There have been many times when watching American Ninja Warrior has seemed like it was an endeavor into a reality that will never be seen. It's easy to do that when you're a pessimist, but also when you are seeing people do things on a weekly basis that are almost impossible to believe. For better or for worse, this writer has been following American Ninja Warrior closely for all seven seasons. Of course, to close out season seven NBC decided to do a three hour season finale, and it did not remotely disappoint.
The Ninja Warrior finale was at Mount Midoriyama, like always, and they had already cut the field down to 28 contestants to begin stage two of the difficult four stage finals course. From there the contestants had to make it through the rope jungle, the double salmon ladder, the unstable tables, the butterfly jump, the roulette row, and the wall lifts. All of those obstacles had to be done in under two minutes and thirty seconds. Only eight of those 28 men who had qualified would advance through this course and make it to stage three. Those finalists would include Abel Gonzalez, Kevin Bull, Isaac Caldiero, Ian Dory, Joe Moravsky, Jeremiah Morgan, Geoff Britten, and Drew Drechsel.
Stage three was set up to be tougher than before with different obstacles than what had been seen previously. It is important to note that stage three is not timed. All three contestants breezed through the first three challenging obstacles, the first one moving like a screw as they had to alternate lifting their arms on pedals back and forth to get down to the next obstacle. The following obstacle was the doorknob grasper which had a set of five doorknobs, with the final two rotating like true doorknobs. Then they would get to the four floating boards, which is like grabbing a door and hanging onto the side of it and there is literally no knobs on these ones, and your feet are critically important to try and rest your arms on this stage.
Then comes the ultimate cliffhanger, in which the gentleman are grabbing onto a board that is about two inches thick and climbing up, over and jumping while only having a very small board to hold their entire body weight. This would be where the first contestants would fall this evening, as it laid claim to knocking out Abel Gonzalez, Kevin Bull, Joe Moravsky, and Jeremiah Morgan. Taking out half of the remaining field is quite impressive. From there they would have to do the pole grasper and go to the hang climb. The hang climb is an inverted rock wall that is also going upward at a 15 degree angle. This would lay claim to Drew Dreschel, which is the farthest he has ever advanced. The other three men all were able to get through area 51 and get to the flying bar. This is a bar that they have to propel forward five feet at a time and still swing themselves forward without throwing the bar off the small landing zones that it is in. Ian Dory was the first to attempt it, and he fell part way through. Isaac Caldiero made it through and seemed relatively at ease still, being the first American to finish stage three. Meanwhile Geoff Britten would barely hang on and even threw the bar on the landing mat as he almost fell into the water on his last attempt to make it to the landing area.
This brought everyone to the stage four finale of American Ninja Warrior, a 75 foot rope climb that had to be completed in under 30 seconds. Because Isaac Caldiero had finished stage three faster, Geoff Britten would be the first one to climb the rope. Britten was the first person to lay claim to the title of American Ninja Warrior as he reached the top with just 0.35 seconds remaining and everyone was able to celebrate the accomplishment they have been waiting seven seasons for. Isaac Caldiero climbed second and was able to beat that time by over three seconds as he is officially the winner of season seven of American Ninja Warrior and wins one million dollars.
American Ninja Warrior has been renewed for season eight and it will be interesting to see just how these two will perform next season as the pressure will be on them as all eyes will want to see just how they will do after getting this success.