The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion recently premiered, with no OGs in the cast yet, and the familiar faces, including Melissa Reeves, Horacio Gutierrez, Olivia Kaiser, and Tula “Big T” Fazakerley.
The stage was set early in the season as Big T faced elimination and relied upon her experience from several seasons to prove she wasn’t an easy opponent to call out.
As with other seasons, footage and comments also arrived in that premiere episode that cast members saw or heard for the first time when watching it on television.
That can often lead to some individuals getting exposed for things they said behind someone’s back, whether in a conversation with castmates or during a confessional interview.
Tula “Big T” Fazakerley said she learned some things about one castmate she saw in the premiere episode.
She said due to real-life conversations she had with that individual, she needed to take care of business by unfollowing and blocking that Challenge castmate.
Big T reveals why she blocked and unfollowed Challenge castmate
In the premiere episode of Battle For a New Champion, Big T’s name was brought up amongst cast members as a potential option for sending into elimination. While watching the footage on MTV, she apparently learned someone may have given her inaccurate information.
While appearing as a recent guest on MTV’s Official Challenge Podcast with hosts Devyn Simone and Da’Vonne Rogers, Big T was asked who she blocked on social media.
It was then that Big T opened up about having to block and unfollow her Season 39 castmate, Corey Lay.
“Just because of some conversations we’ve had in real life where he told me he was only plotting against me because he was influenced to do that by Michele and Jay,” Big T shared, adding, “which now, having seen the episode, I see is not facts…very untrue.”
After Devyn shared that this was some “piping hot” tea that listeners would hear exclusively on their podcast, she asked Big T how she felt about the situation.
“I guess sometimes I play this game too emotionally because I like to take people at face value,” she admitted.
Viewers have previously seen Big T confront her castmate Chris “CT” Tamburello in an episode of The Challenge due to his actions during a season after she’d felt they’d bonded and were close.
During the podcast episode, Big T also said due to Corey filling her head with possibly inaccurate ideas, she had “a lot of animosity toward Michele and Jay” from the recent season.
The Challenge star proved she shouldn’t be taken lightly
Along with those potential Corey details, the premiere episode revealed that Big T is not the one to call out for an opening elimination as an easy opponent.
The beginning format of Battle For a New Champion had the entire cast working together to complete their opening mission, where they could bank $50,000 into the overall prize pool for the final. However, since they failed, everyone was up for potential elimination.
Due to the way talk around the house and the resulting deliberation went, it was determined that a woman would get sent into eliminated at The Arena.
At The Arena, The Challenge: Australia’s Jessica Brody became the choice in a unanimous vote. She then received the power to call down her opponent and opted for Big T, suggesting she seemed to be a “weak link.”
They competed in an event called Fall Out, featuring two hanging boxes above The Arena. The women had to grab colored tiles from the bottom of their box’s floor and toss them out, then pull a rope up to grab the hammer on it and smash the floor so they could drop out.
Big T showed that she was no “weak link” as she seemingly dominated her battle with the MTV newcomer Jessica. With that, Big T officially returned to the game and may have scared some potential opponents away from calling her out for an elimination.
However, based on her recent podcast comments, she may have unknowingly had Corey disrupting her game during the season, which could lead to issues for her in upcoming episodes.
The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.