With The Challenge: All Stars eliminations, they’re no easier or less physically-challenging than the eliminations on regular seasons of MTV’s competition series.
For some of the OG competitors, it’s been a while since they’ve competed on the show, and quite a few haven’t been involved in too many eliminations during their Challenge careers.
That includes one surprising competitor who only recently went into their second-ever elimination, despite being on many seasons. Spoilers will follow about that competitor who said their only other elimination involved the G.O.A.T., Johnny Bananas.
The Challenge OG recently competed in second elimination
In All Stars Episode 6, competitors were involved in a puzzle-solving daily challenge, as they were inside house-like structures hanging up above the water. Competitors had to put the puzzles together quickly and correctly before the floor panel beneath them opened, and they fell into the water.
Surprisingly, only one competitor solved their puzzle correctly. That was Eric “Big Easy” Banks, which meant a lot of teams didn’t get them right. Host TJ Lavin revealed the team captained by Mark Long and Kendal Sheppard came in last place. That meant Mark and Kendal were going straight to elimination.
At the deliberation, Katie Cooley volunteered herself to go in again because she didn’t even try to solve her puzzle. She was too busy preparing for the fall because she’s terrified of heights and falling into water based on previous challenges. She later got to choose her partner at The Arena for the elimination and chose Laterrian Wallace.
They competed in Pull Me Over at The Arena, which was basically a good old-fashioned game of tug-of-war. It was a grueling event, with the teams trading the first two rounds. In the third round, The Godfather Mark Long dug deep and found the strength to win it for his team, keeping them in the game.
Surprisingly, that was Mark Long’s second-ever appearance in an elimination despite his six seasons of the competition series and being a two-time Challenge winner.
Johnny Bananas was previous elimination opponent
Mark’s only other elimination featured Johnny Bananas. During The Challenge: All Stars Aftermath episode on Paramount Plus, the guests included Mark, and they participated in some True or False trivia questions. Devyn asked them if Mark is undefeated in eliminations, and the answer was “False” due to his previous loss to Bananas.
However, Mark explained that particular loss needs to be in quotation marks, due to the circumstances behind it.
“Johnny and I had an alliance. People are aware of that, you know. I had something happen during the show,” Mark shared.
“You had to jump on the grenade,” castmate Darrell Taylor, also part of the Aftermath episode, added.
“Yeah, I had to jump on the grenade that night for Johnny, but I’m never doing it again because now I want my record to be a winning record,” Mark said.
That particular elimination against Bananas took place during The Challenge: Battle of the Exes season back in 2012, which was Mark’s last regular-season appearance on the show. Bananas was able to defeat him in X Battle in the ninth episode of the season. That event involved trying to wrestle an X-like item out of your opponent’s hands.
While Mark went home, Bananas moved on and actually went on to win the final with partner Camila Nakagawa that season. It was Bananas’ fourth win on The Challenge, adding to his bank account. So hopefully, he gave Mark a nice gift for being such a good friend that season.
Even though Mark lost, it appears he’s determined to continue to improve upon his 1-1 record in Challenge eliminations. That’s a good sign for those hoping for future seasons of All Stars, or even for the possibility that Mark returns to a regular season of the show.
The Challenge: All Stars episodes arrive Thursdays on Paramount Plus.