Brad Fiorenza and Jodi Weatherton reveal the true story behind The Challenge: All Stars 2 exit
- TV Show
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Thursday's episode of The Challenge: All Stars 2.
Brad Fiorenza and Jodi Weatherton know how bad their disqualification looked on this week's episode of The Challenge: All Stars 2. They were each supposed to untie four knots to open boxes on top of a moving semi truck during the challenge, but Fiorenza just broke his boxes apart instead. "Hulk-smashing the equipment" immediately DQed their team and sent them straight into the last elimination before the final, where they lost against their alliance members Darrell Taylor and Janelle Casanave.
But according to two-time champion Weatherton and one-time champion Fiorenza, there was a reason they struggled with untying the knots: They were never told about them to begin with, despite the episode being edited to make it seem as though host T.J. Lavin laid out the rules beforehand.
Below, Fiorenza and Weatherton break down the true story of their loss and why it's been haunting them ever since.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You were clear favorites to win all season long, so this episode was shocking. How are you feeling about how you were sent home?
BRAD FIORENZA: I would rather discuss any other episode. I'm embarrassed. [Laughs] But there's actually a decent story that goes behind this that explains it, at least. It's not as thoughtless as it looks. I just watched it and I was like, "Oh my God, that was terrible." And then I realized how good of a position we really were in — I never realized how good of a position we were in until I literally watched this last challenge and I was like, "Oh my God, we blew it."
JODI WEATHERTON: I didn't actually even watch the episode. I couldn't bring myself to watch it.
FIORENZA: Don't do it! It was so bad to watch. Do you remember afterwards, we had the pot of coffee the next morning and I was trying to comfort you about the elimination? I had to rewatch everything, and I want to start by saying I am so sorry for even putting us in that position. When I rewatch it and I'm on that truck and I rip those things open, I am just embarrassed. And I'm sorry. I put us in that elimination.
WEATHERTON: Brad, I didn't know about the knots either. I know that you'll be in agreement with me, they filmed T.J. giving those rules after the fact because they did not tell us about the knots. That made us look like such idiots. That made me really mad because I maybe didn't figure it out, but they didn't tell us.
So you didn't know you had to untie the knots before you got up there?
FIORENZA: Most people did not hear that rule. And, Jodi, you're confirming you did not hear it because you were with the group. What I want to point out is that I had a pretty deep cut in my finger from [last episode's] cenote challenge, so I was getting my finger taped, trying to overhear the rules, but I couldn't because I was seeing the medics. But Jodi was in that group, and you didn't hear them say you had to untie the knots.
WEATHERTON: No, when we got done with our turn, I came back and I said, "Did you know about the knots before you got up there?" I asked Melinda and Nehemiah, I asked Jonna and M.J., and they said, "No, I didn't know about it, but I figured it out once I saw it." And that's fine. My adrenaline was pumping, it was a long piece of rope, and so I thought, what is this, a handle? We were halfway down the runway when I figured out to untie them, and then I got three untied. If I had known about this in the beginning, we would have crushed it!
FIORENZA: You did so good. Those knots were tight. I sailed on Real World: San Diego, so had I known to untie them, I would have done pretty well myself. You did a great job for not knowing that that's what you're supposed to do. I couldn't see anything you were doing on the other side of that truck. And remember I even told you, I'm like, oh my God, how is she breaking these things open? Because I was barely getting them open. [Laughs] Thinking that you were trying to do the same thing. They were screwing the boxes together when I pulled up to do my run, so I thought the person in front of me had just broken all those boxes open and that's why they were putting more screws in. I thought we were all doing that.
WEATHERTON: I saw him screw it together too. Watching everyone else go, you couldn't see what they were doing. You could see them running back and forth, you could see them bending down, and I remember thinking, "What is taking them so long to get these boxes open?" But I never asked enough questions about it. Janelle and I have talked, and I knew that she knew about the knots before she got up there only because Darrell asked a bajillion questions when they were in the car driving over to get up on the truck. What if we had asked them, "Are the boxes hard to open?" They would have said, "The knots were a little tricky," and then we would have known, Brad! Ugh!
FIORENZA: Ugh. I just remember being so serious and so dialed in, knowing we were right before the final. I wish I was thinking about asking questions and just shooting the s--- with each person we passed by. Darrell does ask a lot of questions, and I remember hearing that that's why they knew about it. I really thought those were handles.
WEATHERTON: You are the best partner ever, but you and I are very similar in so many ways. And I almost feel like sometimes it hurt you and I. I'm not asking the questions, you're not asking the questions. [Laughs] But I learned a lot from those mistakes. If I was to ever play again, I've learned so much. This isn't normal life; in normal life you're not thinking, I have to look for the horns to be different colors, or maybe these knots are going to be on there.
FIORENZA: That's one of the biggest factors about The Challenge. Serious competitions that are pretty abstract like American Ninja Warrior, even though they add new elements to the game, the competitors get to train for those specific parts of the competition. But for us, there's such an element of surprise — we walk up to every challenge with no idea what we're doing. Is this trivia, is this going to be a headbanger, is it heights? There's almost no way we could have practiced this. It's also difficult for production to do the rules and to referee these things because they're going to do it once and then they're going to move on to something different. It makes the game very abstract and creative, but it also has its flaws, like those knots. Had we gone back, they probably would have made sure everyone knew.
WEATHERTON: It was not a hard challenge. Had we known about the knots? I'm not a super-cocky person generally, but we would have absolutely annihilated that challenge, Brad. We would have been saved, we would have gone straight to the final, no doubt in my mind. I just didn't like that we were made to look really stupid.
FIORENZA: I think I kind of signed us up for that, so I want to apologize again. It was frustrating. I didn't know they had the audio when I was on the truck and I was saying, "F---!" and all that. [Laughs] I looked at the knots, almost went to untie them, and I was like, no, we don't have time for that. I wouldn't want to watch it again. That's going to go down as one of my most regrettable Challenge moments, for sure.
WEATHERTON: We both had those, those last two challenges. I put so much immense pressure on myself to win. Because aside from Jonna and M.J. winning that one time, you and I were the only ones winning in our alliance. So if we don't win, who is going to win?
And because of the individual relationships you had and your alliance, it seemed like all you needed to do was not lose this last challenge and you'd be fine.
FIORENZA: If Nehemiah and Melinda won, there's no way they were going to throw us in unless we were in last place. I'm almost positive that had we not lost, you would have seen M.J. and Jonna go against Darrell and Janelle. And looking back, I've never been closer to running a final with a kickass partner like that in my life.
WEATHERTON: And had Darrell and Janelle told us about the knots and we had won that one, let's say Ayanna and Teck come in last, Nehemiah and Melinda are safe, we would have had to throw Janelle and Darrell in there with M.J. and Jonna, and who would have been voting on that? Nehemiah and Melinda.
FIORENZA: Oh my God, you're right.
WEATHERTON: And they would have thrown in Darrell and Janelle, no doubt. So I would not have faulted Janelle and Darrell for not helping us at all on that. And they were pissed because one of Darrell's locks was jammed. They were mad about that, so I'm not surprised they didn't tell us about the knots. But I knew right away, when you and I jacked that up, I knew that Nehemiah and Melinda made sure that Ayanna and Teck, who went after us, knew about those knots.
FIORENZA: Oh my gosh, I want to go back and redo this so bad.
WEATHERTON: I literally wake up at night thinking about this.
FIORENZA: It's replaying in my head over and over again. I wish I didn't recently watch this because as we're talking about it, I just keep seeing my ass just pulling those things up and I just want to shake myself in that moment.
WEATHERTON: Well, Brad, I want to apologize because I feel like I lost that elimination for us. You know how big of hands I have, I literally have man-sized hands, and I had those massive gloves on and I was so afraid after our disqualification. I was like, I need to take these gloves off but I don't want to get disqualified for taking the gloves off. But I should have been down on my knees like Janelle, that was such a great tactic. I'm sure she was doing it to save her back, but it was a better way of doing it because you're not working as hard.
FIORENZA: You don't have to apologize for that. We did a good job. They did a good job. It was very close. We did show up to that elimination.
Tell me more about that, because going into the last elimination of the season is not where you want to be. Brad, you've been in that situation multiple times now. Where was your head at going into this one?
WEATHERTON: Darrell and Janelle, we had a deeper alliance with them called the core four. It was the four of us in it to win it. We knew only one of us was going to win, but it was really challenging going against them because they were our inner alliance in the house and our biggest competition in the house, physically. So I was nervous because even though Janelle had that back injury, that doesn't mean Janelle is going to roll over and let me have it.
FIORENZA: Just like any elimination round, I feel like I'm going into a gladiator arena or something. It's usually a carnival game, but I feel like I'm going up against a lion with a sword or something ridiculous. [Laughs] But then we saw that Smash House thing, I'm thinking, what the f---, what are we doing? I'm all hyped up. I have to put this energy somewhere and then I see a picture of T.J. on a computer screen that's made of plastic on a desk. At that point, I just tried to breathe and take it a step at a time. That's when it came to me: I'm going to throw this hammer on the ground and just start smashing these cinder blocks, one on top of each other in front of the hole. I just tried to go into a zone, that elimination zone.
WEATHERTON: I allowed the other competitors to break into my zone a little bit. All I could hear them chanting was, "Come on, Janelle, you got this!" I didn't slow down, it made me go faster, but I'm like, "What the hell, guys, why is no one cheering for me?" [Laughs] Even though I couldn't see what she was doing, I knew that they were right with us because they wouldn't be chanting for her if it wasn't close. And you were mad at me because as soon as we came out and I saw their bucket, I knew right away we lost. And you were so pissed.
FIORENZA: No, I was not mad at you. I was trying to tell you to relax. There's no way someone could eyeball this. But honestly, we did our best, we had a good season, we should have ran that final, and we definitely had a good shot to win that final. But The Challenge gods got us. All we had to do is not lose — what the hell, we went from winning to all we have to do is not lose, and then I DQed us? Holy s---.
WEATHERTON: In the moment I think I was in shock, but I wish I could have said something to T.J. I know it's not him making up the rules, but I wish I could have said, "How can you just throw out a bullcrap disqualification? That is not something you stated in the beginning that you'd be disqualified for. Did you just make that up on the fly?" Something that nobody knows, they brought us out, they lined us up, T.J. was literally opening his mouth to talk and they're like, "Hold it." They took us away. It was 20 minutes where they were changing their minds, making up this bullcrap disqualification, brought us back out, and that's when they said it. They literally just made that up. The only thing that they told us we'd get disqualified for is if we got pulled off the truck. And M.J. got pulled off the truck and was hanging.
FIORENZA: One hundred percent. Oh my God, Jodi, you're so right. They normally tell you exactly what you're going to get DQed for. They didn't tell us not to do that. I immediately felt horrible for you. I felt horrible even for production. I'm like, "I would never break their equipment on purpose!"
WEATHERTON: And production came to the house to check and make sure we were okay, because they knew they'd done something wrong. They knew that they made this up in the last moment and it could have ruined our chances of getting to the final, which it did, ultimately.
You were only separated by 2 pounds at the end of the elimination. Are you glad it was such a close finish, or did that make the loss harder?
FIORENZA: No, I would much rather have a close loss. I'm ultimately happy with it. Had we known we weren't going to make it to the final, that would have been the best way not to.
WEATHERTON: And we realized when we were shipped out of there real quick after we lost that they're starting the final right now. You and I were both shocked. And I remember you saw everybody who didn't win come back to the hotel and you said, "Oh my gosh, everybody looked rough."
FIORENZA: They looked horrible.
WEATHERTON: We made the same amount of money as everybody who had to run that final and didn't win it. Then we were like, it's okay. I'm okay.
FIORENZA: We didn't have to put ourselves through that. But I also know that we're the type of competitors that absolutely would, even if we weren't going to win, we have to know how we were going to do. The Challenge gods kind of did do us a small favor in that regard, but damn, I wish we would have ran that thing.
WEATHERTON: I wanted to run it so bad. Even if I got broken in half, I just wanted to be there.
FIORENZA: Let me ask you a question, Jodi. Would you be down to team up as team Brodi again in the future?
WEATHERTON: I would love it. But I don't know if my family would love it. [Laughs] Had it been four and a half weeks and not six like what it ended up being, with all the little things that happened, it was a long time and my family had a hard time with me being gone. I've been asked, would you be on the regular show? It's too long. Three months is just insane. I couldn't do it, personally. But I would love to team up again. Just timing-wise, I don't know when that would work out. We're moving this summer to another country. But you know I would partner up with you anytime if it happens.
FIORENZA: I hope we get the chance. I would love a redo.
Brad, are you interested in coming back for another season of All Stars or the flagship show after this season?
FIORENZA: Yes! I love this show. It's been a large part of my life. It gives me something to get excited about and something to train for. I would do as many as I possibly could on either one of them.
Brad, how is your friendship with Nehemiah after everything that happened this season?
FIORENZA: We had a couple of good laughs about it afterwards. We were able to relate on so many levels with the miscommunication and being on different floors and then ending up in different alliances. Ne and I are still good. But it was hard. More clear communication moving forward as far as keeping gameplay straight with friends and also just taking the game a little less seriously. I'm definitely looking to make sure I avoid those situations, for sure.
Jodi, the saga of the stolen Greek salad was wild.
WEATHERTON: I was cool with everyone in the house; the only person that rubbed me the wrong way was Ayanna. Everyone was like, "Why was Jodi so serious?" I really wasn't, I actually was also laughing, but of course it was funnier to show me being deadpan serious, so they didn't show me laughing, they just showed me being super-pissed. She lied straight to my face. I asked, "Have you seen my salad?" and she acted like she'd never even heard of it before. Then she's like, "And I knew it was yours." Then why the heck didn't you say, "I ate your salad?" That was weird. And they didn't even show it, we got into it the next day too. She's bringing Janelle into the whole situation. I went over and said, "Ayanna, we don't need to be bringing the whole house into this. Let's you and I talk about it." And what happened? She didn't let me talk. She went on this monologue about who knows what for like 30 minutes and I finally said, "Do I get to say anything?"
FIORENZA: She literally didn't get to say anything. She waited for like 20 or 30 minutes and then realized she's not going to get a chance. Then you walked away, right?
WEATHERTON: As soon as I started talking, she walked away. I got so worked up because she's so frustrating.
So it's safe to say you and Ayanna are not going to be friends after this season?
WEATHERTON: Probably not. I'm sure if I like did an interview with her now, she'd be cool, but in that environment, yeah, she was not my favorite person to live with. At all.
FIORENZA: You two on Rivals would be a force to be reckoned with.
WEATHERTON: Oh for sure, we would crush!
Now I need to see an All Stars: Rivals season.
FIORENZA: That would be incredible.
WEATHERTON: I could be with Tina or Ayanna.
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