History Series / AmericanNinjaWarrior

* GameShowPhysicalChallenge: ''AmericanNinjaWarrior'' revolves around competitors trying to complete a series of difficult obstacle courses.

** In Season 14, Lebsack has further solidified his "ace" status by getting to Stage 4 ''for a second time'' - a feat ''which none of the competitors managed to accomplish in ANW history.'' '''And he was not alone:''' Jay "Lache" Lewis, Josh Levin, RJ Roman, and Josiah Pippel joined him for a chance to climb Mount Midoriyama. This so-called "Final Five" provided a record amount of attempts at Stage 4 in a single year. Although every single one of the competitors failed to reach the top in time, Kaden Lebsack managed to climb further than everyone else, thus earning the Last Ninja Standing title ''again.'' [[note]]Out of the remaining four, however, Josh Levin is known for successfully completing Stage 3 during ''USA vs. The World'' competition of 2016.[[/note]]
** Season 15 ups the ante by having several competitors ''repeat'' Kaden Lebsack's streak of two attempts at Stage 4 - namely, the aforementioned Daniel Gil and R.J. Roman. Not only that, but the amount of people successfully beating Stage 3 had been increased to a staggering '''eight'''. Out of those eight athletes, only ''two'' managed to secure Total Victory - Daniel Gil and Vance Walker, with the latter edging out the former by more than a second and successfully claming the $1,000,000 prize.

* LightningBruiser: ''A necessity''. In order to successfully tackle many obstacles on [=ANW=] courses, the competitors have to be both strong as rock climbers and quick as Olympic runners. Isaac Caldiero and Drew Dreschel are the best examples.

** Perhaps with the longer city finals courses in recent years; most competitors take upwards of 5 minutes and some take nearly 10 minutes to complete all 10 obstacles.
** In September 2015 stage 3 was ''finally'' conquered by Isaac Caldiero, who managed to beat the stage on the regular show, and managed it in ''less than four minutes''.

** As of recent seasons, Kaden Lebsack is the only one who holds the distinction of defeating the previously undefeatable ''Stage 3'' '''''twice.'''''

As of 2021, the ''American Ninja Warrior'' is hosted by former stand-up comedian and the winner of ''The New Celebrity Apprentice'' show Matt Iseman (since Season 2) along with former NFL player Akbar Gbaja-Biamila (since Season 5).

* DramaticUnmask: David "Flip" Rodriguez, a competitor who wears a half-mask while competing on ANW and freerunning, during the Season 7 qualifiers. [[spoiler:It worked, as he cleared the qualifying course, although perhaps subverted by the fact that he is for all intents and purposes a regular guy under the mask. Flip later revealed he wore the mask because of cripplingly low self-esteem due to the fact that he suffered sexual abuse as a child. After revealing his past on the show, he now works as a motivational speaker to uplift kids in similar circumstances and generally seems much more happy and confident.]]

** Season 13 underwent the so-called "Invasion of the Teenagers" where competitors of ''American Ninja Warrior Junior'' have taken stage together with long-time veterans. They've shown remarkable agility and power on the courses, but the most notable among them is 15-year old Kaden Lebsack. He not only successfully conquered Qualifiers and Semi-finals - ''he was the only one who defeated Stage 3'' in the reinstated Las Vegas Finals. Even though Lebsack failed to reach the top of Stage 4 in time, his first-time performance on the "adult" show is remarkable.
** In Season 14, Lebsack has further solidified his "ace" status by getting to Stage 4 ''for a second time'' - a feat ''which none of the competitors managed to accomplish in ANW history.'' '''And he was not alone:''' Jay "Lache" Lewis, Josh Levin, RJ Roman and Josiah Pippel joined him for a chance at climbing Mount Midoriyama. This so-called "Final Five" provided a record amount of attempts at Stage 4 in a single year. Although every single one of the competitors failed at reaching the top in time, Kaden Lebsack managed to climb further than everyone else, thus earning the Last Ninja Standing title ''again.'' [[note]]Out of the remaining four, however, Josh Levin is known for successfully completing Stage 3 during ''USA vs. The World'' competition of 2016.[[/note]]
* ActionGirl: Every season, many women tried their luck on the competition with varying results. Ever since later seasons the number of women participating in the competition grew larger and larger with each season. Most notable of these women, include:
** Kacy Catanzaro, the first woman ever to successfully climb the Warped Wall and complete a qualifying course. She would later clear a Regional Finals course, becoming the first woman ever to accomplish this, as well as the only to do it until Season 11. She did all this in the sixth season.

** Stuntwoman Jessie Graff, who in season 7 completed a qualifying course as well and made it to the ninth obstacle in a Regional Finals course, becoming the second woman (after Catanzaro) to made it to Las Vegas without being wildcarded. Later in Mt. Midoriyama Stage 1, just like Martin in season 6, she timed out on the Warped Wall.

*** However, due to the episodes airing out of order of how they’re filmed (each city’s qualifiers and finals are filmed over two consecutive nights, but aired a couple months apart so that all the qualifiers are together and all the finals are together), this is technically untrue- Maggi Thorne was the first mother to climb the Warped Wall. She was just unlucky enough to have that episode (a Finals episode) air later than the episode when Sandy scaled the wall (a Qualifying episode).

* AlmightyJanitor: Isaac Caldiero, the first winner of the competition, works as a bus boy, a fact that was mentioned by the commentators several times during his run on Stage 3.
* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: The [[TrueCompanions Wolf Pack]] (namely Ian Dory, Brian Arnold, Isaac Caldiero and Dr. Noah Kaufman) can be seen as the American antecedent to the Black Tigers of ''Sasuke''.
* BaitAndSwitch: Due to unpredictable nature of the competition, this happens quite frequently. Whenever Matt and Akbar announce the most anticipated runs from elite ninjas, said ninjas later happen to fail the course. For example, Drew Dreschel's run at Miami City Finals in Season 6 ends much quicker than Dreschel himself anticipated - he falls ''at the second obstacle''.
** Quite a funny example comes around in Season 12. In the first night of Semi-finals, Grant [=McCartney=] aka ''The Island Ninja'' makes an announcement about the sideline reporter Zuri Hall running the course... only for Zuri immediately switching places back with Grant.

* BonusSpace: The Mega Wall. A higher Warped Wall, it offers a cash bonus to anyone who completes it. Generally, this is only offered in the preliminaries and semi-finals.

* CelebrityEdition: Celebrity specials were produced for the Red Nose Day charity telethons in 2017 and 2018, pairing up various celebs with notable Ninja Warrior competitors. The standout celeb was Creator/StephenAmell in 2017, who did as well as any regular competitor and even insisted doing the salmon ladder, despite it not being part of the Celebrity Edition course, since he was known for doing it on [[Series/{{Arrow}} his own show]]. Next year, [[ADayInTheLimelight Akbar Gbajabiamila]] himself stepped onto the course; and he managed to do pretty well despite being quite a large guy (almost 250 lbs.!) and skipping one obstacle.

** Levi Meeuwenberg, one of the top competitors in the early years of American Ninja Warrior, no-showed Season 3 to do stunt work, showed up in Season 4 only to be eliminated by the first obstacle, and then retired to Michigan to become a farmer and was never mentioned again.
** It could be said that much of ANW's early history has been retconned out of series canon. None of the 10 competitors who qualified for Japan in Season 1 are still competing today, and the few that competed in the later seasons were barely mentioned.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: At every National Finals since Season 4, ninjas' clothing indicates their respective qualifiying city.
** All-Stars specials assign colors to each Team participating in the relay races across the Stages 1, 2 and 3. Same also goes for ''[=USA=] vs. The World'' competitions.

* CurbStompBattle: In the 2014 special "USA vs. Japan", [[spoiler:the Japanese all wiped out, with the final result 6-0 USA.]]

** Stage 3 remained unconquered for ''seven years'' before finally being successfully completed by not one, but ''two'' competitors in September of 2015 - with the first being Isaac Caldiero and the second being Geoff Britten - who managed to finish the course and advance to Stage 4. Both men would proceed to complete the final stage, with Caldiero edging out Britten's time by ''just shy of four seconds'', becoming the first ever American Ninja Warrior.

* GameBreakingBug: Has been known to occur on several occasions, although most often the affected runs are re-taped and never mentioned on television.

* GameShowPhysicalChallenge: ''AmericanNinjaWarrior'' revolves around competitors trying to complete series of difficult obstacle courses.

* HarderThanHard: Despite nearly 1,000 people trying every year, it would be ''seven years'' before anyone completed the entire course, when Geoff Britten and Isaac Caldiero finally climbed the Mountain. You'd have to be as strong as a rock climber ''just to clear Stage 1'' - and good luck progressing ''even further''.
* HandicappedBadass: Anyone who suffered serious injuries not long before the competition, as well as several amputees. In one particular instance, Artis Thompson III was awarded with a ''Run of the Night'' after crawling through Log Runner ([=3rd=] obstacle) ''with his prosthetic leg.''

** It starts with ''Qualifiying Rounds'' which present ever-changing obstacles each season - some of them can trip up even the elite ninjas. ''City Finals'' aren't just a subtle change from Qualifiers; they're always being made even harder by subtly changing earlier obstacles and adding new ones to the latter half of the course. Aside from physical and mental approach required to successfully tackle these obstacles, you have to also pay the attention to the leaderboards: ''only 30 competitors'' from Qualifiers who managed to get as far and as fast as possible are allowed to be competing in City Finals - and ''only 15'' can make it to the National Finals.

** In September 2015 stage 3 was ''finally'' conquered by Isaac Caldiero, who managed to beat the stage on the regular show, and he managed it in ''less than four minutes''.

* MeaningfulName: David Campbell aka ''The Godfather''. He is the first to build a whole obstacle course in his backyard for further training; since then, many top competitors followed his example over the years.

** ''Season 12 itself (2020)'' is a major case. Due to [=COVID-19=] pandemic drastically changing everything around the world, the format of American Ninja Warrior had to be changed along with it. To elaborate: instead of the usual structure "City Qualifiers - City Finals - National Finals", it adopted a much simpler one: 4 weeks of Qualifiers followed by 2 weeks of Semi-finals followed by last 2 weeks of the Finals. The entirety of the competition is confined within the walls of The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri. 50 top competitors were allowed to bring 2 more people each along with them (either former competitors, members of their family, fans, or co-workers), having a total amount of competitors to 150 - much less than in any prior season. The top prize is reduced to $100,000; however, the successful climb on the (completely optional) Mega Wall would bring the competitor additional $10,000. And of course, medical testing combined with social distancing as much as possible are mandatory.
** ''Season 13 (2021)'' retains the "no crowds" policy from the previous year; however, Las Vegas finals at Mt. Midoriyama and $1,000,000 prize were brought back.

** Season 10 added the "Mega Warped Wall" for the Qualifiers. This wall is 18 feet high. The regular Warped Wall is still there. Also, the successful climb on Mega Wall awards the competitor with $10,000.
** Obstacles in Mt. Midoriyama that appear every year include: the Jumping Spider and the Warped Wall in Stage 1; the (modified) Salmon Ladder in Stage 2; the Ultimate Cliffhanger (which is modified in later seasons), the Hang Climb and the Flying Bar in Stage 3; and the Stage 4 rope-climbing course.

* SpinOff: ''Jump City: Seattle'', a competition between Freerunning teams which featured many ''ANW'' alumni. Possibly subverted when several competitors from the former (namely, Drew Drechsel and David "Flip" Rodriguez) became elite competitors on the latter.

* TimedMission: Stages 1, 2 and 4 of every National Finals since Season 4.

** Ever since Season 5, events where rookies (competitors entering the competition for their very first time) completing courses with insanely fast times and/or reaching amazingly farther in a course or Mt. Midoriyama than expected have becoming pretty much pedestrian.

* WolverinePublicity: Many veterans are given greater focus than the rest, but for a while there, the "Ninja Couple," Brent Steffensen and Kacy Catanzaro stood out the most, especially after Kacy skyrocketed in popularity for being the first woman to climb the Warped Wall and complete a City Finals course. However, neither of them competes anymore, and Kacy was unfortunately never able to replicate the success she had on Season 6.

It initially evolved into an elaborate competition after a preliminary elimination round. The contest set up three groups of five to go against each other in various obstacles, usually items inspired by Midoriyama and including a physical strain between obstacles. The team to have the lowest combined time has to send two of their members to compete against each other to determine who goes home. Unique to reality shows, and certainly in the spirit of Ninja Warrior, is that despite the spirit of competition, all of the people involved rooted for each other and looked to build the strongest team to show off in Japan.

In 2012, the format of ''ANW'' changed. There are no longer bootcamps, just tryouts. Tryouts were held in regional competitions, first in qualifiers (in which the top 30 advance to the next round.[[note]]According to the rules, anyone who completes the qualifier is guaranteed to make it to the next round. In the event where less than 30 people complete the qualifier (which almost always happened), the subsequent spots are filled up by the remaining competitors who made it the furthest on the course in the fastest amount of time. In season 9, additional spots may be granted so that five female contestants also qualify.[[/note]], then in City Finals. The top 15[[note]]Just like for the qualifier, anyone who completes the course is guaranteed to move on to the finals, When the number of finishers of the course is less than fifteen, the remaining slots are filled up by those who went the furthest on the course in the fastest amount of time.[[/note]] from each region was guaranteed a spot in Mt. Midoriyama in Las Vegas, with the remaining twenty-five slots filled by Wildcards. There is no time limit for the qualifier, the city final, or stage 3 of the finale, but stages 1, 2, and 4 of the finale are timed. The top prize is currently $1,000,000 (a sum that has doubled each season from the initial $250,000). The ''ANW'' Finals runs exactly the same way as the ''Sasuke'' version, with 100 finalists competing across four stages.

In January 2014, NBC aired a 2-hour special called "USA vs. Japan". Instead of a straight ''Ninja Warrior'' run, this takes elements from the earlier seasons of ''ANW''. Both teams compete against each other in 1-on-1 races. ''All'' of the warriors get to run the stages, even if they wouldn't have been able to in normal competitions. However, the winner of each Stage was determined on a best 3-of-5 in 1 vs. 1 matches. The winner of the Stage got the equivalent number of points as the Stage number. So Stage 1 was worth 1 point, Stage 2 worth 2 and Stage 3 worth 3. Stage 4 served as the tiebreaker if both teams had 3 points at the end of Stage 3, and it is truly 1 vs 1. The winner of each match was determined in one of three ways:

As of September 14, 2015, the show has had its first ever winner crowned in Isaac Caldiero, the first competitor to complete stage 3 and the second to complete stage four, beating out his competition Geoff Britten's time by 3.86 seconds.

On January 29, 2016, NBC and formerly Esquire spun-off ANW with ''Team Ninja Warrior'', featuring many of the fan favorites of ANW. In 2018, ''Team'' was renamed ''ANW: Ninja vs. Ninja'', and the show moved to [[Creator/USANetwork USA Network]].

It can be expected that a lot of tropes applying to ''Ninja Warrior'' can be applied here.

** Levi Meeuwenburg until season 4. In the first season, he went the farthest, making it to Mt. Midoriyama Stage 3 but fell on the fourth obstacle. He was the first competitor and had been to the actual course more than anyone. No one doubted that he would make it and was generally a fan favorite both here ''and'' in Japan.
** In season 4, Brent Steffensen, who went the farthest in Mt. Midoriyama that season, became the first person ever to complete the Ultimate Cliffhanger, the fourth obstacle in Stage 3, beating the record set by Meeuwenburg in the first season. He would later fell in the sixth obstacle, the Hang Climb.
** Later in season 5, the person who went the farthest that season, Brian Arnold, broke that record when he made it as far as, but fell on, the eighth & last obstacle, the Flying Bar.
** Joe Moravsky in Season 5. He made it to Stage 3 of Mount Midoriyama, a very impressive feat for even ninjas with years of experience, and it was his ''first year''. Even more impressive is that he is a weatherman, not exactly someone you'd expect to be that good. He would later reach Stage 3 again in season 6, where he went the farthest than anyone else.

* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: Stage 3 remained unconquered for ''seven years'' before finally being successfully completed by not one, but ''two'' competitors in September of 2015 - with the first being Isaac Caldiero and the second being Geoff Britten - who managed to finish the course and advance to Stage 4. Both men would proceed to complete the final stage, with Caldiero edging out Britten's time by ''just shy of four seconds'', becoming the first ever American Ninja Warrior.

''American Ninja Warrior'' is a reality show inspired by the bi-annual competition in Japan, ''Sasuke''[=/=]''Series/NinjaWarrior''. In fact, for the first three seasons, the prize for the show was being a member of the 10 American athletes who were flown to Japan to compete among the ''Ninja Warrior'' All-Stars. It [[ChannelHop currently airs]] on {{Creator/NBC}}, and it's the sole surviving show from Creator/{{G4TV}} which shuttered in 2012 (though the channel would be revived in 2021).

* DoubleUnlock: The Mega Wall in the 2023 season. An attempt is only offered for a $10,000 bonus if the participant completes the entire course in under 80 seconds.

** Season 4: Sportscaster Angela Sun.

* LeParkour: Practiced by numerous competitors, not surprisingly.

** In Season 14, Lebsack has further solidified his "ace" status by getting to Stage 4 ''for a second time'' - a feat ''which none of the competitors managed to accomplish in ANW history.'' '''And he was not alone:''' Jay "Lache" Lewis, Josh Levin, RJ Roman and Josiah Pippel joined him for a chance at climbing Mount Midoriyama. This so-called "Final Five" provided a record amount of attempts at Stage 4 in a single year. Although every single one of the competitors failed at reaching the top in time, Kaden Lebsack managed to finish the climb faster than everyone else, thus earning the Last Ninja Standing title ''again.'' [[note]]Out of the remaining four, however, Josh Levin is known for successfully completing Stage 3 during ''USA vs. The World'' competition of 2016.[[/note]]

** After Kacy finished a City Finals course in Season 6, no woman replicated that feat again until Season 11- when ''two'' women did it in one night! Both Michelle Warnky and Jesse Labreck completed the course. Also noteworthy is that Warnky had completed the City Qualifiers with blood pouring down her face after hitting her head, then completed the Finals with gnarly-looking stitches that were less than 24 hours old. Badass.
* YourWorstNightmare: As Geoff Britten admits in the interview before tackling National Finals of 2015 season, Stage 1 makes him uncomfortable due to the lack of upper body obstacles - where he's most efficient at. Despite the initial fear, he manages to complete Stage 1... '''''and beat the entire Mount Midoryama course, as well.'''''
** James [=McGrath=], in his last ''three seasons'', went out on the exact same obstacle in Stage One- the Jumping Spider. To make his hatred of the obstacle even worse, two out of the three times he fell on that obstacle, he tore the labrum in one shoulder- a different shoulder both times.

** Season 14 set up a new record: '''5 people''' managed to beat it. That's the very same amount of competitors who managed to do so ''across the previous 13 years!''

** ''National Finals'' turn the stakes UpToEleven. Several Stages are timed, and you just can't afford to make longer breaks while running through the course. Even if you manage to get onto the next Stage, it becomes ''much harder and harder'' to progress. What makes it even worse is the fact that, unlike Qualifiers and City Finals, if you make a simple mistake and fall into the water - ''you're out of the competition''. '''''Period.'''''

* SequelSeries: Evolved from ''American Ninja Challenge'', a segment on G4's ''Attack of the Show'', in which a few Americans were chosen to go to Japan to compete on ''SASUKE'', the Japanese version (making this a SpiritualSuccessor as well). Obviously turned UpToEleven when 10 Americans went to compete in Japan in Season 1 and later 100 went to Las Vegas for the American-specific finals starting in Season 4.

* UpToEleven: The basic premise of the second half of Season 8's All-Stars episode, it took several iconic obstacles and made supersized versions of them, such as a Warped Wall that was ''5 feet taller'', or a Salmon Ladder that was ''seven stories tall'' (35 rumps).
** Then Season 10 debuted the "Mega Warped Wall" for the City Qualifiers. Competitors may attempt the 18 foot Mega Wall for a chance at $10,000. However, they got only one chance at the Mega Wall, and, failing that, one chance at the Warped Wall[[note]]Competitors can still opt to attempt the regular Warped Wall up to 3 times. The Mega Wall is not used in the City Finals[[/note]].

** [[PintSizedPowerhouse Kacy Catanzaro]], and how! She is the first woman to ''EVER'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfZFuw7a13E complete a city finals course]] and qualify for the Las Vegas finals, and the fact that she is just 5’1” and 100 pounds takes the trope UpToEleven.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: The most well-known costumed ninja - Jamie Rahn aka ''Captain [=NBC=]'' - has green hair.

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anw_2894.jpg]]

As of 2021, the ''American Ninja Warrior'' is hosted by former stand-up comedian and the winner of ''The New Celebrity Apprentice'' show Matt Iseman (since Season 2) along with former [=NFL=] player Akbar Gbajabiamila (since Season 5).

* BaldOfAwesome:
** 2014 saw the debut of Kevin Bull, who has alopecia (a condition that leaves people without hair). He set one of the fastest times in Venice Qualifying, then in the Finals became the first of only four contestants to conquer the Cannonball Alley obstacle ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4OD0OfWQ98 using his feet!]]), as well as one of only two to actually complete the course (the other being veteran David Campbell, who is also bald).
** Brent Steffensen, the first ever competitor to complete the fourth obstacle in Stage 3 in Mt. Midoriyama (in season 4), is bald.
** Later in season 5, famous bald rock climber & ANW veteran Brian Arnold also completed the fourth obstacle in Stage 3 and went ''even farther than Steffensen did in the previous year'', reaching the eighth & final obstacle but falling on it (Steffensen fell on the sixth obstacle the previous year).

''American Ninja Warrior'' is a reality show inspired by the bi-annual competition in Japan, ''Sasuke''[=/=]''Series/NinjaWarrior''. In fact, for the first three seasons, the prize for the show was being a member of the 10 American athletes who were flown to Japan to compete among the ''Ninja Warrior'' All-Stars. It [[ChannelHop currently airs]] on {{Creator/NBC}}, and it's the sole surviving show from Creator/{{G4TV}}, when it was a linear cable network.

* MixedRace: One of the top female competitors, Meagan Martin, was raised by an African-American father and Caucasian mother.

** Other notable female competitors include Nika Muckelroy, Tiana Webberley, Rachael Goldstein, Natalie Duran, Joyce Shahboz, Allyssa Beird, Barclay Stockett, Zhanique Lovett, Mady Howard, and Jeri D'Aurelio.

* YankTheDogsChain: [[spoiler:Andrew Lowes]] seemingly cleared the First Stage in Season 5, only to be told after a commercial break by co-host Jenn Brown that the judges ruled that he had ran out of time.

* {{Filler}}: Some profiles. One particular example of filler was a two minute-long profile for someone who went out in ''three seconds''.

* LooksLikeJesus: Isaac Caldiero, the first American Ninja Warrior. In his debut, two years before he became the first man to win the compitition, he actually showed up dressed as Jesus.

* MixedRace: One of the top female competitors, Meagan Martin, was raised by African-American father and Caucassian mother.

** ''Season 12 itself (2020)'' is a major case. Due to [=COVID-19=] pandemic drastically changing everything around the world, the format of American Ninja Warrior had to be changed along with it. To elaborate: instead of the usual structure "City Qualifiers - City Finals - National Finals", it adopted a much simpler one: 4 weeks of Qualifiers followed by 2 weeks of Semi-finals followed by last 2 weeks of the Finals. The entirety of the competition is confined within the walls of The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri. 50 top competitiors were allowed to bring 2 more people each along with them (either former competitors, members of their family, fans, or co-workers), having a total amount of competitors to 150 - much less than in any prior season. The top prize is reduced to $100,000; however, the successful climb on the (completely optional) Mega Wall would bring the competitor additional $10,000. And of course, medical testing combined with social distancing as much as possible are mandatory.

** Season 10 added the "Mega Warped Wall" for the Qualifiers. This wall is 18 feet high. The regular Warped Wall is still there. Also, the successful climb on Mega Wall awards the competitior with $10,000.

* TimedMission: Stages 1, 2 and 4 of the every National Finals since Season 4.

* WolverinePublicity: Many veterans are given greater focus than the rest, but for a while there, the "Ninja Couple," Brent Steffensen and Kacy Catanzaro stood out the most, especially after Kacy skyrocketed in popularity for being the first woman to climb the Warped Wall and complete a City Finals course. However, neither of them compete anymore, and Kacy was unfortunately never able to replicate the success she had on Season 6.