The Challenge can be a brutal game where competitors wage war against one another not only during the daily challenge events and eliminations, but also in confessionals and on social media.
That’s been a recent contention by three-time winner Wes Bergmann, who has been taking to social media to claim castmates have been trash-talking him unnecessarily.
However, two of his longtime castmates, Johnny Bananas and Cory Wharton, recently called him out for his reactions to what happens on and off the show.
Their remarks arrived during Bananas’ weekly Death, Taxes and Bananas Podcast, with Cory as the guest after Episode 6 aired.
Viewers saw Wes become the Blue Team’s vote after they won the daily challenge, with Dusty Harris receiving the most anonymous votes in The Hopper to set up their elimination clash.
During portions of the episode ahead of the elimination event, Wes had several emotional scenes, including one where he talked to Bananas and Dusty in tears about this being his final season as he was about to become a dad.
Cory calls out MTV castmate for ‘Poor me’ antics on USA 2
During The Challenge: USA 2, Episode 4, viewers saw Desi and other members of the Green Team convince their teammate to vote for Cassidy Clark. However, it was a sneaky move, as the rest of the Green Team secretly voted to send Amanda Garcia into elimination against Desi.
It made Wes look like he was targeting Cassidy, and the Survivor star seemed to become a rival for the MTV veteran instantly. Cassidy ended up being sent into elimination in Episode 5, and Wes had again voted for her.
With Cassidy returning to the game, she made it a point that she wanted to eliminate Wes from the game.
During Bananas’ podcast, the seven-time champ said, “Poor Wes” after Cory mentioned how Desi had “played Wes” with the voting.
“Aw man, I don’t want to hear poor Wes anymore, man,” Cory told his castmate, adding, “He played that whole card all f***ing season. ‘Poor me.'”
Cory said Wes slept all day at The Challenge house and that he put himself in the situation he ended up in during USA 2.
Bananas claimed that Wes “needs the validation and the credit for a move being made” during the game. He suggested that it’s better not to be standing right next to the fire with a can of gasoline because you don’t always want others to see what you did.
“It’s like, ‘No, Wes. The better play is for you to do something, but- and CT [Tamburello]’s a master at this, the bomb goes off, and he’s a hundred miles away.”
“He was depressed and sad for the whole season,” Cory said as they finished talking about Wes.
Wes had an ’emotional’ storyline about parenthood and potential retirement in Episode 6
In USA 2’s sixth episode, part of the storyline involved Wes being targetted by several of the CBS reality TV stars and finding himself one of the two competitors up for possible elimination. Wes was shown getting a video call back home with his wife Amanda, and they discussed her latest pregnancy checkup.
In other scenes, he talked about it maybe being his final time on The Challenge as he will move into the role of a dad once his wife has their first child. In a bedroom chat with Bananas and Dusty, Wes was in tears as he opened up about his situation.
In a confessional interview, Wes’ castmate, Survivor and USA Season 1 competitor Desi Williams, suggested Wes was being manipulative with his sad story.
At the elimination event later, it seemed Wes lost to Dusty, and he sat for a while to process the moment as if it was his final event for the show. Bananas walked down to the ground level to offer some comfort and encouragement.
Soon after, host TJ Lavin surprised everyone by announcing that Wes had defeated Dusty in the event by lasting 37 seconds longer.
Following the episode’s airing, Wes seemingly confirmed his retirement on social media, indicating his business was a big reason for the decision, along with becoming a dad in the next month.
However, he also mentioned castmates talking trash about him behind his back on the show.
“Coupled with doing nothing to anyone and still people trashing my name behind my back in interviews – I’m above this,” Wes said in part of his tweet.
The MTV star said he’d provide additional insight about his situation in an exclusive Patreon video for subscribers.
As of Episode 7, he’s still competing in The Challenge: USA 2. It will be interesting to see if Wes goes into elimination again or reaches the final and what the narrative or storyline will be if and when either happens.
The Challenge: USA 2 airs Thursdays at 10/9c on CBS.