During The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion reunion, Tori Deal and Cara Maria Sorbello were among the five former champions who participated in the special, with several back-and-forth quips.
There’s no love lost between the two castmates and champions, based on their history during The Challenge.
They appeared together in Cara Maria’s last Challenge season, War of the Worlds 2, before her hiatus of several years.
Unsurprisingly, a remark arrived during part of the reunion involving that season, as Tori brought up that season’s gameplay to Cara Maria.
That season featured Tori and her boyfriend, Jordan Wiseley, who were initially part of Team USA but then decided to defect to Team UK after Cara’s alliance started working to eliminate them.
Cara’s boyfriend, Paulie Calafiore, has now weighed in on the topic, as he was also part of the WOTW 2 alliance with his girlfriend.
Tori brought up War of the Worlds 2 season to Cara during Season 39 reunion
Battle For a New Champion featured mostly finalists who hadn’t been to a single elimination all season due to a large alliance controlling the game. Michele Fitzgerald and Jay Starrett orchestrated it and got other castmates to follow.
They repeatedly targeted strong competitors, including Kyland Young and Horacio Gutierrez, and eventually ousted them from the game.
During the Season 39 reunion, host Maria Menounos asked the five champions what advice they had for the other Challengers about alliances.
Laurel Stucky joked they should keep playing the “exact same way” they played Season 39 in the future.
“Protect yourself. That’s all I gotta say is just protect yourself because you’ve got no one. There’s nothing real on The Challenge, I can promise you that,” Cara added.
“Are you saying you don’t like to work with your friends? Because on War of the Worlds 2, you literally did not have to touch an elimination because you got there because of your friends,” Tori blurted out.
“We won’t get into this,” Cara Maria shot back before explaining what she felt happened in the WOTW 2 season.
“You and your friends were against me from the very beginning of that season without me knowing because I thought we were friends, but we weren’t because you were behind my back the entire time – You and Jordan [Wiseley] trying to get rid of us because you didn’t want another power couple at the end,” Cara Maria explained.
Tori told her castmate, “You know what? That is just not true,” as her response.
Paulie comments about ‘weird’ War of the World 2 remarks
Taking to Twitter after the reunion special aired, Paulie gave his thoughts about what happened with War of the Worlds 2 since he was one of the masterminds involved in the gameplay.
In his tweet, Paulie mentioned that the season happened five years ago and “The other side started the war,” but his side was “just smarter.”
“Our playbook from that season has been copied every season since with the same group of friends,” he tweeted, adding that his passing out that final didn’t help them succeed.
Paulie also said they’re “all friends now” and called Tori’s comment about that season “weird.”
Viewers saw Paulie return to The Challenge before Cara Maria last year as he appeared in the CBS’ The Challenge: USA 2 spin-off cast. He was among CBS reality TV icons, along with Survivor star Michele Fitzgerald and fellow Big Brother stars Josh Martinez and Faysal “Fessy” Shafaat.
Also on that season were several MTV Challenge stars, including Tori. During the early part of the season, Paulie came out as bisexual, and Tori was among those he conversed with about his situation.
Another interesting remark popped up during the Season 39 reunion as Cara Maria or another of the champs may have said “Rivals 4,” suggesting Cara and Tori would team up. Based on a teaser for Part 2 of the reunion, that may come up again in more detail.
The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion Reunion Part 2 airs Wednesday, March 5 at 8/7c on MTV.