DC ExtraTime: A Hurricane Walks Into A Barber Shop...

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

With a new season of The Challenge debuting this Wednesday - two nights after tomorrow's VMA's, it's worth taking a look at all of the relationships that have been spawned in the universe of that show and the various shows that has fed cast members turned competitors into each season's draft pool. In a way, what we have seen in the past helped provide some context to what would become two of the seasons of that series, one of what was a main feeder show to the series, and another that this series helped introduce to America last year.
   Seven years ago, the definition of "exes" came into focus for the first time in what this site calls the "Trifecta" when The Challenge: Battle of the Exes took place in South America. It's notable for the first of many a Camila meltdown, the relationship of the greatest romance this show has ever known in CT and Diem Brown, and the ice final won by Camila and Johnny. Exes 2 three years later saw the last appearance of CT & Diem, the start of the crossover of other shows to this world in Are You The One alumni, and our first appearance of a girl from New York named Jenna.
   The Barbie Beast was part of the first of the handful of seasons where The Real World decided to give its original "seven strangers" formula a break in the twisted seasons starting in San Francisco for Real World Ex-Plosion: exes of the original roommates living with them. Overseas, that concept of exes living with singles in a villa made its way across the pond when the first series of MTV's international format, Ex On The Beach, debuted on MTV UK and last year it made its debut in the United States... and Season 3 of EOTB USA is currently airing.

A person who might've been considered for Ex had the concept debuted earlier than last year is certainly Leroy Garrett: everyone who will be watching War of the Worlds 2 this Wednesday know about the relationship he's had with Kam Williams, which started on Vendettas, continued for a bit after they left the Czech Republic and rekindled last season on WOTW1... even if the editing of a triangle involving them and runner-up Theo Campbell gave him a bad rap. And just recently, the alums of Real World Back to Vegas and AYTO 5 were spotted together again with another power couple, Cara Maria and Paulie, when they partied in Atlantic City.
   Kam isn't the only Challenger that Leroy has been romantically linked to: it was earlier on his career that he got close to Theresa Gonzalez on Rivals II six years ago, and then on Free Agents with Nia Moore when they were spotted going into a bathroom in the Challenge house one late night in Uruguay. Those were the prerequisites for him going onto Exes 2 five years ago, and Leroy was originally paired with Nia... and they showed strong potential to perhaps win it all as they made it to the transfer point of the season of going to Norway for semifinal week (the season's last regular challenge and elimination) and the final itself.
   But just as they were preparing to go for $350,000, things changed. A night of her bullying Jordan Wiseley in the Scandinavian hotel suite, echoing what happened with the both of them back on Real World Portland, saw Nia get sent home just before the competitors got to the start line. Leroy was concerned that what happened with his partner would get him sent home as well... but after she & her partner Wes Bergmann lost in the last elimination tilt, Theresa was given a second chance, and she returned to be Leroy's partner in the final, where they finished second to Jordan and Sarah Rice.

Leroy will be making his 11th Challenge start this Wednesday, and he has two trends that he would like to have snapped this season. He has appeared on more Challenge seasons than any other male competitor, and ranks second overall to longtime stalwart Aneesa, without ever winning the top prize... and he also has the second-most appearances in a final among those who've not won gold. That record doesn't diminish his standing as a perennial fan favorite and one of the handful of Challengers who's universally loved - take his close friendship with Johnny Bananas as an example in him being his closest ally in the ladder half of a now 18-season strong Challenge career.
   And if Roylee does break the jinx and finally win his first Challenge come wintertime, the same kind of fandom reaction that accompanied CT's first title and Turbo's win last season should take place. And a likely beneficiary of any kind of prize money Leroy would win will be in a new career he has taken up: being a certified barber in the Las Vegas area, with plans to open up a new shop for those in Sin City to get some nice, new hairdos.
   On Friday of this penultimate weekend of the summer travel season before Labor Day sets in, Nia (who now makes traveling across the country a permanent job in being a corporate flight attendant) walked into the barber shop he works at to pay a visit. The video proof is below, for which Leroy captioned, "Surprise shop visit today... from my Ace ♠️ @TheRealNiaMoore."

Surprise shop visit today... from my Ace ♠️ @TheRealNiaMoore pic.twitter.com/uJP49ClRyk

— Leroy "Roylee" (@Bruce_Lee85) August 24, 2019

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