DC ExtraTime: The Greatest Challenge Season Ever

A DCBLOG MTV Trifecta Special
BY DC CUEVA                     

> @DC408Dxtr / @DC408DxNow

We are headed towards the business end of the current season of The Challenge, as Rivals III has been heating up in the Mexican sunshine, both on the playing field and in the house. If you follow the entire world of what I refer to as the MTV Trifecta, then this summer is the best time to be a fan as Season 4 of Are You The One? is already in full swing, and so has filming for the next Real World up in Seattle. And of course, there's plenty more drama coming up as the summer rolls along, as tonight a big elimination battle looms.

Throughout the 25-year history of this ecosystem, there have been so many memorable moments, unforgettable casts, incredible people and great seasons among the shows that galvanizes this longtime MTV fan. We've had great Real World seasons: San Francisco, Hawai, the first two Las Vegas seasons, San Diego I, Austin, Key West, Ex-Plosion and beyond. Fairly recently, there was the beloved, original season 1 cast of Are You The One?, who refined the definition of reality dating shows, and there's Road Rules as well. But five years ago this summer, we had perhaps the best-season ever of The Challenge.

   It was a season that brought the competition and drama fans were accustomed to on the "fifth major pro sport" to a level that amazed everyone including those who were involved in the season itself. We had an unparalleled combination of an all-star cast of The Challenge's biggest names, both past and present. There was a slew of moments that got us talking that took place both on the playing field and in the house. There was a human aspect in the face of this show who had experienced a life-changing moment just months earlier coming back to do the job he's best known for to casual viewers outside the action sports world. And of course, there was the uneasy feeling that came about when the competitors found out that they had no one to answer but to the one person they despise the most.

On this special, dedicated edition of DC ExtraTime, we take a look back at what many feel is the greatest season ever of the fifth major pro sport: The Challenge: Rivals from summer 2011 in Costa Rica.

 THE ORIGINS AND THE BUILD-UP 

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word Rival as: "a person or thing that tries to defeat or be more successful than another; something or someone that is as good or almost as good as another person or thing." There are rivalries that range from Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi and mobile phone companies over network coverage range, to MGM and Caesars fighting for travelers on the Las Vegas strip, and beyond. And of course, there's countless numbers of famous sports rivalries: Yankees-Red Sox, Manning vs. Brady, the Manchester Derby between United & City, the El Clasico between Spanish La Liga powers F.C. Barcelona & Real Madrid, and Canada vs. Russia in hockey.

   If there's something that can fuel anyone's ambitions in a competitive sense, there's nothing like a good-old, intense rivalry. Whether it's a personal rivalry two girls have for the same guy - even if their's isn't seen on a reality show, a corporate one between those on Madison Avenue, or most especially an athletic rivalry, it has become a popular part of our pop culture wallpaper. For the past few seasons, NBC Sports Network has branded its Wednesday national NHL game-casts as "Wednesday Night Rivalry" with hockey's biggest rivalries helping bring much-needed buzz to the fledgling 4th sport of the big four based on the premise that "hate sells."

A year before this Challenge, Canada's two sports cable networks: TSN, an ESPN affiliate owned by telecom Bell (& owners of MTV Canada), and SportsNet, owned by cable company Rogers, joined with the CTV network to televise the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. TSN and SportsNet are fierce rivals when it comes to covering hockey and Canadian sports (including NHL rights switching between the two), but for 17 golden days, broadcasters, producers & technicians from both networks set aside their rivalry for the good of Team Canada, and galvanized Canadians in the greatest event ever held in their country. The same went for pay TV rivals HBO & Showtime in jointly doing the Mayweather/Pacquiao and Lewis/Tyson fights and, on a much-friendlier level, CBS & Turner for NCAA March Madness.
   That provided the inspiration for a basketball fan and MTV Challenge viewer from Brooklyn named B.J. to send an idea over Memorial Day weekend in 2010 to the boss man of the former Grantland site and now its HBO successor The Ringer - Bill Simmons, and then to David Jacoby, one of The Challenge's biggest fans and one of the many who covers it on a high profile site. It was a bold idea for a show whose themes for various seasons had been individual Duels, champions vs. challengers Ruins, two-team Challenges of various types, and the three-team Cutthroat that was contested later that year. Here was his idea as sent to the ESPN.com Page 2 Mailbag, which was then discussed on Bill's podcast...

Q: I have an idea for the greatest season of the "Real World/Road Rules Challenge" ever. It's called "Mortal Enemies." The premise is simple. Teams of two: guy/guy, girl/girl. Instead of selecting your teammate, players are forced to compete with the person with whom they've had the most conflict over the years. It would be like watching the NBA if the entire league consisted of the 2004 Los Angeles Lakers. With teammates loathing each other, the possibilities for drama, backstabbing and hate sex explode exponentially. -- B.J., Brooklyn, N.Y. 

SG: I'm for any reality idea that leads to the phrase, "It would be like watching the NBA if the entire league consisted of the 2004 Los Angeles Lakers," a crazy team and even crazier season that could have given us a great "30 for 30" documentary, except there's no way the NBA would have given us any footage for it. On the bright side, we'll always have this alleged exchange: 

--Mrs. Kobe: "Hey, cowboy, what are you hunting?" 

--Karl Malone: "I'm hunting for little Mexican girls." 

(P.S.: I threw the "Mortal Enemies" idea at the Czar of Reality TV, Dave Jacoby. Here was his take: "Come on, the guy is from Brooklyn, so you know I am going to co-sign this idea. We do need to dump the 'Mortal Enemies' title and change it to 'Frenemies' since some suit at MTV will have a 16-year-old daughter that will tell him to do that, anyway. So call it 'Frenemies' from now on. My big add: For the first couple challenges, the cast needs to think that it is 'every man for themselves' so the producers can identify exactly who hates each other the most. Two girls threw drinks on each other? Teammates. One guy found out another guy made out with his lady? Teammates. That gives us the scene when everyone panics after realizing the rules have been changed on them, then panics a second time when realizing they're stuck with a frenemy. Other than that, solid idea and I love it. Just make sure there are enough stripper poles. I'm tired of seeing the cast live in these souped-up mansions without a stripper pole; there should be one in every room of the house. Huge oversight." That's why he's the czar.)

Courtesy: ESPN.com Page 2/Grantland

If Pierre DeCoubertin's vision to revive the Ancient Olympics for the modern age was a noble idea, then B.J.'s idea of a season that eventually became Rivals seemed a unique and radical suggestion for The Challenge. He took the idea of what happened to Karl Malone and Gary Peyton when they went to the Lakers to try and win a title with Kobe & Shaq, and how that all melted down when they and Phil Jackson lost the 2004 NBA Finals to the Pistons, and applied it to a show he loved watching when he wasn't watching basketball.
   While Fresh Meat II was airing and the players were in Prague for Cutthroat, the Brooklynite had no idea that his idea would produce a season unlike any other in Challenge history. Plus, this was also the chance for The Challenge to solidify its spot on MTV in a time where Jersey Shore, Teen Mom and the recently-premiered Teen Wolf had stolen some thunder from it and The Real World.

And as Cutthroat aired in the fall of 2010, there was one additional story that transcended sports and pop culture that would add more allure to Rivals. On October 14, and in a story we told here on its fifth anniversary last fall, host TJ Lavin suffered a serious crash in his last competitive event as a BMX rider. He was knocked unconscious after crashing and hitting his head, was rushed by ambulance to a local hospital with head injuries, broken ribs and a shattered wrist, spending more than a week in the hospital with a medicinally induced coma.

   The action sports community, the MTV family and his close friends rallied behind TJ as he began a slow but later speedy recovery over the holidays which impressed doctors, with eyes towards filming of that season in early 2011. And it was a call from longtime executive producer Justin Booth after Cutthroat aired that encouraged TJ, some four months removed from that fateful night, to make that trek from Las Vegas to South America and surprise the cast.

   As the competitors headed to Costa Rica and knowing how fairly recent that accident was, they had absolutely no idea that the man who has been their host for many years would be at it once again as if nothing happened to him. It must've been the best sight ever for everyone to see TJ emerge from the darkness and serve as host in a role only he can do. And the fact that he was able to get up from that hospital bed to not only recover but host, it set the tone for everything that would come afterwards.

 THE TEAMS 

Of all the casts that have emerged in the MTV Trifecta since 1992, then you would likely have this first Rivals cast at the top of that Challenge list, and the top 5 to top 10 overall when you account all the seasons of the ecosystem. 

   Let MTV Insider and RHAP host Brian Cohen best describe how loaded this cast was from his tweets during Bloodlines last season: "The Rivals cast was so loaded it's insane. There's like a dozen Hall of Famers on easily (Side note: we need a Challenge Hall of Fame). A mind-boggling 12 people on that season won a title. Even more amazing, the four winners all won another season on top of that. This season needs a 30 for 30."

● ADAM & C.T.: The bickering between these two from an earlier generation started all the way back on Real World Paris when CT became confrontational towards Adam several times, most notably the Bostonian pushing the SoCal acquaintance around in the Paris night. On Gauntlet III, we saw a beer being poured on Adam's head by CT after he got into it with a fellow competitor. And all the tension boiled over on The Duel II, when a massive brawl on the group's first night saw CT land a punch on Adam, and both were sent packing before the first challenge would take place in New Zealand.

● CARA MARIA & LAUREL: On the previous season of Cutthroat in Prague, Cara Maria had developed a relationship with Abram that would last well after they left the house, and she was accused by Laurel of not being a worthy member of their team. That put a sting in their partnership, which saw the ladder say that she won't share prize money with her if they got to the end, and that Cara was given a free pass to the final because of her and who would eventually become her boyfriend was also team leader. Both ultimately went to the final but settled for 2nd place money.

● JOHNNY & TYLER: For former Key West roommates Johnny Bananas and Tyler, their bickering went back to The Duel, where Tyler put Bananas into the first elimination and ultimately lost. On Gauntlet III, Johnny returned the favor when he out the Olympic fan into elimination, then got into words with not only Bananas but also their KW housemate Janelle; Tyler eventually lost. The guys were due for a rubber match on Cutthroat, but we all know what happened there; had it not be CT beating Bananas, JB would've won and Tyler got angry on the reunion.

● CAMILA & THERESA: When you put both the Brazilian hothead and the fiery Puerto Rican into the same house then something will happen, and it did on Cutthroat. Camila was criticized heavily by Theresa after the ladder believed she stole Ty's sweatpants and Jenn's hat and leading to one of Camila's signature meltdowns as Theresa's teammate Katie laughed in front of her.

● EVAN & NEHEMIAH: For the Canadian and the LA resident, their animosity came courtesy of Duel II when Nehemiah voiced displeasure to Challenge vet Brad of Evan's gameplay after the ladder took out Davis in an elimination. That gave him the chance to put Evan on blast for that the very next week, and that motivated the ginger to take out Nehemiah in that week's duel battle, en route to winning that season.

● EVELYN & PAULA: Ev & Paula's history dated back to The Island, where the Fresh Meat vet was ridiculed by Johnny & Kenny from Paula's alliance. Paula herself was double crossed by Ev after winning the last elimination and dealt with the guys for safety, and the Key West vet was left behind by them when they would win. On Fresh Meat II, they were front and center again, and ultimately faced off in an Exile elimination that determined who would had control of the game, which Ev won just barely.

● DAVIS & TYRIE: On a clear night that became stormy at 5280' above sea level, Davis began to go all in on Tyrie in Denver after a heated night in the club saw the drunken blonde used racial slurs towards the big guy, and provoked him repeatedly until producers sent him to a hotel to chill out; he ultimately returned to the house and stayed the rest of the way. Ironically, their fight earned them the Best Fight Award at the Real World Awards Bash before the Hollywood season.

● JENN & MANDI: In Vancouver on FM II, the former Raiderette and the Portlander got into a heated squabble when Mandi questioned how Jenn was voting differently. The result of this was a big argument where Mandi called her a "b...." then saw Jenn shove her off a table, throwing a drink at her and almost punching her but a flurry of insults followed that attack. Cooler heads prevailed and Mandi let Jenn stay in Canada.

● ADAM R. & LEROY: The other rookie team came to Costa Rica almost fresh off the plane from RW Back to Las Vegas, where a late night argument on the Hard Rock came about with the two after Adam had been kicked out of the Vanity nightclub. Lean Body voiced disgust at Adam's obnoxious behavior, and when the ladder got back obviously drunk, Leroy made that clear to everyone which Adam took offense to it.

● SARAH & KATELYNN: Like the rest of the girls in the house in Red Hook, Sarah & Katelynn were friends on Real World Brooklyn. However, it was a totally different story on Fresh Meat II as that wiped away when Katelynn backstabbed Sarah and voted her & Vinny into the Exile after promising not to do so. Sarah got into words with her over this and even included momma Rice in the argument too before succumbing in the elimination.

● BRANDON & TY: Considering how amicable Brandon is in Challenge world, it would be hard to think of any Rivals he has. But one night in Prague, the always controversial Ty got into a heated squabble with BDN in the Cutthroat house, and they were set for a showdown in a grueling Gulag. In what was an amazing run of elimination dominance, this was Brandon's easiest win that season, as Ty never showed up and he won by default.
● JASMINE & JONNA: The rookie girls of Rivals were brought to Costa Rica by way of being part of an awkward love triangle on Real World Cancun. Jasmine and Jonna became obsessed with Canadian DJ Pat while he was on Spring Break, and Rasheeda was the first to get close to him. However, the temptation of this sultry setting became too much for Jonna as she cheated on her boyfriend back in Arizona and began to make a play for Pat, and drawing jealousy from Jasmine.

● ANEESA & ROBIN: On The Duel, a pre-mom Robin was clearly inebriated and made several degrading remarks in reference to Aneesa's lesbian status, race and origins. It caught Aneesa's eye almost immediately, and added that it wasn't the first time the San Diego veteran had made comments about her lifestyle. Eventually, Aneesa would vote Robin into the Duel and the ladder lost while the former went on to her best-ever finish of placing 3rd in the final.

● KENNY & WES: After being amicable early on when both guys began their Challenge stints on Fresh Meat, on The Island Kenny became romantic with Wes' Austin love Johanna and the guys butted heads. It led to The Ruins where though both were on the Champions team, Kenny (and cohorts Bananas and Evan) sent Wes three times into elimination and ultimately Ginger lost. They were also the focal point of Fresh Meat II where the house was divided by the guys' respective alliances, and their rivalry reignited at the reunion and helped to inspire this season.

 THE SEASON IN REVIEW 

As I had become a newcomer to watching and following The Challenge on a regular basis starting with the previous season, Battle of the Seasons II, back in fall 2012, I binge-watched the entire first Rivals season back in late June 2013, just a few weeks before Rivals II premiered. And also because I didn't follow the competitive brother of the Real World/Challenge franchise much (and all I watched of the last season I didn't follow much, Exes I, was just the web preview before its premiere), Rivals I was the first time that I saw most of the big-name veterans hardcore fans of the show had been talking about but were sorely missed on that last season where Team San Diego won in a field of rookies. Thus, this was my first time watching Bananas, Paula, Kenny, Evan and the other big names of this franchise while I had one of those summer days off babysitting the kids.

   The season began with, of course, the shock on everyone's faces when they found out that the theme was Rivals, and that they would be working with the one person they didn't like at all. But what would be even more shocking was what happened at the very first mission: High Dive saw players run & jump off a platform 150 feet above a waterfall and clear as many hash marks as they can...while holding their partner's hands. The task of having to work together for the first time there, as well as not even having an eye on where they were looking at in having to jump before a white line inches before the edge, got the best of just about everyone...except those who had the least Challenge experience. Rookies Adam R. & Leroy and Jasmine & Jonna shockingly won that first challenge, and it was veterans Evelyn & Paula who finished last and were sent into the Jungle, but ultimately beat Robin and Aneesa. And adding even more shock to all this - adding more to his shock value resume as well, Adam got inebriated one night, got crazy and threw a punch on Ty when everyone else was ganging up on him. The Vegas guy got kicked out for his second straight MTV season for that violent tirade.

   Then on the guys' first elimination day, the teams became construction workers and wreckers for a day when they took part in Car Crusher by smashing cars with a Caterpiller and flattening them enough to put into a bucket. The veterans prevailed in Ev & Paula and Adam & CT winning, but again another surprise result at the bottom of the barrel when Kenny & Wes screwed up, finished last and were forced to go to the Jungle to meet Davis & Tyrie, but came together and excused Team Denver. But there came another one of those fights Camila loves getting into when she and Theresa butted heads with Jasmine and Jonna after Team Cancun mistaken one of the team members. And the drunk alter ego those who saw her in Mexico came to the Challenge in a big way when Jasmine, aka Rasheeda, KO'd a mirror after getting into words with Theresa, just after getting close with Tyrie.

   The next week, Sync or Swim saw players collect sand, road their container to the sea and swam to the finish. Again, Ev & Paula and Adam & CT won but this second girls jungle day and a lack of communication saw Cara & Laurel and Camila & Theresa go to the jungle. A desperate psych-out move by the ladder backfired as Team Black took care of things, though attention was paid to the guys trying to knock out CT from the game when the next chance came by. This included an all-time Challenge moment when one late night, CT and Wes had an all-night stare down in the Costa Rican house. Mirroring what happened on Duel I when Wes took out CT in an elimination battle five years earlier, for several hours they agonized one another in the patio and then in his bedroom where CT unloaded on Wes. It's intense as you can possibly get.

Week 4 saw the teams become part of the circus as Hammock Crawl saw teams move from one platform to the other in 15 minutes, only using hammocks hanging from the bottom. The catch is, players can only touch two hammocks at any time and both must be in the same one before going to the next one. This challenge was so tough that no girls team could even get the $2,000 bonus that went to teams for winning a mission on the opposite gender's jungle week. And while Evan & Nehemiah finished first, they touched one more than they're supposed to, and 2nd place finishers Johnny & Tyler stepped into the winners circle. This all but foiled a mob plan to get CT out of the game, all while he was being played by Laurel and Mandi. The Jungle saw Kenny & Wes face off with Brandon & Ty and while we had the Gulag master it was Team Yellow that came away victorious.

   We've all seen the kind of bad luck Sarah endured right up until her Exes 2 win, but in Against the Current, she would be in for the worst. This mission saw slalom kayaking make its way from the Olympics to Challenge world as they raced with the white water rapids. For Sarah, she had to go through this once again as a partner who made her mark more as a trail blazer once again falter, and she & Katelynn came up last as Bananas & Tyler and Jenn & Mandi won, and the Brooklynites went into the jungle to face Jonna & Jasmine for Unburied that included hay and a puzzle. Meanwhile, the Cancun rookies got into an argument after they were voted into the Jungle, and Jasmine showed her frustration in more ways than one - including having to apologize while being held aloft by Evan. On paper, this elimination would be one Sarah would win easily, but given that the puzzle was a complicated brain teaser, it was something Brooklyn wouldn't figure out and Team Cancun won...Sarah got screwed yet again.

   Catch & Release saw the teams head to the shore again, with one being suspended above the sea and the other running and jumping to them, then taking a zip line down the way to the water, then swimming their way to the finish line buoy below. While it would be Cara & Laurel and Kenny & Wes who would ultimately reign, controversy would reign over this game as the mob's plan of sending CT home resurfaces and Evan decides to throw this challenge, and he didn't tell Nehemiah about it as well. This sees them finish last in, as I tweeted during the episode, it was uncalled for and they went to the Jungle where Rail Slide would see the guys hang above ground and having to slide a pipe from one end of a course to the other. In the end, it's CT & Adam that win and Nehemiah feels that he had been cheated...he was, of course as Evan's plans backfired. And outside the game, CT was being pursued by Mandi and Laurel, romantically, and it's a good old love triangle.

   For what would be their last challenge in Costa Rica, Sawed Off saw one player from each team hang from the ropes and a platform 30 feet above the sea, and the players used a fireman's fire hose to push an arrowhead blade towards the ropes and dropping them into the sea within 20 minutes. It's the veteran teams of Ev & Paula and Johnny & Tyler who would win, but it would be Cara Maria & Laurel who would struggle and went into the jungle. But it's before the last jungle that things would get ugly: on one of the house's nights out on the town, Cara Maria would find herself at the heart of a good old fight in the club and the house would be against her. There, the red head got into words with Jenn in front of everyone over the Raiderette getting close to Adam, getting an earful from her mean girls and seeing their alliance crumble. That anger fueled Team Black as they won the female version of Blast Off over Team Cancun.

 THE MOVE TO ARGENTINA 

It's after Cara & Laurel's win over Jasmine & Jonna that TJ would drop a bomb on them and the rest of the competitors. For the first time on the show and what has since become a recent Challenge tradition, when four guys' and four girls' pairs were left, the remaining competitors were given good news: they would move from where the season started in Costa Rica to a new location for the stretch run, and they were jumping at the news that they would be going to Argentina. This include Mike and Paula, who also got close back a week earlier, and later she got into words with Laurel as well in a continuation of the fight in CRC as Wes also got in on the act.

   And the last regular challenge before the final saw the season's most death-defying challenge: Bombs Away was literally that, as the players rode in a helicopter as one is strapped to the bottom of it and the other has to climb up a 20-foot rope and pull a rip core and release them into the lake in this timed mission...fastest time wins. In what was essentially a finals warmup for the girls, it was Evelyn & Paula who earned the last $1K, but all eyes were on the guys as four teams were left and one of them would not be at the starting gate. And it would take for one gigantic move to spoil what would've been an all-veterans tussle in the final, and it was exactly that: against all odds Leroy & Mike won that last challenge to earn a ticket to the final.

   Much like what we saw with Cory in making brave rookie moves on his first Challenge last season, as along with Jenn & Mandi, Leroy & Mike made it into the final with a free pass without a Jungle visit and were given a golden opportunity to change the game...and unlike what we've seen with some other rookies over the years they made the most of it. When Adam & CT finished last when CT slipped off the rope, the Vegas bromance chose to put in Johnny & Tyler in the last and most grueling jungle before the final. And it was after this challenge that those guys got into it at the club as Tyler voiced his intimation of the big Bostonian.
   This was the matchup that Bananas wanted once he got casted for Rivals. On the previous season of Cutthroat, we saw the biggest surprise to ever hit The Challenge where instead of Bananas facing Tyler in the next-to-last Gulag, TJ brought on CT to face him in elimination and it surprised everyone including the combatant. Being shell-shocked by this ultimate twist, it took all of 17 seconds for CT to put Bananas on his back like a backpack and win that battle to eliminate him (in what was until Exes 2, his last early exit) and stun all of us.

   It was that moment that still played in the back of his mind when Johnny faced CT in T-Bone, where the guys ran up and down through intersecting half pope and have to transfer colored balls to the ball rack of their partner; the first to five would join Wes & Kenny and Team Vegas at the start line of the final. It was as tightly and closely contested as you might possibly get whenever you get two Challenge heavyweights into the same competition space. And in the end of this most grueling battle, it was Bananas & Tyler that came away victorious, and CT & Adam let things get away - though Adam was thought to have thrown that last arena to avoid playing with his rival in the last act. And meanwhile, Cara and Wes would get into once again, and two of the competitors would also have to deal with potential food poisoning before what awaited them and the finalists.
   It all came down to a final unlike any other the show has had right up to that point. Until Rivals all the competition has been held in the same place as the season itself, but not only was the final taking place in a different country it would be conducted over two days instead of just one as in past seasons, and as always, it would be as grueling an examination and as compelling a drama as this franchise can offer as the competition got started by the lake in Argentina. And it would be as simple as it can get: first team to make it to the end wins the final jackpot.

   It began with teams being dragged 200 years by an underwater boat rope and once they're set free they swam to their kayaks and paddle their way three miles down the river to their first checkpoint in carrying a heavy rock and a chain. Then came putting together campsites in memorizing everything in putting together this symbol of summer vacation for later on. followed by shoveling dirt and putting them into a dump zone until it's all full. It's followed by recreating that campsite and memorizing all the details from the first camp checkpoint and then having to do it as originally as the competitors can.

Of course, no Challenge final would be complete without an eating contest, and the Final Feast saw each player having to eat everything that's given to them on their plate. Then, they must hike up a mountain before the sun goes down and then they arrive at a day's last checkpoint - they're told to either sleep or stand on a whole rock during the whole ordeal in the cold. And then for Day 2, it's as simple as you can get: each team going on a race to a mountain top by hiking through the wilderness, and also doing a search & rescue in relying on avalanche beacons to help locate the keys needed to unlock the winners' checks and trophies at the summit.

   The final took a toll on two teams: Jenn & Mandi run out of time on the hike up the hill at the end of day 1 and finished in 3rd with the enigma of not getting prize money - none was given to 3rd place. It was also the case for the rookie guys, but Mike was too worn out to go up the mountain and didn't want to risk getting injured and they decided to end their run too. But unlike what happened to later competitors for quitting, TJ was respectful of Mike knowing his body just couldn't keep up with the rigors of this demanding final given he was a last-minute replacement and didn't prepare much for this season in case he was selected, and the host let the bromance go off without any harm.

   As everyone suspected, the final became Heads-Up between Johnny & Tyler and Wes & Kenny on the guys side, while it was veterans Evelyn & Paula and Fresh Meat II upstarts Laurel & Cara Maria. The most famous moment from this final was, as you see on the right, Wes getting hurt in that run on the hill and losing steam along the way, and Kenny having to be forced to carry his arch nemesis on his back in order to not lose any time to Bananas & Tyler in the final. Given that the two had shared enormous hatred for one another and common histories between the two, you pretty much knew that this was gonna happen. And if you were Johanna watching this season and seeing the two guys who had won your heart on a Real World and then a Challenge, you'd be cringing seeing these two having being forced to work together.
   When the dust settled, in the end it would be Johnny and Tyler who would find those keys on that day 2 run and they would rule the roost as Bananas won his 3rd Challenge, and Tyler win his 2nd straight after being part of the winning team on Cutthroat. It would be that same winning feeling for Evelyn as she would take the win to add to her previous successes. But for Paula, all of these tries of having come up short time after time after time on her previous seasons had finally made this wait for this crown all the more rewarding when they collected the women's title.  For Laurel & Cara Maria, finishing second would be just as good as winning the whole thing as they celebrated on the summit as well... but it would be a totally different story for Wes & Kenny: they felt like being the unluckiest two guys to make $50,000 for their efforts.

 IN THE END... 

At the end of all this, there were plenty of stories that emerged in the wake of this season involving the key players in this 10-part drama.
● JOHNNY had won his third Challenge and unlike The Island and The Ruins where he was part of a team, he relished this more than those two wins as he won this with a partner, a roommate on his original RW and someone who he despised with going in, but became friends with afterwards. He would go on to win his second straight Challenge final when he and Camila won Battle of the Exes the next season in Iceland, and after a 2nd place finish on Rivals II he regained his crown on Free Agents to become the first five-time champion - winning on a team, a pair and individually.
● PAULA had finally won her first Challenge after all of those seven previous tries and falling short n each finally paid off. She would also go on two more Challenges and won her last one, Rivals II in dominant fashion and essentially fulfilling the role Evelyn had in that season of being a previous champ and teaming with future CrossFit queen Emily - who won her first one as well, before riding off into the sunset and retirement a happily married lady with two babies after that win.
● WES had his highest-placing finish in a Challenge in finishing second on Rivals, but after that he had a drought in his next two starts: he and MANDI lost an early elimination on Exes, and he lost another elimination on Battle of the Seasons 2 when Big Easy beat him in the season's first arena. But Wes would recover to win Rivals II, and as it was for Paula and Emily, Wes played a supporting role of sorts to the stronger CT as he won his first Challenge as well and Wes won #2.
● For CARA MARIA & LAUREL, they were rivals going into the season but emerged out of it BFF's - quite literally in eventually living together now in Montana. After that season Cara reignited a romance with Abram that continued for some time but flamed out on Bloodlines upon his arrival in Turkey, and she eventually won that season amidst all the drama surrounding her. For Laurel, she took a break after that Challenge but ultimately came back on Free Agents as prohibitive favorite among the women and won the final in Chile.
● LEROY & MIKE didn't leave with any money, but this was part of a popular bromance that started on RW Back to Vegas, who made their Challenge debuts on Rivals. This was the start to a solid career for not only Leroy but his cast: all his roommates have been at least one Challenge, and have made five finals out of the past seven seasons. Roy Lee also squashed things with Adam R., as his teammates have become, respectively, the first to become a dad (Adam) and a married man (Mike).
● Not counting that Cutthroat gulag, CT returned to doing an actual Challenge season for the first time since the Duel II fight with Adam that got them paired up in Costa Rica. The next season he & Diem were paired up on Battle of the Exes and went all the way to the final but he stumbled on that last leg in Iceland and finished second to Bananas & Camila. He came back on Rivals II with the aforementioned win with Wes where they closed down the stretch and won the final. And of course, there was what happened on Exes 2 with Diem too, which has become this show's signature story.
● The episode 2 fight saw some coincidental instances for those involved. It was her smashing that mirror and her arguments that JASMINE became a Challenge staple, and led to her getting paired with THERESA on Rivals II and TYRIE on Exes. Five years after that, three of the four girls in that fight became new moms in their post-Challenge life: Theresa welcomed her new girl last November and got engaged to Lions WR TJ Jones after her Exes II runner-up finish, Jasmine became a mom before Christmas last year, and JONNA announced her pregnancy at the beginning of this Rivals III season.
● For SARAH, being paired with Katelynn was only part of a Challenge career that has seen her fall short so many times and be paired up with bad teammates. She got sent home when Vinny engaged in bad behavior on Exes, when Trishelle bolted from Rivals II, and when Devyn slowed Team Brooklyn down in the BOTS final. But one move changed it all for her when she sent Bananas in on Exes 2 and she won, and got them paired on this current Rivals III season.
● Rivals marked a passing of the torch in this world, as for ADAM, EVAN, EVELYN, KENNY, JENN, NEHEMIAH and TYLER, this was their last Challenge. For explicit reasons, legal matters saw JB's two best friends be resorted to the sidelines, and of course there's new things happening for the vets outside the cameras. And aside from Mark & Robin on Exes, Trishelle & Alton on BOTS 2 and Abram on Bloodlines, this was the sign that fresh, new blood was about to join some of the staple vets on succeeding seasons, reminiscent of what happened on Fresh Meat II.
● And lastly, there's TJ LAVIN. His return to doing the job he does best was the biggest moment in his comeback from that accident and has remained host since then, continuing to do what he does best. As we told you in our post last year, he made a full recovery from that accident, got married to his longtime girlfriend and has remained one of action sports' biggest ambassadors...not to mention he's now pursuing a side job doing firefighting in the Vegas Valley aside from this Challenge work.

For me, I got hooked to The Challenge by this show's competitive nature and the familiarity of people who I've watched for a long time on a show I love most in Real World. While Battle of the Seasons was my first time watching this sister show, it was the Rivals binge-watch three years ago - two years after it aired - that further stamped me as a Challenge fan. And of course, the basis of this very site is the Trifecta, with both these shows, and Are You The One?, being covered wall-to-wall.
   One thing that stood out about this first Rivals is that unlike many of the pairs in the succeeding seasons of this theme, most of the pairs the first one had some real hatred. The rivalries we saw the first time around were pent up either for years, especially in the case of those like Adam & CT, or with true animosity as in Kenny & Wes. With all due respect to those who I got to follow in those seasons, most of the ones we're seeing this season and some on Rivals II seemed to be based on just one tiny or small thing that happened on the season where the rivalry was based upon. That added to the allure of this first Rivals, and it's why many would choose that over versions two and three - and not just for the veteran-heavy presence and all else.

To borrow adage from my previous ExtraTime post on the first Real World Las Vegas earlier this year, if Battle of the Seasons was my baptism of fire of getting into this Challenge world, then that one summer day of watching the entire first Rivals season felt like graduation day. We had a stacked cast of the show's big names whose cumulative number of Challenges is 254 (when also factoring in succeeding seasons) and all but seven having finals experience, and with Cara Maria winning Bloodlines, thirteen players from this cast have tasted the glory of winning a title - the winners of this season also winning another title as well. It's no secret that if there were to be a Hall of Fame for the Trifecta, a good number of them would be worthy of being voted in on the first ballot.
   Of course, there was also TJ Lavin's incredible comeback story and the appeal of watching people who hate one another being forced to put that aside to win cash, which brought a lot of casual viewers to The Challenge for the first time. It was there that so many people got their first taste of what this show was all about, and for me who watched this a few years after it first aired, it allowed me to broaden my scope in embracing the veterans just after I got to become close with those I became familiar with when I got my feet wet in this Challenge world. This was the season that revitalized The Challenge as we know it, and had so many elements to it that this season would stand on its own merit to the point where if you had to tell a newcomer what Challenge season they would watch first, then Rivals would likely be the first choice. We all can thank this entire cast for what is the greatest season ever of The Challenge.

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No other TV eco-system can lay claim to the kind of great people, broad history and incredible stories than the MTV Trifecta, and DCBLOG covers it all with unique storytelling that goes beyond the screen. Our next Trifecta long-form post will again focus on Johnny Bananas, but it's for a much different reason than for what we've seen in his ten-year MTV career. We'll look at the bond he has with one of his biggest fans and an inspirational one at best, coming up later in this Rivals III season.

   Be sure to follow this site for the blogosphere's most-unique and insightful coverage of the MTV Trifecta, as this site brings you wall-to-wall coverage of the current Rivals III Challenge and Season 4 of Are You The One?, plus the next Real World season in Seattle down the road. Be sure to rejoin us this weekend for our usual weekly episode posts offering social interaction and recaps from this week's episodes and much more.
   As always, do us a favor and spread the word by sharing this special retrospective and all my coverage on your social networks so that this site's great coverage can be sampled by more & more of your fellow MTV fans. And when you can, we appreciate your thoughts on this first Rivals season by commenting below, or tweet directly to me @DC408Dxtr on Twitter.

Again, hope you enjoyed this ExtraTime special on the game-changing Real World Las Vegas season. And be sure to join me later on DCNOW @DC408DxNow for live tweets of Rivals III. Until then, thanks for reading and see you then.

- I AM DC