The Challenge is a show known for epic eliminations, but many fans know they’ve also squandered opportunities to create memorable battles.
On All Stars 4, we saw two of the main competitors face each other. Instead of a headbanger, they played a game that anyone had an equal chance at winning. But, this isn’t too unusual. There are many times when undeserving competitors went home because production wanted elimination to be crap shoots.
Puzzle Pyramid — Free Agents
At the very end of Free Agents, a season that was formatted to be more athletic than ever, we saw a random elimination that put Bananas against CT and Laurel against Theresa. Instead of seeing these heavy hitters battle it out, we saw a series of puzzles that resulted in CT and Theresa getting the boot. Keep in mind, that this was the first time we saw a puzzle used as an elimination this season, and it was the result of a draw no one could avoid.
Blindsided — Champs vs. Pros
The first time we saw Wes and Bananas face off in elimination they literally went into the game blind. This competition was a variation of Snapper, an elimination that was poorly received when it was introduced on Rivals 2. This time, the caller wasn’t a partner. Rather, competitors just picked someone random from the sidelines to help them out.
Balls of Fire — Vendettas
After two seasons of Team Young Buck making waves in the game, Nelson and Cory faced each other in a fiery soccer match. While this trio had muscles, they weren’t known for being the sharpest people. But this competition made it hard to do anything other than kick randomly because there were blinding walls of flames and competitors were required to wear bulky, limiting equipment.
Map It Out — War of the Worlds
While world knowledge isn’t exactly baseless, no one would expect Zach or Bananas to be a geography wiz. These two had spent years on The Challenge and avoided facing each other, and when they finally did, they had to fill in a world map. Even worse, the audience was able to help out.
Code Breaker — Total Madness
Dee returned as a villain on Total Madness hot off her War of the Worlds 2 victory, and she saw herself facing Ashley, the villainous Final Reckoning victor. This could have been a strong fight between two cunning competitors, but instead, they had to open piñatas hoping to find puzzle pieces.
Charge the Wall — Total Madness
After over a decade, Wes and Bananas finally saw each other in an elimination on the main series, and we saw a weird variation of Wrecking Wall. While there are definite merits to winning Wrecking Wall in its standard format, this format removed strategy and replaced it with luck by hiding three batteries inside boxes.
Memory Lane — Ride or Dies
Turbo landed in his first-ever elimination on his third Challenge season, and he found himself against rookie stars Horacio and Olivia. And what we got? A game of memory where the audience could feed answers to the rookies because they disliked Turbo.
Fire & Ice — The Challenge: USA 2
On Paulie’s first three seasons, he established a significant rivalry with Bananas. While that was being mended on USA 2, the two competitors finally had the chance to squash their beef in a game. Rather than a real battle, we watched them stand on blocks of ice with their arms raised. The fire exchange did add some integrity to the competition, but it was fairly random, especially with a limited number of bags.
Chain Reaction — Battle for a New Champion
This season was built around “beating the best,” but it’s a much less enticing tagline when the competitions were designed for kindergarteners. Once Laurel, one of the highly anticipated mercenaries, entered the competition she was given a game of color memorization. This allowed Rayvn to win. And to make matters worse, Ravyn had proven herself to be a tough player in physical eliminations, so it could have been a great battle.
Star Slice — All Stars 4
On All Stars 4, we saw Cara Maria face Rachel. The two multi-season winners are known for being physical specimens, but instead, they had to throw axes. While there could be skill involved with this, it was quickly apparent that neither girl knew what they were doing. After many, many throws Cara Maria won — likely because her axes randomly fell into place.
Stop Being Polite 