The Unexpected Return of Sarah Rice

For the first time since 2016, Sarah Rice appeared on The Challenge. Her return shocked some of the veterans, but her performance in the Arena was slightly underwhelming. 

Tori defeated Sarah in Balls In with relative ease, which really didn’t surprise anyone. Strength-based eliminations are right up Tori’s alley, but they don’t cater to Sarah’s strengths. So some viewers believe the game was set up for Tori to win — to the point that some people have called Sarah’s mercenary appearance a humiliation ritual.

While that might be a stretch, Sarah’s appearance certainly wasn’t a redemption arc. In reality, this appearance lies somewhere in between, but Sarah accomplished everything production needed for her.

Sarah vs. Tori: The Reality

It doesn’t take long for viewers watching episode 10 of Cutthroat to realize this won’t be a standard Challenge episode; TJ makes that clear about five minutes in when he announces there won’t be a daily challenge. Instead, he announced the Trial by Combat, and he flipped a coin, which allowed Tori to pick her placement in The Arena.

While Tori and Adrienne needed to make decisions without all of the details, the edited episode was fairly transparent about the process (unlike other coin flips). Then, we watched TJ spin a wheel to determine whether Adrienne would play Pole Wrestle or Balls In. Again, the episode made a point of showing every step taken to determine the matchups (which also helped build suspense).

What the episode didn’t show: Rachel was the first mercenary, while Sarah competed in the second elimination. This is speculation, but I don’t think these placements were random. From a production standpoint, it makes sense to send Rachel out first. She’s a formidable competitor, which sets the stage for a tough elimination. But she’s active in the Challenge scene. She’s a surprise, not a shock. On the other hand, most people had assumed Sarah was retired. Likely, production always intended to make her the second mercenary, so the bigger shock would come later in the episode.

If I had to guess, Tori would have beaten either mercenary in either elimination, so it didn’t really matter who she competed against. Adrienne likely would have beaten Sarah in either elimination. The only iffy scenario: Rachel may have beaten Adrienne if they competed in Balls In, but that’s not how the chips fell.

Was Sarah Set Up to Lose?

In a perfect world, I would have liked to see Sarah compete in Knot So Fast. That’s an elimination where she could excel — in fact, she won the first-ever Knot So Fast on Battle of the Seasons — but other competitors stand a chance of beating her. It would have been especially easy to have this elimination, because we already saw Nelson and Keanu face off in Knot So Fast this season, so we know production has the equipment on site. This is also considered a “classic” Challenge elimination, so it checks almost every box.

In actuality, this Arena was built to shine a light on UFC; that’s where the money is coming from. Production wanted simple eliminations where TJ and Valentina were visible while delivering commentary. Knot So Fast doesn’t quite fit that bill, though I’m sure production could have made it work if they wanted.

The fact is, UFC brought in the money. Most likely, Balls In and Pole Wrestle were the games, regardless of which Challenge legends appeared as mercenaries. If the focus of the elimination was the mercenaries (like it was on Battle for a New Champion), the show likely would have handed Sarah a game catered to her strengths.

We also need to acknowledge that the show currently has seven women, compared to four men. This is really messing with the format, so it’s hard to imagine a world where production would have rigged any eliminations to preserve women.

Rumor has it, they also wanted to bring in two male mercenaries, but they opted not to after the triple disqualification. And if the rumor mill is to be believed, Devin and Zach were slated to come in.

Was Sarah Done Dirty?

I really don’t think The Challenge did anything terribly wrong with Sarah’s mercenary. If anything, they prioritized UFC and made Sarah’s a bit of an afterthought. For a business standpoint, I understand the choice. As a fan of the show, no one cares about UFC, fans are only talking about Sarah.

Of course, the show also had to bring up the Bananas robbery on Rivals 3. But Sarah’s smart, and she must have known it would be mentioned before she showed up (especially with Bananas on the cast, and it’s super easy to look up spoilers). So yes, the show acknowledged a painful moment in Sarah’s Challenge career, but she seemed to be in good spirits and played along with the gag.

Sarah also seems to be in great shape, but she seemed genuinely shocked when TJ mentioned the $25,000 prize. In most cases, the mercenaries don’t actually need to win, so Sarah likely hadn’t been training for this season. She’s still a good competitor, but why does she need to take the opportunity away from Tori (who she barely knows)?

The mercenaries who really try are the ones who want to get invited back to the show. Compare CT’s performance on the original Cutthroat (when he was pseudo-banned post Duel 2) to his performance on Battle of the Bloodlines. One moment is etched in Challenge history, the other is a footnote on an underwhelming season. In Sarah’s case, she doesn’t need to prove anything by delivering a strong performance. And based on the buzz around Sarah’s return, she proved that The Challenge needs her more than she needs The Challenge.