DC ExtraTime Flashback: The Gauntlet III - Ten Years Later

BY DC CUEVA                     

■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

As this is being posted on this Saturday, December 16, many of you who are in college and high school are now into your fortnight-long winter break, and you're now onto the holiday rush with just ten days left to get that Christmas shopping done after all of those excruciating final exams. The holidays also mean some much needed time with family and friends, and we'll be sharing with you a few of them both here and tomorrow. First, a couple oldies but goodies that took place last weekend, which takes us on a Flashback in time to 2008.


Ten years ago next month, The Challenge went south of the border to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for The Gauntlet III as a stacked team of Veterans with nine present or future champions faced an unheralded group of Rookies who were just lucky to enjoy a free vacation. It was the fifteenth season of the show, and the first to adopt MTV's now-standard one-hour episode format with all of the action, drama and both a challenge and elimination stacked into 60 minutes. But of course, it's best known for what happened at the very end: Big Easy collapsing in the final, costing his deep veterans team a certain win and giving the title and the entire $300,000 purse by default to the rookies. That ordeal inspired his remarkable transformation, which we covered in an In-Depth story earlier this year during Invasion.
   For what will happen with the runners-up who won't receive a cut of the prize money available to those who make the final on Vendettas starting next month, they will suffer the punishing feeling that Kam, Alicia, Eddie and their AYTO5 castmates had earlier this year and of course Sarah last year on Rivals III of going home empty handed. It was the same feeling that the Gauntlet III veterans had in the heat of the Mexican sun, whose efforts they had racked up all season long had all went for not once TJ Lavin gave them the sorrow news that Big Easy was sent to the hospital and since they needed everyone to finish to collect the cash, it of course was a stunning moment to see them lose.

The five people featured here all competed on Gauntlet III, and besides the sight of seeing sure to be Hall of Famers CT, Brad, Katie, Coral and Beth -- the ladder two being their Challenge swan song, this season was, in essence, a Key West beach party. Five members of that legendary cast made it down to the resort paradise, but there Johnny Bananas had an early exit when he and JEK member Evan were sent into elimination after the rookies won the 5th challenge and took advantage of their chance to take out some power players early. For Paula, she was part of that Veterans team that made it to the end but didn't come away with the win everyone expected.

IG @TheMightyDuckworth

   Last week, the three other Key West representatives on that season gathered down in LA to see one of their own tie the knot. Zach Mann came to the southernmost point in the United States from a place where the climate is almost anything but tropical, the Pacific Northwest. He was raised in Puget Sound outside Seattle, then went to college down in Portland, and was described in his bio as "the proverbial nice guy you want to take home to mom... sensitive, good-looking and goal oriented." And he's also a die-hard Northwest sports fan as part of the Seahawks' 12th Man fanbase and the MLS' Sounders.
   While we saw Bananas and Paula establish themselves into becoming longtime MTV staples, Zach was for the most part largely in the background and stayed out of the drama. He did have his own Ex-Plosion moment when he had to deal with his Key West crush, a bikini pageant contestant and his ex-girlfriend in the same episode. And he also gained valuable experience when the house operated their own tanning business during their stay in Florida, which now sees him be part of a SoCal-based production firm. And last week, Zach and his fiance, a worker for a local snack company, made it official in front of family, friends and two other Key West'ers.
   Tyler Duckworth made headlines in Key West for creating a "burn book" featuring Svetlana, but also became known for high kicks and swimming as a Olympic fanatic. As a rookie on The Duel, he demonstrated dirty play when he chose Bananas to go into elimination that saw him be given the usual rookie treatment of being eliminated first on his first go, and led to ill feelings between them until their Rivals win, his 2nd title after Cutthroat. And for Janelle Casanave, she was eliminated early in Mexico, but was part of the champions side on Inferno III joining Abe, Derrick, Evelyn, Kenny and Tonya when they beat Bananas and Paula... the first from her cast to win a Challenge. And who can remember her relationship with Will on Real World Hollywood?
   In the photo above on Zach's big day, Tyler captioned on Instagram, "Like sands through an hourglass, so are the Days of our Lives... #zachgotmarried #Weddings #babies #recedinghairlines #KeyWest #ThenAndNow #latergram".  How things have changed but some have remained the same in the past decade... our congrats go out to Zach and co.

Then, there's the final. And as always, there are two sides to the story once the checks are handed out: those who win are afforded all the buzz, the glory and the elation while those who lose ponder what might have happened as they stress over coming up short of the top prize. And in the case of our other two subjects, they were on either side of, until last year, the most shocking final result in Challenge history and one of its most-memorable and infamous moments.
   For the Veterans team, they literally dominated a season that would have otherwise have been just a simple snoozer. Being arguably the deepest team ever put together, the Vets won ten of the first thirteen challenges contested on that season, and in the handful of missions they lost they simply threw them to rid their team's dead weight (Does Austin'er Danny and Wes' Fresh Meat partner Casey ring a bell?). For Zach, Tyler, Janelle and their Rookies squad, they were described as the worst team ever assembled for a two-team Challenge, with Danny's wife Melinda, three other Austin'ers and a few from Denver making up the opposition, among others.
   Like what we saw on Invasion and just this week on Champs vs. Stars, the fields for the final were uneven at this being 10 on 6. The Veterans who made it to the end were Adam, Brad, CT, Evan, Eric, Evelyn, Kenny, Paula, Robin, and the late Diem Brown, and this final appeared on paper to be just a simple no contest with them expected to crush the Rookies, and a mere formality to validate their outstanding season. For the Rookies, those Austin'ers Johanna, Nehemiah & Rachel were joined by future Challenge wife Tori from Road Rules and two who had met on the season and begun to become a power couple in Frank & Jillian.
   As we wrote in our feature on him, Big Easy stood out at over 300 pounds and he was the clear weak link in a team that was supposed to have their strengths carry them to the win. But for someone who was totally unprepared to handle the rigors of this final examination, he collapsed to the floor, was medically evacuated and became a wakeup call. The Veterans continued to press on with them thinking that if they finish, they would win and they finished far ahead of the opponents believing that they had completed this most dominant season. But in the cruelest news ever, since the rules stated that every member of their team needed to complete the final together, in the end they got the news that stung for the rest of their careers: them losing by default to the Rookies, and not getting any of the $300,000 prize money.

If the feat the Are You The One? Season 6 cast just pulled off of being heavy underdogs to win $1 million is one thing, it's certainly a whole different story to be one of those six who were given that shocking news that they had just pulled off the biggest upset in Challenge history in winning Gauntlet III by a mere technicality in the misfortunes of their opposition. That's exactly what happened when the Rookies won the whole box of pizza, which came as an absolute surprise given that only one member of the team that began that season had a Challenge title in the aforementioned Janelle.

IG @KingRomac

   While she and Tyler joined Zach for the biggest day of his life in Palm Springs, across the I-10 in Beverly Hills two players on both sides of the final result got to hang out for a mini-reunion of sorts, ten years after. Musician's son Adam King first made waves on Real World Paris in 2003, then proceeded onto two Challenges using friendships, quickness, politics and hookups to compensate for his size to help him through the maze. In Mexico, he made out with Paula and with his brains helped the vets solve those puzzles, but making the only final of his career (and who along with Eric was their only appearances in the final) was the closest Adam ever got to a title... we all know what happened next on The Duel II when he and enemy CT looked eye to eye when they moved into that house in New Zealand.
   On the other side, while the Vets took care of business on the field, the Rookies dominated the stories and drama off of it. One of them was Frank Roessler, who 15 years ago made quite a splash on the original Real World Las Vegas as third wheel to the famous love triangle of him, Trishelle and Steven. But for this laid-back but funny guy (and who also gave the censors' thumbs a workout), he also found himself in love with Road Rules alum Jillian Zoboroski. Together, they each won three eliminations including beating Janelle and Tyler, and once the dust settled on the Rookies upset, not only did they score $100,000 (and for her, another finals berth later on Fresh Meat II) but also each other and a relationship that lasted for some time after that season down south.
   This past weekend while a common friend of theirs were getting ready to get hitched, the one who basked in victory and the other who was snake bitten in the Mexican sun got to catch up along with their significant others. Adam posted on Instagram, "Waldorf rooftop. Great to see you Frank! #reunion", while Trishelle added in the comments, "Aww love this! Miss you boys!"

In the aftermath of what was the most shocking moment in Challenge history until Bananas' trick, there's this epilogue: for Adam he was on that ill-fated Duel II which saw him get into that fight with CT that led to them being paired on the first Rivals. For Frank, him winning Gauntlet III saw him not only fall in love but also used that prize money to begin pursuing something he began to show his passions in when he, Trishelle & Steven ventured down south to a weekend while they were in Vegas: selling homes in the real estate field.
   And aside from Zach and Janelle, for Tyler he would go on to winning Cutthroat as Brad finally had his Challenge title moment in sharing a kiss with someone who won that Gauntlet crown in Tori -- one of her two Challenge titles. And for the Austin cast, Nehemiah, Rachel and Johanna joined Wes as Challenge champs... in unexpected fashion compared to what the ginger man did on The Duel and helping CT have his moment too, after the heartache of what happened in Mexico and him continuing to foster his legendary relationship with Diem.

It may not be the best Challenge season ever and the end result had the same taste that many just had on Dirty 30, but the finish to The Gauntlet is certainly most memorable. A rich and talented group of Veterans who worked so hard and dominated so much all season long... only to have their weak link cost them a title in the cruelest fashion possible. For Big Easy, it woke him to change his habits, while for Adam this was his only finals appearance. The rest of the veterans would get another chance, with Brad, CT, Evan, Evelyn, Kenny and Paula bouncing back to eventually win titles, and Diem and Robin finals trips too. And aside from Tori, the rest of the winning Rookies would never did get another chance at a final, which makes this true underdog story even more amazing.
   What happened here proved two very simple truths: one, only if your body can take the kind of punishment it can take for the most rigorous test any Challenge season offers each season in the final test in everything all coming together for those two days, then you'll be rewarded for your efforts. And two, nothing is certain, and the underdog can never be underestimated in this game, just as it was when Ashley M. surprised everyone when she won Invasion. Often, we have seen those come out of nowhere to impress, but none moreso then when a group of misfit Rookies won Gauntlet III.

▪   ▪   ▪   ▪   ▪

Coming up, the kids who pulled off the unlikeliest of all comebacks gather to rehash the drama in the Big Easy, as we'll have the 'Pulse of the first half of the Are You The One? Reunion. Plus, more on the new relationship that's just blossomed between an AYTO winner and loser, and the link his ex in the AYTO house has with, of all things, a serial killer.  Rejoin us for that and more later tonight. 

- I AM DC