Johnny Bananas and Wes Bergmann have quite the history on The Challenge, going from heated MTV rivals to allies and friends on viewers’ screens.
However, they continue to have banter online and in episodes, including trash-talking and funny insults lobbed at one another.
The popular castmates appear in CBS’ spinoff, The Challenge: USA 2, which also includes other notable stars from MTV, including Amanda Garcia, Tori Deal, and Cory Wharton.
They’re competing with and against CBS reality TV stars, with one of the biggest surprises, returning star Paulie Calafiore.
In the premiere episode, viewers saw Paulie get drafted by former rival and enemy Josh Martinez to be part of the Red Team, which included Bananas. Later, footage showed Paulie, Wes, and Bananas joking around in the kitchen.
However, what viewers didn’t get to see was footage of the outcome of a crazy bet that Bananas had with Wes before filming started.
Spoilers for the first three episodes will be included in this report.
Bananas said he had a funny bet with Wes about castmate
Heading into The Challenge: USA 2, some of the cast members attempted to pre-game and line up allies for the season. While appearing on Bananas’ Death, Taxes & Bananas podcast, Paulie talked about his return to the show.
Bananas revealed he made a fun bet with their castmate Wes about whether or not Paulie would be among the CBS reality TV stars appearing on USA 2.
Based on Bananas’ story, he bet Wes that Paulie would be there, while Wes said the former Big Brother and Challenge star wouldn’t.
If Bananas lost, he said Wes would get to choose any castmate for Bananas to start up a showmance with. The seven-time winner was most recently linked to castmate Moriah Jadea on Ride or Dies, but they’ve seemingly unfollowed each other.
There may have been several single women available in The Challenge house. However, Paulie showed up, and Wes was the loser.
Due to losing the bet, Bananas revealed that Wes had to jump naked into the swimming pool at The Challenge house. Wes honored that and jumped in the first night they were at the house. However, it never made it into the final footage.
Paulie said their castmate still ‘hasn’t spoken’ to him since filming
“I actually spoke to nobody before coming in. Wes still hasn’t spoken to me to this day,” Paulie told Bananas.
Bananas told Paulie that was probably due to the bet he and Wes had about whether Paulie would be there.
According to Paulie, Wes contacted him ahead of the season, trying to find out if Paulie was going to be in The Challenge: USA 2 cast.
However, the former Final Reckoning and War of the Worlds 2 finalist said he lied to his castmate to not give anything away about appearing in the cast.
Paulie and Bananas clashed in an epic elimination
While viewers didn’t see footage of Wes jumping naked into a swimming pool, they did see footage of an elimination rematch involving Bananas and Paulie.
The two previously clashed with one another on other seasons, including Final Reckoning, which featured Paulie and teammate Natalie Negrotti defeating Bananas and teammate Tony Raines.
A similar elimination arrived in USA 2, Episode 3, although this time it was one-on-one. Bananas was voted in by the winners of the daily challenge, the Blue Team, and then Paulie was randomly drawn as his opponent from The Hopper.
They competed in Fire and Ice, which involved each guy standing on an ice block. They had to keep one arm above their head, with their arm attached to a cord controlling a bucket of fish guts above them.
Competitors also had a batch of small bags next to them, which they threw at a target to ignite a flame under their opponent’s ice while shutting off the burner under theirs. The object of the event was to outlast your opponent and not be the first to spill your bucket of fish guts.
While the matchup lasted 38 minutes, it ultimately saw Bananas as the winner as Paulie’s arm moved first. However, the seven-time champ didn’t boast about sending his castmate and teammate home. Instead, he hugged him and complimented his former rival on being a great competitor.
The Challenge: USA 2 airs Thursdays at 10/9c and Sundays at 9/8c on CBS.