Was the Wes vs. Dusty Elimination Rigged?

This week, we watched Wes and Dusty duke it out in Crank Shafted. Prior to the elimination, Wes was nervous because he’d lost in knot-based eliminations four times (by his own recollection), and this game required him to untie knots.

Wes went first and took a slower, methodical approach. Then, Dusty went at full speed. When Dusty knocked Wes off the wheel, Wes appeared defeated. He was convinced that he’d lost the elimination, and Johnny Bananas ran over to comfort him.

Based on Bananas’ dialogue with Wes, it’s fair to assume he also thought Wes lost. Then, TJ shocked the cast when he announced that Wes was the victor and Dusty would be going home. Afterward, the whole cast that’d been watching the event was shocked.

This type of editing made the scene overly dramatic, and it’s ripe for conspiracies. Even cast members from prior Challenge seasons chimed in. Most notably, Cayla from USA 1 felt there should have been a running clock to verify time accuracy, and that season’s winner — Danny — agreed.

Based on the edits and social media conversations, a lot of people felt the victory was earned by Dusty, but production gave it to Wes to keep him around longer. And all of this is fueled by the fact that we can’t verify anything because no time information was released.

So, do I think it was rigged? Probably not. But keep in mind, without real data, we’ll never know.

I do believe Dusty spent less time cranking his wheel to get Wes off. This is enhanced by the fact that Wes went first and Dusty learned from his mistakes. If production wanted to rig the game, they likely would have given Dusty the undesirable first slot cranking.

However, Dusty had struggles with the first knot, to the point that people were yelling instructions at him from the sidelines. On the other hand, Wes’ less frantic approach probably meant he spent less time, cumulatively, on the knots.

So, why did everyone think Wes lost? It was probably recency bias and Wes’ reaction. They watched Dusty quickly roll Wes off the wheel, which exceeded expectations. That was the last moment they saw before the final times were clocked. This discouraged Wes, and the audience reacted to his defeated attitude.

But, we’ll never know. Editing can have a magical effect on the show, but the lack of transparency invites people to make their own assumptions. So, unless we hear more info from people who were actually in The Arena, I’ll assume Wes earned his spot back in the game.