The Challenge: World Championship is underway, with the spinoff shows featuring MTV Legends teaming up with global MVPs to try to reach the final and win a substantial cash prize.
Several teams feature entirely USA duos, including Johnny Bananas with Justine Ndiba, Kaycee Clark with Ben Driebergen, and Tori Deal with Danny McCray.
The latter team appeared to be one to beat early on, based on it featuring recent The Challenge: USA winner Danny and MTV’s Ride or Dies winner Tori.
However, it doesn’t appear they’re necessarily on the same page when it comes to gameplay, as Danny has one idea about making some big moves early, and Tori seems against those ideas.
That could lead to some dramatic moments this season in upcoming episodes, but it’s already led to some drama unfolding online, courtesy of Danny’s wife.
This report may contain spoilers from The Challenge: World Championship on Paramount Plus.
Danny’s wife, Kiki McCray, blasts her husband’s teammate Tori over gameplay
Danny’s wife, Kiki, became an instant star of The Challenge: USA without appearing in the episodes. Instead, Danny gave her plenty of name-drop confessional comments as he would mention what his wife Kiki told him to do or not to do in the game.
During The Challenge: World Championship’s early episodes, Kiki was also mentioned briefly. One of those times featured Danny saying Kiki gave him advice on choosing a good partner, and Tori was one of the individuals he named. He was able to select her as his partner early in the game, but it could prove to be the wrong move.
In a series of messages posted on her Twitter after Episode 4, Kiki didn’t hold back regarding her opinions about her husband’s attempts to play the game and his teammate Tori getting in his way early into the season. She didn’t use specific names in her tweets, but it seemed obvious.
“What I don’t like seeing is my man pouting & stressed out on TV. He takes competition seriously. He believes in having fair opportunities to win with clear rules. But maybe that’s just a professional athlete thing,” Kiki said of her former NFL player husband.
She followed up with a tweet that seemed to take a shot at Tori and others she feels are on the show “to just grow” their subscription-based website fanbases.
“Ppl need to learn how to compartmentalize ‘real life’ from game play esp when you’re partnered with someone who is there for the actual competition & not to just grow their only fans,” Kiki tweeted, seemingly referring to Tori.
In World Championship Episode 4, Danny wanted to make a big move early and suggested that people vote to send in a multi-time champion such as Wes Bergmann or Jordan Wiseley. One of those moves became impossible once Wes and his teammate, the UK’s Zara Zoffany, won the daily challenge, keeping them safe from elimination.
That left Jordan as an option, but Tori and the other MTV veterans weren’t about to shake things up early. Fans know Tori won’t send in her ex-fiance Jordan as she protected him during Ride or Dies due to their alliance. That theme seems to be continuing into the World Championship.
Kiki suggests a ‘new rule’ for The Challenge
In another tweet, Kiki suggested that partners should be decided based on who slept with whom. That would seem to indicate she believes Jordan and Tori should team up, which could be a tough all-Legends duo to defeat.
“New rule: If you slept with someone, you partner with them. Deal with yr own s**t & let the ppl who came to play PLAY. #TheChallengeWorldChampionship,” she tweeted.
That particular rule would also make the show interesting for someone like Faysal “Fessy” Shafaat, who has been linked with multiple Challenge castmates over several seasons on the MTV show.
Meanwhile, Jordan and Tori have strong teams in the World Championship spinoff. While Tori is teamed with USA winner Danny, Jordan was an early pick by Kaz Crossley, winner of The Challenge: UK.
One pair featuring an MTV Legend and global MVP will end up winning $500,000 and becoming the first-ever world champions of The Challenge. Clearly, Kiki hopes it’s her man, even if Tori wins alongside him.
The Challenge: World Championship episodes arrive Wednesdays on Paramount Plus.