The Challenge 40: Episode 2 Discussion

0:54 Welcome back to the Nullified Take channel here on YouTube where we've got the TNT takes for you on the Challenge Season 40 episode two. That is right. We are live Kahuna back on our Thursday evening spot early in the morning. I believe 7:00 a.m. over in the US. So, not sure if we're going to get many people jumping into the live, but how are you doing? I'm doing good, man. I'm I'm excited to finish what I think should have just been one episode. Really? but it was good to see all of that like elimination in one go and you kind of just get this pure 100% elim. It's fun. It's exciting. But, I feel like it could have been It should have just been like a 2-hour mega episode to kick off the season or something cuz there wasn't anything else but that, you know? Yeah, very different episode to anything that we are used to as Challenge fans.

1:48 You all You're used to seeing obviously the daily challenge. You're used to seeing some of the politics and the drama inside of the house. That's a big part of what makes the Challenge work. It's a part of what makes the sausage good, right? you know, when you when you put the ingredients together, but this episode did feel a little bit different. they did flashback at times, and it was a little bit all over the place. We're going to try and break it down to the best of our ability and make sense of all the drama. but a lot of it kind of did feel kind of to me like it was just payoff for everything that was set up the week before, right? It was just like you said, one long big episode. Maybe it should have been two episodes last week. I was grateful because I didn't have much time to prepare for the podcast, but I think as a viewer it would have made more sense for it to be back-to-back episodes. I think so. Like it did feel like it what it felt really big, but not enough to be stand-alone.

2:44 And I think had it tacked onto last week and they did a back-to-back, it would have been just such a beautiful kickoff to the season cuz not only were we left disappointed last week with the with non-elimination and the cliffhanger, but this week felt like somewhat lopsided in the opposite direction. You know what I mean? Like where sometimes the elimination is just like the perfect dessert on a on a meal of the challenge episode. We just gorged ourselves on all And sometimes that's not a bad thing. I don't know. But it certainly didn't feel balanced in my brainwashed viewing habits formed over many years of watching this show, you know what I mean? It was a different format completely. Mhm. Now, we do need to talk about something before we get into the episode. I actually sent you during the week a link based on the premiere episode.

3:37 Ratings went through the roof. People are coming back, Cohuna. They're watching the show. I believe three times that of the viewership rating of the previous season, which shouldn't be a shock. We've got big names coming back for the season. You know what it reminded me of Kina? It's like I don't know if you watch Spider-Man when they got all the old Spider-Man coming back into that movie where they got the the Sony Spider-Man's coming into it. And what I felt with that Spider-Man movie was kind of it translate into the challenge. It basically was generations of people that have watched these people either on Road Rules, they watched them on The Real World. Maybe they gave up on the show, they've moved on. New kids came in like myself that now enjoyed the newer challenge and we're obviously still invested in the direction of the show, but it brought back a lot of the old school fans. So, absolute slam dunk.

4:29 What do you think this will mean for the challenge moving forward because we know that at the end of the day number numbers matter. And when it comes to making these shows, it is a cost for production to put it out there. Do you think that they will do what Hollywood does? Just keep, you know, pumping out the same kind of movies over and over if you know it's going to give you a billion-dollar blockbuster. Look, I'm hoping so. And it shows the contrast and the fact that it was one season next to each other highlighted so well. Like when you have low budget, not spending a lot on the cast, bringing in new people that don't have a thing, and then you put it next to a all-star big budget, spent a lot of money, and it's equaling ratings. I hope that is like the most base you know, message that I can take out of it.

5:20 When we actually invest in the product, people come to it. When we skimp on the product, people aren't happy with that. And it shows. And the fact that it's kind of at that most basic binary black and white level speaks a lot. Whether in the macroeconomics of TV ratings and global conglomerate, you know, all that stuff, whether it makes a difference to the future success of something like a the challenge. I mean, who knows? I don't think you know, whatever plans that are in place for the next 5 years, I'm going to all of a sudden be altered one way or another by the ratings of one episode, you know what I mean? But I'm hoping it's a good and at least that they can see that when we actually do something with it, you know, people respond at that most simple level.

6:11 Yeah, it shouldn't be rocket science. I think the one thing that really helped this season become something and it shouldn't be understated is the fact that they brought like Mark Long should get, you know, he left in this episode and we'll talk about that, but he should get a lot of applause for season 40 even being a thing in my mind because what he did was he resurrected an old-school generation and brought them back into the Challenge family to play in All Stars seasons, which meant that they could go back and create new champions, new legends from those old older seasons and bring them back into the fold where they felt like they could still come and jump over because a lot of the people that are now part of era one are challenges that did All Stars. So, in some ways I feel like the success of season 40, some of that, even though Mark Long didn't get to go deep into the season, we should tip our hat to him and say, "Well done, sir.

7:08 You saw an angle that no one else did." And maybe Mark Long deserves as he starts looking at retirement, I don't think he's going to be doing this for that much longer. Maybe he should get a seat on production for the actual show, Cohutta. What do you think about that? At least All Stars. I mean, it was kind of his baby or at least his idea that the Challenge OGs, which kind of morphed and tweaked and got, you know, corporatized into the Challenge All Stars, which didn't always mean OGs in the long run, but it was, you're right, his grassroots fan-based driver he put in that made it kind of happen. He kind of almost willed it into freaking manifested into being and you're right like they've been doing this then becomes a blueprint that you know the older people can play the game the older people are well received by people that OG's still have it and can still bring it and then they can be part of a show like this and it's not just even though we do have people like Ave that have been gone for 20 years and literally nothing on the show.

8:16 It did mean that a vast majority especially of era one have at least had that intro back into the waiting pool of All-Stars and getting back into the hearts and minds of the viewers before coming into a show where this is because I did feel like even watching the second episode just seeing the way people are reacting all that sort of thing. You mentioned Spider-Man when like not only is it the generations which grew up with the different versions but I almost feel like the end of end game I'm like no there's that guy and this guy and they're all there's all these big players that are all in one place and have 40 of them even the second episode in now and the all the third if you include the pre-season episode I'm still getting like this is so cool just to have it still happen Yeah. You know what I mean? Like the novelty of this enormity has not worn off on me yet.

9:07 I'm appreciating the fact that we're having a season like this. Yeah, totally agree with you. Let's say hello to people here in the live the ones that are up early over in the states. We've got Danica saying morning guys good evening from Australia. We've got Chris back as well. Chris welcome to the live. Erica's in the live as well and Danica says personally I don't need the fireworks but I'm old school fan from the beginning. So that this must be a match made in heaven for like Danica who's watched it since season 1. She saw the Godfather when he was in his prime and she now gets to see him come back again in this season. But this episode kind of started very differently compared to like we spoke about the whole episode being different, but we went straight into the arena. there was no lube provided on this episode. They were like, "We're going straight into the arena." And then had to pull out at certain points and take us back to the house to some of the conversations that were happening because it felt a bit strange for me going straight into the arena.

10:09 We normally see the votes take place. Did you like the back and forth? It kind of reminds me of Survivor in some ways where they've done it before where someone found the idol or they found an advantage and then you're at Tribal Council and they go back to show you how they actually found it, but you didn't know going into the Tribal Council. I had like kind of flashbacks to things that Survivor's done in production before. how did you feel about this sort of editing trick and the way that they sort of handled it throughout the episode with so many eliminations taking place at the same time? Yeah, I mean I guess it's certainly a more creative and artistic way to do it so that you're not just sitting there watching like I guess maybe we could have had I was going to say you don't want it to feel like the Olympics like you're just watching a series of events back-to-back-to-back-to-back like kind of thing. But maybe coming off the Olympics that might have been a good idea.

11:02 If they had I'll say if they had Tech N9ne there doing the commentary for us like Snoop Dogg did for the Olympics, then for me I'm in. Like you know if we get Tech N9ne doing some commentary of each one of these events as they go into the eliminations, I think that could be a hit. I don't know if I might be on to something. I'm just saying this if anybody from The Challenge is watching this podcast, I've got copyrights to that idea, okay? But yeah, like I like if they're going to just have elimination like you said without leaving in out like they did kind make sure that there was interspersed throughout like the timeline playing with the timeline you know, back and forth when is this happening? Like that does kind of throw me a little bit. Like I don't want to watch Pulp Fiction when I'm watching the challenge. I don't need to kind of piece together when did that conversation take place with this and you know I don't think it mattered really in the long run, but you don't it doesn't need to I like chronological.

11:57 I don't mind it being simple in that regard, right? It's not about the storylines and the editing and the all that sort of thing. Even though it does they do well and it makes it look great. yeah, like I guess with an episode like this there's a little bit of freedom and a bit little bit of leeway cuz they had a lot you know, it's just eliminations. How do we pad it out? How do we make it a little bit more in like still have the engagement with the stories and the backstories all that sort of thing and they did that I think so. It was pretty good. Yeah, no. I do think they did a good job in the end of pulling it all together and for me personally, I really enjoyed the fact that they went back every single time to explain a little bit of what happened behind the votes. obviously the center stage of this episode was the was the eliminations themselves and they gave us this big intro into some of the best eliminations that we've seen in era one, era two, era three and era four of the challenge.

12:54 Do you think Corina that they got it right with the biggest eliminations for each era? We had era one balls in, era two pole wrestle, era three the whole brawl and then era four which I wonder you know, is this maybe the one that if you had to nitpick one was take shelter really the biggest elimination from era four? It felt like a let down maybe compared to some of the others. I don't know what Yeah, it definitely was you know one of these things is not like the other and doesn't really fit with like I think the other three were great except for the balls in tweak the variation on balls in. I'm not necessarily a fan of but we'll talk about that but Yeah, the tech shows that really didn't fit but then I started going I'm not I'm not Angel Cake. I'm not Drew. So I'm I don't have the encyclopedic knowledge.

13:46 So I don't know what might have been a better era for elimination because I think they use so many over and over again and that they become the classics even if they're built up and improved and we and there's classic versions of it or classic confrontations of the OG ones in era four they're still initiated before era. So I don't know what the ones that started in that process would have been included that might have been better. for me personally the one that always stands out. I know it's a I mean if you're going to bring in the CT one where he lost to Jay just to give Jay some airtime and he's not even on the season. It kind of felt a bit strange like it's the biggest upset of all times. That's why we're putting this one as the biggest you know elimination for era four. For me personally and I'm biased like one of the most best eliminations I ever saw and I think it was in era four.

14:37 It had to be in era four because Josh was on the receiving end and we've got two players Josh and Jordan both back this season. It was a simple tug of war being on those stumps. We had to pull the tug of war against each other. I would have been more entertained with a head-to-head like that and I think that's the one that you know I kind of feel proud that I even thought of that one without Drew here. I didn't want to bother him at 7:00 a.m. in the morning and dial him up because I'm sure he's still sleeping but I feel like that one there Kahuna always stands out for me. It's one that I will always remember but you know we can't complain. We got three headbangers in the very first episode you could say for elimination because it's kind of like one giant episode. And it's like a lot of them said this is what the fans wanted. The fans have been crying out for some old brawl, they've been crying out for balls, and they've been crying out for pole wrestle. Is this why they starved us off this in the last couple of seasons for All Stars and also in main season because they were like, "By the time this hits on season 40, people are going to love it.

15:35 They're going to be so into it." I mean, they're playing the long game in that case. They're like, "We're going to sacrifice ratings the meantime. We're going to sacrifice ratings. We're going to lose sponsors. But, you wait until season 40, they're going to love it." Like, I don't know if they think like that, but that 4D chess to lose so badly in the short term. But, I mean, it worked. I did love it. I don't I don't know if I would have loved it less if we had it a little bit more in the last couple years, right? I don't think I would have been going, "Ah, I'm bored of this now." Seeing a whole brawl like Theo and Paulie, holy crap. Like, you know what I mean? Like, even something as simple as a pole wrestle, Derek and Mark was crazy. And even And even that, I was just Like, I wrote in I wrote in the bakery.

16:29 I know it's was stupid early, so no one saw it. So, I could feel like I got away with it, but I just wrote, "I want I want to pole wrestle with Aneesa." Like, that Watch out. wanted Aneesa to throw me around and She's so powerful. I want to feel like it's going to Oh, no. so, let's you're kind of getting into and you're touching on a few like before we get into it. I've seen Danica has left a few comments. Let's read Danica's comments first, yeah. Firstly, she says, "Mark went to the university here, so in addition to being an MTV latchkey 80s kid was another reason to watch and root for him." also says, "It's legendary because CT lost. It was a David versus Goliath win for Jay, but I agree it doesn't fall into the same caliber as the other three when it comes to a competition.

17:22 Totally agree. Danica says the pole wrestle is synonymous with Derek. Like he said, they could put it on his gravestone, which was kind of funny. He was playing into that massively. And then Chris says, I saw, your comment earlier and I'm sure she was, disgusted for you when you saw her comment. but anyways, you know, some people in the in the comment section after our previous podcast said that we should have, a section for every time you're wrong, Cohutta. It's like the Cohutta was wrong section. so I feel like you're just wrong on so many different levels when it comes to this specific Yeah, I said to them, "It'll be the whole podcast." It'd be the whole podcast. but I wanted to ask you, in your mind, which one of the eliminations was the main elimination?

18:12 The one that you enjoyed the most. What did you get the most fun all Which match up and elimination was the biggest one for you? so this for me it's two, because for biggest impact was Paulie and Theo. With Theo just really was so once like he walked over that little man. Like there was a point when CT walked in, and sort of said, "Paulie's going to smash you or whatever." And Theo kind of chuckled. And I was like, "Oh, yeah, I forgot. He's got like Theo dad bod now." And he's like all thick and stuff. Not only is he 6'5" and athletic, but like he's as big as CT now, but not like not really showing. I'm like, "Oh, this isn't going to go well for Paulie." he literally got the worst person.

19:08 Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. I knew this was coming. That's the sound of Paulie's soul leaving his body. Oh my I don't know how much of this I can play because I don't want us to get in trouble, but you know That would be that would be Corey to me, by the way. I'm just saying. I don't know if I don't know if Corey could move you like that. Like that's I feel like you would like you said just like squish yourself in there take the position and then he's going to have he's going to have to move. He's going to have to train for it, but They might need to be before the rule. They might need it to get me out of the hole. We've spoken about this before Konnan and I know people are going to be like Chris you've said this before, but my background being in karate having competed in karate there's weight divisions for a reason.

20:01 I went to go watch the UFC this weekend in Perth. My boy Dricus Du Plessis beating Israel Adesanya. obviously very happy about that outcome, but again middleweight division there is divisions like Dricus Du Plessis would get walked if Jon Jones went up against him. Like there is a reason that this happened and Paulie kind of called it out as well on Twitter where fan was going at him saying he's washed and all this kind of stuff and he said like listen that's I take the loss. I lost against them, but they are like there's a weight disadvantage in this specific arena and we've had different fans complain when Jay got concussed against Rogan it was unfair. No one judged Jay back then for being walked like that against Rogan cuz we knew it was an unfair match up. I do think that if you want to test Paulie and Theo against each other Theo could beat him in a lot of other things as well, by the way. Theo's a massively good athlete, but this was not a fair match up.

20:55 Like I would like to see a re- a retake of this one day and see them go head-to-head and Paulie has said if you beat me like this he's said he said if you beat me like this you're now my rival for life because I've to come back and set the record straight and you know that Paulie's not going to lie or die wondering. He's going to want to come back and set the record straight. So, very big chance that this rivalry is going to live on. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm hoping we I'm hoping it we do get it because like they were great. Like even like a small burst of just that rivalry rekindled. I'm like I wish we had more of it the last 5 years, but if it means we get more of it going forward, while we're starting to start losing some of the more staples that we've had and loved for so long. Some of these guys are getting older. If this is the next generation and they put on fights like this, I'm in for that.

21:50 Like they're great. I think they're both amazing characters. They're both strong competitors and they both really want to win. And if each of them is standing in each other's way, I mean, we haven't had a real rivalry like this for a long time. So, I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, listen, if you look at Theo's page, right? You go on to Instagram right now, X, whatever it's called. He says, "Just want to say no matter what people think of Paulie, I believe he's a great guy for the show. As crazy as he is, he plays the game we all love properly. I've never disliked him on a personal level or anyone. 5 years later, it's been emotional. Can't wait to do it again." So, he's getting the endorsement from Theo and then he is still saying this is not over. I want to go up against Theo. I mean, this could be rivals season in the future. We all want to see a rivals season. I think Theo and Paulie together in a rivals season would be very strong team as well because Paulie is he's smart and Theo is pretty smart and they're both quite athletic.

22:47 But, I do think they'll be they'll be very balanced, to be honest. Yeah. And I think they'd be they'd both put it aside, both being professional athletes. you know, they know how to work to a goal, even if it means, you know, putting other things aside. Like, Theo is not a team athlete, but you know, like professional level athlete have can put things aside and focus on winning the game if that's what it's going to take. And yeah, they would work well together for sure. I want to I want to give I want to give another shout out. Sorry. I just wanted to give him another I just wanted to because you spoke about the professionalism, the sports side, which I know a lot of people who listen to our podcast don't care about the like the drama, the mess, which you know, obviously that is fun as well, but I also respect that being someone that loves sports, like I'm a big fan of sports and that it's definitely one of the things that hooked me into the challenge. I really respect the fact that straight after this, right?

23:37 Paulie just lost, but if you were ever wondering if he cared about Cara Maria, like he's he was there for her immediately. He was shouting her on. He was giving her advice. He was so supportive afterwards. I thought all of that was really good to see after losing cuz you know, for someone like Paulie who's got so much pride, that would have hurt him going out the way that he did. But he immediately picked himself up and he was there for Cara immediately afterwards. Yeah, I think flowers to Paulie. He's had a It just really sucks that in both his comeback seasons since he's sort of had his break and he had USA 2 and then this season, he really impressed me, but went out early. Like first elimination was not or yeah, or first with Leroy, but you know what I mean? Like first group of eliminations in the first episode is not a good stat pattern, but he put up some he gave some good confessionals.

24:34 It's really good TV. Entertaining. Definitely entertaining. I do think we see Paulie back again even though people don't like him or they're like they're 50/50 on him. There's a divided opinion out there. I do think we see him based on that reason alone. let's read a couple more comments here. Danny Co is saying, "Katie gave her a good fight though, Kahuna. She didn't go down easy." I mean, she didn't go down easy. She gave a good fight. We'll talk about that. Let's come back to the Katie one. We're still on the Hall Brawl for now, Danica. Let's stay there for a second. Let's marinate on this great Hall Brawl that we saw, but we will talk about Katie's performance. Danny, welcome to the live as well. Finally, we get to see you in the live. Always appreciate the comments that you're leaving after you watch the lives if you can't watch it live. So, thank you for jumping in as well. Danica says, "Well, if Kyle never came back, then that would be a good rival for Paulie, but honestly, I forgot they had beef. I'm glad we had the recap." yeah, he's got some choices.

25:28 I don't know like I've got a feeling Kyle we may not like maybe we'll see him back again, but he's been out of the challenge realm for a bit now. He's become a family man. you know, the show seems like it's moved on. Like how old is Kyle? Like I don't know. He didn't come across as a guy that was like doing it for the love of competing, which I would like to see Theo and Paulie both as athletes, both as competitors together. I think that would be a matchup made in heaven for them to be able to compete and be very good in a returnee season. But I want to talk Kahuna about the other Hall Brawl. Let's not forget about the ladies. Who runs the world, Kahuna? Girls. We run the world. Who runs the world? Girls. Yeah. This is what you get when you get us late at night instead of early in the morning. You get a little bit of extra spark here and a bit of improv. But Kahuna, like what did you think of the Nurys and Olivia beef coming to you know into this one?

26:24 We knew this was the latest beef from the previous season. what was your hot takes on this? What did you think of this matchup? Was you know, cuz I could say it's almost similar to the Paulie-Theo one from my opinion. I felt the same as like it's no it's not taking anything away from Nurys the fact that she got utterly dominated because it is a size power based game. Nurys put up a good I've fight than I thought she actually could have especially in that bounce back one where there was she was started dragging Olivia. I was like, okay, like there's something there like at least she had that moment but she's so small and Olivia is not like small like she's not even normal she's a she's a bigger girl with a lot of power so it was it was not well. She's built athletically but like a powerhouse compared to Nany's more like Olivia comes across to me like someone that could be like a powerlifter and then you look at someone like Nany's who looks more like a marathon runner.

27:26 Like it's not the same built they're not built to do the same things. If they were to do like I felt you know definitely Nany's got the short end of the stick here and unfortunately for her because I'm a bigger Nany's fan than what I am an Olivia fan but you know kudos to her she won it. I really felt she felt embarrassed and you could tell and she was like really she knew as soon as she was going into an elimination she was in a bad spot. But you know who did even worse than Nany's like who in my opinion really struggled and it was Horacio like his confessionals seemed so scripted like they told him read this bit of paper to tell us how much you're going to miss Nany's when she leaves. Like it just he is not a natural entertainer. The guy's an athlete but when you're talking about examples of someone that I would like to see come back over and over again he doesn't evoke that kind of emotion out of me where I'm like man all right like I like to see him do cool things as an athlete but a bit boring right like and I think they really try to get something out of him here in this episode and it kind of fell flat in comparison to Cara Maria and Paulie's dynamic and how well both of them can speak to the camera.

28:34 Yeah especially on a season like this where there's so many shining stars that you know we'll gobble up that camera and get confessional points is like this they're throwing diamonds at the producers and they're probably finding it difficult to choose what stays in to have Horacio look good amongst those is such a tall ask for a guy that yeah, doesn't have the same charisma as a lot of these people who have it naturally, but also have it over decades of honing their craft. They are We talked about professional athletes. These people for the vast majority are professional TV people. Like this is a lot of their jobs and has been for a long time. That's right. And Horacio is new to the game.

29:25 He's obviously incredibly physically competent and but that side of it is not there yet. Can it be developed? I don't know, but you're right. He doesn't have the same level as everyone else, but I do want to see him back cuz I think he can actually push athletically physically some of the Yeah, if he can get a run where he's not constantly thrown in and having to worry about Nany and Horacio constantly and all that. If he can actually get in a situation where he's not constantly battling, he could do really well, I think. It's just going to depend on how he approaches the game as well. Like he doesn't seem to have the political side and the cutthroat either. So you may be right. Like if he doesn't have the TV charisma, he doesn't really have the cutthroat attitude or the Black Mamba mentality or whatever you want to call it.

30:20 Maybe that's a little bit too much missing from a very balanced competitor, but he just brings so much physically. Yeah, I heard that outside of the game, he said that he didn't really enjoy the season. He wasn't really thinking of potentially coming back in the future. There were talks about that. So I think it gives us a bit of an idea of how the season's going to turn out for him. He now doesn't have Nany and Horacio in the game. and you know, I'm a little bit worried for him. He's got Kaylen there, but him and Kaylen on their own, even though I think they're a likable duo, and Kaylen definitely is a bit more entertaining. I just don't know how deep they can take this. Let's read a couple more comments here. Danica is saying, "Definitely setting up for some good rival pairs." We're obviously getting Laurel versus Cara, so they have been a pair in the past, so it'd be interesting to see if they would pair them up again to give up They've done it with I guess that they're not against it cuz they've done it with Bananas and Money more than once.

31:13 So, we could see something like that. but we've also got Tony versus Corey. We've got Paulie versus Theo, Olivia versus Nerissa, Amanda versus anybody. I think Amanda and Corey is a possibility as well. and I do want to talk about the Amanda of it all a little bit later on. Danica says, "I think the only way Nerissa would have had a chance is if she went up against Michelle." Totally agree with that. And then Danny is saying, "I'm waiting to get the link to watch the episode. Where do you watch?" So, I can't hang around, but I'll rewatch this once I've watched. Can't wait to see the matchups. if you've got VPN, the best place to go is to change your location to Canada, go to ctv.ca, and it's got all of the episodes. It's where I go personally, and it's good VPN to be honest with you. It's And you I'm pretty sure Kunal, do you pay for your VPN or is there a free VPN out there as well?

32:07 Because you do get free VPNs as well, right? I pay for what? There are free VPNs, but they will limit like you can have X amount of megabytes to you know to down like use or whatever like stream kind of thing. So, there's certainly free options out there. I have paid for one cuz I use it so frequently, but yeah. Mhm. Let's not shout it out like if they don't sponsor us yet, but you know, maybe in the future we'll get some VPN sponsors because we'd give that advice a lot. And believe me, it's worth it you can watch Australian shows, you can watch Canadian, you can watch Paramount in the US if you've got a VPN. That's how I watch the All Stars seasons. Really pays back itself in dividends. Danica says, "I hope he and Kaylen can team up and do good and is he good at puzzles?" Yes, I believe he is good at puzzles. I can't remember because if he's that well-rounded, that team needs him. That is true.

32:57 Chris says, "Just got to work so I can talk now. When we don't have weight classes, they will always be a disadvantage." Totally agree with you on that. Thanks, Chris. Enjoy work today. Danny is saying, "Thanks, I've got Nord VPN so I will check that out." There we go. Nord VPN is one of the good VPNs out there. So if you check out ctv.ca, it will take you to MTV shows and you can watch it on there. It'll be available right now. Go check it out. Come back. Let us know in the comment section below what your thoughts were on this episode. But we've got plenty more You know, we've got plenty more eliminations to talk about. Yeah, let's talk about Era 1. They had the pole wrestle which was their one but Era 2 actually ended up doing it. They ended up doing What did Era 1 do? They Era 2's one which was the pole wrestle. See, it's confusing to stay on top of.

33:48 That was really weird the way they I was confused by that cuz I was like, "Wait, he said it was going to be done in order of the era." And I was like, "Wait a second, why is it like I was very confused by it. Yeah. I don't Maybe TJ And Derrick is from Derrick is from Era 1 known for pole wrestles but the pole wrestle came in Era 2 which makes it even more confusing. But you know, it played in his favor. He went up against Mark and we spoke about weight classes, right? So some people will say, "Aha, Chris, see, it's not that big of a deal. Even if you're a lighter guy, you can still beat the bigger guy." But a pole wrestle is very different to a hall brawl. And why I say it's very different is because in a hall brawl, you cannot go sideways. You cannot go underneath or over. You've got to go through someone. And that is when power and body mass and weight plays its biggest role.

34:41 Like, I don't think we've ever seen a really and maybe there are someone, please let us know in the comment section or in the live, but we've ever seen like a much smaller guy beat a much bigger guy in a hall brawl. But in poll wrestle, someone like Derek who wrestled from a memory in college understands how to move his body and how to operate it and how to use another person's weight against them. Someone like myself who's done martial arts, you get taught how to use the momentum of another person against them. That is why Derek is so good at this. It doesn't take away how impressive it is for him to beat someone like Mark who is physically so much bigger than him and has so much more body mass and muscle, but I think it's a completely different ballgame and it still should be respected that, you know, he kept winning and still the biggest and best one he had was against Josh cuz that was a guy who's younger than him, fitter than him that have played rugby where you also need to know how to move your body and he still beat him.

35:34 So, very impressive but two very different eliminations in my mind. Yeah, I mentioned before that there were two moments for me as far as impact was Theo and Paulie, but I feel like the moment of for Derek was huge. Like, to have something where it even the like even though Derek is the king of poll wrestle and it's what he's known for and he was pleased to get it. To me it still feels like a massive underdog when you're going up against a Hulk like Mark. Like, not even like a bananas or, you know, like Mark is literally the biggest guy on his team. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's the smallest guy versus the biggest guy. It's David versus Goliath. And the fact that he could just grunt it out and like you can hear him just grunting.

36:27 Ah. And it's just pure like for so long. He's got that dog in him. It's very impressive. Like that was a huge moment. and you can see the difference. Like again, we when we said it's so interesting to see the way the match up played out. You said that Olivia versus Larissa was like kind of like watching Theo and Paulie. And then we saw Katie and Anisa is almost like Mark and Derek, but Derek again, that dog in him, the way he like size-wise I mean, like power to and size-wise, Mark versus Derek in a pole wrestle specifically, should have had the same advantage of an Anisa over Katie, but like who I can't even remember who Sal Tina.

37:17 I think Tina was the one that said it. Thank you for your confessional points. but Tina was the one that says like he's just using his entire body and all of his heart. which is you know, that's the difference. He has a little bit something wrong in his head as well, I think. Like that makes him do that can do that sort of thing. So and I think Mark as well like as big and strong as he is, like you said using your weight he's used to using his power and his strength, but not necessarily weight. If you know what I mean, like they had to yell at him lean on him. Like put weight on him kind of thing. Yeah, and like he's just trying to like bicep it out of it. He's trying to like, you know, lift it, but he doesn't know how to necessarily use his leverage as well. Like he had a lot of leverage he could have used. Can I just give a shout out to Mark for one thing though?

38:10 Like I and again, you know, I've been called an agist by Chantelle from Reality Realness before because I always pick the younger people when it comes to the drafts for the All-Stars. Haven't always worked out in my favor, but you know, Mark being in his 50s, 52, 51, or something like that, the fact that the guy can still do a front backflip over Derrick, that was insane to witness for somebody in their 50s. Like, I thought he was going to break his neck. His neck His head, though. I mean, I was like, ah, I was just slow-mo going, "No, neck brace." Like, that's a lot of weight coming down on his neck, man. Like, he's got, you know, the little Is it lat? What are those things called? Delts? Lats? I don't know I don't know what they are. You're the gym guy. Like, listen, I'm like nearly 20 years or 15, 18 years younger than Mark, and I can't do a front flip like that right now.

39:00 I you I'd not be walking out of there alive, you know? So, hats off to Mark for being able to do that. it was very impressive, and he can he can walk away with his head held high. In my opinion, like I said, Mark is a legend of the show. He's someone that I think should be pulled into more production stuff. I know he's already a part of the production team for All-Stars, and have been since he's brought it in as like an advisor or something. I think bring him in as an advisor, especially from an entertainment standpoint. The guy is doing wrestling right now. He's a showman. Like, get him involved in casting or something. Like, don't lose this talent that he has. Like, I don't know how many years Mark still has in him to come back. He said there's still fight left in him, but you know, get him involved. Controversial call. I'm not saying I necessarily approve this or put Kahuna's stamp on it, but I'm just putting it out there. Does TJ need to do All-Stars?

39:54 Or does TJ need to be the host? No, he doesn't need to be the host. But, I do think that TJ, to be honest with you, Mark has hosted a season before, I think. Yeah, early on when they used to get former competitors, he hosted a season. Yeah, but would it feel like The Challenge? Like, I mean, if TJ wants to do it, I'm like, TJ's the guy. Like, he's my guy. Like, he's the guy that I really enjoy watching. Yeah. Yeah. Let's have a read through a couple more things that people are saying here. Danica said they might refer to Derrick as a pitbull, but in this situation it was like a Chihuahua versus a mastiff and he stole one. Chris says maybe controversial to say, but Mark threw the limb, which is fine, but whatever because they're friends. I don't think he did. I don't think he did. I think that like surely your pride's like I'm not going to lose to anyone. I want to I want to be here as long as I can. I want to prove the old dog still got it. but maybe Mark and Derrick used their limb as a performance and that was very fun.

40:47 Danica says I wouldn't be surprised because he has a lot of other things on his plate right now, but they are good friends, so I could see that having been an arrangement between them. And Danica says honestly the only one I could see taking over being a host would be Bananas because he has the personality and the sarcasm. Yeah, him I can see actually as a host in the future. I could see it. If Derrick hadn't done what he's done in the past and done the same thing to Joss, I might give the throwing theory a little bit more credence, but we know he's got this in his bag. Like it's not like it's completely out of nowhere. Yeah, so that's why it's like yeah, I it's believable. Like if it wasn't believable, you know, I don't think Mark is necessarily the same even the same level as Joss. We've seen even like Troy being tiny do his.

41:37 Imagine a Troy versus Derrick. like I would love to see it. I would absolutely love to see it. Yeah. But who like they're both the little guy. How do they get under each other? Their movement would be insane. Like if you they had like little Fitbits on them afterwards would have been 20,000 steps or something after they get out of the arena. Like it would be insane to witness. Like but I'm here for it. I'm here for it. Anything to get our boy Troy back onto The Challenge. But very quickly want to touch on the Aneesa and Katie elimination because it was one-sided. I don't think we need to go into it too much, you know, Anisa's feelings. I heard good reason she used to date Rachel. Rachel didn't really stand up for her, but Rachel's playing a very smart strategic game. And Anisa's always got that everybody's against me. They don't want me to run a final and that kind of attitude, which is hard to support. But give her flowers.

42:28 She mopped the floor with Katie, which she should have done. She's one of the queens of elimination. She's won the second most out of all females, I believe just behind Cara Maria. So, you know, again, give her credit. But how about Katie in that, you know, headlock that she did with the legs? I was like, did she watch the UFC prior to getting on there as well? Unfortunately, she didn't keep Anisa in that lock for very long, but it was impressive to see. Yeah, armbar with the legs. Yeah, that's a getting the armbar there. They're like, that when you talk about leverage, like she could have found it there. But yeah, she's just it's hard. Like there's a lot of mass to move there. Like Anisa said she's thick and she's going to use it, you know? So, Katie's just Yeah, I can see now like the fact that they had this elimination like the massive elimination, almost like a purge.

43:24 I'm kind of glad that there was like almost like fodder in each team that there was the weaker potentially opponent, like people that they could almost sacrifice in this round, you know, like with a Katie there and I'm probably saying going to offend some people with this thought, but I feel like there are some people that preseason are like, ah, they shouldn't really be there, but you do need the early people to go out, right? Unless you're losing big people non-stop. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, listen, shout out to like Katie is fun as a character. She brings like confessionals and I know that the old school fans love Katie for that reason and she's got like a little bit of spunk and fight in her. And she clearly showed that fight. Like she said she wanted to prove to her kids back home that she can like put up a fight and I think she did in this episode. So, she can walk from this with her head held high.

44:16 It is no embarrassment to lose to Aneesa in a physical challenge. Like Aneesa's kind of like the Derrick version of the female side for winning things like a pole wrestle. So, she can definitely keep her head high and I definitely think that she shouldn't be ashamed of this. I don't know if I need to see Katie on the main show though in the future. Like I'm happy for her to come back for All Stars. I think that is more of the lane she should be running in though. let's move on from this elimination and get into Balls In because Balls In, this is where things went horribly wrong for me early on. I did pick Leroy, I believe as my second guy pick for the season thinking that, you know, surely two seasons in a row this guy is not going to be as bad as he was in All Stars. But, you know, there are some people that are like the Tom Bradys of the world and they can just or even who's LeBron James who's in his 40s and can win a gold medal at the Olympics.

45:14 Like they are people that are born and bred differently and those are like your bananas and your CTs and people like that. But, Leroy does not seem to be from that same caliber because at the moment he's doing his legacy damage. I think coming back he's not really performing at the level that we would expect. Not that Tony by any means is someone that's a pushover either. But, I expected more from Leroy. I definitely didn't expect him to be the last guy in the first round and then also to lose pretty convincingly in Balls In. Like he's lost a little bit of something. He's lost a couple of paces going up. Look, Tony is just he's a unit, right? Like he's a freaking big dude. Where it stand alone, where it was just Leroy lost to Tony in the way that he did, it wouldn't feel so bad. But it's he's been such a like you said in the first daily it was such a flop to come last by like really significantly not perform at all.

46:12 And then we're still biased because it was off the back of his All Stars performance as well where he we know he just sucked the entire season. So and still got to the end. Still got like still kind of managed that says about All Stars. Yeah. Cam also saved his ass a lot like he carried him. Her hurting so much she couldn't get there. but yeah, he's just not performed well to then have that performance. Like I said, Tony's a huge dude. You're playing balls in. Like it's not unreasonable to think yeah, like Tony won it. Like if Leroy won, it would be an upset. It's not like crazy. Would I expect more from him? I don't know, man. Like it's hard. Like once that big dude gets his hands on you, like what's he what's he going to do at that point? His only thing was to try to evade, but there's not a lot of places you can go in that in that ring, you know?

47:03 So I don't hold that against him. I just hold it again I just see it as an it's the fifth strike or the sixth strike that make you start doubting the legacy, not this one in and of itself. Yeah, okay. That's fair. Maybe I am overreacting. I'm a little bit I'm a little bit emotional. I'm a little bit emotional by the fact that I chose him I think second in the draft and I was like so high on him. So maybe I'm overreacting with him going home so early. Tony, welcome to the live. I believe it's the first time we've had you in the live. I could be wrong. But welcome to the live so early in the morning here and then we've got Danica saying confessionals. That's the word I was looking forward to. Early for me. Hello Al. Chris is saying no one has ever flopped the way Leroy has. Yeah, listen like Paulie's return hasn't been good either. So I mean but again, I just feel like he's also gone out against two pretty good competitors like in Bananas and the USA season and now also against Theo.

48:03 Danica, I don't know if that means you're leaving. If you are leaving, drive safely cuz I'm assuming you're getting into the car to drive the kids to school. But yeah, Kahuna, what a what a interesting Hall Brawl. And you know, we also see Amanda and Nia go up against each other, which was a very lopsided competition once again here. But hats off to Amanda, like Amanda's someone that, you know, my first season ever of watching the Challenge was Final Reckoning. And that was the season where she self-sabotaged with Zach to go in, and they ended up getting booted. And I did not like her at all. It took me a while to appreciate Amanda for what she brings to the show. I just thought she was drama, negative person, that type of thing. But she knows her role to play in the show. She is really good controversial. She's a good heel.

48:54 She use a wrestling term coming into the show. And I do think the season's going to be poorer for her being out of it. And dare I say, I was on her side this episode. I've gone from not liking Amanda to being fully team Amanda in this episode. Being like, "Corey, what do you mean? Nelly T is not enough." Like what? Like this was your best friend, right? And again, I feel like Corey doesn't have loyalty. Like he's got zero loyalty. He showed it when Nelly T sacrificed himself for Corey ages ago in a Hall Brawl funny enough as well. And now you're seeing him not caring a damn about Amanda. That connection means nothing to him. He's trying to keep himself out of eliminations as long as he can. And I kind of felt for Amanda. Like that she didn't have any way to go in this situation, but in into the arena against Nia.

49:46 Amanda, I feel similar. Like I really do love what she's bringing now, and I did not for a long time as well. But, I'm okay in small doses. I think Amanda for like long time, because she doesn't bring anything else to me. She's very one-dimensional. And that one dimension is okay for me in this in the start. I don't want to have it for too long, cuz she's a bit of a bit of an anchor on the on the dailies and things like that. I don't think she adds too much around that. And for me, the drama does not bring enough to justify that, but I mean, Cory smart. Like, why would you attach yourself to Amanda? She's got no one and doesn't really bring him anything or give him any positives. Except, like she said, she would protect him.

50:36 Yeah, but how? You're never going to win a daily to be able to actually have any influence. And everyone in the house freaking hates you, man. Like, what how why would Cory associate himself with you? But, they don't see the value in her alliance, I don't think. She doesn't bring a lot to the table as far as happened here tonight, Kunar? Like, a rare moment of me attacking Cory on the podcast and you defending him. And then Cory saying, "Yes." Kunar, I agree. Cory knew what was best for him. Blood Bloody Money 47, welcome to the live. Says, "Cory is a butt-kisser to the vacation alliance." I agree. Like, they will throw him out like a cheap second-hand towel as soon as they can in the game. I just don't think Cory fits into anybody's long-term game. But, Cory kind of is running out of friends to a certain degree here.

51:29 He did play with some of these guys in USA 2 and in some previous seasons. Amanda called him on it. She goes, "Do you have a number one here?" Like, cuz I don't have You were my number one. You don't have a number one. He's like, "No, I don't. But, what does that say, Amanda?" If he has There's one in the house Yeah, and he's still like, "Yeah, I'm good. Pass. Thank you." Like, as much as people say like they love Amanda, like I feel like she kind of has done this to herself though, right? Like, nothing about this definitely is controversial. Yeah, she's picked the strongest people with the biggest alliance to always like butt heads against, and that brings her back every season cuz she has that little bit of spice to her. moment But, it's never good for her game, right? Like, she's never been in a power alliance or gotten in with a group that she can actually coast with, which is what she needs to be able to do.

52:23 But, she's always weak and small and pisses everyone off. And that's not a good combination to want to align yourself with, you know? Mhm. There's a lot of people that feel like they're kind of like outsiders at the moment. There was talks about that with Brad being an era one on his own, not really having very close friends or strong alliance bonds in that era. Then you've also got you know, Aneesa who's kind of on the outs just because people see her maybe as a bit of an anchor in that team when it comes to dailies. For instance, they know she's not a strong runner for instance, that which you want to run a final with her. And then you've got people like Tony in his era who's kind of on the outer, it seems like you know, Cara Maria. Could the outsiders come together, Kula? Could they be a loose change alliance? You know, the loose change you get in the bottom of the car, you put it all together, can form a solitaire numbers.

53:15 Like, if you've got a couple of $1, I don't even know if you get $1 coins in America. I'm not from there, but you know, if you get enough loose change together, they suddenly become more valuable is what I'm trying to say. Can you get that alliance coming together potentially with some of these outsiders or is it again going to be too hard to do because every single season it seems like the loose change players try to latch onto the power rather than creating their own power. Yeah, I mean, loose change can be pretty value I mean, for a long time in Australia, McDonald's had a loose change menu. They literally called the loose change menu. So, you could get like a double cheeseburger for $2 or, you know, that kind of thing. Whatever the cheap things were that you could scrounge around for the coins, and then all of a sudden you have McDonald's. That's awesome. So, if you could put this loose change alliance together, but a lot of the times the reason why they're loose change is because they don't play along well with others or they've isolated other people, including the other loose change, right?

54:10 And a lot of the times they don't see that until it's too late. Well, should they? Yeah, absolutely. But, it takes a lot to be able to recognize your place in the game and see and react to it quickly enough to be able to pull these people together that for all intents and purposes are the misfits of the game. And generally speaking, there's a reason why they are. And if you can see it and go, "Look, maybe that's an option, but there's just not enough of us." Then it's not even worth pursuing in the first place cuz you're better putting your time towards getting in safer somewhere, even if it's for a little bit longer, like standing that ground and making yourself the target if you don't have the real possibility at the numbers, then you just kind of, you know, putting yourself out there for no reason. Well, Danica does say here that it's going to be Tony and Corinne the next elimination if they don't win.

55:05 There is no way Jordan or Devin goes in over Corinne or Tony unless they come in at the bottom. So, obviously, a lot of the storyline already has alluded to the rivalry between Corinne and Tony as well. So, kind of setting the storyline up for that to be a definite possibility. And then we know that a lot of the girls are more aligned with Jordan and Devin. So, definitely in a bad spot for both of those two players at the moment. Kibby Squared here says, "Amanda never has any power. Why would you align with her over strong people with allies?" Which is exactly what Cohutta has said and is agreeing with you there as well, Kiri. Danny is saying bananas added it up and that's why Kara pulled the short stick. She didn't have the numbers although it does appear that she has Era 1 rooting for her. Now, I wanted to talk about that. You know, you know who's my second favorite girl in the game right now?

55:57 Rachel. I was not I didn't know much about this girl. I wasn't like an Era 1 fan, but her backing my girl Cara Maria out there and being like, "We're going to be shouting for her." Like, that I think is just turned me around on Rachel. I really like her because I like the fact that she is like, unlike Laurel, she's not intimidated by other females being strong that can overshadow her cuz Laurel's clearly very insecure about that, which is why she's constantly having this petty fight. It kind of feels like we're getting an extended season from the previous season. Laurel clearly comes from an insecure place when she attacks Cara and can't work with Cara, but you know, Rachel is the opposite. She is a role model for other girls and women out there to be like, "We don't have to fight. Strong women don't have to fight each other. We can work together. We can lift each other up together." That's the kind of positive attitude, Cohutta, that I really like.

56:48 So, I am now team Rachel. You heard it here first. If it's not Cara Maria, those are going to be my two girls that I'm going to be shouting for this season, Cohutta. You know what I'm most disappointed by? Not Rachel. I agree with you 100% like after watching her lose Cara Maria by having a really good intro back season because I didn't really remember her. I remember her in like abstract concept that yeah, Rachel was good because by reputation almost. Like I had seen it, but you know, I'm old and stuff. Isn't every goat list that you read online as well? Like people put her as one of the best in the last season. by name. Like, I did watch her, but it was so long ago. But to have that intro back, I did like her, but it was the and then you're right. Like I do like Rachel a lot, but for me the biggest loser in that whole sort of thing because again this episode we got a lot of Laurel and Cara as the rivalry.

57:44 And to me, I wanted the next rivalry. I wanted the Cara-Tori that was building up, you know, like people were It's gone. Not only did they have that episode that season where it was actual a real thing, but people have been saying it for a long time that Tori's the next Cara or you know, that Cara's way better than Tori and like blah. Laurel has just come back on with venom to be the bad guy like so much that Tori got freaking mid-carded to have a rivalry with Amanda and she's gone. Like that's She's lower level. I want Tori in the main event with Cara. You know, like a weak rivalry, but I just don't think I just you know, it's one of those things that when you're out, you know, when you're out in the stars, right? Like both Laurel and Cara Maria, you don't see the end down on Earth, right? Because you're just that far out.

58:36 It's not even like Tori's not on the level of both Cara and Laurel. Hey, she's your number one pick, I think. Yeah, like listen, Laurel like even though I don't like Laurel Laura Laurel is 100% up there with Cara. It's between them for best female ever with the likes of her Rachel now 100% give her flowers. She's up there for me as well, but someone like Tori is not proven yet. She needs to get there. She needs to scale. Tori needs the rivalry Let me Let me tell you this, Kauna. Tori needs the rivalry more than Cara Maria needs it with Tori. Tori needs it to be relevant. I disagree. I disagree. Here we go. This is the section where Kauna's wrong, everybody. You wanted it. We're finally at 55 minutes in. I do think Tori needs it as well, but going forward the next five years if this show is in is in existence, who does Cara want to have a bigger rivalry with as far as the flagship main go main show goes?

59:31 Tori, who is in every single possible season that they roll out of this show, or Laurel who comes back once every 5 years, chucks the spars and like, you know, disappears again. Like who does she Cara have Is it Tori is the future of what Laurel was. They're reliving a rivalry that, you know, but if Cara wants to be on the show than Laurel. Let's be honest. Tori's way more likable than Laurel. So, I can't even agree with you on that. Laurel's psycho. Like she's like a sociopath. but so it's her, but if you want to attach yourself to someone for a rival season in the future, yeah, it'll be a big one in the long run. but for a lot longer going forward, you got to be with Tori for sure. Like I would I would want to be getting in a program, a storyline, a narrative with her rather than Laurel. So, I So, once again, I hear where you're coming from.

1:00:22 So, what you're saying is the show just like Laurel needs the rivalry with Cara. What I'm saying is Cara doesn't need it. She's already there. They're trying to I'm saying Cara, if she wants to get back on the main show regularly and have that thing and have that rivalry spot again, I think she needs She's still not back on yet, right? Like really be back on. I'm like pretty confident like if she wants to be back on, she's back on. Cara is a legend already. She doesn't need this rivalry with Tori to be relevant in future season. Are you kidding me? She is Cara Maria. one of the best ever played the game. She will come back regardless, but I do agree with you from a challenge, you know, production standpoint. Like who's the next big rivalry? Because I don't think Laurel like Laurel's still okay, but I see Cara Maria outlasting her on the show.

1:01:15 I think Cara Maria will be the CT to the bananas, where Laurel will fall off before Cara Maria does. That's my opinion about it, and maybe I'm very biased here. So, yes, may maybe there is another rival we needed, but I know we went back and forth. Let's read a couple of comments, cuz I know people are probably dying to get in on this juicy bit of conversation we just had. We've got Kiwi saying, "Yes, Chris, that is so true about Rachel compared to Laurel." So, saying that Rachel respects other strong women, that she wants to lift with her, opposed to Laurel being very insecure about the fact that Cara is seen as such a big rival. Bloody money is saying Anissa has no self-awareness and is delusional. I think she has all the tools to be a champion. I roll. Yeah, I agree. She I think she had all the tools at one point, but she kind of lost it, and never really focused on it enough. And now, she's waking up in her 40s, when she hasn't like it's like that person like you can you can change your life at any time, but you can't change 20 years of bad habits and not really caring about going and doing the runs and suddenly thinking you're going to be a great runner within a year or two in your 40s.

1:02:22 Like it's going to take time, and I don't know if she's got it, you know? That's my thing. Like it may be too late. And I know it's very harsh and brutal to say. Chris is saying, "I was worried for Cara with losing Paulie, Amanda, Kailyn all in one episode, but hearing Rachel support her gives Cara a lot more key allies." I totally agree. Rachel is a badass, and she's got some people in era one, and I think it's going to be very vital in the future that different eras will need to work together. There's going to be twists in this game. I don't think Cara Maria locked in her era where she's not popular for the whole season. So, I'm really looking forward to seeing what is going to happen. Danica is saying, "I think Cara will do better without Paulie there. Having to support having the support of CT and Rachel is all she needs." And let's talk about that very briefly until we can go into more of the comments later on. What did you think of that really heartwarming scene between CT and Cara Maria?

1:03:12 We know they have got like this older brother younger sister the I mean, it just brings you into your feels and everything feels right in the world when CT and Cara Maria is back on our screens in the season and they're having that dialogue between the two of them. And it just reminds you that like CT's such a good dude, man. Like the fact that he would even like you don't see you literally see no one else doing that kind of thing where it's a psych up, a hype up like and really in such a way that's perfect for Cara Maria as well. Like they do know each other and have that whether it's Boston strong, whatever it is, but they just connect and I love seeing CT seeing someone down and saying, "Hey, like get your head in the game." Like he's bringing her back, like trying to and just playing around with her, making her smile, whatever it takes, but CT's there for her and I love that.

1:04:04 He's such a good dude. He's in And again, despite Cara Maria being the goat and I do say that, like this kind of highlights what is always one of her flaws is that she does get so emotional that she needs someone like CT to do that for her. You know what I mean? Like she kind of gets in her own head so often. But she But she can deliver. What I What I like about it is she can get into her own head, but it's almost like Cara Maria We spoke about this. She needs to Like what people don't understand about Cara Maria I think if Cara Maria If everybody showed her love and they were like, "Cara Maria, you're amazing. You're this great person. We want to work with you." I don't know if she would do well in a season like that. She's one of those people that need to be the underdog. She needs to be the person that feels like the whole house is against her. That is when Cara Maria the fans love her when she's on that outside.

1:04:56 They don't like her when she's in power. And also She had it once and we hated it. Yeah. They hated it. But she operates at a different level. Some people are bred differently. They If they're under pressure, if they get thrown into an arena, they're going to come back, you eight out of 10 times. And that is exactly what she told Bananas and Laurel before they even did this. It's like, are we going to do the same dance? Are we going to do the same thing again? You know you're going to throw me in, I'm going to come back, I'm going to take shots at you, or do we do something different here? Which I don't think was a bad pitch by her at all. but they still ended up going down that direction. So, they're going to have to learn. They're going to have to learn now because she's going to come back, and I'm telling you now she's taking shots at that crew. One of the things I wanted to give a shout-out was Cara Maria's comment back to CT when they were teasing each other, and she was like, "Well, I'll come back to your bed later on." And doing an ender heard. I was like, "What?" Great, what?

1:05:49 Did you hear that? Did you hear it at all? I was like, that is that's typical Cara Maria pulling that out of from nowhere, and CT's like, "What?" anyways, let's read more here. Kiwi's saying, "Whatever, Chris. I don't think Laurel is great at all. Tori has proven herself in my opinion." Listen, I'm talking about statistics. I'm talking about like I don't say I'm like again, Tori is more likable than Laurel, and it says a lot. It says a lot when Tori's more likable than someone, but you know, I don't think Laurel's a likable person from what I'm seeing on the show. I don't know her in person. I don't know what she's like outside of it. I'm talking about the TV character and her online persona when you see the mean tweets and the stuff that happens here and there online. I just don't buy that. I don't know if she's a likable person, right? Maybe she's a Like some people put on a show when they go on the show. I don't know if she's that good of an actress, you know?

1:06:42 Possible. I mean, but doesn't look like a very fun person to be around, to be honest. but for me, definitely I have to give her credit. She's won. She's won What How many times now? Two or three times? Like she's a champion, and she's done it multiple times. You know, Tori's only won once. So, Tori's got the potential and can still Tori can surpass both of these ladies. The gap between the ladies are not that far. Like we're talking a championship or two. And Tori can Cara got two, Laurel got two. Yeah. Yeah, like Tori has her lifetime seasonal pass to the challenge. So she can come back every season. They'll bring her back. Like she'll 100% do as many seasons as Bananas if the show keeps going, right? She'll be the female that does the most seasons.

1:07:32 Right? Yeah. So she can definitely surpass both of these. But she's not there yet. And that is what I keep telling people. She's Yeah, I give you that. I'll give you that for sure. I agree with that. But I do think like yeah, like the future as far as Cara Maria La- Laurel's not got many seasons left in her. Like I feel like mentally even she doesn't like it. She doesn't want to be there. Like I feel like she's just so hates the world all the time except for Nicole. Yeah. But you know, except for Nicole. she puts out. Yeah. It doesn't seem like it's a positive experience for her a lot of the time. Blood Money says Laurel wants to be the top female by any means. Kiwi says Laurel is a bully. And I totally agree. Danica says I'm ready for Laurel to be gone. I don't like her confessionals. I don't like the way she treats people. I don't think Laurel is a sociopath. I think she's undiagnosed on the spectrum.

1:08:25 It's po- It's possible. It's po- I've not thought about that, but it is possible. Blood Money says Laurel needs serious therapy after this. Kiwi says same Danica. And then Danica says I think being rivals with Tori is okay because that could set up for another season of rivals. I would rather see Cara and Tori as rivals teams. Yeah, I'm over it. And this is where I do agree. My disagreement wasn't that it would be a better rival or that it's better for the show. I just don't think Cara needs the rivalry is what I was saying. But I would say that Cara and Tori I would much rather see them in a rivals season than getting a third season in a row. Or, you know, I know we've had more seasons than that, but the Laurel Carid Maria story is just getting old, right? Yeah, it's played out. Danica saying Laurel reminds me of a lot of my daughter in her speech and mannerisms in a way that my daughter doesn't realize how she comes across unless it's pointed out to her.

1:09:17 It has been a challenge. Yeah, and I mean, that's the And listen, a similar issue as well with my daughter having a similar problem. Oh, you've got the same? I think I might. She's only nine. We'll see how she goes in the future, but I think she might have a little bit of that to her as well. Yeah, it makes me feel bad about my harsh criticisms of Laurel. And obviously, the problem is that my criticisms is about Laurel the TV character, not the person behind it. I know everybody they go home, they're human beings, they've got loved ones out there who care about them and all that kind of stuff. This is not taking a shot at that person. And I know it's hard to differentiate between the two. I do think when you put yourself on a show, though, you open Like I've applied for Survivor in the past. If I get on Survivor and if I flop, I fully expect the backlash. I fully expect people to take the piss out of me.

1:10:09 Like cuz I'm putting myself on a realm out there where I'm going to receive a certain amount of things coming, right? So, my way. But that is basically you know, I think something that people need to take into consideration when they go and play a show such as this. but yeah, Kahuna, what did we not talk about? Let's talk about the challenge itself that they had to do. What did you think about the take shelter challenge? Because a lot of people might say that Cara Maria is a favorite or she'll get things her way. This didn't seem like a typical Cara Maria arena challenge elimination to do, right? No, I'm sure against Kellyanne, she probably would have preferred any of the other three. She would have wanted a headbanger against Kellyanne, I think. but it does show Cara is a competitor, her versatility. even something that isn't in her favor.

1:11:00 We've seen in the past like a 30 39? Yeah, 39. When she came in as a champion and beaten by Michelle in a puzzle and the same and people like why would you give Cara Maria something that she's not good at, blah. but, you know, that's what it takes to be a competitor and she did it here. It's not necessarily built to her strengths, but she still found a way through and that's that competitive nature and it shows why she's so great at this game and why they should be worried about throwing it down all the time and they keep forgetting, I think. And what do you think of Brandon? Like the guy seems like he also can't get any luck when it comes to these daily challenges getting thrown into something like this. Ryan taking him out in the end here. Didn't seem to be his challenge. Like It's like Brandon, I said when we were doing the draft for the All-Stars season, I just I've never Every season when back in the day that he was on, I've just always He's just always been mid.

1:12:04 Like he seems like he should be better than he is and he just goes out early and doesn't do much at all. And he was just always like meh, like I liked him, but he's never did anything. And again, he goes out immediately against Ryan. you know, he probably would have wanted a headbanger as well, but it doesn't mean he should have sucked at this one. Like you know, why Like he should have won. Like he should win. Yeah, totally agree. He should still have won. Ryan is not known as a beast or anything like that by any means, you know, when it comes to the challenge. but it didn't go his way and I think when it comes to these types of challenges it can be it sometimes can be a bit of a lottery. It's like you know, it's not something you can like how often do you go to the gym to try and have a tie knots, you know? Unless you're Paulie who consistently does that at home, Cara Maria should not have won because she's never known how to untie knots.

1:12:59 And she actually ended up figuring it out under pressure. I thought it was hilarious personally. I did too. I thought it was funny but the fact that they put that out there, like settle down, chill man, chill. Like No loop, mate. No loop. Straight to the point, you know, letting us know about it. But I thought it was I thought it was a hilarious segment between the two of them and it's why again why I say Cara Maria and Paulie both just bring so much drama and joy and confessionals to the show which I hope we get to see more of in the future. But those are like all the main points I feel like for this episode. Is there anything that you wanted to talk about? Anything you feel like we missed out on? I wanted to touch just briefly. You know in Bull's Inn they made the inner ring the thing like it wasn't contestable. Yeah, like I and I can see it's safety but don't like they changed the game for the sake of aesthetics because that center ring looked cool cuz it was metal and it had lights in it and stuff.

1:14:04 But why not make a padded thing that they could have actually just thrown themselves into, you know, and actually did it do it properly rather than this invisible barrier that kind of stopped it for some reason. I don't know why they chose to go down that path when it's still a headbanger. It's just not quite as much of a headbanger. It's like on light for some reason. something happened to them. Like I feel like there's been some injuries for challenges like this. Again, it's like I mean small sacrifice to pay for our enjoyment of it. Someone had to break a limb. And it's had full contact Hall Brawl.

1:14:56 There was no variation in the Hall Brawl. No pads this time or you know, it was just straight up or 100% or you know, raw Hall Brawl, which is the way we like it. But they watered that one down a bit. When I think out of Pole Wrestle, Hall Brawl, and Balls In, Balls In's probably the least I'd be worried about broken arms and you know, twisted limbs and things like that, you know. But it's interesting that they chose that. Totally agree. yeah, I think that is it here for this week's action. But we've gone and passed the eliminations. We've gone and passed all of the prelims, I should say, of to the season now. Really looking forward to what is going to happen on episode three moving forward. I think we'll see more of a classic episode, obviously, with that format of daily challenges, a little bit of action in the house, see some more of the relationships building, and where the strategic power's going to lie within this game long term, as well as a hopefully an arena at the end of the day.

1:15:53 I'm wondering, do you think they'll do another mass purge? Like there's still a lot of players in the game. They could easily do another round of this. They could, but there's also I think that I mean, they probably will at some point. I don't know how, like especially if they can do like a big a mass elimination. Maybe every four episodes they'll do like multiple elimination thing like this would be cool. but I do think numerically, like numbers-wise, they could just squeeze it in by doing straight up twos, like every episode now. With the number of episodes in a season, if they do two like two people gone every episode, they could get all the way there, I think. But so they've got options. Well, looking forward to see it. I do want to say everybody in the live, thank you so much for jumping on. And I think we're just leaving on time. So, hopefully you're not going to be late for work, Danica.

1:16:45 Elise, hello. Welcome to the live. Just too late. Let us know in the comment section what do you agree with, what you disagree with. We had a short section of why Kukulcan is wrong in the middle of it. Just classic disagreement around Karmaria and Tori. Nothing too dramatic. And then both of us took the opposite sides to Corey this week, which was kind of weird. Like normally I'm for Corey and Kukulcan is not and it flipped. But would love to hear your thoughts on that. So, let us know later on. Thanks, Chris. Really, thank you for being here. We really appreciate you jumping on so early on here on the live. But for those that are watching it later on, please consider subscribing. We do this because we're passionate about the show. We love talking about it. But the best way for us to know that you love us jumping on here talking some mad smack about a show that we've never played in ourselves and pretend like we would get to the end and win every single time or that we would walk over Corey in a whole brawl like Deonna DePoli, you know?

1:17:43 Just because we've got that delusion. If you want to indulge in that delusion, subscribe here to this channel. Put a like on it. Put some comments on below. Let us know what you agree and disagree with. But for now, I'm going to say ciao and we will see you next week. Bye.