R.J. Roman (アールジェー・ローマン) is a musician & Ninja gym owner from Orlando, Florida. He is currently the bass player for the band Emuness, which he has played ever since childhood to cope with his personal stress.
R.J. also has a twin brother named Robert, who serves as the drummer in Emuness.
American Ninja Warrior[]
American Ninja Warrior 10[]
R.J. first competed in Miami in American Ninja Warrior 10. In qualifying, his run was cut, but he failed the Slippery Summit. He placed 14th overall at the end of the night.
In the city finals, he got redemption on the Slippery Summit despite a few struggles. However, he later continued all the way to the Crazy Clocks until gassing out. At the end of the night, he placed 11th overall and advanced to Vegas in his rookie season.
His run on Stage One was digested but it was shown that he finished with 21.90 seconds remaining.
On Stage Two, he failed Wingnut Alley, and was one of the top rookies that year along with Zach Day and Mathis Owhadi.
American Ninja Warrior 11[]
He returned in Atlanta on American Ninja Warrior 11. This season, he was determined to participate in the Power Tower showdown. In qualifying, despite struggling on the Bouncing Spider, he still blew through the course with relative ease. Unfortunately, he just missed out on the Power Tower, as Tyler Gillett and Drew Drechsel beat him as the top two of the Atlanta qualifying round; he placed 3rd overall.
In the city finals, his run was digested, but it was shown that he gassed out at the end of the course, failing Spider Trap.
In Vegas, despite a near fall on Tire Run, Roman made it past Stage One for the second year in a row. He was also one of twenty-one competitors to complete Stage Two that year. On Stage Three, however, he fell early on the second obstacle, Iron Summit.
American Ninja Warrior 12[]
R.J. was invited to compete in the modified Season 12, bringing along Jessica Helmer and Ben Melick. He blazed through the qualifying course with a time of 1:10, earning him the fastest time and a spot on the Power Tower. R.J. went on to narrowly beat Sean Bryan on the power tower, earning his teammates a spot in the semifinals.
In the semifinals, his run was digested, but he was shown to have finished the course with the fourth fastest time.
In the finals, R.J. made good work of the first eight obstacles, but failed the new Dragonback after the bar became uneven on the second drop. Unfortunately, he finished in ninth place, missing the Power Tower playoffs by three seconds.
American Ninja Warrior 13[]
R.J. returned to compete for this fourth season, participating in Qualifier 3. It was also revealed that he cut his hair to make it shorter. His run was digested, but it was shown that he attempted the Mega Wall, but failed it. He then bounced back to the regular Warped Wall, earning the fastest time of the night.
He later competed in the third semifinals. His run there was also digested, but it was shown that he wanted to get back to the Power Tower as he blazed through the first eight obstacles. He was a bit tired by the time he got to the Split Decision, so he went for the Diving Boards and he failed there. Despite this, he once again qualified for the national finals, by placing 7th overall.
In Vegas, he was a favorite to go all the way to Total Victory. Unfortunately on the Fly Hooks, he was not able to get the transition on the first hook to the second hook, getting stuck here. Eventually, he backflipped into the water after time was about to run out on him, ending his season and marking the first time that he failed on Stage One.
American Ninja Warrior 14[]
RJ returned to compete for his fifth season. He first competed in the first qualifying episode as the last runner of that episode. After seeing many of his fellow ninjas fall that night, his run was arguably the best of his career. Outside of a stumble on Domino Effect, he once again blazed through the course with the fastest time, making it the third straight season that he managed to do so. After missing it the previous season, he successfully scaled the Mega Wall (one of four to do so in that episode), winning $10,000.
He later competed in the third semifinals episode. There, he almost went to get revenge on the Diving Boards at Split Decision, but he changed his mind and went for Flipped Around, which he cleared despite being pumped. He then went on to hit his second buzzer on a semifinal course. He placed 3rd overall and missed out on the Power Tower, but he still advanced for his fourth appearance at the national finals.
In the national finals, he was once again a favorite to go all the way. He got revenge on the Fly Hooks and finished Stage One with 30.91 seconds remaining.
On Stage Two, he was one of ten to clear the Falling Shelves, and ultimately Stage Two with 40.48 seconds left, and he advanced to Stage Three for the first time since ANW 11.
On Stage Three, he got past the second obstacle this time around. He nearly failed on Pipe Dream, but he still cleared the obstacle. On the Flying Bar, his grip was starting to give out on him on the second to last cradle so he decided to skip the last cradle, just getting the dismount, and he managed to clear, becoming the third of a record five competitors to clear the third stage this season.
On Stage Four, he was the second competitor to run. He started off strong, but he unfortunately timed out about 70 feet up, ending his best season to date. He had the fourth best performance of the season.
American Ninja Warrior 15[]
RJ returned to the course in American Ninja Warrior 15 for his sixth season and it showed shots of his runs from Ninja Warrior Germany: Four Nations Special 3 and talked about how he hasn’t hit the water yet in over a year. In qualifying, he finished the course with the fastest time of the night, marking the fourth straight season where he got the fastest time and kept the not falling in the water streak alive. Since he finished under 1:20, he got to try the Mega Wall. Unfortunately, though his fingers just touched the ledge but couldn’t get over it causing him to just miss out on $10,000.
In the semifinals, his race against Daniel Osmer was surprisingly digested, but after Daniel fell on the Beehive, R.J. got the win and he later finished with the fastest time, earning him a spot in the Safety Pass race, going against his friend Elijah Browning. R.J. ultimately won the race, thus earning the Safety Pass.
In Vegas, on his first attempt on Stage One, he was on a fast pace, but began to slow from the middle of the course. As a result, in a similar fashion to American Ninja Warrior 13, he got hung up on the last obstacle, this time on Thread the Needle, and due to fatigue, he ended up falling. Luckily, thanks to the Safety Pass he earned in the semifinals, he would get a second attempt on Stage One. On his second attempt, he got revenge on Thread the Needle, and then completed Stage One with 41.44 seconds left. On Stage Two, he took on Ben Behrends. R.J. successfully completed the course and made another appearance on Stage Three, while Ben ultimately fell on Epic Air Surfer. On Stage Three, he was the last runner, and had few troubles, clearing it with the fastest time out of eight finishers. On Stage Four, he started off strong, but ran out of steam and unfortunately timed out for the second straight season.
American Ninja Warrior 16[]
R.J. returned in the last qualifier of ANW 16. He was hoping to get the fastest time in qualifying for a record fifth straight season. Though he hit his head on Duck Duck Goose, he otherwise had no problems with the first four obstacles, but he shockingly fell on the final move of Ring the Bells, marking the first time he fell on a qualifying course since season 10. He still moved on to the semifinals in 6th place.
Then in the semifinals, he was on a mission on redemption after his fall in qualifying. He raced against Bob Reese, and as always, he blazed through the course with the third fastest time so far, just missing out on the Safety Pass race, while on the other hand, Bob ultimately failed the Spin Hopper. That was enough for R.J. to make his sixth trip to the National Finals.
He ran in the first half of the National Finals for Stage One, where he kept the speed going, but on The Gambler (an obstacle he had cleared easily twice during the previous season), he fell off the landing pad (similar to Austin Gray on Tetherball in American Ninja Warrior 14) and grabbed onto the support structure of the Warped Wall, which counted as off the course, ending his season on Stage One for the first time since American Ninja Warrior 13. Since he fell on the eighth obstacle that same year, this is his worst season to date.
American Ninja Warrior 17[]
R.J. returned in the fourth qualifier of ANW 17. There, despite taking a somewhat cautious approach he still cleared the course in under a minute and he got to once again attempt the Mega Wall, which he once again missed after he tripped while attempting it. Nevertheless, he hit his nineteenth buzzer on the show with the sixth fastest time that episode, once again advancing to the semifinals.
He later competed in the first semifinals episode. There, he had no problems with the first nine obstacles. But when he reached the Invisible Ladder, he started struggling on the obstacle. While ascending, his body was swaying back and forth in a pendulum-like motion, not getting much height upon scaling the obstacle. As such, this caused him to use up an excessive amount of energy on the obstacle. He would eventually gas out on the obstacle, inches away from the surface, marking his second time failing the tenth obstacle on a semifinal course after ANW 11. At the end of the semifinal round, he placed 11th overall, advancing to the national finals.
R.J. competed in the first National Finals episode in Group 1, where he placed third in his group with Nacssa Garemore, Taylor Greene and Zhanique Lovett. He lost to Taylor Greene and Nacssa Garemore on his first two races, and later beat Zhanique Lovett on his third race but did not finish the in Top 2. However he may still qualify to the next round on the National Finals, since he was the fastest third place among the groups who have already competed on his version of the course.
Ninja Warrior Germany: Four Nations Special[]
RJ made his first international appearance in the Ninja Warrior Germany: Four Nations Special 3 for Team USA, where he competed on Stage One and had a chance to win the heat for Team USA but missed his shot at the Mega Wall (which he also conquered during the regular season) and finished the heat in second place. On Stage Three, even though the first bar from Up for Grabs fell out of place, he was able to make the long lache and finish the course sub-two minutes, winning the heat for Team USA.
SASUKE World Cup[]
On July 10th, 2024, upon the official announcement of the SASUKE World Cup 1, it was confirmed that Roman participated in the special as one of the representatives of Team USA. Unfortunately, things turned south very quickly for RJ as he failed the Fish Bone during his heat on the First Stage, resulting in last place in the first heat, but Team USA still survived regardless. RJ was chosen to compete in the Second Stage showdown, in which he finished in just over 13 seconds, sending Team USA to the Third Stage. He then ran as the final Third Stage run of the night, where he clinched a spot for Team USA in the Final Stage after finishing both the Flying Bar and the Sidewinder in just over 22 seconds. However, he rushed the first blind move of the Swing Edge and fell there, being the only member of his team not to reach the Cliff Dimension, but his team still placed first in that stage regardless. However, Japan Red would defeat Team USA in the Final Stage, leaving Team USA as the runner-up.
Trivia[]
- He owns a training gym called Obstacle Ninja Acadamy.
- Just before his Stage Two run in American Ninja Warrior 10, he said that he has a skin disorder called vitiligo, which causes white patches on certain parts of his skin. These white patches are noticeable on his fingers, as well as a large white patch on his left knee (pictured on the images above). He is also the first known competitor to have it.
- He is the third ninja to clear the ANW12 and ANW14 version of the Falling Shelves.
- With his performance on American Ninja Warrior 14, R.J. became the first (and only) competitor to have failed all six stages of the show at least once.
- R.J. became the first ninja after American Ninja Warrior 11 to conquer the “Stage Three Curse” and make it back to Stage Three.
- He, Josh Levin, Drew Drechsel, Daniel Gil, Kaden Lebsack, and Vance Walker are the only ninjas to conquer Stage Three twice.
- He, Kaden Lebsack, and Vance Walker (though the Vance one wasn’t mentioned cause no one knew at that time). are the only two ninjas to have conquered Stage 3 in back-to-back season, a fact that was mentioned during his ANW16 qualifying run.
- He and Lorin Ball are tied with four straight fastest times in qualifying until they both failed the qualifying course, ending their streak.
- R.J. held the record with 48 seconds to conquer the semifinals course until Kai’s semifinals run in American Ninja Warrior 16.
- R.J. was one of six to clear the semifinals course under a minute in American Ninja Warrior 15.
- R.J. is one of the few to conquer the Falling Shelves but fail the Swing Edge.
- When R.J. fell at the Swing Edge in SASUKE World Cup 1, he exclaimed "What the f---?!" after hitting the water, followed by a long string of swearing. Due to Japanese censorship on television having no focus on foreign language swearing, TBS didn't censor this incident during both broadcast and in several videos in the official SASUKE YouTube channel.
- R.J. is one of thirteen to conquer the semifinals course in under a minute in American Ninja Warrior 16.
Results[]
American Ninja Warrior[]
| ANW | # | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Failed Wingnut Alley (Stage Two) | Transition to third wingnut. | |
| 11 | Failed Iron Summit (Stage Three) | Digest. | |
| 13 | Failed Fly Hooks (Stage One) | Digest. First time he fell on Stage One. | |
| 14 | Failed Rope Climb (Stage Four) | Timed out. About 60 feet up. Reached the buzzer in 44.60 seconds. | |
| 15 | Failed Rope Climb (Stage Four) | Time Out. | |
| 16 | Failed The Gambler (Stage One) | Course Out. Fell off the landing pad and grabbed the support structure beneath the run-up of the Warped Wall. |
Ninja Warrior Germany: Four Nations Special[]
| Season | Stage | Round | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | First Stage | 1 | Clear (01:15.48) | Attempted the Mega Wall, but failed to complete it on his first and only attempt. Cleared the stage slower than René Casselly. Earned 2 points for Team USA. |
| Third Stage | 3 | Clear (02:XX.XX)* | Digest. The first moveable bar of the Up for Grabs fell off after he transitioned to the first stationary bar, so he had to make a far laché from the first stationary bar to the second stationary bar. Earned 3 points for Team USA. |
Extra Note*: His exact clear time on the Third Stage of that special is unknown, since it was not officially shown during the broadcast. However, during his profile piece before his Qualifying run in American Ninja Warrior 15, Roman himself mentioned that his clear time on that stage was sub 3:00 minutes.
SASUKE World Cup[]
| Competition | Stage | Heat | Run | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | First Stage | 1 | 6 | Failed Fish Bone | Earned 10 points for Team USA. |
| Second Stage | 4 | 1 | Clear (13.09) | ||
| Third Stage | 4 | 4 | Failed Swing Edge | First Transition. Earned 60 points for Team USA. |