Advertisement Hampden bartender to appear on 'American Ninja Warrior' Episode to appear at 9 p.m. Monday on WBAL-TV Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Call him a gym warrior.Call him the ninja bartender.Whatever you call Jason Hammonds, you can officially add "American Ninja Warrior" to the Baltimore man's title.Hammonds started with a dream, and that dream has turned into quite the journey, which is almost two years in the making. The Hampden man will appear on the NBC hit show at 9 p.m. Monday."Am I going to get the call? Am I going to get the call? And my phone rang and I couldn't believe it," Hammonds said.If you haven't seen the show, competitors tackle challenging obstacles, go through various rounds. and hope to go to Las Vegas for the national finals.When Hammonds first started thinking about trying out for the show, he looked like a different man and weighed almost 300 pounds."I had a love for it because on Sunday nights we used to show it," Hammonds, a bartender at Frazier's on The Avenue, said "Then someone showed me a picture of them on top of the warp wall and I was like, 'I have to go try it,' so I went to go try it and I realized I couldn't do anything."But nothing would stop him. So Hammonds started training to be a ninja.He submitted multiple videos and learned he needed to show off his hard work plus who he is to producers. Now he says that the process of getting on the show, and all the ups and the downs was all worth it."The moment you step on the podium and you look at the first obstacle and it's just like, 'OK it looks much bigger than it did on TV,'" Hammonds said.Hammonds said his experience has inspired others."There's a guy who comes in (to Frazier's) and he said, 'For you it comes naturally,'" Hammonds said. "I stopped and I was like, 'Let me show you a picture of myself.' So I showed him this picture and it was just one of those ground-breaking moments for him. He was just like, 'Oh, I can do it.' So he almost lost like 50 pounds."This is the eighth season of "American Ninja Warrior." Last year marked the first time one of the competitors won the $1 million prize. Hammonds hopes to be the next.Hammonds will not be the only local competitor on Monday's episode. Baltimore City firefighter Nick Green is also set to compete in the episode.Get the WBAL-TV News App