Recapping The Challenge: Laurel & Cara's Beef, Cohutta's Bad Luck

Adam Hatlak, one of our writers here is as big of a Challenge fans as I am. We want to expand our coverage a bit so we are doing a recap blog post on Friday. He will basically have three to five takeaways each week talking about things that happened on The Challenge.

Laurel & Cara Maria beef: What happened here? Is this is MTV trying to drum up a little drama leading into the final mission? Or did it really feature two friends fighting with each other. Everyone in the house acted like it was sacrilgious that Cara and Laurel were beefing with each other. Like who gives shit honestly. Friends fight all the time. Sometimes, it is more verbal, and other times, it is a passive aggressive thing where it is behind everyone's back. Due to everyone's hate of Laurel, the entire house backed Cara Maria which is typical and expected. Laurel simply got annoyed with the paranoia of Cara wondering if she was heading into elimination. She went to Jessica's side which I still don't made any sense either. It looks like it will continue for another week, but it seems like a weak one at best.  

Challenge/Elimination Duplicate: I know he's one of Charlie's least favorites, but I'm a Cohutta fan (I don't hate Cohutta, just think he's got cuckolded by Nany - CT) . Every challenge I've seen him on, he's out preformed what he's expected to do. He's able to make up for a very significant size advantage. His luck ran out this week in a very real way, but he was already on borrowed time with some top notch challengers leaving early. It's odd when the challenge and the elimination benefit people of the same skill set. Both competitions were basically forcing challenges to play as running backs, a spot that does not work well for Cohutta. I honestly would have liked to see these take place in different episodes, because if you're bad at one, you're going to be bad at both, and likely will be eliminated. That being said, it's a very minor complaint, and Cohutta was leaving before the final either way. 

Missed Opportunity: MTV got unlucky this year in their elimination rotation. Balls In (the elimination round last night) is one of the best elimination matches they have, and it's generally one that creates great matchups. Its use has been great this season for the girls' side, but it's been lackluster for the guys', and I think it was specifically designed for them. Here's who we've seen in Balls In: Frank vs. Chet (stopped after one round for a chin laceration), Bananas vs Isaac (Isaac is hilarious, but didn't bring it) and Cohutta vs. Leroy (dominance). Imagine if Frank vs Dustin, or Jordan vs Bananas had been balls in? There's only a few people left, imagine if they had one round of it left for a combination of Leroy, Bananas, CT or Zack. Instead, all of the best matchups for the guys on paper have featured them climbing a wall. MTV got unlucky. 

Adam