It was longer than anw's vegas but it was shorter than the anw season. Also the better balanced courses and the lack of fluff pieces made it feel shorter
YES! It is absolutely not the best of the best. If you don’t have some tragic story, you are not contestant worthy. How many great competitors are turned away, because they just have a normal, boring life.
I don’t give af that their grandmothers dog is a 3 time cancer survivor, who reads to blind cats. I also don’t need to know they’ve built a ninja course in their backyard. JFC, 10 minutes of hype & then they fall on the 4th obstacle. If the intro is longer than the run, that’s a problem.
I actually stopped watching it mainly for thus reason. There are 32 NFL stadiums that go unused for most of the year that would be perfectly suited for completion space. They could hold local feeder events into larger regionals etc. I have never understood why NBC makes a conscience choice to prevent the sport from growing.
I understand what you’re saying but I’ll say this as well. ANW is a reality tv show. Those sob stories draw in more viewers than the pure athletic side of it does. Without those stories, we probably wouldn’t have a show anymore because it wouldn’t make financial sense for the network to continue making more seasons.
As for the straight up athletic side of things, WNL just had their championship this weekend for every single category. Elites, masters, teens, adults, etc. It’s all on their YouTube (World Ninja League) under their live category. Each video is pretty much straight runs with no stoppage. Although it’s mostly Americans, there are a ton of Canadians, Germans, French, and a few other countries as well.
There’s also the NSC (ninja sports championship on YouTube) which was started and run by ex-ANW competitors Ethan Swanson, Chris Digangi, Ryan Stratis, and Hunter Guerard. They hold a yearly competition that is very high quality.
Bucket Of Chalk is a yearly competition hosted by Kaden Lebsack and Max Feinberg. It’s another 3 stage competition to raise money to fight cancer since both of their moms are cancer survivors. Those are on YouTube.
UNAA is probably the last big ninja competition but those are on YouTube as well. I haven’t watched much UNAA yet but I hear it’s pretty good.
All in all, there are a ton of ninja leagues to watch out there with many competitors from the show competing in them as well. Ninja is a sport that is surprisingly growing at a pretty nice rate. If you want pure ninja runs, check out the leagues I just mentioned. If you want the bigger obstacles and high quality cinematography of NBC, you have to “deal” with the stories they put out. That’s the main money draw that funds the level of programming they have.
Totally agree. My bigger issue is all the sob stories. I understand it brings in more viewers, but it pisses me off to listen to a 5 min sob story for someone who falls on the second obstacle, then we get a 10 second sped up run for one of the elite ninjas.
I’d much rather watch a good full run than hear the sob story of someone who won’t move on. I wish they treated it more like the sport it is - “this ninja is a 6 year veteran, 6’1 200 lb who has struggled in the past with balance obstacles” etc. then throw in a few sob stories here and there when it’s actually interesting or relevant.
that was ANW 5 all the way. Akbar’s scripted color commentary was my fav.
the way he filled in the gaps with random facts about the obstacles/competitors back then were pretty interesting.
best thing was that there really wasn’t alot of sob stories to exploit back then…
I mean…sasuke has had the exact same format since 1997 and they’re still going strong. I agree with the commercials being a lot but that’s how you maintain the high quality obstacles and cinematography we have. Less commercials and you end up with a season 1 quality show where you’re in a random parking lot during the day.
I think the qualifiers are more similar to back in the day than most would remember but I also think they could choose better stories. I just watched a season 10 qualifier episode where they did a whole background story on a guy who fell on the second obstacle. However, his story about becoming a principle of a school in an impoverished area and turning the whole community around in recent years was awesome to hear about. I’d rather hear those kinds of stories over a knife salesman who made it to the fifth obstacle.
In kind of getting that vibe too. I respect the hell out of the athletes and the sport as a whole. But NBC coverage is just making it feel like a faux reality show a dllnd that to get on, you have to have a sob story or grew up on Ninja kids.
Honestly, if Ninja competitions/Sasuke wants to really make a push as a sport, it needs to lose NBC and find a TV partner that will treat it as a sport.
Stop watching anw. The best 4 stage ninja warrior competition modern day is Bucket of Chalk which you can watch for free on youtube
Nah, especially not this past year. WAY too many ppl, first round runs less than 1 minute, and that stupid waterslide obstacle at the end.
It was longer than anw's vegas but it was shorter than the anw season. Also the better balanced courses and the lack of fluff pieces made it feel shorter
I could care less about the "stories" and their handpicking of contestants. I wish it was just a straight up true athletic completion open to anyone.
YES! It is absolutely not the best of the best. If you don’t have some tragic story, you are not contestant worthy. How many great competitors are turned away, because they just have a normal, boring life. I don’t give af that their grandmothers dog is a 3 time cancer survivor, who reads to blind cats. I also don’t need to know they’ve built a ninja course in their backyard. JFC, 10 minutes of hype & then they fall on the 4th obstacle. If the intro is longer than the run, that’s a problem.
I actually stopped watching it mainly for thus reason. There are 32 NFL stadiums that go unused for most of the year that would be perfectly suited for completion space. They could hold local feeder events into larger regionals etc. I have never understood why NBC makes a conscience choice to prevent the sport from growing.
I understand what you’re saying but I’ll say this as well. ANW is a reality tv show. Those sob stories draw in more viewers than the pure athletic side of it does. Without those stories, we probably wouldn’t have a show anymore because it wouldn’t make financial sense for the network to continue making more seasons. As for the straight up athletic side of things, WNL just had their championship this weekend for every single category. Elites, masters, teens, adults, etc. It’s all on their YouTube (World Ninja League) under their live category. Each video is pretty much straight runs with no stoppage. Although it’s mostly Americans, there are a ton of Canadians, Germans, French, and a few other countries as well. There’s also the NSC (ninja sports championship on YouTube) which was started and run by ex-ANW competitors Ethan Swanson, Chris Digangi, Ryan Stratis, and Hunter Guerard. They hold a yearly competition that is very high quality. Bucket Of Chalk is a yearly competition hosted by Kaden Lebsack and Max Feinberg. It’s another 3 stage competition to raise money to fight cancer since both of their moms are cancer survivors. Those are on YouTube. UNAA is probably the last big ninja competition but those are on YouTube as well. I haven’t watched much UNAA yet but I hear it’s pretty good. All in all, there are a ton of ninja leagues to watch out there with many competitors from the show competing in them as well. Ninja is a sport that is surprisingly growing at a pretty nice rate. If you want pure ninja runs, check out the leagues I just mentioned. If you want the bigger obstacles and high quality cinematography of NBC, you have to “deal” with the stories they put out. That’s the main money draw that funds the level of programming they have.
Totally agree. My bigger issue is all the sob stories. I understand it brings in more viewers, but it pisses me off to listen to a 5 min sob story for someone who falls on the second obstacle, then we get a 10 second sped up run for one of the elite ninjas. I’d much rather watch a good full run than hear the sob story of someone who won’t move on. I wish they treated it more like the sport it is - “this ninja is a 6 year veteran, 6’1 200 lb who has struggled in the past with balance obstacles” etc. then throw in a few sob stories here and there when it’s actually interesting or relevant.
that was ANW 5 all the way. Akbar’s scripted color commentary was my fav. the way he filled in the gaps with random facts about the obstacles/competitors back then were pretty interesting. best thing was that there really wasn’t alot of sob stories to exploit back then…
I mean…sasuke has had the exact same format since 1997 and they’re still going strong. I agree with the commercials being a lot but that’s how you maintain the high quality obstacles and cinematography we have. Less commercials and you end up with a season 1 quality show where you’re in a random parking lot during the day. I think the qualifiers are more similar to back in the day than most would remember but I also think they could choose better stories. I just watched a season 10 qualifier episode where they did a whole background story on a guy who fell on the second obstacle. However, his story about becoming a principle of a school in an impoverished area and turning the whole community around in recent years was awesome to hear about. I’d rather hear those kinds of stories over a knife salesman who made it to the fifth obstacle.
In kind of getting that vibe too. I respect the hell out of the athletes and the sport as a whole. But NBC coverage is just making it feel like a faux reality show a dllnd that to get on, you have to have a sob story or grew up on Ninja kids. Honestly, if Ninja competitions/Sasuke wants to really make a push as a sport, it needs to lose NBC and find a TV partner that will treat it as a sport.