DC WRAP: The Challenge - Champs vs. Pros: The Finale

BY DC CUEVA                     
■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

As you go about your Monday, we at DCBLOG have one last WRAP post of this cycle of the MTV Trifecta to share with you to cheer you up. Last week saw the last of the six seasons of MTV reality TV we've covered here which saw two worthy champions win The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros who gained some redemption for their shortcomings the first time they were teamed up on Fresh Meat II back seven years ago. But the true winners are the causes that Cara Maria, Darrell, and the eighteen other participants of this season competed for: the charities they chose to donate all of their winnings to, all after some grueling competition under the Southern California sun.

   Ahead on the WRAP, our Things to Know will count down the top 5 moments of this season, which range from Team USA hopefuls to much-anticipated elimination battles... plus one more trip into the Strategy Room. And afterwards, you'll meet a new side of the girl who has had so much happen over her time on The Challenge and chose the right time to finally get back at everyone else she's competed with. That's all ahead.

 THINGS TO KNOW 

CHAMPS VS. PROS: TOP 5 MOMENTS

As we last did an actual "Things to Know" recap of each episode's key moments back before my trip to Disneyland, what we'll do here is to now count down our Top 5 moments from this season.

5. GUS' STORY: Amidst this June Pride Month, we begin with the lone representative of the LGBT community on this season, and someone to keep an eye out when the world gathers in South Korea next winter. A key story in Episode 4 was that of Gus Kenworthy, where he was able to open up to Cara Maria about the journey of being accepted in the action sports community as its first openly gay athlete, and one of the many who compete proudly in the Olympic world. He was sent into elimination that week, and he took out the favorite pro of many going into this Challenge, CM Punk, while his boyfriend watched from the sidelines.

4. SCORE SETTLED: Competition wise, the biggest moment of this season was something that has never happened before: six-time champion Bananas facing off against elimination master Wes in Ginger's ideal domain of a win or go home battle. It was the subject of this season's featured In-Depth article which traced the history of their rivalry from when they first butted heads on The Duel II, through splitting their two meaningful head-to-head duels in finals, and everything that led up to week 2. Yes, the game wasn't the physical elimination we wanted to see and the game they chose might be a bit questionable, but for them to settle this score in an elimination with legacies to play for yes - but also worthy causes on the line instead of just adding to their bankroll made it something meaningful to watch. And Wes won the rubber match, which began his impressive elimination run in what might be his farewell to Challenge world.

3. REDEMPTION: It was in 2010 that we saw a first and last on The Challenge: the first time we saw Cara Maria as part of that Fresh Meat II class, and until this year the last time we saw Darrell. They lasted all but one episode in the premiere up there in British Columbia, and it was the ideal scenario for them to team up in the final with a chance to redeem themselves. Yes, they were the beneficiaries of receiving that free pass to the final, but being able to come into the last stage of this season as a toss-up among the Champs to win against Camila & Wes, they were finally able to prove why they were partnered up on that first try and why they earned their way to this season as previous Champs. They dominated in this final despite a slight hiccup in the last stage, and they were the worthy champions here to get their redemption.

2. SUPERSTAR LOLO: With everything that went down the past month-plus, and despite her not taking the title here, it's hard to think of anyone else who was the bigger story among the entire cast. Lolo Jones has had a checkered career on the tracks of summer and winter, with many writing her off as the Anna Kornikova of Team USA: someone who has all of that appeal but someone who hasn't really performed up to expectations. Lolo smoked through the first elimination battle after being chosen by a simple lime in week 1, then having to go through two more trips into the arena as well as a lot of people doubting her both in and outside the field made this run all the more impressive. She sure have wished she would loved to have the fairy tale ending of the ultimate underdog story.

1. BIGGER THAN THE GAME: And that brings us to the reason why we had this special Challenge: giving everyone who competed something to play for instead of playing for themselves. For Bananas, he has been a longtime Special Olympics supporter, while Save the Children was the cause Louise played for. And Lolo provided us with the single gesture that defined what this season is about: her beating Ashley in what was the most intense elimination battle of the season. When she saw that the newly minted member of the Champions club had been at an all time low, Lolo paid it forward in donating $5,000 to Ashley's charity. Others followed in donating part of their winnings to the charities of the other competitors, which showed us that there is something bigger than ourselves: causes varying from animal welfare to families who have babies with birth defects, cancer to Special Olympics. Those causes are the true winners of this season, much in the same way that the Rock 'N Jock events did back in the '90s, with those watching this season watching their favorite competitors compete and being inspired somewhat. This is why this season was special.

 #DCChallenge STRATEGY ROOM 

CHAMPS VS. PROS: A FINAL REVIEW

As we look back on this Champs vs. Pros mini-season, here's our final evaluation...

● THE CHAMPS

For Cara Maria, this is a good bounce-back campaign after what happened over in Thailand. Her being able to make her way to the end is now something she expects to be in having made three of them before this season and winning one to earn her ticket to SoCal, and now winning Champs vs. Pros gives her confidence going into Dirty XXX. It's the same thing for Darrell, which caps off a good comeback season, albeit two seasons, where we saw him return from seven years in hibernation and prove that he's still here as if he haven't left... him beating Bananas and taking CT to the limit on Invasion further proof of that.
   For Camila, this was her second straight Challenge final, and again she has to settle for something other than the top prize. Still, being the first to take down Laurel adds a really valuable item to her resume, and now all she needs is to focus on the game when she's competing and she'll have a second title. For Wes, this is likely our last chance to see him on a Challenge, in him conceding that he's out of shape and having some big priorities: a newly expanded gig at BetaBlox, being engaged, and being a dad to his adorable dog. But he leaves behind having won all three eliminations he was in, further staking claim to his crown in that dungeon.
   For the other Champs, Ashley M. proved that what she did to win Invasion was no fluke in being able to hang tough with Lolo and winning multiple eliminations herself. Fellow Invasion champ CT was noble in giving Wes his support in the final, which shows you how much he's changed from that bad boy we've seen in the past. Ashley K. and Veronica both proved themselves here, but after his loss vs. Wes does this mean Bananas might be past prime here? We'll see what happens July 18.

● THE PROS

It's very obvious that, as we discussed above, Lolo Jones ruled this season in more ways than one. But she isn't alone: Kamerion Wimbley made it to the end as did Lindsey Jacobellis (who also had some demons of her own to compete with in the final), and they should be given their due to making it to the SoCal hillside.
   The experience of competing on these celebrity competitions so many times back in Britain gave Louise Hazel the advantage over her American counterparts and it showed during the season. There was Gus Kenworthy who made it to the final week, and we saw Louie Vito put up a strong fight against Wes in their elimination and if not for him screwing up, than him winning would've made up for him not joining Shaun White on the medal stand seven years ago in Vancouver. There's those of us who wished that we would've had CM Punk, Shawne Merriman and Candice Wiggins longer than they lasted here, but that's the nature of this game which they saw for themselves here.

▪   ▪   ▪   ▪   ▪ 

 #DCExtraTime 

CARA MARIA'S CHALLENGE IMPERSONATIONS

The art of impersonating people: it's one of those things that seems to be everywhere these days. We see it a lot on television, at the comedy club, in improv theaters and on the web, especially in light of what has taken place the past six months in Washington, D.C. It's in this spirit that it's the theme of the last short-form ExtraTime of this cycle, and it's fitting that our subject is the girl who we first saw in Vancouver seven years ago and has established herself as one of the most unique personalities in the MTV community, not just in what we call the Trifecta.

We first met Cara Maria on The Challenge: Fresh Meat II as someone who, as her original MTV bio wrote, "dances to the beat of her own drum." Over time, the sweet deposition she has of someone with an excellent GPA, a college degree in psychology and a love affair with her horse has been overtaken at times by a strong temper and having to regret things that come out of her mouth. Since those humble beginnings of being a one-and-done rookie on her first Challenge (with her partner and Champs vs. Pros champ Darrell), fans have seen her entire career and have seen her personality and status skyrocket to becoming a star on this show despite her not appearing on a Real World prior to taking the plunge into the fifth major sport.
   During this time, we have seen her establish an on-again, off-again romance with a fellow Challenge rebel in Abram, become enemies and friends with fellow winter Class of 2010 alum Laurel, and have seen her make friends and rivals with other fellow Challengers both on screen and off. We have seen her get into some questionable behavior at times, and often she has become a central figure in all of the drama in the house and on the field. And she has become a strong competitor where she has established herself as the queen of eliminations: 17 times she has put on the verge of going home, and 12 times she has escaped with a win. And never did all of these scenarios all come together than on Battle of the Bloodlines, where Cara had to overcome Abe's surprise entry, a supposed kiss with Thomas, a big elimination win over rival Bananas, and getting help from cousin Jamie to reign supreme inside Berlin Olympic Stadium. It was her first Challenge title, although it's the road that led up to it that diminished the achievement somewhat.

The first time I got to see Cara Maria on a Challenge season I watched live was the first modern-era Challenge I got to follow: Battle of the Seasons II, where she was part of a Fresh Meat team that was put together at last minute as if they were strangers found somewhere in the airport in Turkey and were told to enter the game on the spot. Obviously, the team of her, Camila, Eric "Big Easy" and Brandon didn't really gel much and were on their way out at the halfway point.
   When she was on that Challenge - the fifth of what would seven straight Challenges for her, Cara went to her YouTube channel to make a video of her role-playing many of her fellow Challenge castmates. Below is that video, which has since garnered over 100,000 views.

And here are some outtakes...

And with it being one of this year's biggest movies and having ruled the box office for the past few weeks, also in 2012 Cara also got a chance to play the role of Wonder Woman as well, and did a couple videos of her being Wonder Woman for a day all around town.

▪   ▪   ▪   ▪   ▪

And that will do it for this final edition of the WRAP of both this Champs vs. Pros season but also this cycle. Before we leave you, here's a few reminders...
● Just before the finale of Champs vs. Pros, the You Killed It podcast welcomed Wes to their show as hosts John and Sheldon talked to Ginger about the season, his Challenge career and his profession, BetaBlox. Check out that interview here, plus all of the hosts' discussions of the episodes from this past season on their SoundCloud channel.
● As a warmup for what we'll do here very shortly, last week Andrew Kirk (@CSUGradAKirk) discussed Champs vs. Pros with his Reality Radio Podcast hosts and offered a first preview of Season 30 debuting next month. Check out their chat on YouTube, plus all of his past podcasts and webcasts on YouTube, Blog Talk Radio and Periscope.
● And lastly, for MTV fans as a whole - and with its season finale airing tonight, a friend of this site, River Cebellos (@RiverC_Official) did a post on the NEDA site on another of his fellow MTV friends, Tyler Baltierra - husband of Catelynn from Teen Mom, about his struggles with mental health. Check out that post here, as well as our In-Depth on Yellowcard featuring him here.


With this cycle now done and dusted and with the countdown to Season XXX now underway, all that's left here is to recap everything that went down in the first half of 2017 in the MTV Trifecta and in reality TV. Andrew Kirk and myself will discuss it all on the mid-year Reality Debrief coming up in the coming days on here, and if you have any questions on the Trifecta, on Survivor or the new Big Brother 19 season starting in two days, this is our last call to tweet them now to #AskDCBLOG to @DC408Dxtr or to @CSUGradAKirk before we close up the line very soon. Part 1 will be up hopefully on Wednesday, if not over the weekend, with part 2 being devoted entirely to The Challenge and will be up before the season premieres next month.
   Along with the Debrief, in the interim until our Dirty 30 preview coming over the weekend of July 15, we plan on bringing you some bonus ExtraTime stories from this past cycle which we hope you will enjoy checking out. And as always, follow DCNOW at @DC408DxNow for live twitter coverage of the summer's big events as well as Fear Factor.

For now, that's how we look at it this week Inside the MTV Trifecta...thank you for joining us. And until then, have fun.

- I AM DC