‘The Challenge’ Recap: 2 Pairs of Rivals Go Head-to-Head and 8 Players Are Sent Home in 1st Eliminations

Sometimes going head-to-head is the only way to settle old scores! On the Wednesday, August 21, episode of The Challenge: Battle of the Eras, two pairs of rivals from era four went against each other in highly-anticipated elimination rounds.

Olivia vs. Nurys on ‘The Challenge’ Season 40

Following the first challenge of the season, two men and two women from each of the four eras competed in the most iconic eliminations from the show’s history. Era four was tasked with the all-time favorite: hall brawl. Theo Campbell and Nurys Mateo were the male and female losers from their eras and were automatically sent into elimination. The era four winners, Horacio Gutiérrez and Michele Fitzgerald, had to decide who else from their era would go against Theo, 33, and Nurys, 29.

Horacio, 28, and Michele, 34, decided to give Theo and Nurys the competitors they wanted: Paulie Calafiore and Olivia Kaiser. Theo and Paulie, 35, had beef from back when they competed on War of the Worlds 2, while Nurys and Olivia, 32, were best friends before Olivia’s gameplay on season 39 (Battle for a New Champion) tore them apart.

In the intense physical elimination, Theo beat Paulie 2-0, while Olivia beat Nurys 2-0. This meant that Nurys and Paulie were among the first group of players sent home from the milestone season.

For era one, winners Rachel Robinson and CT Tamburello chose Aneesa Ferreira and Derrick Kosinski to go against losers Katie Cooley and Mark Long. The duos played pole wrestle, which Derrick, 41, has dominated in the past. He continued to show his strengths, beating Mark, 53, 2-0, while Aneesa, 42, also took down Katie, 45, 2-0.

There was no lack of drama in era one, though, as Aneesa made it clear that she was upset with Rachel, 41 – her longtime friend and ex-girlfriend – for voting her in. Rachel wanted the decision to be as fair and unbiased as possible, so she let CT, 44, make the choice for the female elimination. Aneesa pointed out that this was a death sentence for her because it was obvious CT considered her a weak link and was going to choose her, which she said Rachel was aware of.

Era three played balls in, with losers Leroy Garrett and Nia Moore going up against Tony Raines and Amanda Garcia. Nia, 35, beat Amanda, 30, 2-1, while Tony, 36, was victorious against Leroy, 40. As usual, Amanda didn’t go out without a bang, and she made sure to tell off male winner Cory Wharton for voting her in despite them having mutual friends.

Cara Maria and Laurel Feud on ‘The Challenge’ Season 40

The most anticipated vote of the night came from era two, with winners Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio and Laurel Stucky needing to decide who would take on the losers, KellyAnne Judd and Ryan Kehoe. Ryan, 43, got his wish of wanting to go against Brandon Nelson, while Johnny, 42, and Laurel, 39, made a big move by throwing in their mutual on-and-off enemy, Cara Maria Sorbello, against KellyAnne, 38.

Even though Cara, 38, performed well in the first challenge, finishing just behind Laurel and ahead of Johnny, the powerhouse players decided to target her. Laurel admittedly didn’t want to go up against Cara in a final, while Johnny pointed out that Cara never made an effort to pull him aside to try and squash their past beef. Cara was victorious against KellyAnne, while Ryan beat Brandon.

Who Went Home on Episode 2 of ‘The Challenge’ Season 40?

The eight eliminated players after day one were: Paulie, Nurys, Amanda, Leroy, KellyAnne, Brandon, Mark and Katie. However, they each had one last power move to make before being sent home. T.J. Lavin gave all of the eliminated players a “karma vote” and asked them to rank the remaining competitors on a scale of one to five, with five being the highest. However, he did not explain how the votes would affect the game later on.