With Wes Bergmann receiving critical comments from several castmates recently, a few others have seemingly stepped up in his defense with their own stories or opinions about their castmate.
The Challenge’s Shane Landrum and Sylvia Elsrode have each appeared in seasons with Wes and seem to have positive opinions of him.
In particular, Shane recounted a story from when he was on MTV’s The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars 2 spinoff season with Wes, indicating that he “got gay bashed” at a Karaoke bar.
“@westonbergmann jumped a four foot fence and flying-decked my attacker. Everyone done f–d up on this show – NO ONE FROM OUR ERA is EXEMPT – so if you ARE EXEMPT YOU AINT AN OG,” Shane commented.
“the thing ALL OGs have in common is decades long behavior recorded and filmed for TV. Just bc you watch it Today be it OLD or NEW it is a TV Show filmed for entertainment and players doing their best to make TV and make money,” he said.
Shane called Wes a friend in real life who is “loyal and fun to be with” based on his experiences.
“IDGAF but I can’t let cancel culture run the narrative,” he said, before joking he still wouldn’t be Wes’ ally on the show because he “IS A SNAKE AND A PIECE OF S**T.”
Shane’s message ended with an interesting note in which he suggested The Challenge “need to be damn casting mentally stronger people like the LAVENDER LADIES” and many other castmates he tagged.
Among them were Marie Roda, Da’Vonne Rogers, Aneesa Ferreira, Cara Maria Sorbello, Amanda Garcia, Kam Williams, and Ashley Mitchell. Interestingly, Shane also listed Laurel Stucky and Rachel Robinson, who previously blasted Wes in social media comments.
Shane also indicated that the show “would rather cast FOLLOWER TRASH over strong gay men and women WHO CHALLENGE THEM and that’s WHERE THE CANCEL CULTURE NEEDS TO GO – STRAIGHT TO MOTHER F***ING MTV/CBS/BMP CASTING.”
Sylvia also defended Wes: ‘This is wild to me’
One of the individuals that Shane tagged was Sylvia Elsrode, who was part of the Lavender Ladies clique on The Challenge. She reunited with Wes on the All Stars 3 spinoff, and they’ve remained friends outside of The Challenge.
Sylvia commented on a post by a Challenge fan’s account, which reposted critical remarks Laurel and Rachel initially made about Wes. She came to Wes’ defense, calling it “wild” to see the criticism and backlash about him.
“I didn’t have a great first impression of Wes but as someone who’s had the pleasure of getting to know him outside of the challenge world. This picture that’s being painted of him is crazy to me. I’m sure he’s done and said things he’s not proud of my like myself and ALOT of challenge folks,” Sylvia commented.
She called Wes a “great guy and great friend and overall person” from knowing him outside the show.
“It’s a f***ing show. For f**k sakes,” Sylvia said.
What prompted all the remarks about Wes?
With Wes appearing on CBS’ The Challenge: USA 2 spinoff, castmates have brought him up in their confessional interviews on the show. Some have talked about him being sneaky, a snake, or a mastermind behind the scenes. Wes and other cast members are seeing those interviews as the show airs.
None of what’s been said about Wes seems overly critical of his character, but rather his gameplay. He recently won an elimination in Episode 6 and defected to the Blue Team, joining MTV vets Johnny Bananas, Tori Deal, and Faysal Shafaat.
Before that, he’d become a target for several CBS reality TV stars, including Desi Williams, Michele Fitzgerald, Michaela Bradshaw, and Cassidy Clark.
In particular, Cassidy singled Wes out as a rival because he voted her into elimination, which he’d done after his Green Team teammates deceived him into thinking they were all voting that way.
During USA 2, Episode 6, Wes discussed leaving his pregnant wife at home to film the show and contemplated it being his final time on The Challenge. Despite several emotional scenes hinting it was his last appearance, he won a shocking elimination against Dusty Harris to remain in the game.
After the episode aired on CBS, he took to social media to seemingly confirm his retirement from The Challenge. Wes said that focusing on his business and parenthood were part of his reasons for that,
In their interviews, he also mentioned castmates “trashing” his name behind his back. He indicated he’d give additional details about it in his exclusive content for Patreon subscribers. Wes’ wife also posted on her Instagram Story to defend her husband against castmates’ criticism.
Some castmates speaking about his gameplay during USA 2 included Desi, Cassidy, Michaela, Cory, and Faysal. Cory also recently appeared on the Death, Taxes, and Bananas podcast. In part of the episode, he called out Wes’ “poor me” behavior during the spinoff season.
As Monsters and Critics reported on Friday, two of Wes’ castmates posted critical comments on social media in which they called him out for several incidents during his Challenge career. Among the events mentioned were him pouring soda on castmate Cara Maria and “threatening” Derrick Kosinski’s family while trash-talking during an elimination event.
The Challenge: USA 2 airs Thursdays at 10/9c on CBS.