During The Challenge: USA, the Love Island competitors were considered the underdogs of the cast since their reality TV show involved dating, and several former couples appeared together on the spinoff.
They included Cashel Barnett and Kyra Green, as well as Cinco Holland and Cashay Proudfoot. While Cashel was ousted from the game early, Cinco and Cashay remained through the first five episodes.
Unfortunately, their post-relationship struggles were a focus rather than the competition itself, with Cashay expressing her issues in seeing Cinco flirt with other women in The Challenge house.
While they tried to remain on friendly terms, the exes didn’t exactly get along tremendously well, making it difficult for Love Island to have as strong an alliance as other teams.
Along with that, Cinco recently revealed that he felt Cashay “hindered” his ability to compete on the show, and things would’ve gone much different for him if she wasn’t one of his castmates.
This report will contain spoilers up through Episode 5 of The Challenge: USA.
Cashay and Cinco’s issues spotlighted during The Challenge: USA
It became apparent early and often in The Challenge: USA, that Cashay and Cinco were still moving past their former relationship, as the couple had tried dating after their Love Island season but broke up earlier this year.
Their breakup arrived before they went to film for The Challenge spinoff. Through the show’s first five episodes, viewers saw Cashay take exception to Cinco’s flirty behavior with other women in the house, including Tiffany Mitchell. She was eliminated in Episode 2, taking her out of the equation.
However, in Episode 5 of the spinoff, a conversation revealed that Cashay still found it tough to see Cinco flirt with other castmates while she was around. She also admitted she tried not talking to Cinco for a few days, but even that was tough for her since they’d had such a strong connection.
Meanwhile, Cinco said in a confessional that The Challenge was something he’d always wanted to do, and he wanted to focus on competing.
Unfortunately, a loss in the daily challenge in Episode 5 put him and his teammate, Azah Awasum, into the elimination. They’d go on to face Sarah Lacina and Leo Temory at The Arena, with the latter developing a winning strategy to defeat them in a unique elimination event.
That ended Cinco’s time on The Challenge, but one has to wonder how he’d have fared if his ex-girlfriend wasn’t part of the cast. He actually spoke about that during a recent podcast interview.
Cinco explained how Cashay ‘hindered’ his ability to compete
Following their elimination in Episode 5, Cinco and Azah appeared in several exit interviews for various media outlets and YouTube channels.
During their interview for Rob Has a Podcast (below), Cinco was asked if things would’ve gone differently for him if Cashay wasn’t one of his castmates.
“Honestly? Honestly, yes,” he said, adding, “I feel like the main way she kinda hindered me was the social game. I couldn’t really talk to anybody.”
“The girls were kinda weird around me because they were like, ‘Oh, we don’t want any problems.’ They didn’t want any drama. The guys were just like, ‘We’re cool, but I don’t know.’ At the end of the day, it’s a game. You never know who you can really trust, and the main people I really trust left early- Javonny [Vega] and Cashel [Barnett],” Cinco explained.
He said he felt a bit like a “lone wolf” after his Love Island friends left in the first two episodes, so he was trying to “stay in the background” and figure out things for himself.
However, he got ousted in Episode 5, which further reduced the Love Island group, dropping it down to just four people: Shannon St. Clair, Cashay, Justine Ndiba, and Kyra Green.
The Challenge: USA airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on CBS.