the challenge battle of the eras episode two | The Alabama Take

The Challenge: Battle of the Eras

The Challenge turns forty! Coverage of The Challenge: Battle of the Eras continues each Thursday evening on The Alabama Take.

This week’s episode, part two of “The Era Invitational,” doesn’t pick up where last week left off so much as jump ahead to the players walking straight into the arena to react to the size and scope of it. Soon after, competitors begin the four different eliminations, each based off of an era where it began. In the four rounds of play, players face off in Balls In for Era III, Pole Wrestle for Era I, the popular Hall Brawl for Era IV, and finally Take Shelter for Era III. The losers – Amanda, Leroy, Mark, Katie, Paulie, Nurys, Kellyanne, and Brandon – got an early trip home, but not before they cast a karma vote where they assigned numbers up to five to the remaining players.

Which elimination (Balls In, Pole Wrestle, Hall Brawl, or Take Shelter) do you pick for entertainment value only?

TD: Oh man, that’s a tough one. There are few more satisfying things on The Challenge than watching two contestants meet in the middle during Hall Brawl. The anticipation, the suspense, then the BOOM. Pole Wrestle has a certain raw appeal, too. It’s very visceral, and caters to a certain gladiatorial bloodlust within us. All that said, Balls In might be my favorite because it’s basically a rehash of an old American Gladiators game that was already awesome. Add in the sand and the desperation of not wanting to be eliminated, and it’s an A+ elimination game. Really, though, you can’t go wrong with any of the games.

Blaine: It’s hard not to say Hall Brawl in any situation, particularly one where Theo’s first hit to Paulie is so satisfying to watch, but I’m actually going with Take Shelter. Maybe it lacked it in the past or I’d forgotten, but it has some real suspense to it since it’s such a race. The design of it creates the best chances for parity, too, despite taking a little set up. And yeah, the parity was bad news for Brandon, whom I agree with when he says he would’ve bested Ryan in any of the other games. Still, it took two players I wasn’t too concerned with losing and made me care. And with the help of editing, I didn’t know who would win until the end. This particular version of Take Shelter had two games happening simultaneously with Kellyanne repeatedly mentioning her psychic, which was just enough of her crazy shit to last a whole season, so good thing she’s gone. The Olivia-Nurys Hall Brawl puts it on a lower tier this time: their first collision doesn’t even count as a hit and I don’t like to see Nurys lose. Both Pole Wrestle and Balls In had four different eliminations that lacked any tension on who could win.

What’s the biggest surprise from “The Era Invitational”?

TD: I don’t know if anything truly surprised me, with the format setup like it is, you’re gonna get some heavyweight matchups in eliminations. I will say that the decision to pit people from the same eras against each other was a bit disappointing to me, if not surprising. I get the idea, find the best of the best, but seeing matchups like Leroy/Tony, Mark/Derek, and Cara Maria/Kellyanne this early is a bit disappointing. If the idea is to pit eras against each other, why not continue that through elimination?

Blaine: It’s a shame that Mark couldn’t even garner one win in Pole Wrestle, but most disappointing for a while now has to be Leroy, who even admitted as much. Did you watch the most recent episodes of The Challenge: All Stars? I mean, he looks like he’s in shape, but cannot produce a win to save his life. But when it comes to the most surprising, it was that Katie didn’t continue the scissor lock on Aneesa’s neck in order to get one win in Pole Wrestle. Did production make her stop, y’all think? And for the love of all that’s holy, please give Aneesa a cardio elimination just once.

What’s your prediction on how the karma points come into play? Who will have the fewest and who will get the most?

TD: They really didn’t reveal much to us, did they? It’ll be some kind of ranking system, that’s about all we know. The game will go individual at some point; maybe the points give you safety from eliminations? Or maybe some type of veto power during the voting process. The rankings themselves could be all over the place. Eliminated contestants are likely to vote for revenge, and favor those they’re friends with (naturally), so the points are likely to line up with how viewers think they should.

Blaine: It’s hard to guess, but if it results in merely a finalist getting a two-minute start or something, that would be lame. I hope it leads to the lowest votes having to compete in an unexpected elimination. As for the fewest, I can see Bananas and Laurel earning the least: people seem pretty over Bananas and I personally hope Laurel’s shit comes to an end somehow. Is Horacio too quiet and isolated to get the most karma votes? I hope not. I’ll pick him and Kaycee, who doesn’t rile anyone up in one way or the other.

Confessionals

C.T. looked none too pleased that the “biggest upset” was mentioned. Of course it’s all in the editing, but still. He had a look. - Blaine
It was either an odd choice or a lack of time, but why didn’t we get the thrill of seeing each era’s players have to reveal their eliminations? - Blaine (TD: I want to piggy back on this one and say, yes, it was underwhelming the way they chose to reveal the games. Production could’ve added some suspense. Instead of T.J. giving his speech about the history of the games, they could’ve kept the games hidden and had the contestants draw numbers or something, then reveal the games one by one. It’s the little things, you know?)
Can’t they work in a way to have Amanda on the show each week to comment on these folks? She’s worth it! No punches pulled! - Blaine
Are they seriously setting up a Josh and Kyland rivalry over Nia? Because I’m all for it. - Blaine
Tony’s “godDAMN” in confessional regarding Theo and Paulie’s first Hall Brawl collision was pitch perfect. Also, gotta say it was extremely satisfying watching Theo just obliterate Paulie.- TD
There are a few faces I’m missing this season on an otherwise phenomenal cast. Evelyn has long been someone I’d like to see one more time as I still consider her one of, if not the best, female competitor in the show’s history. It would be hilarious to see Abram and Paulie on the same show. Ashley “Millionaire” Mitchell is always a welcome sight on The Challenge, and, as much as I can’t stand him, Fessy is the kind of antagonist that’s great for this show. Kyle and his blindingly white smile is missed, as well. Of course there’s Wes, too; he seems like a huge name to be absent from this season. Then there’s names like MJ, Nany, Alton, Sarah, Zach, Turbo, Kam, Tyler and last season’s champ Emanuel. - TD