After a recent elimination event on The Challenge: USA 2 featured a shocking finish in which MTV vet Wes Bergmann seized a surprise win, many fans suggested parts of the show are “rigged.”
In Episode 6 of the CBS spinoff series, the experienced MTV star was voted in by the winning team, Blue Team, to eliminate him from the game.
On the other side, Amazing Race’s Dusty Harris, a rookie to The Challenge, got sent into an elimination event after receiving seven anonymous votes from castmates.
He and Wes battled it out in Cranked Shaft, which involved one individual balancing on top of a cylinder and the other trying to get them to fall off.
While one individual balanced on the structure, the other had to untie knots around two steering wheels, bring them to the crankshaft, and turn them, causing their opponent to fight for balance.
The winning player would be the one to remain on their feet on the apparatus the longest before falling into a mud pool below.
Wes won a shocking USA 2 elimination event over Dusty
The latest elimination event seemed super close, with Dusty the first one having to balance on top of the apparatus, followed by Wes. Dusty had an advantage in seeing the MTV vet go first, giving him ideas for his strategy.
When it was his turn to untie the steering wheels, he received support from castmates in the upper stands, including Desi Williams, who yelled helpful advice.
After freeing his second wheel and placing it on the crankshaft, Dusty turned it, causing Wes to lose his balance. Soon after, he fell into the pool below, and based on his reaction post-event, he felt he had lost. Even castmates thought he was done.
No clock or timer was shown on the screen, like during Johnny Bananas and Paulie Calafiore’s elimination, which lasted over 38 minutes.
Instead, the surprising results in Episode 6 were revealed by host TJ Lavin, who indicated that just 37 seconds separated the winner from the loser.
He revealed that Wes was faster, shocking castmates, fans, and Wes. He and Dusty hugged it out following the surprising event, then Dusty processed the loss before exiting The Arena.
It ended Dusty’s run on the CBS spinoff series while extending Wes’ time on the show. Throughout the earlier parts of the episode, a storyline focused on Wes, hinting this would be his final appearance on The Challenge.
Soon after the episode had been shown on CBS and Paramount+, Wes seemingly confirmed his retirement from The Challenge, citing his business and becoming a dad as his main reasons for ending his career on the competition series.
Fans react to The Hopper and surprising elimination results
After The Challenge shared Wes’ elimination win over Dusty on Instagram, many fans hit the comment section with their thoughts on what was shown and not shown.
Major contentions seemed to include the lack of showing which specific ball TJ draws from The Hopper in the random vote and not showing any clock on-screen during the event.
One commenter called the season “all around rigged” and asked why the footage doesn’t show the yellow balls being put into The Hopper and TJ revealing the competitor’s name he randomly pulls out. Instead, he is shown announcing which competitor’s name he drew in a suspenseful moment.
“Why don’t y’all show the ball you pull from the hopper ? It’s giving the ‘alogrithm’?” one commenter said, referring to the random system that paired different castmates in each episode of USA Season 1.
“Not even trying to hide it anymore,” another commenter wrote.
“That was so rigged,” yet another individual commented.
Another commenter suggested that the footage made it appear that Wes took longer than Dusty to fool the fans.
Cayla Platt, an Amazing Race star who reached the final in Season 1 of The Challenge: USA, also commented, suggesting a running clock needed to be shown on the screen during the Wes vs. Dusty elimination.
Fans may also have a legitimate gripe about The Hopper, but more so for the previous elimination setup. Big Brother star Alyssa Lopez ended up going into elimination with just one vote, placed anonymously by Tori Deal. It came as part of the MTV vets’ “Operation Hat Trick” strategy to disrupt the CBS reality TV stars and cause chaos.
It also arrived after Alyssa was vocal in targeting the MTV vets, including Tori and Bananas. During a team nomination meeting, she also delivered a line to Tori that went viral, saying that maybe everything that happened in the game wasn’t always about her.
With one vote in The Hopper from Tori several episodes later, Alyssa was randomly selected. She then lost to castmate Cassidy Clark at The Arena, ending her time on the show.
Dusty, an admitted superfan of The Challenge, also saw his time end, although one can’t be sure if that was a legitimate loss or some impressive editing to leave viewers debating it.
The Challenge: USA 2 airs Thursdays at 10/9c on CBS.