DC WRAP: The Challenge Vendettas - Thru 6, and Champs vs. Joes S3 Rumors

BY DC CUEVA                     

■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

We are now six weeks down on The Challenge Vendettas, and things have already gotten very good over in Spain: newbies from Britain and America, intriguing gameplay, drama aplenty both in the house and on social media, and much more. With this webmaster who is also an avid Olympic fan giving precedent to the latter for a bit, we won't be doing our usual episode recaps until after the Games conclude, but it won't mean we won't still do these WRAP posts.
   With that in mind, coming up we'll had into the Strategy Room to reveal our Power List: the standouts of this season so far. We'll also look at a guy who's been in the news of late getting to meet a true OG, and we'll even view the long-range forecast at the latest season of Champs vs. Stars. All that is ahead.

 STRATEGY ROOM 

POWER LIST: THE STANDOUTS

At this point of every Challenge season, we begin to get a sense of who we feel are the contenders and who are the pretenders. With a month and a half just past on this season, the time is right for us to look at those who've been standing out so far ahead of what might be going down with potentially another Invasion of sorts perhaps ready to turn the game on its head.
   Here now, our first Power List of five players who have stood out to us so far...

● BANANAS: As you may have seen on social media, he has been starting fires and getting into it with at least a couple girls in Twitter world, but like it or not Vendettas has been a bounce-back season for Johnny Bananas. After what we saw from him last year saw us question whether he still has it, it seems that winning Champs vs. Stars has more than motivated him, and after winning two challenges and safety in the other three, he's now regained the confidence he's been lacking since what we saw in 2016. Still, there's folks here who will love it if he goes home early again, but with having a power role it may be a matter of time before he shuts down the doubters again.

● BRAD: In a one-year stretch that's seen Derrick, Darrell, Veronica, Shane, Laurel and Emily return by popular demand, Brad is the latest one to be thrust back into the game after several years away. Sure, the political game and the social game has been something that has people questioning him and whether or not returning was the right thing, as well as getting cuddly with Britni. But at the same time he's proved that he still has it after taking time off after Cutthroat, but the true test is now ahead in him having being voted into elimination with facing a fellow old-school vet, a newbie or a manipulation master... he's not been in this scenario since Duel II.

● BRITNI: After a good rookie showing on Dirty 30, we wondered what Britni could offer in her sophomore Challenge. In Colombia, she had two elimination and two challenge wins and made it to the next to last regular challenge, all the while staying out of the drama until that infamous burn vote on Leroy. Here in Spain, again she has been solid in the missions in winning the first regular mission & elimination week and has been flying under the radar game wise. And something that wasn't present in her rookie campaign was of her coming in single... she's scored Brad here as well.

● NICOLE Z.: This may be her second Challenge, but Nicole has already established herself as one of this season's strongest girls... having made a final in her rookie campaign doesn't hurt either. Here on Vendettas, she's proved that what happened on Invasion last year was no fluke, and by being the top female finisher in the very first challenge of this season and then this past week in the sea is proof that she's now someone to watch for here. If there's a girl this franchise should look for in this new blood coming in to carry this show forward, perhaps Nicole is that one here and given a relative open field in the girls' side, she has a good chance at getting a title here.

● TONY: Two weeks ago, we discussed how an elimination loss inspired the man who had a poor Challenge career but is now starting to blossom. With sending home Darrell in redemption, winning two challenges on Dirty 30, almost making the final there, and now winning the last two missions here in Vendettas, it appears everything are coming together for Mr. Two Kids. By excelling at eating gross food and then killing it in the night swimming challenge, this is a sign that things are now turning for the positive for Tony, and he's stayed out of the drama in making peace with vendettas Brad and Sylvia. This is definitely the Tony 2.0 that we saw on Invasion.

 #DCExtraTime 

BANANAS MEETS AN OG

Twitter @MTVBananas

Back to Bananas: Yes, he has found himself in a bit of drama lately in him having to deal with Jemmye and Veronica putting him on blast on social media, but it doesn't mean that support for him has decreased drastically to the point of him being the least-liked guy on this Vendettas cast. But last week, the list of those well-knowns who have the back of the six-time Champ and winner of Champs vs. Stars was increased by one person, and for this story we have to go back to when Johnny was growing up in that decade of the '80s.
   During that time, a man from Newark, NJ named Tracy Lauren Marrow first began his to pay his dues as an underground rapper in the Los Angeles area. He adopted the alias of Ice-T and three decades ago, Warner Bros. Records imprint Sire signed him and then released his debut album Rhyme Pays, which was also the first hip-hop album to have the "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content" sticker be tagged on its cover. He founded his own record label in 1988, then found himself in hot water four years later for a track that glamorized killing policemen. Since 2000 however, Ice-T has become best known to a broader audience for playing an NYPD detective and sergeant on Law & Order: SVU.
   As it's now out there that he wasn't cast for the new Celebrity Big Brother season that kicked off this past week, this has afforded Bananas some extra time to relax, and this past week he got to hang out with Ice-T at the Harrah's Resort in Atlantic City. He captioned in the photo above, "Law and Disorder 👮‍♂️🍌 @FINALLEVEL #IceT #NoMakeup @poolafterdark."

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Now, we've switched what's usually the final section of every WRAP to a little earlier this week because the last part of this week's post will be covering what's coming up on the third installment of Champs vs. Stars when the weather gets much warmer than it is right now... provided you're not in California where it reached 70 this week. If you do not want to spoil yourself with who will be on that new season, than exit from this post now, and do be sure to join us next week where - in addition to covering Episode 7, we'll have an In-Depth look at the journey of one of the stars of last year's Champs vs. Pros who is going for gold in Korea... and we'll also hopefully have up our long-promised Debrief as well. We hope you'll join with us then.

As for those who are sticking around, let's get into the good stuff...

 THE LOOK AHEAD 

CHAMPS VS. JOES - SEASON 3

Finally, that third season of Champs vs. Joes began filming a little while ago out in Los Angeles and, as you will probably suspect, those eyes of TMZ were on the beach catching filming of one of the challenges that took place there. Below is the rumored cast for the season...

Host
● MIKE "THE MIZ" MIZANIN (RW Back to NY)  CHAMP

Champs
● ANEESA (Real World: Chicago)   FINALIST
● ASHLEY M. (Real World: Ex-Plosion)   CHAMP
● CT (Real World: Paris)   CHAMP
● DEVIN (Are You The One? Season 3)   FINALIST
● KAILAH (Real World: Go Big or Go Home)
● KAM (Are You The One? Season 5)
● SHANE L. (Road Rules Campus Crawl)
● TORI (Are You The One? Season 4)   FINALIST
● TONY (Real World: Skeletons)
● WES (Real World: Austin)   CHAMP

Stars
● ARIAN FOSTER (NFL Player)
● BROOKE HOGAN (WWE Wrestler and Hulk Hogan's Daughter)
● CASPER SMART (Actor)
● DANIEL GIBSON (NBA Player and Love & Hip Hop)
● DRAKE BELL (Actor)
● HENNESEY CAROLINA (Love & Hip Hop)
● JOZEA FLORES (Big Brother 18)
● LOUISE HAZEL (British Decathlete and Champs vs. Pros Alum)
● LIL' MAMA (Rapper)
● SELITA EUBANKS (Model & Actress)


For the most obvious cast absence, there's one thing we haven't had since I began following The Challenge: For the first time since Battle of the Seasons II in 2012, Johnny Bananas is taking a Challenge season off. This is, after all, an exhibition season and after he won Champs vs. Stars and doing it for his charity, Special Olympics, he pretty much felt it was time to just take a season off and relax knowing he did the job he wanted to do this winter. Besides being snubbed for Big Brother as was mentioned above, it still will be a weird sight to not see Bananas in some capacity on CvS Season 3, but knowing that he already accomplished his goal of helping a cause he's been a great supporter of, it's time that he becomes a viewer rather than a competitor for this season.
   As for those who are competing, there are just four Champions on the Champs side competing, no returning players to this season, six players with finals experience and three from AYTO, though they all made it to the last week of a Challenge season on the cusp of cashing, or in Kam's case being just one move from winning the cash on the only AYTO season to not win the money. But the Champs side will still be one we'll be keeping our eye out of how they will mesh together, and Wes will no doubt be the leader, both competitively and politically, for a team that won't be as stacked as it was for the first two installments which will give the Stars side at least some hope that this season won't become a runaway.
   For the Stars, we will have our first returnee in Louise Hazel, whose appearance on Champs vs. Pros heralded the British invasion on Vendettas. Fight sports will again have representation here in Hulk Hogan's daughter Brooke, and those who watch VH1 will have reason to tune in to see Daniel Gibson and Hennesey Carolina from Love & Hip-Hop. Same goes for Big Brother in seeing Jozea going into the fold, just as news has emerged again of Viacom and CBS potentially reuniting and perhaps increasing The Challenge's draft pool to include more Big Brother and even Survivor castmates too. Even blogger Allan Aguirre is anticipating what Drake might bring to the fold, as will Lil' Mama too.

Of course. anything can happen and if what we saw on Champs vs. Stars is any indication we won't know who has appeared on this season until we get to the final. And as we always say, stay tuned.

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And that will wrap up this week's look Inside the MTV Trifecta. Again, do join us next week when we'll be focusing on the story of Olympian and Champs vs. Pros alum Gus Kenworthy, as well as our usual episode coverage. Until then, thanks for being with us and see you then.

- I AM DC