Tonight on NBC their obstacle course competition American Ninja Warrior returns with an all-new Monday, June 5, 2023, episode and we have your American Ninja Warrior recap below! In tonight’s American Ninja Warrior season 15 episode 1 & 2 as per the NBC synopsis, “The qualifying rounds begin in L.A. with ninjas from across the country taking on the world’s most challenging obstacle course.
Competitors as young as 15 return to take on veterans and will have a chance to face an even taller Mega Warped Wall.”
Tonight’s episode looks like it is going to be a great season 15, so be sure to tune in for our coverage of NBC’s American Ninja Warrior at 8 PM – 10 PM ET! While you wait for our American Ninja Warrior recap make sure to check out all our American Ninja Warrior news, spoilers, recaps & more!
Tonight’s American Ninja Warrior recap begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!
In tonight’s American Ninja Warrior episode, Matt and Akbar were back for an all new season of “American Ninja Warrior”. Tonight kicked off with the introduction of the many changes taking place this year. Up first was the Runoffs. The show has to one up each other and this year has two ninjas directly competing against each other in the race to the buzzer. It was going to be like this throughout the whole season. The first to try out this new system was newbie Emily Gardiner. She was sixteen. She was competing this year with her father.
Emily was a budding gymnast when her father introduced her to ANW. He’s been doing it for a while and he wanted to share the experience with his daughter. He would take her to the ninja gyms. They also had an obstacle course at home. Emily really came to love the ninja world. She now was a better ninja than her own dad. Not that he minded because again he loves sharing this with her. Her dad will run much later on. The person that Emily was directly competing against proved to be Desmond Odom.
Desmond was older than Emily. He wasn’t an old man or anything. He was still relatively young. Only he has a career. He was a special education teacher. He became involved with the ninja world thanks to the encouragement of his students. Desmond works with students who have disabilities. It was a rewarding career for him and more often than note it came with its own challenges. He sometimes have nonverbal children. He found that ANW was one way to reach out to them. The kids love watch him compete. Desmond was technically a veteran because he’s run the course at least twice before. And he was known for being cursed.
Desmond has a habit of falling on the second obstacle. No matter how hard he tried, he never made it past that obstacle until tonight. Tonight he made it all the way to the the third obstacle when he fell. Emily made it to the fifth. Emily was in a better position, but things can and will change depending on how many people make it past further and faster than Emily did. There was someone during the commercial break that also made it to the fifth obstacle. Her name is Casey Rothschild. She was another strong showing for the women’s side. The women were making it further than the men when it was Mazeiah Andrade’s turn.
Mazeiah was born four months premature. His mother went into labor early and the doctors were forced to deliver her baby right then with little warning. Mazeiah was born with lots of issues. He was in the NICU for the longest after that. He’s gone through so many surgeries and therapies to help get him here on ANW that he had many rooting for him. Mazeiah sped through the course. He made it all the way to the fifth obstacle when he sadly fell. The one good thing he had working for him was that his speed could see him get through to the next round.
Next up was Jay Lewis. He was known as Jay Lache on ANW. He was a veteran. He’s been competing a lot recently and he was known for consistently getting a buzzer during the Qualifiers. Jay did that again tonight. He was the first to hit the buzzer. He had a chance at the Mega Warped Wall and he pursued speed over that extra ten thousand dollars. Jay was hoping to make it to Stage Four. He wanted a chance at a million dollars and he might get it. He had nothing to worry about with ninja veteran Brian Kretsch.
Brian has been on every season of ANW. Only he had one problem. He struggled with the balance obstacle. It’s very rare for him to clears that obstacle cleanly. He’s injured himself twice on that obstacle. He now says he blacks out whenever he had to run that obstacle and so his own curse worked against him tonight. Poor Brian made it all the way to the balance obstacle when he sadly fell into the water. This recent fall seemed to be the hardest on Brian. Brian no longer believes he can make it past that dreaded obstacle and he might not be back next year on the course.
Next up was the “Phoenix” himself. Najee Richardson was back this year and this year he was a married man. He married his girlfriend, McKenzie. She wasn’t there tonight only she watched his run from back home. Najee sent kisses towards the screen when she was shown on camera. He was hoping to have fun tonight. He was less concerned about a buzzer because he was getting up there in age and sadly he too suffered an unfortunate fall. He fell on the fifth obstacle. He beat out Mazeiah’s time. He was guaranteed a spot in the next round along with Emily, Casey, and Jay.
There was also one more young lady to add to the mix. Her name was Addy Herman and she also goes by the “Herminator”. She made it to the fifth obstacle during the commercial break. And was the fastest of the women (at that time). Addy’s boyfriend Noah Meuner had his run after her. He has a father that was disabled. His father wouldn’t be able to run an obstacle course like tonight and so Noah ran it in his old man’s honor. Noah learned about the course by watching other people’s run and it helped him to achieve a buzzer for his first time out.
One of the changes this year was that contestants get to try the Mega Warped Wall even after they hit a buzzer. Noah tried the Mega version after hitting a buzzer on the smaller one and it’s a good thing he went after the easier one because he came up just a little bit too short for the Mega Wall. But, hey, he was still a finisher. There was also another finisher from the guys during the commercial break. It was another teenager. The youngsters were all hitting the buzzer and the older veterans were all falling. And so James “the Beast” McGrath wanted to change that.
James had his run next. He handled the obstacle course like the pro that he is. He made it all the way to the Warped Wall and chose to go after the smaller one because he too had his eyes on the prize. He wanted to make it to Stage Four. He chose to pursue speed above everything else and it must have been a smart choice because he was only the fourth finisher of the night. Then came time for the first full on Runoffs. The youngsters competed against the veterans and funnily enough both men fell on the exact same obstacle. And so it was rewarded to the fastest time which was the rookie – Ramsis Valdez.
It went much better than the women’s Runoff. There was one young lady who unfortunately fell on the first obstacle and the other lady who went on to hit the first buzzer in the Runoffs. Her name is Taylor Johnson. She goes by Teej. She was the shortest competitor and yet she was also the first woman finisher of the night. Keep an eye out on Teej. The obstacle course was later rearranged and the first to try it out was Violet Kepo’o. She was fifteen. She was a baby and she actually became involved with ANW because she became interested in fantasy worlds. And wanted to be a superhero.
Violet loved the world of Harry Potter. Her family visited Universal Studios with the castle there and she fell in love. Violet was a newbie on the course. She made it all the way to the fifth obstacle. She showed a strong showing for the women. She has to wait and see how she did. Next up was Hans Hertz. The teenage redhead was running in honor of his brother, Harper. Harper was nonverbal. He also has learning disabilities. Only he loved watching ANW. Hans ran the course so that he could bond with his little brother and he did that same brother proud when he became the first finisher of the newly arranged obstacle course.
Up next was the first set of twins in ANW history. James and Jack Wright were young athletes and they have a massive social media following. They wanted to go viral only did they want to go viral for the wrong reasons? Both guys were rookies to the show. They made it to the second obstacle where they both fell. They were quickly followed by Kai Beckstrand. He first joined the show as a fifteen year old rookie. He and his dad were the first father/son duo to both hit a buzzer on the same night. And now Kai was gearing up to become a firefighter just like his dad.
It also explains the extra muscle on Kai. Kai was seventeen now. He wasn’t the short kid he used to be and the extra muscle could have dragged him down, but it didn’t. He went on to have a great run. He hit that buzzer on the new course. He also tried out the new Mega Warped Wall that was raised six inches higher and its where he hit another buzzer. Just for that alone he gets an extra ten grand. Mady Howard had her run after his and the veteran had more time to practice since last season. Last season she had a baby under one. And this season, she had a baby a little over one.
Mady made it as far as the fifth obstacle when she fell on the dismount. She almost made it and that’s going to haunt her no matter the outcome of her placement. To help take our minds off of it, Gnarly Nate Hansen had his run next. He was once considered the shortest ninja when he got beat by Teej this year. Nate and his fellow Austin Gray were roommates. They trained together only Nate fell on the fifth obstacle tonight and Austin hit a buzzer on the Minor Warped Wall. And then came part two of the Runoffs.
The Runoffs decide the final two to go into the next round. The women went first. Jaelyn Bennett beat out another woman for the final place among the women’s team for tonight. As for the men, the Carabo Ninja took the win. His real name is Glenn Albright and he hit the second buzzer in the Runoffs tonight. The first for the men. And while representing his Filipino culture but what a way to end the night!
THE END!