A classic American Ninja Warrior obstacle is making a comeback for the Cleveland qualifiers. Will it throw the competitors?
Every single qualifying course on this season of American Ninja Warrior has had at least one new obstacle. Last week’s episode, the Kansas City qualifying course, actually had half of the course be totally new.
But every so often, American Ninja Warrior pulls something out of the vaults for a little retro flair. At this week’s Cleveland qualifying course, that’ll be the Rolling Log. This obstacle is so old that it has its origins in the third Sasuke/Ninja Warrior course in Japan, as noted by an unofficial podcast. That season aired in 1999, per IMDb.
So yeah, the Rolling Log would be legal to drive and vote here in the States. But that doesn’t mean it can’t still take down some young whippersnappers looking for American Ninja Warrior dominance.
This promo has a pretty good look at the entire course, including the two new obstacles.
The first new obstacle mentioned in the press release that we’ll discuss is the I-Beam Gap, shown about 22 seconds into the promo. Just by its name, we can tell it’s a variant of the I-Beam Cross, but involving a full-blown jumping transition:
You can also spot the Ring Jump, although we’re not sure which obstacle takes the fifth position and which will immediately follow Razor’s Edge. Speaking of, check out part of Lucio Battista’s run below for a better look at it.
That log will whip lighter competitors around even more, and it’s particularly brutal to have an agility obstacle coming right after in the form of Razor’s Edge, the second new obstacle. After last week’s Broken Pipes turned out to be one of the toughest obstacles, don’t discount the agility obstacle.
Date: Monday, July 10
Start Time: 8 p.m. ET
Channel: NBC
Episode: “Cleveland Qualifiers”
Live Stream: Stream 1 | Stream 2
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What’ll be the toughest obstacle this week?