bierd finished 14th and 16th (Lebreck was only 10 seconds behind Rahn!) Bierd was also the slowest up the Wall.

On 7/11/2017 at 2:25 PM, SophiaD said:

I also think Akbar's comments about James McGrath's "man card" were stupid, not to mention sexist.

It was definitely sexist!

On 7/12/2017 at 8:04 PM, ParadoxLost said:

This did seem like an easier course.  The combination of the "fantastic four" running and that half of them are ANW couples made me think it was intentional.  A bid tot have couples finish the course and get some women finishers instead of most of them advancing because of the top 5 women rule.

Only 14 finished, which seems low, if anything (see ETA).  I think it seems easier because there was no one Ninja Killer -- the fails were fairly evenly distributed, and because they didn't show all the runs -- 15 people failed on the I-Beam Gap, but they only showed 3 or so.  No woman, other than Bierd or Labreck, made it across the Ring Jump.  So I think Bierd and Labreck deserve their victory as much as any button-smasher in any city.

ETA:  22 finishers in LA, 16 in San Antonio, 18 in Daytona Beach, 10 (!!!!) in Kansas City, 14 in Cleveland, and Denver still to come.  In terms of how many finished, this course is the second hardest!

Edited July 14, 2017 by jhlipton
Added Finishers Count

[VartanFan]

Akbar's sexist comments really bugged me.  I've always liked him and how he seems to get genuinely excited.  Also, we get it...it's a fucking wet dream to be in your 20s and be male, but stop doing the whole "FOR A GIRL" and "FOR AN OLD GUY" and "FOR A _____".  So many of these people have great runs irrespective of these characteristics.  I've been watching since the very beginning so maybe I"m just getting Ninja'd out (and it kills me to say that).  I definitely respected that Warnkey's dad got to run by waiting in the walkon line and not getting some pass because of his daughter.  Loved Flex last year and still love her even though she's gotten a bit famous.  

[jhlipton]

4 hours ago, VartanFan said:

Loved Flex last year and still love her even though she's gotten a bit famous.  

She doesn't seem to have let fame get to her (unlike some other Ninjas).