Real Life Beasts

The Real Life Beasts were a team in American Ninja Warrior's team competition franchise. The team consisted of captain Drew Drechsel, James "The Beast" McGrath, and Erica Cook.

Team Ninja Warrior
The Real Life Beasts first competed in Episode 6 of Team Ninja Warrior where they first went up against the InvincAbels in Round 1: In the knockout round, they went up against the Rahnaways: They went up against Party Time in the relay showdown, Erica fell at the Log Grip, which landed a 10 second penalty on the Real Life Beasts, and they unfortunately could catch up. They lost the relay and were eliminated from the competition.
 * James won the first race against Nathan Jasso,
 * Erica Cook fell on the Dancing Stones and lost the second race against Jeri D'Aurelio
 * Drew Drechsel won the anchor run against Abel Gonzalez.
 * In the first race both Erica Cook and Courtney Venuti fell at the Dancing Stones but Erica was the first to reach the obstacle therefore she won the first race,
 * James won the second race as his opponent Adam Grossman fell at the Sonic Swing,
 * But Drew fell at the Dancing Stones and lost the anchor run against Jamie Rahn,
 * This forced a sudden death race where Erica and Courtney had a rematch. But Erica won the race as she made it up the Warped Wall and hit the buzzer.

Team Ninja Warrior 2
The Real Life Beasts returned to compete in Team Ninja Warrior 2 where they first competed in Episode 6. In Round 1 they went up against The Ballers: In the knockout round they went up against Team Stratis Faction: The Real Life Beasts then went up once again against The Ballers in the relay showdown. Fortunately the Real Life Beasts won the relay as Paul Kasemir fell on the Dueling Salmon Ladder on the back half of the course. The Real Life Beasts then competed in the finals in Episode 11 where they went up against Team TNT in Round 1: They went up against the NorCal Ninjas in Round 2: They proceeded to the Relay showdown where they went up against Team TNT once again and Sarah Schoback came in as an alternate for Erica Cook. Unfortunately, Sarah fell at the Ring of Fire which landed a 10 second penalty on the Real Life Beasts and they unfortunately could catch up, they lost the relay and were eliminated from the competition.
 * James McGrath won the first race against Lorin Ball,
 * Erica Cook won the second race against Meiling Huang, and
 * Drew Drechsel won the anchor run against Paul Kasemir.
 * James won the first race against Mike Bernardo who fell at the Swing Jump,
 * Erica won the second race against Grace Sims,
 * But Drew Drechsel fell at the Spin Cycle and lost the anchor run against Ryan Stratis,
 * Drew did run in the sudden death match and won against Mike Bernardo who fell on the Floating Tiles.
 * James won the first race against Brett Sims,
 * In the second race, both Erica Cook and Marybeth Wang fell at the Floating Tiles but Erica lost the race as Marybeth was the first to reach the obstacle,
 * Drew did however win the anchor run against Travis Rosen.
 * James won the first race against Sean Bryan,
 * But in the second race, Erica injured her knee when landing from the Ring of Fire therefore she lost the race against Anna Shumaker,
 * Drew did however win the anchor run against David Campbell.

Real Life Beasts did not regroup for year 3 of ANW's team competition, which saw Team Ninja Warrior rebranded and renamed as American Ninja Warrior: Ninja vs. Ninja, as captain Drew Dreschel opted not to participate. McGrath and Cook, however, continued on with a new incarnation of the team, calling themselves the Beasts from the East and selecting McGrath as the captain.