DC ExtraTime: "Rivals" No More

 EDITORS' NOTE: 

Excerpt from DC SocialPulse: Battle of the Exes 2 EP 2 in Jan. 2015, re-posted in the interest of fans during Rivals III, prior to Portland castmate Jordan winning the final with Sarah, and a day after the outcome of last night's episode - more to come in this weekend's DCBLOG posts.

BY DC CUEVA                     

> @DC408Dxtr / @DC408DxNow

As I tweeted in my commentary, for the 2nd straight week it was Team Portland's night: winning the Dome, winning the first Exile, and Jordan winning great respect from Twitter. But something that's lost in what they've been able to do these first two weeks is what happened to two of the girls represented here in Panama, and for which a handful of tweets above is really what you need to know about it. This harks back to a side story we told you about during our Are You The One? Season 2 coverage, where when they joined Leroy & Cooke to see their RW Vegas XXV roommate Mike get married in Laguna Beach last fall, Nany made amends with that bad boy who had played her in Vegas and got a ton of heat for that but has mellowed out considerably since then, Adam.

For me, my favorite memory of Real World Portland is having had this front-row seat to following the cast's entire journey from the beginning: first when they returned from filming in Nov. 2012 during my first Challenge, to becoming great social friends with all of them before & during a season that stood out to me as a favorite, then their great impact on The Challenge, and now to this, Exes 2. And it was also the focus of my first Fan's View post that covered their reunion, for which one of my two subjects, Kaitlyn, celebrated her birthday just a few days ago. But for those who watched RWPDX, the moment that's no doubt burned in your head from that last regular "7 strangers" season prior to last year was what happened at the end of their stay in the Pacific Northwest.

From IG/@TheRealNiaMoore:
Nia & Averey backstage at Exes 2
After Show in Glendale, CA

   It was, obviously, the infamous but unforgettable fight between Nia and Averey. And in case you weren't fixated on their original season as much as I was, here's the story behind that and what led up to it. Just as it was with her and Jordan, there was tension during the season between Nia and Averey & Johnny, which really began to take shape near the end of the season. First in EP09, Nia called a truce to her bickering with Javerey. But then came what happened in Episode 11 when, the moment that defined that season finally came to pass when Hurricane Nia finally made landfall in the Pearl District. It began when Nia stepped on the turd of Averey's dog Daisy in the confessional. Then came words between both sides of her not cleaning up after themselves.
   And then when they were in the bathroom, Johnny put a tissue on her back, and she then did the same. Then he threw a energy drink towards Nia, and she smacked Johnny on the back of the head several times. Then when he got out of the toilet room, she had a blow-drier in hand, Averey grabbed her from behind and all of a sudden, the house became a boxing ring as the girls kept throwing punches at each other. And then when you though it wasn't over, Nia then sucker-punched Averey from behind and the fighting began again. When things finally calmed down after all that, words were exchanged between some of the group when Javerey went out to take a breather. In the finale, a house meeting took place among the group afterwards where after a vote went in Nia's favor, Javerey have had enough and they decided to pack up and spend the last week or so in a hotel away from the house. Obviously, just as it's been so many times in watching these shows, I was left speechless by what happened, just like everyone else who watched that.
   As is always the case with other feuds that have emerged within Team MTV, and also because Nia, Averey and Johnny all follow me on Twitter, I've maintained an impartial stance when it came to this fight...thus, I didn't take sides in that manner. But for a reality franchise that's had a long-standing no-violence policy, and for a channel that doesn't show violence much because its target audience also includes teens and those younger than them, many fans and media were irate over that fight being seen in its graphic form. They pointed to how producers couldn't even come in from behind the 4th wall to break that up, over how it was initiated over a piece of dog turd of all things more than on built-up feelings, and even some claiming that Nia was brought in to help spark things up to a show that was sagging in MTV interest behind the likes of Teen Mom. This violence happens a lot on the BMP-produced show Bad Girls Club on Oxygen, but we never seen a fight escalate to this level such as what happened there. And perhaps it was this event that inadvertently led The Real World to make a gamble & introduce those twists that started down the way in San Francisco.

When Team Portland made its Challenge debut on Rivals II afterwards, a lot of us wondered why Jess & Anastasia were chosen considering that the former was not relatively as big of a deal as Nia & Averey, and an alternate choice too. Word on the grapevine was that both Nia & Averey were the first call among the girls to join Jordan & Marlon in Thailand but Ave turned it down knowing those feelings were very much still fresh. Since then, Ave got in that relationship with Johnny that ended badly, and like Adam, Nia has matured a bit in launching her Booty Belt line, among others. As I wrote in my Exes 2 previews, a storyline to watch was of how Jordan, Jessica, Nia, Averey and Johnny can handle living in the same house again, the first two for the 4th straight time. So far, things have been all over the place but now the group has been showing their maturing over time.
   Fans have been doing fantasy Challenges within the fan forums, and there's so many options out there for a possible Rivals III which are too many to mention here. But sometimes, rivalries within this dysfunctional family of the Real World/Challenge & AYTO community can end peacefully and without incident, thereby avoiding a Rivals III pairing altogether. As you saw in the tweets above, Nia & Averey not only squashed their beef once they arrived in Panama, they shared the same room with the girl Ave beat in the Dome - Hailey, and Diem; obviously, the events of Nov. 14 touched all three of the ladies. And this harkens back also to when another inter-cast beef among former Real World roommates was squashed: in addition to Adam & Nany, during Free Agents, Brooklynites Devyn & Chet put an end to their bickering when she made that inspiring run in that final.

Being someone who's been very close to the RW Portland cast for what's now three years since I first established a rapport with them after they got home from Oregon, I'm not surprised that Nia & Averey have squashed this whole beef, and I gotta give them praise for taking advantage of this platform to finally put a ceasefire to this, three years after the fact. And not only should things in the past should stay that way, what happened there in Portland was, really, something that was escalated on just a small issue and it should have never even gone to the kind of violent level in the first place.
   So, aside from what's happened in this lead-up to this season, and after two episodes of what we've seen so far - and knowing what will be happening next week, Nia and Averey putting an end of their rivalry off-camera is, to me, is probably my biggest story so far of Exes 2. If both of you are reading this, I'm glad that both of you have matured enough to put an end to this whole bickering, and hope things will now be on a more civil level.

- I AM DC