Snow Man” Teru Iwamoto’s decision to participate in the “SASUKE” world championship has been criticized by some as “overwhelmingly lacking in ability.

Snow Man’s Teru Iwamoto will appear in the August 21 broadcast of “SASUKE World Cup 2024” (TBS, 6:30-10 p.m.), a popular sports variety show in which the contestant uses flashy action to overcome obstacle courses consisting of four stages (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and FINAL), Iwamoto will compete as a member of JAPAN Blue in the first world championship of “SASUKE,” a sports variety show that has a strong fan base.

However, since he has not performed well in the program in recent years, many netizens have been critical of him.

Since the first competition was held in 1997, “SASUKE” has been broadcast regularly as a special program. It has also been aired overseas under the title “Ninja Warrior,” and now boasts worldwide popularity.

In the 31st edition of “SASUKE” (broadcast in July 2003), A.B.C-Z’s Ryouichi Tsukada, who is “proud of his muscles,” participated for the first time from the Johnny’s office at the time. Iwamoto made his first attempt at “SASUKE” in the 33rd contest (broadcast in March 2005), but was eliminated early in the first stage. He retired in the first stage of the 34th contest (broadcast in October of the same year), and only made it through to the first stage of the 38th contest (broadcast in December 2008), which was his sixth attempt.

Iwamoto made it through the 1st stage the following year as well, but was eliminated in the 2nd stage. In the 41st event at the end of last year, they also fell in the new area of the 1st stage, which was a frustrating experience for them,” said an entertainment writer.

On the other hand, “SASUKE World Cup 2024” this time brought together a total of 35 contestants selected as representatives from five countries (Japan, the United States, Germany, France, and Australia). They will battle it out in a total of four stages, and the winning country will be decided by a knockout system in which the lower-ranked team is eliminated at each stage.

Three Japanese teams, JAPAN Red, JAPAN Blue, and JAPAN Legend, from the country where “SASUKE” originated, participated in the competition. Iwamoto was selected as a member of JAPAN Blue, led by Yuji Urushihara, who won the championship for the second time.

However, Iwamoto, who had never made it to the final stage and had been in particularly poor form in recent years, was greeted by netizens who were fans of the show with the following comment: “Iwamoto is a very good player, but he is not a good player,

Iwamoto has never made it to the third stage, yet he is a member of Japan Blue.
Iwamoto is really unnecessary. The show always shows him too much even after the competition is over, and this World Cup will probably be edited for garbage, too.
Why didn’t Iwamoto withdraw from the competition?　As expected, his performance doesn’t match up with his position in the competition. I wanted to see a real competition.
Iwamoto, how can you participate in this competition when you haven’t even made it to the final stage once? I’m sure he won’t make it this time either.

The opinions were harsh.

In addition, following Tsukada and Iwamoto, other junior contestants (Rinne Sugata, 7 MEN Samurai, and Hideo Yasushima, Shonen Ninja) began to challenge “SASUKE” before their debut. Tsukada, who paved the way for “SASUKE” among the talents from his office, was called the “pioneer of Johnny’s”.

However, since Iwamoto was the only STARTO ENTERTAINMENT talent selected for this year’s world championship, some of the company’s fans were wondering, “Tsukada-chan, you’re not going to compete?　I thought Tsukada was the idol of “SASUKE,” so I was sad to see her go. In terms of performance, Tsukada has not made it to the final stage either. ……

Some people may have felt that Iwamoto had become the “face of the program” in place of Tsukada, which may have left some people feeling bewildered. Tsukada himself posted on the group’s official X (formerly Twitter), quoting a post from “SASUKE”: “I’m really looking forward to it! Teru go for it!” and “Good luck to you all!

Nevertheless, since Snow Man’s popularity is high, Iwamoto’s appearance is sure to draw more attention to the show. Will he be able to make up for his honor by achieving good results at the world championships?