The Challenge: Ride or Dies featured plenty of drama among castmates, although not all of it made it into the final episodes.
Some of the behind-the-scenes details and tea arrives on the various podcasts dedicated to the show, including MTV’s Official Challenge Podcast.
One of the moments that wasn’t shown involved Nelson Thomas, who felt left out from one of the alliance groups in the house.
During one of the recent installments, Ride or Dies winner Tori Deal spoke about her castmate Nelson, indicating they had a bit of drama during the season.
However, it didn’t make it into the final cut for the episode. Even so, Tori gave insight into what went down between them and where they stand now.
This report may contain spoilers from MTV’s Ride or Dies season and The Challenge: World Championship, which has episodes each Wednesday on Paramount Plus.
The Challenge: Tori reveals unaired Ride or Dies drama with Nelson
Based on some tea shared by Tori during an episode of MTV’sChallenge podcast, her castmate Nelson wasn’t too happy that he wasn’t involved in part of her strategic gameplay during Ride or Dies.
According to Showbiz Cheatsheet, Tori mentioned that Nelson felt left out when it came to the men she was protecting during the season, which were her partner Devin Walker and ex, Jordan Wiseley.
That occurred when Devin and Tori became separated by a midseason twist, as the cast was split into two larger teams, with each Ride or Dies teammate going to an opposing team.
Tori ended up on a team that included Nelson, with Devin and Jordan on the opposite team.
Based on Tori’s comments, Nelson wasn’t happy that Tori wouldn’t offer him protection from getting sent into elimination. She said he called her a “fake” and a “snake,” Cameras were there for him going off, but it never made it into the episodes.
Tori indicated that Nelson apologized for his remarks, although she said they didn’t really affect her. She also said Nelson had some “spice” to him during the season, but it was never shown in any episodes. Instead, the focus went on Nelson’s showmance with rookie Olivia Kaiser and his alliance with others in the game.
In Ride or Dies Episode 12, Nelson ended up going into elimination against Fessy Shafaat, with Fessy once again ousting his supposed friend and ally from the game.
Nelson’s elimination came right after his teammate Nurys Mateo was eliminated, which meant their chances of winning Ride or Dies ended. Host TJ Lavin had revealed to Nurys after she was eliminated in Episode 11 that she was still eligible to return for the final as long as Nelson stayed safe from elimination.
Tori and Nelson appeared together in World Championship
Following Ride or Dies with Tori and Devin winning the final, she joined the cast of the spinoff, The Challenge: World Championship.
Nelson was also revealed in the cast, as they were among the 14 MTV Legends competing alongside 16 global MVPs.
The MVPs came from The Challenge’s international spinoffs from the UK, USA, Argentina, and Australia, with winners, finalists, and other competitors from those shows.
Each MVP chose a Legends teammate, with Tori claimed early by USA winner Danny McCray. KellyAnne Judd and Nelson were the final Legends left. That automatically paired KellyAnne with UK’s Tristan Phipps and Nelson with Argentina’s Jujuy Jimenez as they were the final remaining MVPs.
Those two teams also ended up going into elimination in World Championship Episode 3. Unfortunately, Nelson struggled to figure out how to swing his partner in a harness so she could grab puzzle blocks hanging in the arena.
That led to KellyAnne and Tristan grabbing the win, sending Jujuy and Nelson home as the second pair of eliminated competitors.
Tori didn’t factor into Nelson going into elimination, as he and Jujuy were the worst-performing team in the daily challenge, automatically putting them into the matchup. The two MTV castmates also seemed to get along fine at the Ride or Dies reunion and during World Championship episodes.
The Challenge: World Championship episodes arrive Wednesdays on Paramount Plus. The Challenge: USA 2 is TBA.