Over the years, The Challenge seasons have featured some brutal events, some of which have forced competitors out of the game due to serious injuries.
However, one of those daily challenges looked like it might cause a casualty on the show, as two competitors were suspended high up in the air.
The incident was recently brought up during this off week for The Challenge, and three-time winner Veronica Portillo commented about the other competitor involved in the terrifying moment.
Inferno event brought a scary incident
In a rewind to The Challenge: Inferno season, competitors were involved in one of those challenges involving heights as contestants were hanging from zip lines. There appeared to be plenty of safety measures in place, with the competitors secured in harnesses and helmets.
However, things took a scary turn when two of the female competitors were up there. Former competitor Julie Stoffer of The Real World: New Orleans started to yank at Veronica Portillo’s harness. It caused Veronica to start screaming, “what is she doing?” and other competitors to yell in horror from afar, pleading with Julie to stop.
Luckily there appeared to be plenty of failsafe attachments for the harness, so nobody was hurt or worse in that incident. However, it made it onto later highlight reels for the most shocking moments on MTV’s reality competition series.
It’s shown in the quick clip below as No. 25 and labeled as “Julie tries to kill Veronica,” with fellow cast members giving insight on what went down.
While that season of The Challenge isn’t available on Netflix, Inferno II is. Early in the first episode, viewers see Julie’s arrival at the airport. She refers to the incident, and a clip is shown as she talks about possible bad blood with Veronica after that. Julie also says she was in a bad place last season, the first Inferno.
Veronica comments about Julie on The Challenge
On Twitter, Challenge Mania podcast host Scott Yager tweeted about the moment during an off-week for MTV’s show.
“When the M in MTV stood for MURDER,” the tweet said, showing an image of Julie grabbing at a horrified Veronica on the zip line.
Veronica retweeted about it, bringing up Julie’s character for what nearly happened, and how it was worth very little money to try to kill an opponent for a chance to win the final prize money.
“Not even for $10,000. Actually much less. It was for her chance to win a portion of $10,000 bc that s**t back in the day was divided by many. She proved right here that she’s the type to kill her husband for a $25,000 life insurance policy,” The Challenge veteran wrote in her tweet.
In addition to that particular incident, Julie clashed with other cast members, including Coral Smith and Katie Doyle, on the season.
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Julie Stoffer debuted The Real World: New Orleans in 2000 as the first Mormon cast member. She is now 41 years old and married to fellow Mormon, Spencer Rogers. The couple has three children together. She’s not quite as active on social media as other former stars of the shows but has an Instagram account.
For Veronica and many viewers, watching that moment in The Challenge history, it was certainly terrifying, bringing what looked like a near-death experience to the show. However, there were plenty of safety measures in place.
The Challenge: Double Agents fans and competitors were recently questioning safety over a daily challenge event that injured two stars in the latest season. In particular, rookie Lolo Jones spoke out about it and suggested maybe they should do things differently next time.
As far as Veronica and Julie, they returned for the follow-up season of The Challenge known as Inferno II. Ironically, it featured Julie on the Good Guys team and Veronica on the Bad Asses team.
Julie last appeared on The Gauntlet II season, where she made the final. Veronica was last on Final Reckoning. She was on 11 seasons of the show and is a three-time winner. Just imagine if The Challenge OGs spinoff had both ladies in the same cast to reminisce about this event.
The Challenge airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.