On episode 13 of The Challenge: USA 2, we saw four Challengers face compete in “Hall Brawl,” but the elimination was very different than most fans remember it. This time, competitors were given large pads to reduce the impact and there was a puzzle after the hall.
Generally, fans of the Challenge has the same questions: “Why?” and “Who asked for this?”
If you’ve watched The Challenge in the past, you’ll know Hall Brawl is a highly anticipated elimination each season, and it almost always pops up in some variation. It’s become so expected, that Faysal anticipated it would be the final elimination this season and he coached Josh (his eventual opponent) to play the game.
But he wasn’t prepared for the new elements we saw this time around, because this was the first time he had to run through the hall while carrying a large pad — and he’s competed in a few Hall Brawls in the past. We also know that he’s left his opponents in rough shape. On Double Agents, he broke Kyle’s finger right before the final and took him out of the competition.
This is the type of injury that makes production want to include padding. Hall Brawl needs to walk a fine line. Production wants competitors to put on a fight, but they don’t want people to get severely injured to the point that they can’t run in the final and require medical treatment.
However, there have been Hall Brawl modifications that reduce the impact of the collision but still make the game competitive. Look at Double Decker on Ride or Dies. Competitors were pushing a beam, and while it was a less brutal fight than prior Hall Brawls, it was still a solid competition based in physical strength.
Ride or Dies demonstrated that production was already moving in the direction of reducing painful collisions in Hall Brawl, but at least it was a strength-based competition. USA 2’s “Hall Brawl” ended in a puzzle, which completely changes the objective of the game. For the women, logic was required to win, but as Faysal showed us, guessing could work just as well.
To be fair, the puzzles used in USA 2 didn’t require a lot of time to complete, so securing a head start by dominating the physical portion could be enough to win the game. But, it also made it so the smaller competitor had a chance at winning the elimination.
Puzzles are equalizers, and it’s nice to see that the elimination directly before the final wasn’t too predictable. But, production doesn’t always need to inject games with equalizers. Sometimes, viewers want an elimination that’s centered around physical strength.
This is where things went wrong. It wasn’t the fact that we had a puzzle right before the final, it’s that we were teased with a Hall Brawl.
When the show advertises Hall Brawl in trailers, we always see the brawling. If production doesn’t want to include fighting in the elimination, maybe they should avoid Hall Brawl all together, because it will be nothing but a letdown without the physical blows.
Stop Being Polite 